Induction menus- day 2

Hello!

Right it's day two and I woke up feeling slightly uninspired and desperately fancying carbs but have managed to push through and prepared myself firstly quite a filling breakfast of three scrambled eggs scrambled in butter and cream with a little grated mature cheddar, three veggie sausages and some chopped tomatoes. 

after that I had an Atkins bar as a snack then in the evening a salad of asparagus, half an avocado, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and pesto. This was so nice, I ended up having two portions! 

Following that I also had a veggie jelly and cream and then an early night as I was starting to get hungry again! 

Induction menus-day 1!

Well after having fallen off the wagon over the last month or so, I decided to restart the induction phase of Atkins, which you will know is the strictest part that comes right at the start of the diet. Typically in this phase you are allowed a maximum of 20g of carbs per day but as a vegetarian it is almost impossible to stick to this as there are carbs in most of the veggie friendly things (cheese, veg etc), but the carbs are low in these items and I never have problems getting into ketosis as long as I follow it strictly and keep away from all foods with higher carb counts. 

I started in on a Saturday which might seem a funny day to start as people usually seem to start diets on a Monday, but the idea was it would be better to start while I was at home over the weekend as I would have more opportunity to cook and would have more time to prepare food while I got into ketosis again as one of the hardest things for me is, particularly as a vegetarian, is finding food to eat while out and about if I haven't got anything with me ready. 

Well I started the day off with a big breakfast as below:

This consisted of veggie sausages, three fried eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms. As it was such a big serving and I had it quite late on I managed to only have some cubes of cheese and a chocolate decadence Atkins bar for lunch. 

My evening meal was also small, (though maybe bigger than it looks in the picture!):

This was a spinach and basil salad with cucumber, rocket, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, a few pine nuts and a chopped up sundried tomato. 

I did get hungry about an hour later so also had a sugar free vegetarian jelly with cream- lovely!

I plan to blog every day this week to keep me on track as I thought this would ensure that I actually stick to it as there's a bit more pressure this way!

Wish me luck...

Greens and tomato pesto mix

Hi, 

Not quite sure what to call this recipe, and I am definately not happy with what I have currently called it! It's really something I tried to use up some ingredients in the fridge and because I felt like I wanted a side dish to go with my aubergine pizzas (a staple meal now!). It's basically a mixture of spinach, kale, two types of basil, tomatoes, pesto, sundried tomatoes, and cheese. It is so so easy to make and is very filling and very nice! 

NOTE: You will need to use a lot of the greens as they really do boil down to nothing once you cook them!  

Well, here's how I did it...

1. Heat some oil in a pan- I like to use flavoured oils, for example basil or garlic oil, but any will do. You will need quite a bit of oil as the kale does absorb it quite a lot and using a lot of oil helps the kale go lovely and crispy!
2. Take a good few large handfuls of kale, you might want to tear them up a bit in your hands first so the pieces aren't too big, but that's really up to you (I usually do). Here is the amount of kale and spinach I used, and it really did reduce down to about 1/4-1/2 of a pan full after a few minutes 
   
3. Let it fry away for about 5-6 minutes during which time it will really reduce down to about a quarter of it's size. 
4. Once it has reduced a lot, add a good few large handfuls of spinach, again you might want to tear it up a little bit first
5. Let the spinach reduce and wilt in the pan for another 5 minutes by which time you might start running out of oil in the pan
6. Add about 5 big tomatoes, chopped into small pieces to the pan, these will add lots of water, and therefore will eliminate the need for more oil. I use different types of tomatoes where possible as I think they look so much nice and are much tastier! Leave to cook together for about 5 more minutes 
   
7. Add about two chopped sundried tomatoes and a tablespoon of pesto, stir well and turn the heat off. 
   
8. Turn out onto a plate and add some cheese- grated cheddar goes well as does feta or goats cheese. 
9. Enjoy!

I made this as a side dish, but you could also eat it with some fried quorn pieces, or use it to stuff other vegetables like aubergine or spoon it over large portabello mushrooms, I have also tried freezing it, and it freezes really well too!