It has been a while since I wrote a blog and that is because I have been busy with life.  You know how it is.  

As a family we have become a bit lax with Banting and we are trying to get back into it.  We all have gained weight as we ate more carbs.

So with summer approaching we are trying to tighten up what we eat.  I have been making home made bread for my son and it is sooooo nice when it come out of the oven.  But NOT Banting at all!

And the kg’s creep back and the heartburn and the craving for sweet!! So I am back in the battle to rid my body of all those carbs.  I know I will get back but fighting these battles again are not fun.

I will be letting you know how it goes……..

I will also trying Homemade Pineapple Beer and Homemade ginger beer.  

My Kombucha Hotel is sitting on my freezer top and hopefully reproducing new little ones.  I have left it sitting through winter as nowhere  is particularly warm here so I shall see what has happened.

Happy Banting!

The Banting 2.0 course

The picture is of a chinese dish I ate at Knysna Quays at the Chinese restaurant there.  Without the rice, which I do not eat, it was a good LCHF meal.  And, it was very tasty and delicious too! I …

Source: The Banting 2.0 course

The Banting 2.0 course

The picture is of a chinese dish I ate at Knysna Quays at the Chinese restaurant there.  Without the rice, which I do not eat, it was a good LCHF meal.  And, it was very tasty and delicious too!

I have been following the above course for 3 weeks.  Week 1 was observation where I had to to track everything that went into my mouth for the first seven days. What an eyeopener that was.  One of the reasons was that I decided to do the course was to help me get back to basic Banting or LCHF after Christmas and also lose some of the weight I had picked back up over time.  I am 2 weeks into the strict eating and have lost almost 3 kg so good going.  I am enjoying learning where I was getting sloppy and once I have the strict weeks over I go into maintenance.  That will be really helpful and hopefully help me learn even more of the right way to go.  

I have found two really helpful free websites that help you track.  The first is http://www.myfitnesspal.com and the second is http://www.cronometer.com. On  cronometer if you are wanting to follow low carbohydrates,high fat you can choose that.

My kefir was an absolute failure and I ended up killing all my expensive Kefir grains. It was became very smelly and foul so I tried to rescue some Kefir grains but nothing happened after several days.

As I cannot drink Kombucha at the moment I am putting off making that for a week or two.

My brine fermentation is still in the balance.  It still has 10days to go and I have topped them up for the last time today.  One jar was spoiled so I threw that one away, so three remain.

Check back next week for more news on the fermentations, and the course.

 

Fermenting with salt?

This week is my third try at fermenting with salt.  This time I am hoping it works.  At least I found out yesterday why my last one went mouldy.  I did not keep the  beetroot covered.  I guess I forget to check them every few days.  This time I did a bit of research and hopefully it will come out well. I made four jars yesterday and I shall check tomorrow if I need to add brine.  Look out in later posts for the results.

I also bought some kefir  grains which I am growing. You buy the grains dehydrated and put  them in a jar and cover them with milk.  You leave them and you replace the milk every day until they grow to look like fluffy cauliflower.  Mine are almost ready to use. You use them to make a fermented milk drink that is healthy and feeds your gut biome.  That is, all those bacteria that keep your gut so well.

I also have a Kombucha SCOBY which is for making Fermented tea. It looks like a piece of brown jelly and I am going to see how it works.  I am hoping that all these things taste as good as they sound.  

Come back in a couple of weeks and you will see how I am doing.

 

 

Banting Course

I decided, after 2 years of learning on my own about Banting or LCHF, I would join the Real Meal Revolution Course Banting 2.0.  It is amazing how I have veered off the eating plan over Christmas with visitors and goodies.  It is time now to buckle down again.

Over Christmas I managed to gain 5 kg and 7 cm on my waist, which was a bit of a shock. However reading various articles and watching videos I have found that when you start to eat some carbs with LCHF the weight goes on faster.  Eeeek!  I am glad that the next couple of weeks I am going to be getting back on track.

The first week of the course is observation and you log everything that goes into your mouth.  I had a shock when I saw how many carbs I was eating.  On the carb counter I have not hit green all week.  I really want to get my carbs lower again.  It has also concentrated my mind on what I have been doing.

I am going to try and add bits of news that I glean from the course. And, of course what happens next!

The biggest change they have made at http://www.realmealrevolution.com is on their lists.  They recognise that going cold turkey for some people brings many side effects and they have now made more lists but better organised.  They still have Green list eat anything; but now Orange A (eat in limited quantities); and Orange B (alright whilst transitioning but sparingly after); Light Red ( maybe eat at a party); Red (the things you cannot eat!) and Grey (your call).

I am looking forward to this but for now I am going for a snack as I just walked 4 km with heavy bag ( library and soup bones).  Then I am going to prepare my beef broth for next week’s snacks. The picture is a crust-less quiche made with eggs, bacon, Cheddar cheese, Italian herbs, garlic powder, served with half an avocado, and a mixed salad with feta and cucumber.  Now I am hungry! 

Losing Weight the Banting Way

A few posts back I talked about losing weight.  I had then lost 7 kg but I went on to lose     12 kg.  Then I stopped! My weight varies week on week by about 1/2 kg but I neither gain or lose.  It …

Source: Losing Weight the Banting Way

Losing Weight the Banting Way

A few posts back I talked about losing weight.  I had then lost 7 kg but I went on to lose     12 kg.  Then I stopped! My weight varies week on week by about 1/2 kg but I neither gain or lose.  It is wonderful to feel healthy and well with loads of energy and sleeping well at night.  Looking back at the photo when we started I was amazed at the difference in the way I look now. And I get to get a new wardrobe of clothes!

Thank you to Prof Noakes who set us all on this road.

Have you seen the site get Get PrepChef? If not you should look it up.  They give you shopping list, prep instructions, and recipes for 5 mains, one breakfast, one light meal and one snack and a dessert.  It helps to get organised and you can subscribe for the time that you want.  I am going to try the cauliflower cake and then try to make my mother-in-law’s  pumpkin pie à la Banting.

Watch this space!

Organisation helps

Organisation is the key to keeping my husband healthy and and not hungry. Since Banting I have struggled with  what to make for light meals but no more!   Read on to see the plan

Source: Organisation helps

Organisation helps

This is the first month that I decided to organise my meal times and snacks especially as I do not eat a light meal but my husband does.

I talked about making packs earlier in the blogs and this is sort of extension from that. This month I made 36 savoury meatballs which i put into packs of 4 and froze; i made 36 mini quiches in muffins tins and froze them and I made a 2 loaves then sliced them divided them into bagged them into 4 slices per bag and froze them.  I also bought 4 tins of Tuna in Water to go with the bread.  I may try and make the mayonnaise next to go with the tuna.

My husband is happy to rotate through the choices and I just make sure there is a good variety of salads and he is very happy.  It makes my life easier as I only have to cook 2 meals each day and can relax once they are done.

The bread, quiches and meatballs take a morning to make and freeze but that is easier than having to make sure there is something for my husband to eat in the evening.

I also make dry packs for choc chip cookies and brownies that I keep in the freezer until I want to make them.  It really save time later.  I also made loads of Fat Bombs as we are an active family.

 

The Scrummiest banting brownies

I have been exploring a few more cakes and biscuits lately and using the book “Low Carb is Lekker”.  Last week I decided to use her recipe for Chocolate brownies.  I substituted sunflower meal for nut flour and baked them in muffin cases so they were brownie muffins..  I made a chocolate Ganache with 70% chocolate and WOW!  They were delicious and looked amazing.  Pity I did not take a picture. I am definitely going to make them again and I will do this time.

I have discovered that Sunflower meal does not have a strong taste.  I also made my own baking powder and everything rises well and is more spongy.  I am going to try some other recipes to see if it pans out with other recipes too.  We are all a bit fed up of coconut flavour in many things.  I have also sourced some of my nuts and seeds at an on-line shop and that has saved money even adding the courier fee.  More about that as I use it…..