Support and ideas for those on low-carb diet

Well we were meant to be having bolognese sauce with celeriac spaghetti, but I couldn't get the celeriac through the spiraliser however hard I tried. It was too hard, I think (must be the end of the season). So we had a little bit of ordinary spaghetti and lunch tomorrow is celeriac soup.

Tagine: lamb shanks, fresh borlotti (from freezer), spices, dried apricots, garlic, onion, fresh ginger, tomatoes and tiny baby turnips.
Hearty and very much needed as it is really cold out there!

That sounds lovely, Mamie The DGSs are coming for supper as DD is away on a course so they've requested Tandoori Chicken. That'll be twice in a week for us but it's an easy option as they can have Naan bread with it and we'll have salad.

We love tandoori chicken. Is it the Madhur Jaffrey recipe? It is my most splattered recipe book page!
We have it with salad too (and some home made chutney). Sometimes with spicy aubergine as well.
Enjoy the DGs.

Glad I'm not the only one with splashed and splattered recipe books. The most colourful pages are the curry recipies. This diet is a curry lovers delight. My books are also annotated with comments like 'this works better with chicken thighs' or crossings out (usually flour or sugars) and substitutions like '1 tsp ground almonds' or 'reduce'.

One great side effect of this eating plan is I'm sleeping much better and waking refreshed. I often used to wake up tired oreviously. This morning I got up, made a cup of tea, let the chicks out, then noticed it was only 5.30am!

Haven't bothered weighing myself for a couple of weeks but another 1.5lbs gone

Thanks for the recipe ideas above.

We also sleep well and wake at dawn, which is about 5am here at the moment.
I think not only curries but Middle Eastern food works well with the diet, though it does need the odd teaspoon of honey!
I have stabilised my weight during the last few months and hover between about 9 stone and 9 stone 3lbs, which seems a really good weight for me.
Off to an organic farming / food event today.

Never tried Middle Eastern recipes, might have to make good that deficit.

I've booked a cholesterol test at my local Sainsbury's (don't ask ) on Wednesday, so will be very interested to see what that shows.

Good luck with the test!
With ME food you have to substitute extra vegetables for grains like couscous and bulghar, but we do use chickpeas and other legumes from time to time. The spices are wonderful (I love ras al hanout) and I also like the dried apricots and dates with the spicy sauces. Again not for strict low-carbing.
Tonight is cold roast veal and caponata.

I use ME recipes every day, usually. They use so many veg, it was logical when I have a big veg garden. I've just had a huge salad with a load of mixed roasted veg on top spiced up with ras el hanout (sometimes harissa) and a little diced chicken, mixed with a tbsp. of maize couscous.

What are you cropping now JR? We have salad leaves and spinach, but the peas, courgettes, broad beans are nowhere near yet. The brassica and squashes are in, the potatoes are up through the straw but most other things are still very small. We have 32 veg beds but they are so slow at the moment that the stuff in the greenhouse is waiting to go in the garden and the stuff in the potting shed is waiting for the greenhouse. The strawberries are cropping though.
Sorry for thread derailing....

Spinach beet, various lettuces, radishes, I had my first red onion yesterday, rocket, I grow some peas just for the shoots, I harvest the broad bean shoots so that they don't get blackfly and the leaves are lovely too, asparagus, my squashes are going in today. I'm growing Hasta la Pasta, I thought I had better! Welsh onions, and I use garlic still in the green as I plant loads of it. Do you use rocket? It's lovely cooked.
I'm going to make strawberry mats for mine today, out of a leftover piece of membrane. I'm also eating baby leek thinnings, and I grow Hamburg parsley, which is wonderful, as it is parsley tops with parsnip roots, but without the earthy flavour. Only the parsley currently. What else- kale thinnings. I love all the baby veg at this time of year. Carrots soon!

Can't do any gardening today. Not just the weather but my left knee is the size of a melon and very painful. I was hoping to finish weeding the strawberries and put down some straw.

Never mind. When the pressure rises my knee will start behaving again.

I'll be making elderflower champagne on Thursday. Lots of sugar, I know but the everyone loves it so it doesn't last long.

Thanks JR - that sounds about the same stage as ours. Lots of thinnings here too! We had rocket for lunch with avocado, hard-boiled eggs and tuna mayo.
Too windy to do much gardening here today, but we managed to cut the grass, ready for the heatwave at the end of the week!

Fingers crossed for the heatwave! merlot I had several very nasty explosions last year with my elderflower champagne. I had to take the bottles (plastic) outside after having had to scrub down my entire kitchen twice. One bottle punched right through the side of a large beer bucket. I thought someone had shot me. Every time I opened one I had to wear gloves and a full apron and be aware that I was going to get wet face and hair - but it's delicious. One glass at weekends is fine. However I am going to make more cordial this year for the GCs. And buy a new bucket.

Just devoured a 2-finger Kit-Kat to celebrate my cholesterol reading of 4.78 (down from 5.4) and a ratio of HDL to LDL described as 'excellent' .

So bottom line, eating low/moderate carbs and more protein and fat does not raise this GNetters cholesterol or BP (113/75)

That's brilliant, Anya

Brilliant Anya, well done.
I hope the doctor was suitably impressed.

That's a really good reading, well done!

I spent yesterday back at Hyde Hall, and they had done as I asked, stopped using wheat flour to thicken their sauces and had marked a big menu pinned to the door stating all GF choices. It was such a relief, not just for me as there were 6 of us out of 51 on that tour. I chose a smoked salmon and prawn salad - which didn't come with any bread at all! I was so used to being carb free that it didn't strike me as odd, but one lady was a little irked. She went in to buy some brown bread, and emerged with what looked like half a loaf. It cost a whole 75p.

Tonight I had a little steak and masses of mixed salad. I forgot lunch somehow, due to shopping I suppose.

Forgetting to eat lunch has happened to me a couple of times, probably a combination of being busy and not feeling hungry??

My family, who've been a bit 'worried' by this diet eating plan and warned of dire consequences are gob smacked absolutely incredulous at the reduced cholesterol. They can't seem to 'get it' and I suppose the 'low fat' message has been flogged for so long (and is still being recommended) that it's going to take a long time to get the message across.

I don't actually think I'm eating that much more fat anyway. More cheese, probably. Less butter definitely. But what I feel I now have is a really healthy relationship with food.

Have to add. Never had ANY heartburn/reflux (call it what you like) since starting this.

It is funny how people don't get it isn't it? I get lots of questions about how long I have been doing it (nearly eighteen months) as if I am suddenly going to stop and put the weight back on. I like the French word régime better as "diet" does tend seem to me to have more of the meaning of something temporary in English now. It isn't a diet, it is a way of eating.
We eat more cheese too but almost no cream and less butter. I need to get better at varying protein sources for lunch though. In winter we had a lot of soup, but now it is all salad and though we do have egg and tuna days it is sometimes a bit too easy to grab cheese or garlic sausage or paté from the fridge, after a long morning in the garden.

And I can't find halloumi, even in Lidl.

I like that term regime (forgotten how to add the accent on my iPad) I think I'll use that in future.

Press on the e a bit longer and they are all there for you! éèêę

Yes, I can see them but how do I 'get' them?