O dear, no beetroot – how cruel can a diet be?? I really don’t mind the no potato, no rice, no bread rule, but no beetroot??
I have to admit the Tim Noakes book looks like a Bible – and no doubt, in some cases are revered on the same level as a Bible. Some of my clients have reported huge weight losses on this diet, and I am green with envy. But as per most diets over the years, it is so difficult to actually fine-tune the brain to accept that I MAY NOT eat this, or that, and that the restriction in itself makes for me to not even start. HOWEVER, this diet is really not a restrictive diet as to how much you may eat – no weighing, no portions (other than fruit per day), and thus it should be easy. But this pea-brain of mine, that knows all too well that I am Slightly Overweight (O K, my view at times – sometimes it is seriously overweight!), just cannot kick itself into gear to start, and I have found every excuse under the sun not to start – best excuse being that the sweet temptations in the house needs to be eaten up first, and then I can start. The “Bible diet book” actually tells you to literally TOSS the offending food items, but hey, how will I ever be able to toss a Yorkie Bar?? And then there is the tiny problem of loving drinking yoghurt, but in South Africa (not sure about the rest of the world), you simply do not find them without sugar added.
I made a huge fish pie for lunch, and even my daughter Belinda, who is an excellent cook, will be proud of my effort. The last of the Weskus fish my husband smuggled to the farm in our deep fridge when he moved some stuff up to the farm again, were dutifully taken out this morning, but when I saw the air temperature in the house is not going to thaw them in time for lunch, I hung them in the plastic packets on the tree outside, which worked charmingly. Then of course, I realized that I would need to scale them. Well, as I am dressed rather smartly today, there was no way in hell I was going to scale some fish and risk me being covered in either scales or water splashes that would result in me smelling like a fish-monger. So, trusted Google helped again, and volia! – I got to Martha Steward’s blog on grilling fish with scales and all, with the promise of simply being able to peel the scaly skin off afterwards. Let me tell you, it worked like a bomb – I was literally able to spoon out the stunning white fish from the hard outer layers, flake it, make sure there were no bones at all in it, and proceed with my pie. The bones and surrounding meats were cooked up for more broth – yes, the “Bible” tells us to cook leftovers for broth!!.
I love the fact that I can use so much butter, so I fried a huge onion and lotsa mushrooms in a dollop of butter, added spice, and mixed it into the flaked fish. This was topped off with an egg and milk mix, just like we use for the traditional South African Bobotie dish, and the piece-de-resistance: sprinkled cheddar cheese that I grilled to perfection after cooking the pie till firm. So, my first real banting dish made from scratch, and it was delicious.
Now, to get into the eggs, bacon and the fat, o yes, the fat – me, who have never eaten chicken skins, nor the fat on any meat, not even a well barbequed braai chop, must now get used to eating the whole caboodle – fat and all. Ah well, who would have thought that fat erases fat? Or so we are now led to believe, and as they say, the proof is in the pudding – in this case, the number of testimonials about this wonder diet.
So tomorrow, it is off to the shop I go to buy the “right” nuts, the “right” oils, fresh cabbage and then some more, and then to start this new cult in full force! Send me your stories too please, I want to know if you have had any success.
suletta 