My friend, almond flour

Hi guys

To find time to write these days, is no small feat.  Every time I come on here, if I haven't been for a while, my favourite thing is to find that my weightloss ticker hasn't been updated in forever (duh).  This time, I've found that I've lost a whopping 3 kilo's in 5 months...

But, this is most definitely not to be snubbed at.  I've come to accept that my body will settle where it's happy and that I can only help it to get there, but not tell it by when it should get there.  This realization happened after I missed my January goal by about 18kg, and now I'm going to miss my July goal by 15kg. 
But, dear body, I'm okay with that now, and you can take your sweet time.

I'm also happy to report that I've thoroughly settled into the idea that discipline does not mean deprivation.  I've started to bake up a storm in the past few months and have produced some amazing grain-free, sugar free, very low carb baking.  It is truly astounding though, how little this kind of baking resembles the more traditional fair that I'm accustomed to, mostly in technique though.  I've literally had to take everything I know about baking and chuck it out the window. 
This said, clearly, there are some things that were just never meant for wheat flour, its low-carb alter-ego is just so awesome, that I can't believe the wheat alternative still even exists!

One such thing is a quiche crust.  You'll know that when making a perfect savory crust, it is key to keep things cold and not to overwork the dough, otherwise you are developing too much gluten and your crust becomes all hard and horrible instead of light and crumbly.  Enter:  ALMOND FLOUR.

There are few things on this earth as wondrous as this simple ingredient.  One has to bear in mind that it carries much higher moisture than wheat flour and is very high in fat, and therefor doesn't need any extra fat, but most of all - you can pretty much knead it for an entire afternoon and your end product will be light and crumbly and wonderful.

So, here's what I do
 2 cups of almond flour
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs (or what ever suits your filling)

Blitz this in the food processor and you'll end up with a firm ball of dough.  Press your dough evenly into what ever pan you choose to make your quiche in.

Bake it at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes until it's a beautiful golden colour.  The best part is there is no need to blind bake this puppy, it is utterly well behaved and will cook exactly where you left it on the edges of your quiche pan.
For the filling, I took a packet of streaky bacon, diced it and very slowly rendered it until every little piece of bacon was crispy and lovely and yummy.  I scooped out the bacon with a slotted spoon and slowly caramelised about 6 large sliced onions, until they started to look real jammy.

I then proceeded to add the final flourish to this ridiculously decadent quiche - grate 1/2 a cup of Gruyere over the base of the cooled down crust, sprinkle over the onions and bacon and pour over a little custard that you've make of 250ml of cream and one egg, beaten and seasoned.

Bake this at 160 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes, or until the centre is just jiggly.

Cool this beaut down to room temperature and enjoy! It's very rich and very filling, but is so satisfying.  You may want to serve it to non-believers with a nice salad, in case they feel completely unjustified pangs of guilt.

I hope you enjoy this and as always,

God bless
Janie B

Getting a right fit, against the grain

Hi guys

It's been nearly a year since I've set foot here, soon after my last post I went back to work after maternity leave.  Work has been busy to say the very least.

As far as weight loss goes, it has been a great year.  I've lost a whole lot  more and I'm slowly but surely reaching my target weight.

There has also been a lot of reading, reflecting, discussion and debating in 2013 - what do I want from my diet? Well, stating the obvious: I'd like to loose weight, secondly and by no means less importantly, I need to be able to have fun with it.  What is the point of eating steamed chicken and veg night after night?  Frankly, I'd rather chew my own arm off...funny, my husband feels the polar opposite.  He is of he opinion that diet food should be as bland as possible, he says I blur the lines between good and not good too much.  He of course has it completely wrong, it's all very black and white with my cooking, there are no grey areas and I stick to my plan 100%, he just hasn't come around to the idea of a way of life, as opposed to a "diet"

Slowly but very surely, I've been cutting grain out of our diet, and it's completely gone now.  Man, I had no idea how bad grains made me feel until I cut them out, not even just the super bad one, wheat.  My head is spinning with all the possibilities right now, there is so much available in terms of recipes for ANYTHING form a like-minded community on the Internet, who knew!

Don't get me wrong, I'm at no point going to start preaching grain free living to the masses, all I'm saying is, try it, do what works for YOU, what fits with your lifestyle and your household.

So, since I haven't treated you to any recipes in a long time, I thought I'd better produce a whopper this time around.  I just finished a plate of it alongside some roast chicken, and I can only say that if I ever revert to my previous devious ways, this might still end up replacing dauphinois potatoes forever...

Creamy Cabbage Gratin

Shred 1 head of cabbage and place it in a glass ovenproof dish, place knobs of  butter on top, cover in aluminium foil and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 1 hour, until the cabbage is tender.  Now dice one onion and cube 1 packet (250g) of streaky bacon and slowly fry in a pan until the bacon fat is rendered and the bacon and onion are nice and brown.  Mix in with the cabbage and add salt and pepper according to taste.  Pour a tub (250ml) of regular cream over, sprinkle some mature cheddar and bake till bubbly.

Obviously this is incredibly rich and I could barely manage about 3 tablespoons full, but it is 100% as delicious as it sounds.

I hope you have a wonderful week and God bless

lots of love,

Janie B