A dinner and its dessert

The best way to spend a Friday night and a Saturday morning when the housemates are in Wales is definitely to go to the shop, get ingredients and cook. No one is in the way trying to cook at the same time and most importantly: the house is nice and quiet and I can listen to music downstairs as the TV isn't on 24/7. Lovely!

So what did I make?

Lasagne

Lasagne
8 portions

3-4 courgettes
1 kg pork mince
250-300 grams Tofu
250 ml double créme
2 tins of sliced mushrooms
Cheese
200 grams feta cheese
Sambal Oelek (very hot)
Spices

Cut the block of tofu as thin as possible and cover them in Sambal Oelek or spices.

Peel the courgettes and cut them in half. Slice them lengthwise about half a cm thick. Put them in a hot dry pan to add some colour and flavour. Then put them at the bottom of a roasting pan.

Fry the mince with spices and put over the courgette.

Drain the mushrooms and put them over the mince.

Make a cheese sauce from the cream and cheese. Boil the cream and remove from hob before putting the cheese in. Don't boil when you have put the cheese in as this could make the sauce grainy.

Pour the sauce over the mince.

Place the tofu over the mince and add a layer of cheese and finally chopped feta cheese.

Put in a preheated oven at 175°C for around 40 minutes


and

Chocolate cake with coffee icing

Chocolate Cake
12-16 portions

200 grams ground almond
200 grams dark chocolate (72% or 85% for a richer flavour)
200 grams real butter (not margarine)
1/2 cup sweetener (effectively 1/2 cup of sugar. If using a sweetener, look at how that specific brand convert the measurements)
25 grams of cocoa powder (can be removed to make it less rich)
5 eggs
A dash of cream

A few drops of peppermint oil if you have it.


Icing
250 grams of mascarpone
5 egg yolks
Instant coffee powder


Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over hot water.
Mix the dry ingredients and mix with the butter and chocolate.
Add the eggs, a dash of cream and extra flavouring if any and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a greased pan.

Bake in the oven at 150°C for 45-60 minutes depending on how sticky you want it.

Mix the mascarpone and egg yolks and add as much crushed instant coffee as you want. I did mine quite strong as the cake itself is quite rich

Tip the cake onto a plate and let cool before putting on the icing.

Grate some chocolate and put on top.


The cake is very rich so even though it is quite small it serves more people than you think.


Alternative: Skip the icing and serve with whipped cream and raspberries.



So what do we do with the 5 leftover egg whites?
Meringues of course!

5 egg whites
1 cup of sweetener (equals 1 cup of sugar with mine)
A few drops of lemon juice

Whisk whisk whisk and do the over-the-head-trick to see if it's thick enough.

Place on a tray and put in the oven at 125°C for around an hour

Preparing for a Friday night out

A problem that many people on a Low Carb High Fat diet seem to experience is that when drinking alcohol, the effect of it is a lot stronger and people who have previously been able to drink quite a bit can no longer handle it like they used to. As far as I know there is no answer to why this is happening.

Tomorrow I'm going out for a 21.st birthday and since I've been told (not asked) that I WILL be there and that I WILL drink cocktails with miss Birthday (not that I'm complaining though) I have tried to prepare my body these past few days. I don't know if it makes a different at all but to me it's all about "better safe than sorry".

I have been adding a bit more carbs to my meals and hopefully it will make a difference.

For tea yesterday and today I therefore had pork with a garlic cheese sauce, mushrooms and lots of spices served with feta cheese and cauliflower

Fry the pork in butter and add looooads of spices.
Put soft cheese with garlic and some butter in a bowl and add boiling water and stir.
Add the sauce to the pork and let it simmer for a while so it thickens and the spices and sauce mix well.

I prefer to put the meat and sauce on top of the feta cheese as it melts it a bit, which is just lovely.

Eat!



(And yes your observation was correct, I did say I might have a cocktail or two and yes there might be carbs in there but hey, it's her 21.st birthday and why have rules if you're not allowed to break them from time to time?)

Cinnamon can be dangerous

As I wrote in my previous post I am a real sucker for cinnamon and I use it with anything I can from rice pudding (in the non dieting times of my life) to cottage cheese.
But recently I found out that cinnamon in too big doses could actually be dangerous for you. Some sorts of cinnamon are containing something called Coumarin which can be toxic to the liver and has been banned from numerous countries since the mid 20th century.

This should not put anyone off from eating cinnamon, only warn people who likes cinnamon a bit too much (like me) that there can be side effects to it.

Some of the more common side effects that have been documented from eating coumarin is:
*Unusual bruising
*Bleeding
*Blood in the urine
*Blackened stools
*Diarrhoea
*Rash
*Hair loss
*Feeling or being sick

But like I said, there is no need to be alarmed as long as you eat moderate doses of cinnamon. In fact around half a teaspoon a day can be good for you.

But since I took my passion for cinnamon a bit too far and ate it with my egg milk twice a day and quite a lot of it since I like it when there's a lot of flavour I decided to try out some new flavours.
I swapped the butter in the egg milk for creamed coconut to give it a hint of coconut and in half of it I added cocoa and it was lovely.
On paper cocoa contains a bit more carbs that I would've wished for (a bit over 13 grams/100 grams) but in this case that's nothing to worry about as you use so little of it.
I used the Black and Green's organic cocoa and it was great as it's so strong you only use a tiny bit of it.
The other half of the batch I left as it was with only the coconut flavour. I must say I prefer the chocolate one but that is because I like it when I can feel distinct flavours. The coconut flavoured one was nice, just a bit too little flavour but there is coconut flavouring to buy although I haven't tried it.

The only negative thing I found about this version of the drink was that when I tried reheating it on the stove this morning the coconut ended up as little flakes. But as the drink itself isn't as thick as the cinnamon one it is easier (and very nice) to drink cold.