Support and ideas for those on low-carb diet

Enjoy the spiraliser - if it is like ours, you get little bits left from the middle of the veg, which we collect and turn into soup.
Also good luck with continuing the "way of eating" before your operation. The health reasons were the biggest incentive for us to go low-carb and nearly two years on, we are very happy to continue with it for ever. We really don't miss anything much from before.
Now completely and utterly off-topic (sorry everyone), I am watching "4 Mariages pour 1 Lune de Miel", which is my favourite tea-time trashy programme at the moment. I pretend that it is good for my French, but so far tonight we have had, les wedding planners, un wedding cake, le speed-dating and tout est top top. Last week we had c'est trop too much.
Do I need to keep learning French?

MDR (=morte de rire = LOL) - never seen it. Top top, or tip top?

Hihi- just making soup (in the soup maker of course) with ... all the bits left over and the tops from the fennel for tonight.

Thanks for the support - as said, never ever been able to stick to a diet- never needed to actually, until my thyroid gave up undiagnosed (yes, cobbler's shoes and all that) and diabetes crept in.

Watched very sad documentary in the UK recently about teenage diabetics losing their eyesight, kidney function and even limbs- as they refuse to take insulin in order not to put weight on- tragic.

BTW what is chickpea flour called in French- farine de pois chiche? I'd love to try the fritters at some point when I have rieached my first goal (minus 5 kg or 10 lbs approx)

Today it was top top, but we get tip top as well and lots of trop bling bling. It is on TF1 at 5pm. It also frequently demonstrates that there is indeed an emerging obesity crisis in France.

Yes farine de pois chiches, we can get organic in the big Carrefour. I brought some (garbanzo) back from Spain last year and that is much tastier though.

granjura it's often called socca in France, I have a French friend who uses it a lot. I suppose it's like us also knowing it as gram flour.

Thanks, never heard of it- but will look out for it at HyperU and at health food store if not there. Merci.

I thought socca normally refers to the chickpea flour pancake things that are a specialism in Nice? I haven't seen the flour called that, but maybe that is because we are up north!

Of course socca and Lesta in the UK are very different things ;)

From Wiki:

La socca est le nom donné à une spécialité culinaire à base de farine de pois chiche originaire de Ligurie, consommée à Menton, à Monaco et à Nice. De Vintimille jusqu'aux environs de La Spezia, elle porte le nom de farinata, dans le sud du Piémont, elle porte le nom de belecàuda (belle et chaude).

Socca is the name given to flour based culinary speciality made with chickpea flour from Liguria, eaten in Menton, Monaco and Nice. From Vintimillia to La Spezia, it is called farinata, and in South Piemont, belecaùda (beautiful and hot).

Aha! I must have had a garbled conversation with her - not for the first time! Yes, I make farinata. I suppose I thought she was saying I make it with socca, but she was saying it IS socca!

Tonight I made a vegetarian dhansak. It was very good, I added peppers and cut down the amount of sweet potato, but it's a good recipe, not too heavy on the lentils. It was on the lentil packet, and tasted exactly like the dhansak at the local Indian! I just had it with a splodge of yoghurt.

stillhere are you in France too?

Good luck gj, it is hard losing weight (despite what some posters think on the other thread! But your health is good motivation. What are you having done to your knee?

I'm plodding on with my regenerated cooking skills and experimenting with new recipes. Yesterday I made a round loaf of bread, but it came out more like a scone texture and was undercooked. Tasted nice, but not what I was aiming for - my ancient mixer wasn't up to the job of mixing a dough, so that didn't help. I also made a tomato sauce with butternut squash and that looks hopeful. I cooked the butternut squash whole in the slow cooker and then just cut it open to scoop out the flesh and dropped it straight into the blender. Not tried it with anything yet, but I would like it to be a staple for us. Will post the details later. Onwards and upwards!

Wilma we had roasted chunks of squash tossed in oil with onion, garlic, and herbs as an accompaniment to roasted lamb shanks on Sunday. Last night I used the leftovers for a tagine with aubergine, tomato, peppers, raz-al-hanout, saffron and dates, served with a spoonful of greek yoghurt. I used the leftover lamb too, but it would be fine without.

No, Wilma I don't live there but I have French relatives and some good French friends, so we pop over and tour around quite often. For me the problem is new vocabulary and phrases, along with new foods, in the language. Also slang used by waiters. Asafoetida for example, I was informed by a friend's neighbour, has a common name of merde du diable. I watch French tv sometimes in an attempt to keep up, but I'm not a great tv watcher of british programmes, let alone French. I can often trip up over menus, especially when the dishes are so regional. We got a bit lost once and ended up in a small café that only had two dishes on. DBH chose andouillette because he likes it, I don't so chose the other option and it turned out to be pig's trotter cooked in lentils. I don't remember what they called it, but it certainly wasn't pied de cochon.

Really struggling in the evenings- I have eaten plenty- but without carbs I am hungry all the time. Will persevere, but it makes me worry I'll just 'blow and give up' - feeling hungry all the time is not comfortable. Perhaps it will get easier over time?

Would a lump of cheese help? That is what we have when we feel hungry. Also maybe drink more water?
Today we had egg, tuna and avocado for lunch and dinner was chicken cacciatore (an OH special). We had roast squash with it which was delicious.

Greek salad tonight plus a small helping of hot smoked salmon.

Mamie DH is adamant he doesn't like butternut squash, so I disguised it in the tomato sauce for a new (to us) flavour. We had it tonight and it was delicious! It was just a tin of plum tomatoes, a packet of simple passata, onions, salt and pepper done in a large shallow pan and then blended. The butternut squash was added and it was all blended. It made two large batches, so one is in the freezer for next week.

We had it with onions, pak choi, (chopped and fried with minced garlic, minced ginger), broccoli couscous (florets pulsed in blender - gave a mince like texture to the dish) and crumbled feta cheese added near the end with salt and ground pepper. All cooked in a large shallow pan. Garnished with a little bit of grated Parmesan.

My best meal yet.

still I would have died if I was presented with a pig's trotter!

gj for the first time in years I am remembering what hunger feels like, so I know what you mean. I struggle with lunchtime because I can't be bothered to prepare something for myself. Before I would have had toast, a sandwich or soup before - but with bread. So that's something I'm working on. I struggle later in the evening too and have been eating an apple or a pear, but I'm going to work on that too.

I haven't given up on finding a bread recipe yet and had a go at oopsie bread rolls on Tuesday. The result was more eggy than bread, but I will persevere with the recipe with tweaks because it's easy and quick, plus the ingredients aren't too expensive unlike a lot of the lchf bread recipes. The basic recipe is on the diet doctor site here, but there's lots of tweaked recipes online, especially in the review sections.

What does everyone do for snacks or do you try not to eat between meals?

I need to find quick and easy small meals I can use for breakfast, lunch or a late supper. I'm losing weight, but I'm not eating enough.

That sounds absolutely delicious, Wilma.
We don't snack, but on the Mumsnet threads I think they tend to recommend nuts. I remember someone on there who ate a lump of butter with marmite!

Anno I love Greek salad!

I love a Greek salad too.

I will have to try different types of nuts. I am used to eating salted nuts and adore cashews even in cooking. Sadly salted nuts are not suitable, so I will try to find something I like. I know what I don't like!

Things like sunflower seeds are really good - they add texture without being too much work.

I made what DBH calls squash with squash, again. I made a large tray of mixed roasted veg, butternut squash, courgette, onion, peppers. aubergine, tomatoes, garlic and a little sweet potato, and used some of it to stuff halved courgettes that had been pre-cooked in the microwave. I added sunflower seeds, just a handful, plus a handful of cubed feta and a flat dsstsp of redcurrant jelly, grated some cheddar cheese on top and bunged it in the oven for half an hour - really good and a nice change from the usual mince mixture with cheese sauce.

I've just spotted the bit about a lump of butter with marmite. Add some thinly shredded Brussels Sprout.....Delicious!

We only have sprouts once a year - maybe we will try it then!

We only used to have sprouts at Christmas but have started eating them more often as they are quite filling. I love them steamed then tossed in melted butter.