New Year Low Carb Bootcamp interim thread!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

To continue chatting and preparing for the official start on 7th.

Rules and veg info can be found on the tabs on the old spreadsheet here.

Thx for adding me. Looking forward to this. Anyone know if I need to adapt the diet as I am bf?

2nd stupid question

Sorry.

Ok, so I'd like torts the cabbage recipe up thread but my mum taught me that I should peel the cabbage leaves and then slice them after washing and checking that there are no bugs or nasties in them. That recipe just says to cut the cabbage into 8 after peeling off any not so nice leaves. Should it be washed?

Also, on cookery program's I often see chefs just throwing ingredients into whatever is being cooked, sometimes without washing it at all. Things like herbs, spinach etc. again, my mum taught me to was everything. She and my gran also would sort through things like rice, lentils, seeds and other dry things to remove grit etc. I think all that fussing is maybe why I don't like cooking as it all seems such a faff

What do you all do?

Thanks again and so sorry for the silly questions. :(

Torts = to try the cabbage recipe

Mumat - the great thing (one of the great things!) about this WOE is the simplicity. No (or less) faffing about with ingredients - just fry your meat, or chuck into slow-cooker, or roast. Add veg. Cream if you like. It's real food.

You can go on to more adventurous stuff (like cream cheese pancakes, or sliced/sauted/stuffed stuff afterwards.) We are having cauliflower cheese tonight - part-cooked cauli, covered in cream (might chuck in cream cheese if I have any) and covered in cheese. Bake. Served with a chunk of ham, and broc.

Re washing cabbage - a white cabbage grown in UK will normally be insect/mud free, but you can rinse when cut up if you like. I eat veg as it is - if no visible mud/grubs, i eat it! But then i grow a lot of my own,and get used to a bit of crunch dirt.

mumat - I have a well stocked kitchen, but find the three things I use most are a frying pan, roasting tray and deep pan.

Re: the cabbage. I'm a lazy cook and wouldn't bother washing a cabbage apart from a quick once over, but I'm sure others would do more. I do soak rice when I cook it for the kids, otherwise it's too starchy and clumps.

Ooh & thanks for the cheap snacky ideas upthread

mumat39
Seriously the slow cooker and frying pan are your friend!

I missed your DD allergies - what does she have?

Lets try and work out a meal plan and make it easy for you to give them pasta or rice and you have fried veggies instead

Day 3 for me and I have been ravenous! Eating like a total glutton, but all low carb and have lost 3 pounds. Go me!

So remind me, when ketosis kicks in I will stop wanting to eat everything in sight won't I? Or perhaps it's just sheer greed?

Oh and another one here who doesn't really wash veg. Unless the dirt is visible, then I might!

My DH has lost 3lbs and I have only lost 0.75lb in two days.

He's tried to make me feel better by saying he's much more overweight than me which is true but it still makes me cross. Still onwards and downwards.

Same here, no washing unless obviously dirty, sometimes a quick rinse but that is it. My gran would be appalled! Mumat can I ask about your dishwasher? Is the salt and rinse aid filled up? Also never use the speed/Eco programmes on older models they don't clean anything. On the new machines the Eco option takes much longer (mine takes 2.5 hours) because it uses the least energy and water on that option as opposed to the old days when Eco just meant quicker shorter wash). Only asking as I hate washing up and love my dishwasher. You're doing really well to even be looking into recipes so just take it slowly, try a few things and see how you go. I second telling us what allergies your DD has and see if we can give you some easy ideas

The only thing I really wash is leeks as they tend to have grit in their ends.

ziggy I don't think you need to make any adaptations as far as I am aware, just eat lots if you are hungry to make sure you have plenty of calories for you both.

PlatoonBuffoon - I had two boiled eggs with mayo for breakfast and only just felt hungry so had chicken and buttered leeks and cabbage.
So eat until you are properly in ketosis then you honestly won't feel hungry between meals.
Its a bloody revelation thats what it is.

When I have done previous "diets" i have constantly thought about food, grazed on food. However this WOE is like a weight off my shoulders

Thanks everyone. I am seriously like a deer in headlights when it comes to food.

Anyway, DD is allergic to:
Wheat
Eggs
Legumes, including, peanuts, peas, soya, chick peas, mung beans, lentils, etc etc etc.
Tree nuts -all
Sesame
Rapeseed oil
Celery
Ginger
Leeks, possibly.

I think there are a few others but can't remember what at the moment.

I'm allergic to some fish including all shellfish. Violent nasty reactions have made me averse to fish.

We don't have some of the stuff in the house at all, like eggs, nuts, celery and others as these are 'sticky' which means that they are really hard to clean away.

I feel reallysorryfor DD as she has so many allergies and has an awful cook for a mother so ends up eating the same things day in day out. She's 5 now but has had these since we first started weaning her as pretty much everything tried, she reacted to. It's very sad really. :(

Thanks again for your help.

MrsHP, hello. Our dishwasher is a Bosch and is only about 2 years old. It hasn't ever really worked properly. I used to be good about topping up salt and rinse aid, but we have recently had a water softener fitted recently so haven't since then as we were told it wasn't necessary. The trouble is that it never really dries things very well and some thing always comes out stuck with something, r something, like the bottom of a cup, always has dirty water sitting in the top of it, so there are always some food residues on something and I'm too scared o wash the Dc's stuff in it.

Thanks for your help.

Oh and the other days had yogurt for breakfast and had a really awful reaction to it, so I think my dairy intolerance has got worse. I am still going to try that cabbage recipe with cream as I'm hoping cooking the cream might help.

Mumat39 - not stupid questions

I do rinse veg that is going to be cooked, but I wouldn't go so far as to check really thoroughly for grit unless it's come from my mum's garden (not because I think it's dirtier, but because it's not been washed during a packaging process which would remove a lot of dirt).

Stuff to be eaten raw I do wash thoroughly (lettuce etc, I have a salad spinner which dries it well).

In the case of the cabbage I would remove the outer leaves but wouldn't bother washing inner ones - it's tightly packed and grit won't have got in, and I think most chemicals would be on the outside only. Plus it's going to be cooked through.

Spinach I do wash, as the water that clings to the leaves is enough to wilt it in. It's up to you how thoroughly you want to check stuff, but I haven't died yet and I definitely wouldn't bother checking every leaf - that does seem rather a faff.

I would never wash meat, as I understand that this can spray raw meat juices over the kitchen

On your kitchen equipment question, there is just dp and me, and we don't have a dishwasher. I would suggest getting yourself a decent frying pan (Teflon or similar), and a couple of roasting pans at the minimum (for roasted veg or meat) as well as a Pyrex dish (that you would cook something like shepherd's pie in) and maybe two or three saucepans of different sizes. This would set you up to cook most recipes that I use at least.

On the washing up front, dp does still eat carbs, so there is possibly a little more washing up than there would be if he weren't. In addition to crockery, there might be a meat pan and a veg pan/saucepan, plus a rice or potato pan/saucepan (also maybe a colander). However, I don't cook every day as I will often cook a large amount of meat and have it cold with salad for a couple of day afterwards, so the washing up for subsequent days is minimal.

The dishes that tend to create more washinnup are things like moussaka, where there would be a pan for he roasted aubergines, another for tehe meat mixture, another for the egg/ricotta topping, and then the baking dish where it's all assembled. But again, that would lay more than one night so I wouldn't have as much to wash up the next day.

Sorry for the rather long and rambling answer but I hope that helps!

Ok

So
Spag bol
Chilli
Shepherds pie
Chicken casserole
Shin of beef casserole
Roast gammon

No fish at all?

I wash everything to the point of sterilisation. I am beastie phobic. I soak cauliflower and broccoli in salted water for half an hour before cooking to chase the beasties out.

Mumat39 I don't know how you do it, dealing with all those allergies - do you mind me asking are they allergies that will stay with her all her life or ones she might grow out of do the allergy doctors think? wineglass has suggested some dishes to start with.

Re the dishwasher, I would always use salt and rinse aid whatever the water softness. I also find things that flip around end up with water in them (the white water with soap/salt in it). I try to wedge anything that might flip down a bit (not always successfully). I would try it on the hottest longest wash you have and when finished open door and leave for a bit to dry/cool down. That works for our Bosch ...

many thanks Mulledwine

I'll add roasts to that list as well - I find they cook you enough meat for a few meals and you can accessorise with different veg!

You could batch cook most of the above recipes so do double or triple the quantities to save on washing up and you can buy the foil freezer containers.
There are some really nice recipes with eggs too but maybe keep those for a dinner with you and DP. You need to keep it simple or you won't stick to it.

If doing spag bol for everyone, get a courgette and cut into thin strips and fry for around 5 mins until soft. Or get a potato peeler and peel it into strips then fry. Everyone else gets pasta and same sauce.

Same for chilli - one pot of meat sauce for everyone. Make the cauliflower rice (just grate it and microwave to start although there is an egg fried cauli rice recipe which is yum)

Love the idea of accessorising a roast, have a vision of a roast chicken with a sparkly clutch bag. That's made my day a lot more cheerful MrsHercule