Jan 23 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 6 - just three weeks left!

[BIWI]

Morning all. Sorry for posting the thread late, but I slept in this morning. The perils of being retired!

As ever, here's the link to the spreadsheet

I hope you enjoyed the vegetarian meal challenge - I certainly did, and I loved making the aubergine, spinach and paneer curry inspired by @mimosa1.

So now we're in the last three weeks. Hopefully things have been going well, since we left behind weeks 3 & 4, and you've settled into a good routine, and have found different ways to deal with the temptation of the carbs.

This week, I'm after fish recipes. We don't tend eat much fish, which is something I feel bad about - but it's driven mainly by a poor choice in our local supermarket. So I tend to fall back on to salmon - which is fine, but I need a bit more inspiration. We do have a Waitrose not too far away, which has a fresh fish counter, so will look forward to any ideas!

Good luck for the next week

@NotDonna

Vegetable No Pasta Lasagne - enough for 4 people

I made a vegetable sauce by cooking down an onion, chopped garlic, an aubergine, a cougette, green and red peppers in a large glug of olive oil. I then added a tin of chopped tomatoes, added half a tube of tomato puree, a dash of worcester sauce, salt and pepper.
For the white cheesy sauce, made a roux, added single cream and water, teaspoon of mustard and a chunk of grated parmesan.
Washed the leeks, slicing them down one side then flattened out the strips.
Put down a layer of the veg sauce, a layer of the flattened leeks, repeat a couple of times and then pour the cheese sauce over the top. I also topped it with grated cheddar and some cherry tomatoes, baked it on 180 for 50mins or until golden and bubbling.

When you say you made a roux, @LadyBiker, were you using flour? If so, along with all the tomatoes and tomato purée, that would have added a lot of carbs. Half a tube of tomato purée has 15.3g carbs.

made a roux? I use flour for a roux but that’s not BC friendly. Do you do it differently? Or think it’s only a bit if flour across 4 people so no biggie really?

Cross post with BIWI I wouldn’t have thought the Tom purée was carby - how annoying!
Does sound delicious though! Maybe with enough cheese and less cream the roux isn’t needed?

My lasagne recipe (on the meat recipe thread) uses beaten egg mixed with cottage cheese, grated parmesan and sliced mozzarella in place of the white sauce. It could easily be adapted for a vegetarian version although not for vegan

@prettybird and do you use leeks for the pasta? I think that’s genius as I’m guessing they’ll not be as firm as cabbage leaves.

I’ve tried cooked avocado way back in the past and seem to remember it wasn’t too bad. Although I can’t for the life of me remember what I did with it?! Chips maybe?? I think it worked quite well if you had an underripe one that was a bit on the hard side. I’ll have a Google and see if any recipes jog my memory.

I noticed something weird this morning. The sides of my not unsubstantial stomach seem to have caved in a bit and I’m wondering if this is finally fat loss?? The scales are still being twatty but that’s definitely not the way it looked or felt a few days ago.

I've tried sheets of leeks and thinly sliced courgettes (cut slightly diagonally so that they're ovals) and I prefer the courgettes.

i have a question for you all - what would you use as a topping for a fish pie?
I’m thinking swede but not sure if something might work better.

@AllTheBlackCoffee Sounds like you might be well on the way towards a whoosh! Drink lots and stick to plan to keep it on track. Have you been measuring your waist and hips? Or do you have a piece of clothing you could use to gauge? You may have lost inches without ‘officially’ losing weight - that’s very common with low carbing.

@BrendaLee I make a mash with celeriac and leeks for fish pie (also for shepherd's pie)

@prettybird when you use courgettes, do you use them raw or cook them in some way first?

I use them raw and make sure that the ragu is nice and thick.

(Sorry, still replying mostly to the last few comments every time as my brain is being a bit annoying at the moment; will take the time to read back a bit on the thread soon, once I’ve had my coffee to hopefully function a little better!)

My fave mash is a mix of cauli and celeriac. But that’s because I’m not keen on swede due to school dinner memories. It’s probs nice if not cooked in a school kitchen. Plus it’s yellow on the veg chart.
Ive been wondering if the veg chart is a bit off if it’s grams of carbs per 100g. Comparing two yellow veggies, swede & beansprouts at 5g and 4g respectively; you’ll get a lot more beansprouts in your 100g than you would swede. So a portion of swede would actually be a lot more carby than a portion of beansprouts for example. Am I making sense?

You would adjust your portion size based on the weight though. I do this as second nature - you know you can eat a lot more of the lighter things than the dense ones, so you adjust your intake.

I know what you mean @NotDonna, but using carbs per 100g is the simplest way to get the info across

@BIWI Going back to a conversation a few weeks ago, I’m looking into resistant starches (what you get more of when you cook and then cool carbs/leave them for a day or two) a bit more and it seems like it may potentially be useful for me as a diabetic after all. I’m going to try it out with small portions of potato first as I know I’m much more able to tolerate it, and more importantly it doesn’t trigger cravings. But if I find it’s feasible for me then long-term I may actually be able to extend it to have a very small portion of pasta or rice every so often which would be so nice! Will probably have to make bread a complete no-go area, sadly. It’s just too delicious and easy to eat!! Resistant starch also has wider health benefits (feeds the gut) so it’s not just about lowering the glucose response.

Going forward I really want to try to manage my insulin resistance more specifically with more supplemental help and/or making use of as wide a range of strategies as possible. More holistic approach than I’ve taken in the past, so that I can keep my meds intake to the minimum.

@TangledWebOfDeception will be interesting to see how you get on.

Re bread though, have you tried the Seriously Low Carb bread?. They make a sliced loaf and also (quite large) rolls, which are really good.

Sorry above was to @BIWI but I copied and pasted and forgot it doesn’t bold the name.

Thought I’d mention it as it may be useful for others who are moderators and will be looking to add some small amounts back in.

Thank you @BIWI I’ve got two packs of SLC rolls in the freezer and maybe a loaf of bread too, can’t remember as I ordered them weeks ago but haven’t had any yet. I’m planning burgers this coming week which I’m very excited about!! But I was more talking about things like DH’s delicious ciabatta, my own rye/wheat loaf, and other beautiful home baked or artisan deliciousness...I just can’t have only one slice, so it’s best not to go there.

Hi all, I have never cooked celeriac before but inspired by this thread I will attempt celeriac chips tonight.

Also, I have noticed weight loss has slowed this week and I’m wondering if I should up my fats, even though I am full after my meals. Are we eating fats mainly for satiety or does it give more fuel to burn?

@Glorianna - how long have you been doing Boot Camp? The weight loss is not linear and after the initial "whoosh", will settle down to (a healthy) 1-2lb/week. But weeks 3-5 are notorious for stalling and even afterwards, there will be some weeks that there is no/little loss, followed by a whoosh.

@Glorianna your rate of loss has been consistent since you started! Not really sure why you're concerned?

It's obviously working for you, so just keep on doing what you're doing.

... and just to add, you've lost 12.6lbs - surely you should be delighted with that?!