Fat-pants

Hi everyone

I hope that you have been well, at this end we've been faithfully pushing on with our diet, and I am very pleased to report that I've lost just over 16kg!  That certainly sounds like a lot, but sure makes a disappointingly small difference when you're my size, however, 31kg left to loose does sound a heck of a lot better than 47kg left to loose!

Plus, I'm now starting to fit in some of my previous fat-pants. 

Interesting concept this - FAT-PANTS.

They have always been my red light, my sentinel bearing warning of having gone too far, however, in recent years I have not been paying them much heed... hence my current situation.  Yep, having gone through fat-pants from a size 35 to a size 42 (probably bigger than that, the day I started this diet, I could barely squeeze into my size 42 jeans *blush*), the writing was always on the wall.

Why I chose to ignore the recurrent upgrade to fat-pants, I may never know, and usually when that day came, I felt so awesome in my new, looser fitting pants, completely

 oblivious of the fact that they were 5cm wider than the previous ones - dude, how crazy was I???

So I'm seeing this reverse journey back through all the fat-pants as a significant part of this diet, something to keep me going, hopefully fitting into the next smaller pair will inspire me to feel just as great as my prior misplaced self-confidence that came from new jeans...

This diet, as you know by now, is very much a loooong term commitment, and there is no way in hell we're going to make it without being a little inventive in the food-department. Finding alternatives to what we're used to can be tricky, but can also be a real diet-saver!  For the past week now, I've been craving cottage pie, but naturally, potatoes are off limits, so I had to make a plan..

And what a yummy plan it turned out to be, for this one, I really must pat myself on the back!

Cottage Pie - Skinny Pants edition

for the mash part:

• 2 kohlrabi
• 4 large carrots
• 1/2 cauliflower
• 1 litre of chicken stock

Peel and chop the vegetables and boil in the chicken stock till tender and place in a food processor, blend until smooth while adding milk to achieve the desired consistency.  I have to add at this point - kohlrabi is not a frequently seen ingredient in South Africa, I saw it yesterday at a market and bought 2 with this purpose in mind.  Mine were extremely tough and had very hard stringy bits in the centre, even after it was boiled soft, and the resulting puree was terribly gritty with an unpleasing texture, which was easily amended by scraping it through a fine sieve - the outcome was spectacular - a fine, buttery tasting puree with a wonderful texture.  Next time I make this, I would however skip the kohlrabi and just use carrots and cauliflower.

for the mince part:

• 1kg of lean mince - venison or ostrich is probably as lean as you'll get, I'm fortunate to have a minced Oryx vacuum packed in 500g packets in my chest freezer :)
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 2 cups of diced carrots
• 3-5 cubes of beef stock (you can really use what ever blows your hair back, I use it instead of seasoning with salt and pepper)
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1 small tin of tomato paste

Brown the onions in the oil, add the mince and brown meticulously, it really has to be nice and separated and brown.  Add the stock cubes and tomato paste and carrots, top up with some boiling water, enough to cover the carrots.

Cover with a lid and simmer till the carrots are nice and soft, taste your mince, and add more stock cubes if not seasoned enough.

There you have it - put the mince in the prettiest oven proof dish you own and top with your puree and bake at 200 degrees Celsius till browned somewhat.

I hope you love this as much as I do!

Here's to skinny pants!

Cheers and God bless
Janie B