Hello My Followers,
Well....what a week I have had..... not to mention the weekend! I had planned so much for this weekend - was all fired up and sooooooo full of energy. But Murphy's Law kicked in well and truly. I was on call for my job over the whole weekend .... and you guessed it - I got called in. Never mind. I still accomplished much although could have done with the lost hours.
But before I get too carried away, Ralphy and I had our weekly weigh-in Saturday morning and.................. Yes!!!!! We are on the losing wagon again!!!! Yeh!!!! Ralphy lost .8kg and I lost .6kg. How good are we!!!! I can honestly say that you do not want to be around here when we have a weight loss. In fact we are grateful there are no dwellers below our unit as the yelling, jumping, and stomping is rather embarrassing. We probably lose another 100grams just with that little celebration in itself. But it is such a wonderful feeling. I almost (and I stress the word almost) kiss the bathroom scales when it is so 'nice' to us. We have never actually put weight on so far since starting this little journey....so I cannot say what our reaction would be to this otherwise. But don't be surprised to hear of a UFO sighting over Australia as our bathroom scales take a 'fly' if this were to happen. Let's hope we are never tested.
Before my call-out on Saturday, I had time to unwrap my cheese ball and admire it from every angle . Oh it looked so beautiful....and later tasted even better on toasted sour dough bread with freshly ground salt and pepper and a side serving of some olives, and fresh tomato wedges. The cheese ball has to be the easiest recipe EVER - there really is only one ingredient to buy if you have a pot or two of herbs growing. And that is a container of whole milk greek yoghurt. So let's get into the method as there has to be something to do surely!!!!
Soft Herbed Cheese Ball
Ingredients
- 1kg greek yogurt (you can use as much as you want really)
- handful of freshly chopped up herbs - parsley, garlic chives, basil - you select the herbs and the quantity
Method
- Mix the herbs into the yoghurt.
- Place a sieve or strainer over a bowl so that the bottom of the strainer is well off the bottom of the bowl.
- Line the sieve or strainer with a piece of muslin (I use a very fine cotton mans handkerchief I purchased for this purpose ages ago)
- Place the yoghurt into the cloth and bring all the corners of the cloth together above the yoghurt. Then twist the cloth around tightly, squeezing the formed ball firmly, and secure around the top with a piece of tape or string to stop it unraveling.
- Place a weight on top of the yoghurt ball and pop into the refrigerator for 24 hours. It is a good idea to check after an hour or so to see if the strainer or sieve is still out of the fluid that has drained away into the bowl. This is actually whey and is great to keep for making scones and the like. You can pour off the whey if it is getting close to the strainer, as you do not want the strainer sitting in the whey at any stage.
- After 24 hours, unwrap your little parcel and voila - you now have a soft herb cheese ball, just like the one you can see in the blue dish above.
Now...how simple is that recipe. And remember, that really you can add anything to the yogurt to flavour it...even diced cooked bacon, toasted roughly chopped macadamia or pistachio nuts or....... so go on. Have some fun and let me know what you have tried...I love new ideas.
But my big weekend didn't stop there. I also made us a little treat - a cake - to share with one of our neighbours who is now also doing the sugar-free diet. It is such a wonderful feeling to know we are helping others, as did our friends when they gave Ralphy that book for his birthday (see my first blog 'In the Beginning').
Anyway back to the cake. It is out of David Gillespie's ' The Sweet Poison Quit Plan' book recipe section and was a BIG hit with all who tried it. So I thought I would share it with you. Thank heavens I though to take a photo of it before placing it amongst the starving millions as it disappeared very quickly. It apparently keeps very well (for a dextrose-based cake) and doesn't need icing..... if it lasts that long. Good luck with this one!!! And also if you use shredded coconut instead of desiccated, it looks and tastes even more fancy.
Coconut Meringue Cake
Coconut Meringue Cake
Makes 1 Cake
Cake Base
90g butter
1/2 cup dextrose powder (from home brewing / drinks section in supermarket)
3 egg yolks
vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
Meringue Topping
3 egg whites
3/4 cup dextrose
1 cup desiccated coconut (or shredded coconut)
Prepare cake base
Preheat oven to 180º C (350º F). Grease and line an 18cm square cake tin. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and dextrose to a cream. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla essence and beat again briefly. Fold in one-third of the flour then half of the milk. Continue adding flour and milk alternately until complete and you have a soft mixture. Turn into prepared tin.
Prepare meringue topping
Beat egg whites until stiff, then add dextrose, a little at a time. Fold in coconut. Spoon egg-white mixture over the cake mix in the tin. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to stand for a few minutes before lifting cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
This is a very moreish cake, and takes a lot of discipline to stop at one piece....even if your appetite control button is flashing 'NOT HUNGRY'. So my suggestion is invite a lot of people over for afternoon tea when you make this treat and the temptation will be gone before you know it.
My other little adventure for the weekend has nothing to do with diets or cooking but art. I love to dabble in textural art in particular and so have been sawing up bits and pieces of balsa wood that I intend making a wall sculpture of. It has taken me the best part of the afternoon sanding away all the rough edges to try and make the pieces look 'battle fatigued' I think the term is. Anyway...won't say anymore but hopefully I will have enough time to complete it over the coming weeks and will then post a pic of it if it turns out the way I hope. So wish me luck.
And that my cherubs is your lot for today. Happy cooking and don't forget......
Sleep tight my sweets and don't let the bed-bugs bite........Noels
