Support and ideas for those on low-carb diet

Will look out for it stillhere. Funnily enough we went to an open organic garden day earlier in the year ( organic gardening still seems to be a bit alternative and hippy here) and the owner, who lived in a yurt, was growing it.
Also kale with garlic and butter tonight

The cooking and growing and eating go hand in hand here, sorry too, I hadn't thought.

This one doesn't go bitter and needs sun, mamie.

We used to grow Chenopodium Bonus Rex Henricus in England many years ago, but found it a bit bitter after the first few weeks. This year we have been growing Cima di Rapa (Italian turnip tops) which is very nice; it went in quite late and should overwinter.
Apologies to newcomers to the thread, we do diverge into gardening from time to time.
Dinner tonight will be roast chicken with roasted beetroot, Jerusalem artichokes and onions.

Hello Blodyn, I shall have to google clean eating as I am not sure what it is, but I do know that I had to cut out cream and cheese when my hot flushes started, and only really eat dairy stuffs maybe once a week in any volume. That is because that is the night when DBH cooks, usually. He does love cheese sauce. I settle for just a sprinkle of grated cheese, or a tbsp. of something like crème fraiche between the two of us. No milk in tea or coffee. The hot flushes do sometimes return on the nights when he cooks, but nowhere near as strongly as they used to.

Mamie Chenopodium - it doesn't disappear in the way spinach does, I grow the giganteum with the lovely magenta tips, so is very pretty in my garden too. It can get to 5' tall, so that is an awful lot of spinach, we eat far more of it as a result. I cut each plant down to halfway in the summer and have a big microwaving and freezing session, then let them grow away again to have seeds for the next year. I love poached eggs in a spinach nest for lunch.

Thanks Mamie and still I'll have a go at one of those tomorrow as DD and family (we are having to live at their house) are away for a few days.

Welcome Blodyn.
We had daurade royale from the market, which I think is gilt-head bream in English. Wilt the spinach (glad to here about chenopodium stillhere), fry the fish fillets lightly in butter and remove, add lemon juice to deglaze then add creme fraiche, put fish on spinach and pour over sauce, garnish with parsley. We usually do salmon, but I think turbot would work well too.
This morning is egg and bacon. Hurrah!

Hi Wilma. I have been a mindful eater for 15 years and that worked well for me but for the last 3 years I have not been able go shift some weight I had gained. So I did some research and decided that eating really clean and lowish carb was the best way forward. I have also cut out all dairy to avoid the hormones and my hot flushes completely stopped. I have lost over a stone and don't get hungry. So to answer your question......I find it really really brilliant. What about you?

Hello fellow newbie! Well done on your weight loss. How have you found the low carb approach?

Helloooo......can I join you please. I am eating low carb, paleo, clean eating and have lost over a stone since the end of June.

Mamie when I saw Ainsley on Strictly tonight I remembered the show was called Ready Steady Cook!

Ours is - fry the fish quickly until browned on both sides, in olive oil with garlic and pepper and then turn off the heat, add a splash of lemon juice and pop on a lid, let it carry on cooking in the residual heat.

Microwave the spinach, I do two large bowls full which reduces to enough for a portion each, for 2 mins per bowl. Drain in a colander and chop with scissors as it drains.

Fry an onion in olive oil, add the spinach and a teeny bit of nutmeg, salt and pepper, stir around a bit and add as much cream as you want, or even greek yoghourt, I often use up small amounts of cheeses at this point.

Place on warmed plate and plonk fish on top.

These actions do not necessarily take place in this order!

Fish and spinach and cream sounds lovely. Recipe anyone?

Good heavens - we too have had fish and spinach and cream tonight, but with some cheese added as well! Except our spinach was really chenopodium, but you would never know the difference once it's cooked.

Sounds like that telly programme when they were given a few ingredients to make a meal, Wilma. I think about a teaspoon of lemon juice and mash the avocado with salt and pepper.
Have you tried roasting garlic? If you roast it in the oven until brown and sqeeze out the flesh, it is much gentler. Otherwise I need a side order of Gaviscon.
To keep the menu ideas coming; we had a mixed vegetable tagine (carrot, squash, onion, garlic, tomatoes, aubergine, courgette and green beans, with cumin, raz-al-hanout, cayenne and saffron), served with yoghurt last night. Tonight is an OH special of fish, spinach and cream. Lunch today was cheese (Lidl's Italian week cheeses) tomato and cucumber with a couple of chickpea flour crackers and Friday was egg mayo salad.

DH found the Rose Elliot book in the garage. Apparently I have a pile of stuff in there I didn't know about (or forgotten).

OK. I am now in possession of an avocado, a lemon, a lime, a bit of ginger root and a garlic bulb.

How do I use the avocado and lemon to make a spread please? Is there a good ratio or something else I should know?

Love the broccoli muffin idea and it would be good for DH to take to work for lunch.

Well, blow me if I can find the Rose Elliot book. We do have a lot of books, but they're mainly in order so it's a bit of a mystery. I have come across several other useful cook books though including one about bread products for low carb dieting. Will probably try some recipes from that. I can see now how bread can be high in protein. Will share the results.

This is very similar to the recipe I use for onion bhajis.

deep-fried.food.com/recipe/indian-restaurant-style-onion-bhaji-deep-fried-onion-fritters-288345

You won't need to use the rice flour, you can just use normal flour, I used to use self-raising. I have never used black onion seeds, although I used to save chive seeds and use them at one time.

We had the broccoli muffins (lovely!) with poached eggs and salad.

More veggie ideas. The Hairy Bikers stuffed peppers (mushroom, nuts and feta) is great.

Lunch; slice a cooked beetroot, top with slices of goats cheese and grill till golden and bubbly.

Broccoli muffins serves 2-3 (2 count as 1 of your 5-a-day)

Heat oven to medium heat. Use muffin tins or Yorkshire pud tins lightly greased.

Steam a medium head of broccoli until soft and mash and season.
Divide between tins - should line 6.

Beat together 3 eggs, a large handful of grated cheese and a slosh of whipping (or other) cream. Season with black pepper (and a dash of that JO stuff mentioned earlier if you have it).

Pour over broccoli (grate a bit of Parmesan on top if you like) and bake in oven till just browning. Leave for a couple of minutes so you don't burn fingers.

Slide out and eat (using fingers) with a dip of mayonaisse.

Think I posted a veggie recipe for broccoli muffins somewhere on this thread. They make a great low carb high protein lunch. I'll back track and see if I can find it.

Yep, I do have the Rose Eliot book - bought it in 2013!

Mamie I nearly bought that book the other day and then it occurred to me I may already have bought it, so need to check that out LOL!

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian which means I eat dairy and eggs. The chickpea fritters is the first one I copied from this thread. I honestly can't remember the last time I fried anything, it's always been the grill because it's supposed to be healthier. Some things will take getting used to, but I am looking forward to trying out new things and thankfully so is my DH, otherwise it would be hard to get on.

I quite like chickpeas and if you cook them on a baking tray in the over, they make a nice snacks a bit like nuts. IIRC I think you spray them with cooking oil, so you can flavour them with flavours like garlic. I'm going to be reading labels a lot more, especially the ingredients!

seacliffe it sounds like we are about in the same place, ready to make changes.

Appreciate the help from everyone

Could you post the onion bhaji recipe? Love them!

I bought that when Mamie recommended it and it does have some lovely things.

Yes, chickpeas are now a huge part of our lives, I have always used chickpea flour/gram to make onion fritters (bhajis) and sort of expanded to try other things. Now (I am coeliac) I add it to GF flour to add colour, and the recipes are better with, than without it. Cooked whole chickpeas are lovely in a salad, sadly they don't often get that far because I like them so much.

A small bowl of hummus with a load of veg fingers makes a wonderful snack, or lunch.

Would this book help? I have used Rose Eliot's recipes in the past and they have been good.
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Vegetarian-Low-Carb-Diet-vegetarians/dp/074992649X