Low carb recipe: quiche

Ingredients

Ground Almonds	-	50g
Table Salt	-	½ Tsp
Coconut Flour	-	50g
Almond or Hazelnut Butter	-	25g
Coconut Oil	-	25g
Medium Eggs	-	5 Eggs
Double Cream	-	300ml
Whole Milk	-	50ml
Cheddar or Gruyere Cheese	-	140g
Streaky Bacon	-	100g/4 rashers
Asparagus	-	100g
Closed Cup Mushrooms	-	125g
Butter	-	15g

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Method

1. Preheat oven to 135C (fan oven - 125C non-fan).
2. Combine ground almonds, coconut flour and salt in a dry mixing bowl.
3. Melt the coconut oil gently (don't get it hot otherwise you'll prematurely cook the egg white in a minute) stir with the almond butter and add to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.
4. Separate 1 egg. Add the egg white to the dry ingredients bowl and make sure it's mixed in well.
5. Spread this mix over the base of a lightly greased/oiled flan or shallow cake tin and press down with the back of a metal spoon until firm.  If you have baking beans to bake blind, use them. If not, your crust will be crumbly, which is fine.
6. Bake in the pre-heated oven for roughly 45 minutes, but start checking at 30 minutes. When the mix is the same even slightly darker colour, across the entire base remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely somewhere dry.

7. While the base is cooling... turn up the oven to 160C (fan oven - 180C non-fan), cook up the chopped bacon with the thickly sliced mushrooms and asparagus in a frying pan in the butter.  Do not let the asparagus get soft at all.

8. Beat the other eggs, the remaining yolk, cream and milk together then add the cheese (grated) and plenty of seasoning.
9. Stir in half the bacon and asparagus, and carefully pour the mixture onto the baked base then scatter over the remaining bacon and asparagus.
10. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the filling is set, starting to turn golden and slightly puffed up above the case.
11. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin.
12. Serve warm or at room temperature, with a green or tomato salad.

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Nutrition Information

Nutrition Data Per Serving Calories (kcal) 615.5 Protein (g) 21.6 Carbohydrate (g) 4.6 Fat (g) 55.9 Fibre (g) 4.8 Fruit & Veg 0.5 Alcohol 0.0

Low carb recipe: cauliflower and bacon gratin

Egg custard is clever stuff :o)

Net carbs 8.3g per serving

• Prepare the cauliflower and par-boil it in chunks, drain it and and let it steam itself dry.  Pan cook the bacon and chop it into bite-sized pieces (I used smoked back as that's what was available, preferably use a good streaky bacon).  Slice the mushrooms.
• Bring the the milk and cream to the boil in a pan and take off the heat.
• Finely grate the parmesan and whisk it into the egg yolks.
• Mix the cauliflower, bacon bits and mushroom slices in a baking dish.
• Grate the cheddar coarsely.
• Pour the milk and cream into the whisked parmesan and egg yolk and whisk until well mixed, then return to the pan the milk and cream was heated in and heat gently, stirring all the time as the mixture very slowly thickens.  It will thicken to a very thick cream consistency over 8-10 minutes; do not be tempted to turn the heat up to make it go more quickly as all that will do will give you scrambled egg in cream.
• Once that mix has thickened, take it off the heat and pour over the solids in the baking dish.  Press the mix down a bit and then top with the grated cheese.
• Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at about 150C (you can leave it in there for up to a couple of hours if you need to for any reason).  Brown under the grill if desired.

Teensy bit whacked out

So I swam.

Having done all of about 3 swims this year so far, and only one of those being in the last fortnight, I swam 5000m today for charity.  Still with the tail end of a chest infection.  And I didn't drown (too much, well of course the guy in front of me for 1/2 the time caused enough wake to force water into my face quite a few times, but I didn't actually drown or anything).  There were three of us sharing a lane; one tiny whippet of a boy who did 2.5km and one of the pool staff members who was also doing 5km with me.  Annoyingly the bloke and I were similarly paced, so we would overtake each other and then whoever was behind would speed up a bit.  The last two times I overtook him (length 128 and length 153) I got mind-bendingly bad cramp in my left ankle, the kind I sometimes get at night that's so bad I end up curled up in a ball in tears with my foot at a mad angle 'cause the joint is so badly spasmed.  And it lasted for 6-8 lengths each time, which was very much not amusing.

I got to length 158 and the lap counter leaned down to say "the next one is your very last one", I was so surprised I squeaked "REALLY!?" (I thought I had 10 more to go at that point) and then zoomed off for the last two lengths and put in my fastest length overall on the last one !

Yes, it wasn't the best time nor one that I feel is representative of what I'm capable of but given the circumstances I think under 2 hours was pretty damned good going.  So I finished in 01:57 and wobbled out of the pool, demanding bacon sarnies :o) and happily accepting my medal:-

Feeling quite light-headed, but a lot better after a bacon buttie, tea and a huge chocolate chip cookie!

Warmer and much less stressy

As I said, we stayed in a hotel last night. So I got a lovely hot bath before bed and was actually too warm in the night. When the power finally came back on properly at around 10am today my stress levels dropped quite significantly.

Gymmage today was quite good; I did try JAG's suggestion of negative movement practice for pull ups but was too weak to do anything other than drop quite quickly, so I went back to using the machine assistance but concentrated on making the lowering movement very slow. I think it might be time to get a trainer at this gym. I've got about 2 weeks left before I need to change my weights routine, so now would be a good time to have a chat and see what are the options.

Protein count for today is pretty high, probably due to the cooked brekkie at the hotel :oD

Exercise - 51 minutes weights (HRmax 178, HRavg 158)

B - bacon, scrambled egg, baked beans, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes
*gym*
S - 1 scoop whey in 200ml water
L - tomato and pancetta soup with mascarpone and 1 scoop whey
S - carrot and houmous
S - tangerines
S - banana
D - beef chilli with couscous, peas and sweetcorn

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1806 2199]
Protein (g)	138.1 (31.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	158.2 (33.6%)
Fat (g)	68.0 (34.6%)
Fruit & Veg	12.0