Baby marrow, tomato and cheese "starter"

I was a bit peckish Sunday night at around 11; and didn't feel like defrosting meat or just snacking on straight cheese, so rummaged around my fridge and used a few ingredients, my trusty pan and the microwave to create an odd, but very tatsy snack for myself. I liked the crunchy topping and base concept so much that I recreated it with a few added tweaks and ingredients for myself and the other half as our "starter" to our braai chops last night. My favourite part of this has to be the crunch from the marrow parmesan "chips" - I'm going to be using these on so many things in future!!!

This is what I used to make two side plate servings:

2 x firm just ripened tomatoes
4 x medium baby marrow's, sliced in rounds approximately 5mm thick
1/4 cup grated parmesan
Ghee for frying
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
3 green chillies, finely sliced (adjust for your heat preference)
1/4 teaspoon crushed garlic
sprinkle of rosemary salt to taste
4 slices of mozzarella / to taste
Avocado oil
Greaseproof paper

Throw the onion, chilli, garlic and half of the sliced baby marrows into a pan on high heat with enough ghee to fry and coat all ingredients. While that is going, place the rest of your sliced baby marrows into a container, drizzle some avocado oil over (you can use any LCHF friendly oil / fat, I just like the taste), shake around to coat all slices, and then place them in a single layer onto greaseproof paper on a plate. Ensure that there are minimal gaps between the slices and that they don't overlap.Sprinkle your grated parmesan over the slices, and pop into the microwave on high for ten minutes.

Your fry up should be half way there by now - ensure you keep tossing everything in the pan so that the baby marrow slices are evenly browned as much as possible on both sides. While this and the microwave timer countdown continues, slice your two tomatoes into about 1cm thick slices and arrange as you wish on the two side plates; one tomato per plate. I overlapped mine in a circle - this is the base of your dish. Once the microwave is done you'll see the parmesan has melted and crisped up over the baby marrow slices - crack / peel the bits off of the paper into a side bowl - this is your crunchy topping of win!

Now add the mozzarella slices to the mix in the pan and let the cheese melt, combining it with everything in the pan to make a glorious gooey mess :) Once fully melted and combined, place half of the mix on each side plate on top of your tomato slices, spreading it as evenly as you can. Now sprinkle your crunchy marrow parmesan "chips" on top, and you have a #LCHF friendly side or starter that is absolutely delicious and bursting with great textures and contrasts! I really enjoyed this and will definitely make it again; and I cannot wait to find other applications for my marrow "chips" :)

LCHF CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH BACON AND ONION

I make a mean potato soup. And you can go ahead and replace "mean" with "YOU'LL LEAVE YOUR MOTHER'S APRON STRINGS AND PROPOSE TO ME" :P

Alas, that isn't very Banting Lifestyle friendly, now is it? It seems my aim in life (at least in the kitchen, that is) is to find ways to replace the foods I miss post hitching my eating wagon to the LCHF post.

Cue cauliflower. The wonderful, humble, available in abundance frozen *don't look for me fresh*, cauliflower :) Here's a quick and easy recipe for a cauliflower soup I made that is as close to my precious potato soup I'll ever get without using the little carb laden spuds.

CHOFFEL'S QUICK 'N EASY CAULIFLOWER SOUP
(aka Potato soup replacement)
1kg bag frozen cauliflower
1 litre milk
300ml boiling water
1 x Knorr Chilli Beef Stock Cube
Ghee for frying
6 rashers streaky bacon
1 large onion
Celery Salt to taste

Finely chop the onion and cut up the bacon rashers into small pieces, and fry these in ghee in a large pot until both are cooked. I defrosted my cauliflower and riced it in my Twister before adding it to the pot, but you could just as easily throw the florets in whole (we'll be blending later anyway).

Add your stock cube to the boiled water to dissolve and add that to the pot, along with the 1 litre of milk (FULL FAT!).
Bring the pot to the boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding any seasonings you want to - I just used celery salt and was happy with the outcome.

Once your soup has cooled down, blitz in a blender or use a hand blender in the pot (I'm a great fan of one pot cooking!). Some may like their soup chunky, but I like the fact that blending it combines the flavours and "spreads" the bacon and onion goodness all the way through.

This soup is great served hot or chilled, and freezes perfectly.

And there you have it; a delicious, filling, LCHF friendly soup that'll satiate any cravings for potato soup you may have :)

Fat2Fab Mini Challenge - lose weight, gain moola :)

I haven't actually mentioned I think why I started on this LCHF Banting journey - it was all due to my work bestie Blessed Barenness who educated me on it, did all the exhausted research and whose noticeable weight loss convinced me to give the hype a test run. When I became really serious about it though, was when the Fat2Fab challenge launched - a very cool idea thought up by the folk over at Get Slim (you can buy all your LCHF goodies from them!) and which has resulted in a FB group and a whole lot of idea sharing between those of us participating. We're a closed group who put money in a kitty each month, with the goal being to be the biggest loser at the end of the challenge in December - the winner (loser) wins the pot!

So much interest was shown in the challenge that Get Slim have launched mini chalelnges, which run for 3 months and have a prize pot of R2000 at the end of it. As somebody who is not only competitive but permabroke, the Fat2Fab challenge group I'm in is a perfect fit :) And of course I'd love to win our pot at the end of it, but even if I don't, it is such a great help having a support group to share ideas / gripes / recipes / successes / failures with - I swear some days without the challenge I would have bought McDonalds and just thrown in the towel! The challenge has kept me on track and motivated; so I'd definitely recommend checking out the mini challenges now offered by Get Slim. There is a registration fee of R800, but this nets you the following:

"The mini challenges will run for a period of 3 months each and the first one will start on the 1st March2014! Entry will be R800, which will include an admin fee and a starter pack. Your starter pack will include a few samples of our great products, as well as some tips and suggestions on how to successfully follow a lchf diet to optimize your success. It will also include online support, via email and our Face Book and Twitter accounts. The winner will win R2000 cash!" <- link is in the text and in the image below - go check it out!