Fried liver and bacon

Liver and other organ meats are a great source of vitamin D. These recommendations from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland specifically list organ meats as one of the key dietary sources. The importance of getting enough vitamin D3 cannot be overemphasised. To get the technical details of this watch this seminar presented by my friend Ivor Cummins - the Fat Emperor.

I live in Ireland - known for its cloudy skies. Most Irish people don't get enough exposure to the sun to make sufficient vitamin D3. So we need to supplement and eat foods which are rich in vitamin D3. Remember to get as much exposure to sunlight without burning as you can. This may well be the best source of D3 you can get.

This is a delicious and simple way to get some D3 into your diet from natural sources. It is all low carb and is very inexpensive to make.

Fried Liver and Bacon

2 Slices of lambs liver

1 onion, chopped roughly
A handful of mushrooms, chopped roughly
2 Rashers of unsmoked back bacon, cut into strips
Lard for frying
A splash of cream if you have it

Heat the lard on a large frying pan. Cook the onions and mushrooms until soft and slightly browned. Then slice the bacon into strips and cook this in the same pan with the mushrooms and onions pushed to the side. Switch off the heat, mix in some cream and serve immediately.

Real BBQ in Dublin City - Pit Bros

The low carb options just keep getting wider. Maybe we will finally make the mainstream? Well maybe not quite yet.

Anyway, eating out low carb is a bit like being a non smoker when some pubs in Dublin first started to experiment with idea. You wanted to visit those pubs, but could you convince your smoker friends?

Carbs are the new fags and some people don't think they have eaten lunch unless there is a heap of grass to go with it.

Pit Bros on Dublin's Georges Street will keep your addicted friends happy. They serve delicious BBQ meat - pork, beef, sausage and chicken. And if you like it can come with a bun or a heap of chips.

I had bbq pulled pork with slaw and sweet corn. I know, I know. Sweet corn is, well sweet, but It is not the worst sin you can commit and the low carb sides were limited. The slaw was fridge cold, but I can't really blame them for trying to not poison me. It was also not slathered in too much dressing and did not taste sweet. Very good.
The pork was smoky and juicy and not covered in sauce. They seem to use rubs here rather than drowning the food in brown goo. Don't get me wrong I used to love that brown goo, but that was the old me :)

Well worth a visit and pretty inexpensive for what you get. The decor is a bit too rough and ready on purpose and the seats were designed for someone with more bum padding than me, but these are just quibbles. And oh yeah, this is a very big portion of food. Way too much for my lunch, but work was paying and I don't leave food behind.

More low carb delicousness in Dublin then. This is getting easier.

Great Omelette on Dublin's Northside - Lemon Jelly

Lemon Jelly has been in Dublin for a long time, but on Millennium Walkway it was getting a bit tired. It got a make over recently and I decided to see if they had anything low carb on the menu.

The interior looks great and is lovely and bright. They are big on crepes, bagels, paninis and the like. Big no nos on a low carb diet. But they have great omelettes. There are a few to choose from and they come with a side salad. Just ask for the salad with no dressing and you are good to go. Good coffee rounds out a decent low carb lunch.

I normally have eggs for breakfast and 2 omelettes a day is pushing it even for me, but if that is the only fault I can find, they have done a good job on the low carb front.

Bunsen - Great Burger Place in Dublin

Finding low carb food when you are eating out can be a nightmare. More and more menus however are including low carb or paleo options. One such is Bunsen on Dublin's Essex Street, Temple Bar.

I was there last Saturday afternoon for lunch with my son. We always go to the same burger place, but decided to give this a go as it had just opened. I had a double burger without the bun. Usually this means what it sounds like. In Bunsen though, it comes wrapped in iceberg lettuce. This means I was able to eat it like a real burger without a knife and fork.

The flavour was fabulous. The burger did not come with any ketchup, but it was on the table if you needed it.

The menu is tiny, but what more do you need - great burgers no rubbish. I am not saying it is a good idea to eat burgers for lunch every day, but for a low carb treat, this place is great.

Tuna and egg salad

This is very simple to make, but satisfying enough for dinner for 2. It is a variant on a Nicoise salad, but does not have any potatoes in it.

Ingredients

For the salad

4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 Tin of tuna in oil, drained
Half a jar of black olives, pitted
Lots of rocket, enough to make a thick layer in the bowls before you put the other ingredients in
4 tomatoes, sliced

Optional ingredients for the salad: 

Capers, green olives, anchovies, toasted pine nuts

For the dressing

Olive or cold pressed rapeseed oil
Balsamic vinegar, good stuff is better as its flavour dominates this dressing. You don't need much
1 tsp english mustard
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Get a jar with a screw top lid on it. A clean jam jar is fine, but a screw top plastic food storage container is better. Pour in about 1 cm deep of oil. Add the mustard and salt and pepper. Pour in some balsamic vinegar. Less than half the quantity of oil should do the trick. Close the lid and give it a good hard shake.
Line the serving bowls with rocket. Arrange the other ingredients on top. Drizzle the dressing over.

Low Carb Hospitality

I attended an event at Google in Dublin a couple of days ago. The catering was very impressive, but as you can see from the picture, not very low carb. This was afternoon tea for those feeling peckish after lunch. There was something similar in the morning and lots of options for lunch - low and high carb.

The point here is that it can be very difficult to stick to a low carb diet (or indeed any diet) when someone else is feeding you. To be fair to Google, they asked me twice by email if I had special dietary needs and I thought, 'I'll be fine'. I presumed they were asking if I was a vegetarian. Maybe I should have told them I was gluten intolerant. Might have gotten me somewhere.

If lunch had not had as many options as Google customarily offers I would have been in trouble. Even a visit to the local Spar is unlikely to produce much low carb joy.

So the message is to bring your own lunch if you don't think you will be able to eat what they give you. Thanks to the reduced appetite that comes with a low carb diet the sugary treat tables did not bother me. And they had very nice coffee to give me something to do during the breaks.

Green lentils with smoked coley and cabbage

This is a good filling main meal. It requires some chopping to get it started, but cooks away on its own without requiring any of your attention.
This serves 2 adults and takes about 50 minutes in total.

Ingredients

200g Green lentils - I got mine in Dunnes Stores
1 litre of vegetable stock - Marigold is good, but any that is not full of rubbish will do
3 Carrots, finely chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
3 Sticks of celery, finely chopped
1 Tbsp of Olive oil
2 smoked back rashers, chopped
4 bay leaves
200g approx of smoked Coley
About 5 leaves of green cabbage, stalk trimmed out and discarded

Instructions

Heat the oil in a thick bottom pot. Add the bacon and vegetables and cook for about 20 minutes on medium. Stir occasionally to stop it sticking. Add the lentils, stock and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and cook covered for about 25 minutes until the lentils are almost done. Cut the cabbage into strips and cut these cross ways - this just makes it easier to eat without scalding your chin. Add the cabbage and fish to the pot and push them down beneath the surface of the liquid. Cover again for about 10 minutes. Ladle into bowls and serve with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top.

Mid Week Lunch

After porridge for breakfast I don't need to eat anything else until lunchtime. The feeling of hunger on a low carb diet is not nearly as intense as when you are eating carbs.

For mid week lunch I choose from only a few options.

• A tin of mackerel in oil 
• 3 eggs scrambled with butter
• Cheese and olives

I will also usually have something like a raw carrot or an apple along with one of the above. Then a cup of tea. None of these sounds like very much, but they are more than enough for me. Coupled with the healthy breakfast I find that I am not too hungry up as far as dinner.

Meatballs in a Provençal Sauce

Another variation on the provençal recipe. The quantities here are for 2 people.

Ingredients

For the meatballs

500g of minced beef
Handful of fresh sage and marjoram, chopped finely
Salt and pepper
Rapeseed oil for frying

The sauce

3 Carrots, finely chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
Handful of pitted black olives, cut in half
2 tbsp of capers
A small tin of anchovies in oil
2 Tins of tomatoes
4 bay leaves, dried are fine
Black pepper
Butter, about the size of 2 walnuts
1 tbsp of olive oil for cooking
A handful of french beans cut into bite sized pieces

Method

Place the mince in a bowl and add the herbs and salt and pepper. Mix it well with your hands. Add the oil to a pan and get it nice and hot. Remove a golf ball sized piece of mince and shape it into a ball. Drop it into the pan. Do this for the whole lot. Keeping the heat quite high, keep the balls turning to that they don't burn. Do this until they are firm when squeezed. This means they are cooked through. Next for the sauce

Heat the oil and butter in a thick based pot over a high heat. Once the butter is bubbling add the onions, carrots and garlic. Give everything a good mix to coat in oil and butter and put the lid on. Lower the heat right down. Give this about 40 minutes stirring occasionally to allow the vegetables to soften. Then add the olives, anchovies in their oil and capers and cook for another 10 minutes or so. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the meat balls. Give everything a good stir and put the lid back on. Once the carrots are soft add the cooked meat balls. Cover them with the sauce and continue to cook with the lid on for about 10 minutes. Ladle into bowls to serve.

What's for Breakfast?

There are some brutal possibilities for low carb breakfasts. Sardines or a half a block of brie anyone? Not for me. There are only so many eggs that I can eat and to be honest cooking rashers and eggs first thing on a work day is not on.

So I stick with porridge. Well it's not really low carb is it? Not that low, but I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. There are some details here about the different types of porridge and their carb content along with some of the good things that porridge gives you. Stuff like soluble fibre. Also if you eat a big enough portion you can get away with not having anything else till lunchtime. The instant oatmeal mentioned is the equivalent of something like Ready Brek. A nice memory from childhood, but too processed to fit into a low carb diet.


I eat rolled oats - just normal porridge. I buy Jumbo Organic Oats in Aldi. I cook them with semi skimmed milk in the microwave and then add more milk to cool them down a bit. I don't add any sweetener - sugar or honey and I make sure I eat plenty of them. A half of a large cup of dry oatmeal and twice that of milk. If you are microwaving, make sure you use a very large bowl as it will boil over very easily. About 4 minutes does it.

It is a delicious start to the day - followed of course by a cup of tea. I thought I would get bored of this, but have been enjoying it for over 6 months now. I am converted.

Hot Smoked Mackerel Pate

This is really simple and only has a few ingredients. These packets of hot smoked mackerel are very versatile. It's not really a pate as the fish is just mashed with a fork. You can blend it for a smoother paste if you prefer, but it is not necessary. Delicious as part of a weekend lunch.

Ingredients

1 Packet of Hot Smoked Mackerel - Aldi
1 tbsp of horseradish sauce
1 tbsp of crème fraiche

Instructions

Peel the skin from the mackerel and remove any small bones. Flake it into a bowl. Add the horseradish sauce and crème fraiche and mix the whole lot thoroughly.

Serve with some tomatoes on a bed of rocket.

A Big List of Low Carb Recipes

There are lots of low carb recipes available on the web (and in books), but I think it is useful to get an overview of a bunch of them so that you can see common themes and make up your own. This list is useful in conjunction with yesterday's shopping list. Knowing how fill and empty your presses is crucial. 

Some of these are more filling than others. When I am still hungry after dinner I just fill up on healthy snacks. That's not ideal though. Your main meal of the day should leave you feeling satisfied. To that end I will adjust these recipes with experience to make sure they are filling enough for 2 adults. 

Some of these are not very low carb, but I have noted where that is the case. Not too much of those. I will post fuller instructions for some of the items in the list, but for a lot of them they are just a single item (how do you make 'Tin of Sardines'?) or they are very obvious and you can use your imagination.

Breakfast

• Porridge - every day. No sugar now. Just milk.

Lunch

• (I usually have a raw carrot or 2 with my lunch. Any opportunity to get some veg in is good)
• Tin of mackerel - my most common mid week lunch
• Smoked Mackerel - vacuum packed stuff from Aldi is very good. About half a packet is enough for 1 person.
• Tin of Sardines - in oil, which should be drained
• 3 scrambled eggs with a large knob of butter, salt and pepper. Don't have this too often as eggs can be difficult to digest. 
• Cold meats - no too many of these as they have lots of preservatives
• Hummus and thinly sliced carrot - only a snack really and not that low in carbs. So have a small amount of this with something else for lunch.

Weekend lunches

• Butternut squash and nut butter soup. This is from River Cottage. You can find it here, but the book is well worth buying. They have a great collection of recipes that fit or can be made to fit a low carb diet.
• Red lentil, red pepper and coconut soup. A nice recipe from Catherine Fulvio. You can find it here.
• Bean salad - tin of mixed beans from aldi, dressing made of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, English mustard and salt and pepper. Serve with lots of rocket and tomatoes.

Dinner

Beef

• Beef stew without parsnips or potatoes
• Braised Beef curry with coconut
• Meatballs Provençal
• Goulash
• Ricotta beef burgers - from Nigel Slater's eat

Chicken

• Roast chicken with vegetables
• Chicken, Chorizo and butter bean casserole
• Roasted chicken portions rubbed in jerk seasoning. I just use some stuff I bought, but you can make your own if you like.

Vegetable

• Veg curry
• Chickpea chard and porcini soup - River Cottage Veg
• Hearty Green lentil stew - Gillian McKeith
• Mediterranean black eye pea casserole - Gillian McKeith
• Red lentil casserole - Domini Kemp
• Dhal - River cottage veg

Lamb

Slow cooked lamb shoulder with white wine black olives and anchovies. Theo Randall on Saturday Kitchen. 

Fish

• Provençal style Salmon with (optional) chard
• Fish stew
• Roasted salmon with vegetables

Others

• Mushroom omelette with smoked mackerel
• Butternut squash and sweetcorn soup with smoked mackerel

Snacks

• Nuts
• Olives
• Cheese
• Carrots
• Hummus - there's that carb alarm again. Use in moderation.

A Low Carb Shopping List

One of the things you notice when you first try to do a low carb shop is how much of the supermarket is no use to you. It makes shopping a whole lot quicker. But what do you buy? I have built the list below up over the last 6 months of low carb eating. I will add more items to it as I think of them. I normally pull this up on my phone before I leave the shop to make sure I have everything I need.

I get all of this in Aldi and my local butchers.

Meat

Stewing beef - very good in normal beef stew without potatoes and also this
Minced beef
Minced lamb
Minced pork
Steak - sirloin or striploin
Whole chicken - free range. This is a lot cheaper than buying portions and you can use the whole lot. There is a nice video here courtesy of Tesco which explains how to portion the chicken.
Venison Steaks - frozen
Lamb Chops
Lamb chunks, for stewing
Shoulder of lamb, bone out - from butchers
Rashers, dont over do these. They have a lot of chemicals in them

Dairy

Butter
Eggs
Milk - full fat is best, but this depends on what you will be using in it. No tea with whole milk for me
Cheese - Parmesan, Cheddar, Maasdam (like edam) and Brie de meaux
Full fat natural yoghurt - unsweetened
Creme fraiche

Vegetables

All kinds except starchy ones like spuds and sweet potatoes:
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Garlic

Sugar snap peas

Mange tout
Baby corn
Fine beans

Tomatoes

Peppers - all colours

Broccoli - stalks can be used too. Just pare off any tough outer bits
Turnip - the yellow ones. The white ones are harder to find in Ireland and a bit pointless
Cabbage
Frozen corn
Frozen peas

Fish

Fresh for freezing

Salmon - works well in this

Smoked coley
Mackerel
Smoked haddock
Hake for weekends - bit pricey for mid week
Kippers

Stuff in tins

Tomatoes - lots
Fish (Mackerel, Salmon, Sardines and Anchovies)
Chickpeas - not too many of these. This is a good snack
Mixed beans

Everything else

Olives - green and black
Capers
Tomato paste
Olive oil - cold pressed
Rapeseed oil - cold pressed
Nuts (Sliced almonds, pistachios, whole almonds unblanched, pecans. Cashews are quite high in carbs, so not too many of these)
Seeds (Sunflower, pumpkin, sesame)
Spices as required
Salt and pepper

Things to leave out

People tend to focus on this section when they are talking about starting a low carb/no sugar diet. I think this can just make it sound scary and if this stuff is very bad for you, giving it up should not be that big a deal. The worst thing to eat on this diet is sugar. It is absorbed very fast and spikes your insulin. The best thing is something with very low carbs - something like meat for example. But you can't live on meat on its own and you need a wide variety of foods anyway to make sure you are getting the right micronutrients.  How far you choose to deviate from perfect along this continuum by for example having a small amount of potato with your dinner is up to you. The less carbohydrate the better though is always the guideline.

Bread - including wholemeal
Normal breakfast cereals - I make an exception for unsweetened porridge
Flour
Potatoes
Rice
Pasta - including wholemeal
Sugar, biscuits, cakes and sweets - This is obvious though
Alcohol - I must admit I have not cut this out, but am always trying to keep my consumption at reasonable levels. The less the better with this.

Why Low Carb Ireland?

About a year ago a friend of my wife was having health problems. Overweight, high blood pressure and the like. Not a happy person. He went to his doctor who was not very helpful - eat less fat and exercise more. But he had taken this advice before and just ended up see sawing between unhealthy and healthy weight. So the patient decided to research the problem himself. He was recommended to go to a doctor who could help. He got some blood tests which indicated that he was not well at all and needed to make some radical changes to his diet. So this is where the low carbohydrate diet comes in. It worked and the patient is now an extremely healthy advocate of all things low carb.

My Experience

I weighed about 12 stone. I wanted to be about 11 stone. I am five feet nine inches tall so 12 was way too heavy. I had tried over a number of years to lose the weight. I had gotten to 11 and a half and then slid back up. 11 was looking impossible.

I did reasonable amounts of exercise and didn't eat a lot of junk, so something was wrong. The last time I had been at my ideal weight was when I was training for a marathon - over 10 years ago. I didn't have the time to do that sort of exercise at this stage of my life. And my knees would just say no anyway.

When I heard about the success that our friend had with low carb I decided to give it a try. We did some research online, read blogs, watched videos and the like over a period of a few weeks before we started. Needed to convince myself that we would know what to eat and would have shopped appropriately before jumping in. We didn't want to have to abandon the experiment because all we had in the press was potatoes.

Once we got started my weight dropped quite rapidly. I went from 12 to 11 and a half in a couple of weeks and hit my target of 11 stone in about 6 weeks. Then the weight loss slowed. Christmas intervened at that point and being Irish this is an extended holiday indeed. Carbs were consumed and the weight went back up. After Christmas I reverted to the low carb regime and got back to a healthy weight very quickly.

So I was starving myself right? Well no. Starving yourself will work if you are a toughy, and have will power in endless supply, but we all run out of will power eventually. Low carb helps control your appetite. More on that in the coming weeks.

What type of posts can you expect to see?

There are lots of reasons why this diet works and a bunch of solid research, both done and ongoing. I am going to give details of some of the science, links to videos that are worth watching, book reviews and links to other web sites and blogs about low carb living.

I am a keen cook. So one of the questions I had was what will I eat? An important concern. So I will write about some of the recipes and give shopping tips. You will be surprised by how much of the supermarket you just get to skip. Liberating once you get used to the idea that you won't be hungry.

I will also post information about exercise. There are a vast range of benefits to exercise. Realistically weight loss is not one of them, but the other reasons matter. More about why exercise is ineffective for weight loss in a post in the next few days.

In this blog over the coming weeks  I hope to be able to convince you that this is a worthwhile lifestyle choice. Comments are welcome.

Anthony