Overload, one upon a time, I used to be vegetarian, and when I tried vegetarian LC, I tried to rely on the dairy for protein instead of tofu or quorn, as I didn't thin those were healthy and processed, in fact I can't find any organic tofu any more, Cauldren brand used to be organic, but they changed that now.

Anyway, relying on the cheese would have explained my stall, dairy in small amounts are OK with me, but if i start relying on it, then my weight just stalls if not increase.

Diet drinks didn't bother me at the start of my journey years ago, but the smaller you get the more you realise that certain stuff is holding you back, in any case my decision to quit these drinks was more for health reason that weight ones.

Not sure if anyone's posted this before, but for curries I use Pataks paste, my favourite is rogan josh. Available from many UK supermarkets.

recipe - soften onions, add diced meat and quarter jar of paste, stir fry meat and paste for 5 mins to seal the meat and heat the spices, add two tins of chopped tomatoes stir and cook on very low heat for at least 90 mins, but cooking it longer just makes it taste better! Goes great over cauliflower 'rice', serves two very greedy people or four with normal appetite.

Not sure about carbs they are 9.1g per 100 but the fibre is 10.3g per hundred, I know atkins subtract the fibre so does that make it 0??

Lee

Lee, in the UK the fibre is already subtracted, so the 9.1g of carbs you are getting is the total carbs after subtracting fibre, I would think this means you are getting around 35 or 40g of carbs per jar.

Two tins of tomatoes also contain a lot of sugar, I didn’t find anything containing less thatn 4 or 5 g per 100g weight, so if you add the carbs in the cauliflower to the carbs in the sauce it means you are ingesting at least 40 g in that meal (depending on your portion size). But that's only if people are extra careful about their carbs and want to keep them under 30 or 40 g per day, if you are doing a moderate LC, then that should be fine.

If you want the truth from my 8 years LC experience, I learnt better not to buy anything in a tin, jar or packet, just buy the real things and make it yourself. But I had to learn this lesson gradually.

Tigerlily1, thanks for that, I did not know that fibre is already subtracted from carbs in the uk - still new to LCing, I am on a more moderate plan, but can't find it within myself to skin tomatoes - also I may have to look at the recipe to reduce the carbs, as 40g is too much for one meal for me. - Lee

Just did some calcs of carbs for patak paste curry
meat 0g
Paste 8g
onions 5g
tomatoes 6g
Total 19g divided by four meals = 4.75g

Plus whatever you want to eat it with, 100g boiled cauli 2.1g

Total for curry 6.96g carbs

Lee

The carbs in your tins of tomatoes are per 100gms - so 2 tins at 400gms a tin will amount to approximately 8 x 4.5 or 36 carbs for the tomatoes alone. The paste is also calculated at 9 carbs per 100 gms and a full jar is about 290gms (?) in weight, making the paste alone about 15 carbs. Unless you use very little onion, it's likely to be 15 carbs worth, which to my mind is the best carb deal of the lot in that curry recipe. I can't imagine a good curry without onions.
Also, you would hardly see 100gms cauliflower - a decent portion to go along with a curry will be 3 times that - or maybe that's just me A good scale will help to see exactly where your carbs are and to eliminate or cut back on the things with the highest per weight of ingredients used.

I think the recipe uses 1/4 jar of paste, which will make the carbs much less.

Sorry guys, I haven't made this for a while (not since starting LC) no tomatoes in the house so misread the carbs from my collins gem book.

meat 0
onions 5
paste 8
tomatoes 24
total 37g divided by four = 9.25g

The onions are for 60g - I only use 50g. The tomatoes I use are sainsburys, chopped, in a carton (380g total I think) 3g carbs per 100. The paste is for quarter jar - that is all you have to use, the paste mixes with the tomatoes to make the sauce. Also you can make it with one tin chopped tomatoes, which lowers the carbs to 6.25g. When I've had this with cauliflower in the past, I've put a few florets of cauliflower in the curry, tastes nice. as you say, you might want more if you're making cauliflower 'rice'.

This might not suit everyone, it was just a suggestion, makes the best homemade curry I've had, and is allowable in my carb intake of less the 50g.

I take your point though, I may well have been guestimating carbs with other things I eat, so should probably review.

Lee

Thanks leemack - a quick & tasty sounding recipe there. Glad to hear those tomatos are that low in carbs as that's one of the things I miss as an ingredient. I'll swap the meat for tofu and mushroom and give that a try myself. Might add a bit of naga too as Pattak's doesn't have much heat.
In case anyone else likes their spicy food you may want to know that now is the time of year that Tescos stock fresh Dorset Naga chillies. You only need one to add plenty of kick to a meal and give your metabolism a minor boost too.

Does anyone know whether any supermarkets sell coconut oil, I'm having difficulty finding some?

thanks

Lee

I buy mine from our local indian food shop.

I get a 500g jar for about £2, much cheaper than at a health food shop as they use it as an ordinary cooking oil, not a 'super food'!!!

BTW it doesn't look like oil at all but is solid, white & waxy-looking at room temp except for in high summer when it liquifies if in a hot place.

Thanks, I think there's an indian food shop near me, I'll go have a look tomorrow.

Lee

Hey guys,

Have just trawled this thread as I'm getting back on the serious LC wagon. It's such a shame that a lot of these products seem to no longer exist!

Eons ago someone asked about corned beef with no filler - well I found some. It's called Tahina and is a halal product I found it in our big Tesco in Tottenham.

0.5g of carb per 100g - all it is is beef, ox cheek, salt and preservative. On offer at the moment so I have stocked up. I like to eat it out of the tin sometimes or cut it into slices and fry it (reminds me of the fritters we had at school!) It's not bad actually although the texture is a bit different to the usual stuff.

Anyone got any up-to-date products worth sniffing out? I find M&S seems to be the best for more natural foods (naturally lo-carb as not tons of filler or freaky-sounding rhydrogenated, rehydrated, hydrologysed, inverted whatsits), though I can't always afford M&S really.

Cheers, K

On the subject of coconut oil, I've always assumed it's the same as coconut cream but I've just checked and it's not quite the same. I think you could use it though. It is available from Tesco stores, especially ones in cosmopolitan areas, in the indian section - where they have the spices and pulses in large bags. It's much cheaper than the stuff in 'cook-in sauces etc' section. It contains less than 1.8g carbs per 100g.

I add this with abandon to my curries, along with Greek yoghurt. I love the flavour of coconut. My favourite Pataks paste is the Vindaloo one but I only add about a tablespoon and then add the coconut cream and yoghurt as well as the tomatoes and half an onion.

Suz

It would be good to get a updated list of all places and good food finds. This one is a little old