Good morning

Just want to pass on mixnmatch’s tip for mashed cauliflower/broccoli. I made it last night just with cauliflower and added, as she suggests, some crème fraiche stirred in at the end. It was really delicious. I wouldn’t have believed that it could make such a difference to the flavour.

The weekends are always a challenge for me and this one looks to be no different. We may have a Thai takeaway which for me means Tom Yum soup with mushrooms which I think fits BSD pretty well. Definitely no rice but I may add some poached chicken breast to the soup to make it more substantial.

I made broccoli and stilton soup on Thursday which works out at 6g carbs and 100 calories a portion. It was a particularly good soup from a BBC food recipe I think. I must admit if I have soup for lunch then I find it far easier to stay close to 800 calories a day.

So it looks like broccoli soup again for me for lunch today!

Hope you have a good weekend.

Good morning

I think this is my ‘fish’ week. I had a sea bass on Friday which I’d had in the freezer. It was ok but definitely better when it’s just fresh. Didn’t have Thai last night instead I had some cod loin. Spurred on by some of the posts here I put some pak choi onto tinfoil, added sliced ginger and some green pepper, then the fish on top then some spring onions and some soy, sesame oil and a tablespoon of chilli sauce. I topped it off with more pak choi and cooked in the over for about 25 minutes, it was a very thick piece of fish. It was really lovely. OH had beef madras and rice!!!!

I really fancy some smoked trout today but not altogether sure what I can do with it!

Have a good day!

Verano, I’m so sorry, I’ve only just checked in to this thread and saw your reference to smoked trout, checked to my 16 Feb posting and saw your reply asking for more info

I’ve 2 fairly standard ways of doing this “risotto”, based on pre BSD. Now, I do real twice for OH and cauli for me. I simmer whichever vegs (few mins only so still crunchy) separately to the rice etc, add them later. I use the veg water to give flavour to the rice then, method 1: when adding vegs add similar to a Thai dipping sauce eg lime juice, sweet thai chili sauce, fish sauce, it usually needs some sugar so I add the barest minimum. As I have this maybe fortnightly I just live with it. Method 2 = cheats method. A local producer, Ogilvie & Co, have a scrumptious coriander, coconut, mango, sauce, beaut spices. It’s very thick in the jar, so when I succumb, I thin it with the veg water to a point where is still enjoyable but not lethal for cals/carbs.
Its not really risotto, but that’s what I tell OH he’s having 👼
Sorry this is not precise but it’s sorry of a moving feast with whatever i have handy.
I hope next time you fancy smoked trout this might inspire you.

Don’t you live predictive txt and poor editing….of course I meant real rice for OH🤔

Thanks Marsie I will try that. Struggling at the moment to find interesting food probably because I seem to have very little appetite. Not sure if that’s because my stomach has shrunk…. I should be so lucky…. or I’m just bored with the food!

Verano, I know what you mean about being bored with the food, unfortunately that, for me, sends me looking for “something ” and its usually something unhelpful……

Know the feeling welll Marsie …. feeling it now so I think I need a square of chocolate with some coffee!!!

Haven’t contributed for a while. We’ve had several family celebrations and been away for a few days. It’s always the same- I get going, lose some weight, then celebrations come and most of it goes back again.
So here I go again! Gammon steak with red cabbage tonight. Haven’t tried it before. Without the weight measurements in the book i find it difficult to know what size! I guess about 100gms each. Anyone know differently??
Then think I’ll turn to the back of the book and follow the menus. Might make me stay on track a bit more. I’ll look through these Fab Food for Feb posts and look at the many ideas.
What happens in March?? Marvellous meals for March???
Thanks everyone !

Hi Eileen 27

I usually go for around 150g of protein for my evening meal. Depending on what I have sometimes it’s around 125g and others 175g. I don’t eat a lot of meat, maybe once or possibly twice a week at the most and you can’t really do too much damage with fish.

My latest fad is a thick loin of cod or haddock baked in tinfoil with whatever vegetables I have. I did one a few days ago and made a bed of pak choi, asparagus pieces, spring onions, sliced green beans and some slices of pepper. Add sauce to taste and cover with a few more vegetables and more pak choi. Because of all the vegetables I cook it for around 30 minutes at 180C fan. I know that seems like a long time but the vegetables protect it so its not overcooked. I guess you could use salmon as well. In fact I think I’m going to try it ‘puttanesca’ style with tomato, olives, anchovies and courgetti. Mmmm quite fancy the sound of that!!!

Not sure we’ll get to March as the ideas are drying up a bit!!!

Hi Verano
I think you are right about the 150g. The gammon steaks we had were large, so I cut off 100g cooked each. I was hungry all evening so ended up having the extra bits cold for supper. I’m sure if I had it all earlier it would have satisfied me. So a lesson not to skimp on the protein! I cooked half a red cabbage which for 2 of us was too much and a little too sweet. I’ll cut down next time.
I like the sound of your fish dish. I suppose it’s a case of adding whatever veg is in the fridge. Shopping is the key here.

You have been most stalwart in adding recipes, thank you. I’ve been very lax in this and have mainly stuck to the BSD book. I have found the forum very useful however and hope it or a similar one can carry on. If not March, April maybe???

HI Eileen27

I think sometimes it’s really hard to follow this way of eating when we’ve been brainwashed into following a ‘low fat’ regime.

Yesterday I woke up ravenous and despite at first thinking, today is going to be a ‘blow it all’ day, I logged everything I ate. That was including the two crumpets, extra mature cheddar and butter I had for breakfast!!!! I ended up staying within my daily allowance! Also I found that after having all that fat in the morning I wasn’t hungry again until late afternoon. So I missed lunch and just had an early light dinner of some soup and around 100g of chicken breast. I even had enough of my allowance left for 2 squares of Lindt 90% and a coffee later in the evening.

So today its back to my yogurt, strawberries and walnuts. It will be broccoli and stilton soup for lunch and then fish ‘puttanesca’ for dinner.

I have two cauliflowers sitting in the fridge that I now need to use so it’s off to find some recipes …. looks like that’s the next few hours taken care of!!

Have a good day!

Hi Verano
Amazing you had crumpets and still came within the allowance. That encourages me. It can be done.
I made fish pate for lunch and used the whole pack of mackerel rather than just one fillet. I guess it was double, but it was filling and sustained me. I had cream in my coffee in M&S rather than a cake which my husband had. I felt I was having a treat too so I shall do that in future.
We had Thai curry with left over chicken, more peppers than the recipe , with cauliflower florets fried in little olive oil, then added a spoonful of creme fraiche ( a previous post). This made such a difference. Instead of green beans we had the remaining red cabbage. I do find that too sweet, I’d rather have it pickled, so I might do that next time.

It has to be fish tonight, so I’ve looked at your previous post with the cod loin and veg, and another post of roasted fennel. I haven’t tried that. Jamie does a good recipe. I’ll count it and add it to the next post.
Have a good day, tomorrow is the weekend and I always struggle.
x

Eileen

I wouldn’t recommend adding crumpets into your plan!!!!

They had 46g of carbs but I had very few for the rest of the day. Also I’ve upped my carbs from 30g to 40g a day but lower than 50g. I was just a couple over 50 so not the end of the world and logging all my food stopped me saying …. ok day blown eat what you want!!!

I broiled an orange roughy fillet yesterday. Effort: nil. Result: deliciousness. I made a sort of basting sauce using 2 tblsp of fresh lime juice, 1 tblsp melted butter, a minced garlic clove, 1/8 tsp of smoky paprika, 1/8 tsp sweet paprika, salt, pepper and about 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme and parsley. Then I flopped the fillet around in the sauce for a minute, making sure to massage it into the flesh a little, put it on a pan, poured the remainder of the sauce on top and broiled it under the oven’s heating element for precisely 15 minutes.

It was flaky and flavorful and the whole process took no more than 20 minutes.

Sounds great. You don’t see orange roughy around much these days, we called them slimeheads as a kid (no idea why) and a lot of the Irish boats used to have them.

I do a similar thing but with fresh mackerel and occasionally add a bit of cumin. Lovely on a bed of samphire or brussels or even roasted fennel.

Herring is good with the juice of a tangerine and a dash of salt. Leave to soak for half an hour then either flash-fry or grill – beautiful.

I’m guessing “slimeheads” went the way of the Patagonian toothfish, now known as Chilean Seabass thanks to food service marketing gurus. 😀

I love the bed of fennel idea and will most certainly steal it. Thank you!

I had the second half of the fillet for lunch today. I wrapped it in a foil packet and cooked it in the oven at 350F for five minutes or so. I was concerned about cooking it twice, but it came out just as delicious and moist today as it did yesterday. That lime-butter sauce is adept at keeping the fish from drying out.

The lime butter sounds lovely. Good to have different ideas for the ‘bed’. I’ve only used pak choi and asparagus etc. but will try the fennel or samphire.

Must admit I’ve not heard of, or ever seen, orange roughy. Interesting. I guess any bream would do a similar job?

Ive not heard of orange roughy either. Where does it come from? I’ve looked it up and it seems it’s known by several other names. Recipe sounds good though
We’ve just had the BSD creamy fish bake. Really tasty. The recipe says it serves 6. We portioned it in half, my husband then had 2/3 of the half. I was left with the 1/3. I could have eaten more!
Might have to have a square or 2 of 90% choc!

I grew up in West Cumbria and occasionally we had Irish boats in and they would sell orange or red roughies. I’m guessing they must live in the North Atlantic somewhere.

They live in deep waters all up and down the east Atlantic. I’m afraid they’re very succestible to overfishing, so that’s probably why they’re infrequently seen these days. Any firm-fleshed white fish will sustitute for it. I plan to use the same lime-butter herb sauce for flounder fillets this weekend.

I tried a ‘puttanesca’ style cod loin last night and it was very nice. I just made a foil packet and layered pak choi, sliced asparagus, green beans, spring onion and courgetti tagliatelle. Then added some home made tomato sauce, the fish and repeated the layers in reverse ending with pak choi, guess you could use cabbage leaves, and some sliced green olives and more sauce.

It was very tasty but because of the amount of vegetables it took maybe 35 minutes to cook and even then the fish was only just cooked. I will try the lime dressing which I think may also be nice on salmon. But tonight it’s my once in a while treat of meat … fillet steak!! Looking forward to that after almost a week of fish!

Thanks Verano for your pea soup recipe. I’ve just made it. Absolutely delicious. I think it will make 3 portions not 6. I can eat double and still come in with my allowance. I’ll certainly make it again. x

Verano – meant to say well done for eating fish all week. I’m sure fish helps to burn the fat ! I must eat more of it. x

Glad you like the pea soup Eileen. Try broccoli and stilton. Even if you wouldn’t normally eat stilton it adds an amazing flavour to the soup. Don’t think I’ve posted a recipe but I can if you want it.

Fish might normally burn fat but not for me this week. I’ve hit a plateau! I did really enjoy my fillet steak last night though. I even had a few, really only a few, French fries. I’ve not had potatoes for nearly 8 months and I did enjoy my few chips but that’s it now. I really can take them or leave them and leaving them is probably best!!!

Hi Verano
Maybe a change of protein will jolt your metabolism? I try to alternate between fish, meat/poultry, veggie but I must admit meat wins most of the time.
Made chicken and mushroom ‘pie’ from the BSD book. Lovely. Instead of cabbage I used kale which I cooked a little first to make it more palatable. Then added steamed sliced leeks and Parmesan cheese. Really good. I’d make it again. Some sort of fish tomorrow I think ! New week! Good luck x

Hi Eileen

You could be right about protein. I was going to have bolognese tonight but having fish instead! Will have the bolognese with cougetti tomorrow. Had chicken yesterday so am trying.

Going to use fennel tonight I’ve never made it before so should be interesting!

As a self-confessed fennel addict, I hope it went well.

Not a meal per se, but I have taken the advice of many on this site and having the odd teaspoon of peanut butter when the ‘snack’ cravings start. I used to have Meridien but wasn’t overly fond of the runny texture.

I bought some 100% peanut butter called Proper Nutty from Morrisons (seems to be a small manufacturer based in Yorkshire) and, as well as being lower carb than Meridien, it has a more “normal” peanut butter texture. They also stock it in our local deli/health food shop. Would heartily recommend.

Note: This is not an advert – I don’t work for them!

Hi JM did try the fennel last night. I sliced it very finely and mixed it with green pepper and asparagus. Made a parcel with the fish and added some home made tomato sauce. When it was cooked I added 1 tbsp. of 1/2 fat creme fraiche which made a huge difference. BUT I had put in such a small amount of fennel , because I was frightened it might overpower the fish, that I couldn’t taste it!!!! Will try it again but use it in a different way.

I adore peanut butter but it’s one of those things that I wouldn’t be satisfied with if I just had one teaspoon!

Well last day of February and I have enjoyed some of the tips and recipes on the thread. If nothing else it’s made me far more aware of what I’m eating. Hope it’s been useful for everyone else and maybe we can continue here even though it will soon be March!

Definitely keep it going, Verano, its great:)

I agree with Marsie so please keep it going Verano. I’ve found it very useful
and inspiring. I often go back through the posts to check out ideas and recipes. Difficult day today. Just been to funeral buffet. Not BSD food as you imagine. But I had one small plate only and didn’t go back for seconds! That’s an achievement for me.
Shrove Tues today and that means pancakes with currants, lemon juice and sugar!!! But I’ll only have 2 small ones and then back to it tomorrow. Keep going everyone ! And keep this going Verano. Thanks x

Verano, the leafy fennel tops are also great with fish. I put them inside the cavity when baking a whole fish.

Verano, I agree, with Marsie and Eileen – this thread has been really useful, full of bright ideas and inspiration for any flagging palates.

So you should definitely either keep it going or possibly start a new seasonal one for March – Marvellous Menus for March springs to mind. 🙂

Then we could have Amazing Appetisers for April 😉

Or we could just go seasonal, and have 4 threads running for the 4 seasons reflecting the changing seasonal foods, starting with Sensational Suppers for Spring 😉 Though, of course, if you are down under, spring would be autumn, so maybe that wouldn’t work 🙁

Last night I made a very simple salad that paid off hugely in nutritional value and flavor. Because my lunch was very light, I made a point of adding everything I could to this salad so it’s higher in calories than I would usually make, but still very much useable BSD-wise. If you need to trim calories to keep within your limits for a day, it’s an easy thing to remove an element, like the hard-boiled egg, for example.

Hard boil two eggs. While they’re cooking, drain a 7 oz can of tuna in water. Flake it into a small bowl, add a tblsp of fresh parsley (dried will work in a pinch, but use less) and a tblsp of white wine vinegar. Mix it all up and put it aside.

In a big mixing bowl, combine 1 tblsp (15 ml) olive oil, .5 tblsp white wine vinegar, one clove of garlic, minced, a couple of grams of finely chopped fresh oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk. Add to the bowl 6 oz fresh baby spinach, half a cucumber (about 150 grams), sliced, two chopped green onions, a medium avocado (about 140 grams), sliced, and 10 kalamata olives. Toss the salad with your hands, making sure the dressing is distributed thoroughly and evenly.

Divide the salad into two large bowls, put half the tuna mixture in the middle of each bowl, slice the hardboiled eggs in half, lightly salt them, and place one half on each side of the tuna. Chow down.

This serves two, obviously, and makes a huge main course salad. Total calories per serving is 456, net carbs 8 g, 1 of them sugar. If you need to shave calories, leaving the egg out brings the total down to 384.

Ok, let’s keep going. February is a ‘cold’ sounding month and March, with its winds, isn’t much better. Theodora I really do like ‘Marvellous’ . So why don’t we stay with the ‘Meal’ theme and have a new thread Marvellous Meals for March. I’ll start a new thread.

Eileen it’s always good if you can manage to be ‘mindful’ when in difficult situations and you obviously were!

Angela I didn’t even think of using the tops of the fennel. Tonight I’m having bolognese with courgette tagliatelle but it will be fish again tomorrow. I may try trout and stuff the ‘tops’ inside. Good idea thank you. Or do you think a sea bass would be better?

Esnecca as I started reading your post I really did think it was for one!!! Must admit it sounds lovely. Apart from the spinach it has all of my favourite things. I adore olives. I made some tuna mashed with a little vinegar and a tablespoon of Hellmans light and plenty of black pepper and it was really lovely. I put inside the cavity if an avocado and just had some cherry tomatoes with it. I know we shouldn’t eat low fat but I really dislike Hellmans ordinary mayo, just don’t like the taste.

Off to set up the new thread. See you over there.

Oh dear, if it were for one, you’d hit 384 calories in tuna and eggs alone! 😀 You can easily substitute another leafy green if raw spinach doesn’t appeal. Romaine would be lovely and crisp.

I like Hellmans Light as well and it actually has fewer carbs than the full fat, as I recall. Nowadays I’ve gone a little hardcore and make my own mayo from silken tofu. I can spice it up to my liking, it is absurdly low in calories (16 per tblsp) and so low in carbs that you have to use 1/4 cup for it to add up to a single carb gram.

Three cheers for keeping the thread going!

Verano…best not to ask me you won’t get an unbiased opinion…hate trout (all those bones!) and love sea bass! Enjoy!