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!

Adjusting to the eating plan - tweaks and tribulations

I've been doing the new lifestyle eating since 4th Feb officially, but have definitely had my cheat days rather regularly :P The beauty of it is it comes right fairly quickly in terms of getting back to your initial weight pre cheating. The bad news? It means you "lose" time on losing weight really - I tend to be yo-yo'ing in a constant range of 2kg's, just missing my personal first big goal - to get under 80 and stay there.

Most recently, Saturday eve was a dinner at Monte Casino for Chicken's work award's dinner, and I cheated - red wine and Jameson's, and having some of the served chocolate mousse. The dessert DEFINITELY wasn't worth it - horrible packet type crap and I would've expected more from the restaurant we were at. I had a few mouthfuls and left it. Alcohol definitely seems to play quite a major role in the weight loss stakes; more so than I would have thought to be honest; though it does seem to "come right" after 3 days - mostly water retention is to blame for the weight spike I tend to experience after a night out of "having a few" I think. I also suspect that my focus has been far too much on the fat content of my new eating plan, and not balanced enough towards veggies, which has also slowed (read - stalled) my weight loss.

So my focus now shifts to trying to incorporate more veggies that are not carb laden (been eating too much butternut) and avoiding more of the hidden carbs in favour of more balanced meals. I got too caught up in the OMG LOOK AT ALL THIS FATTY FOOD THAT'S LEGAL YAY and didn't keep in mind that no matter what you are eating, you still need to do so within reason :P

Hey, I'm still just over 3kg's (NOT 23 as in original post bwahahahahahahaha) lighter than I was at the start of this journey, and I still get to eat great food - I just need to keep in mind I don't need to eat enough to feed a small army!!

Last night's dinner just FYI, and it was great! And I am down this morning versus yesterday :)

I almost forgot to take a pic; hence the half eaten state :P It's pork bangers (Eskort as their meat quality is higher IMO and the carb / 100g count isn't too high) fried in ghee with chopped fresh homegrown chilli from a newly acquired tree I have managed not to kill off as yet, and homemade coleslaw which is carrot, cabbage, Cross & Blackwell Tangy Mayo and a healthy dollop of chilli sauce previously acquired from a homefoods market. Was DELISH.

Breakfast this morning was a homemade soup from my Chicken - baby marrow, cream and blue cheese, and lunch will be beef curry. This evening I'll be making us some chicken livers with cauli mash. So, as you can see, still eating very well, I just need to be more wary of the VOLUME of what I'm eating :)

The best LCHF friendly mashed potato replacement

No new recipes tried as such, just a LCHF friendly version of a Cottage Pie, or Shepherds Pie as RMR calls it. Standard mince "filling" as you would make yours for Cottage Pie, and the "mash" topping was caulimash, which worked beautifully.

My mince was a bit on the runny side which made for a more "mash and mince" feel than a Cottage Pie, but it was tasty regardless. The topping is just grated cheddar mixed with Celery Salt as I felt the caulimash was a tad on the bland side. The caulimash was a head of cauliflower, florets steamed until mushy, and that was then combined with a good dollop of ghee and crushed garlic and pureed to a mash consistency with my hand blender. Et viola! The words best LCHF friendly mashed potato replacement!

Sadly, up 400g this morning. No cheating since Monday this week and three dog walk days down, so I am a bit disappointed, but will see what the rest of the week holds. I suspect I just ate too much of the good stuff yesterday / last night :P

THE *BEST* CHICKEN KEBABS, EVER, HANDS DOWN

When I got home Monday night at 5pm, there was no power, and it only came on again past 8:30pm, by which time I was nice and dozy from reading Silence of the Lambs (first read through... I know, awful of me..) by candlelight and couldn't be arsed to cook food for myself or eat anything. I'd also already spent over 2 hours in the kitchen deboning chicken thighs (never, ever, ever, let me think this is a good idea again) and prepping the marinade for said chicken by said candlelight.

This was all in prep for the Chicken Kebab recipe that is in The Real Meal Revolution Book, what has become my LCHF / Banting bible and which I cannot recommend enough.

Yesterday morning (it being Tuesday) I fried off the made marinade mixture (it says to do this for 15 minutes prior to applying to the kebabs and cooking), let it cool down and then threw it in with my decimated "cubes" of deboned chicken thigh to let the pieces marinade during the course of the day. I am really glad I did this - it does say in the recipe that you can coat and cook immediately but if time allows I always prefer letting meat marinade for a while to really make sure the flavours from the marinade get in there good and proper like :P

So, when I got home last night all that was left to do was thread my now well marinaded decimated chicken bits and skin, and cubed red and yellow pepper pieces, onto kebab sticks. It says in the book to cook at as high a heat as possible; I did mine in the oven on a baking tray at 200 degrees Celcius, for approximately 45 minutes, checking on them every 15 - 20 and turning them. There is so much oil in the marinade that there isn't much cause for concern re burning your chicken. The recipe also calls for you to process the marinade down to a smooth pulp. Due to the no power situation I used my Twister when prepping the marinade pre frying the following morning, so the cashew nuts were still fairly chunky. Honestly, I cannot imagine this dish any other way and my Chicken agreed with me; so if you don't have a hand blender / blender to make the marinade into a puree as recipe calls for, don't stress - you'll probably prefer it chunky like we did. I also cut up the left over pepper pieces and cooked them along with the kebabs in the sauce on the tray -a very nice add on I'd recommend doing (not actually shown in below image - use your imagination!).

Once ready, served them up on a plate with the greek yoghurt dip (added Chermoula and garlic) and OH MY GOD are these just the best damn tasting chicken kebabs I have ever eaten!!! My mouth is watering just writing up this blog post. Even if you're not interested in the eating lifestyle, I'd recommend The Real Meal Revolution book just for this recipe, it's that good! Which leads me to - no, sorry, I'm not going to post the recipe here. It isn't mine, so it is not mine to share; I'm sure if you google you'll find it online somewhere, but it won't be from my blog. I do hope you get to make them and try it for yourself, they really are bloody scrumptious!!

I have one here for lunch today.... I'm wondering how long I'll be able to restrain myself.

Oh yes, and you see all that glorious oil (the marinade alone has a cup of olive oil in it) in the images? All that beautiful double thick full fat Greek yoghurt? I devoured every morsel and droplet on my plate... and I'm down 300g this morning :)

TRUE ROMANCE WAS AN APT TITLE FOR MY FIRST EXCURSION TO THE BIOSCOPE AND CHALKBOARD CAFE

So you know I cheated on my LCHF journey, now let me tell you why, and why it was totally worth it. Sorry, TOTES worth it (hipster venues incoming!) :P

Friday was Valentines, and Chicken and I not being the Hallmark holiday types, joined friends of mine at an independent cinema located in JHB CBD for a screening of True Romance. A cult hit from 1993, starring Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Arquette and other well known actors - and one which neither of us had seen before. I enjoyed it and would recommend you rent it if you can:



The place we went to watch the movie is called The Bioscope - it's a small room as far as cinema's go, and the chairs are reclaimed aircraft seats that are super comfy and complete with headrests. The sound quality was decent enough, and they have an HD projector so no issues there. I liked the casual atmosphere, and the fact that you can take your beer and pizza in with you is just great :) The beers and pizza came from The Chalkboard Cafe which is essentially a cash bar / pizza kitchen attached to The Bioscope. Their pizza's are phenomenal, don't let the 2 standard electric ovens deter you - we ordered their Meryl Streep - pear, gorgonzola, proscuitto & rocket- to share and OMG was my resultant weight spike worth every bite!! Their pizza's are a fair size and we weren't hungry post sharing that bad boy, so I reckon you can safely get away with sharing a pizza on a date. More romantic anyway, innit? ;)

One gripe re Bioscope - they need to get some damn standing fans in to the cinema itself at the very least - it was far too hot in there and at full capacity for what is, I learnt, now an annual Valentines tradition for Bioscope goers, we were all suffering somewhat. My teensy weensy gripe re Chalkboard - the menu states that you can pick from ovetr 50 different locally brewed craft beers. If they had 20 different types in stock, it was a lot. And they had a Bone Crusher Darling box in plain site, but no stock - never taunt a Choffel that way!!

Over all, the staff are friendly and seem quite jacked (you try finding the owner of an ordered pizza in the bedlam of hot bodies, cold craft beers and dark cinema seats successfully!) and their pricing is what you'd expect on hipster drinks - craft beers are average R40, and Amstel is R20, pizza's vary and can be found on their menu

Bioscope do many events, like indie film screenings and their monthly Noodle Box Cinema which I am very keen to check out ("Enjoy a portion of noodles inside The Bioscope, while watching the best Kung Fu action on the big screen") and many other signature events, all of which you can check out here. They have a mailing list for those of you, like me, who have memories like goldfishes and will forget about this awesome gem the minute you close this tab, so go sign up now so they can keep you posted on upcoming eve's of orsm - here's the link :)

WHAT A NON LCHF WEEKEND WILL DO

Apparently, it will make you go up 1.3kg's :(

Yes, that sucks, but it also goes to show just how much of an affect carbs and sugars have on me; quite something really. Friday was pizza and beers, Saturday included a few chips, and alcohol (a craft beer, Jack Daniels and red wine), and I cheated last night with Woolies Lemon Sorbet (sorry Chicken I couldn't resist.... hahahahaha) while watching "The Big C".

All of this saw my weight go up by 2kg's as of yesterday morning, and this morning it dropped a bit so I'm now up 1.3 kg's since Friday morning's weigh in. Would I do it again? Oh, it will definitely happen again, but point being, if you want to keep dropping weight and feel better and healthier, don't eat carbs and stay away from the sugar. It's not only my weight that has changed; I've had a headache for three straight days (not *just* the hangover), I have odd muscle / body aches and I had no oomph this morning to get out of bed and walk my dogs. I feel less happy, if that's the right term - just not right, so to speak. And I'm convinced it's carbs to blame.

I'm looking forward to being back on the LCHF wagon. Until Ramfest, that is :P

Because NoMu makes everything yummy - cauli rice

Last night's dinner was terribly simple, but I did try my hand at cauli rice for the first time so thought I'd share that at least.

Dinner featured chicken wings with the NoMu Poultry rub (good lord this stuff is good) and I added their African rub to my homemade "smoor" (a fried tomato and onion sauce reduction for you non saffers / terribly english peeps) along with chopped chilli', salt and pepper and a whole lot of butter.

The cauli rice was really easy to do; grated fresh cauliflower heads some time back and stored the result in packets in the freezer. I took out a bag last night, nuked it in the microwave for 6 minutes, and then threw it into the pan I cooked the chicken wings in and turned the heat up. I tossed the cauli rice in the leftover juices (chicken fat and NoMu Poultry rub) and added extra rub for flavour. The "rice" had a slightly crunchy consistency, a fabulous taste and both myself and the other half thought "nutty" when eating it. All the recipes I've read for this state to add finely chopped onion and fry in coconut oil. I like things spicy, and had the chicken fat handy, so it made sense to do it the way I did. It's obviously NOT like the white starchy rice you're used to consuming, but it is really good, and it went fantastically well with the homemade smoor. Will definitely be having this again!

And just so we're clear here - this was not sponsored by NoMu in any way - I just absolutely adore their rubs, pesto mixes and grinders (their smoked salt grinder OMFG), and will always support local where I can.