Back to the Basics

We recently purchased a book called "The Real Meal Revolution" by Tim Noakes to try and inspire us and give us some more drive going into the next year. This book gave us some new information and thoughts on our diet and introduced us to the Banting Diet. This name isn't something we'd heard of before but is the diet we have been following, Low Carb High Fat. The book is great for giving background information and breaking it down into a really clear set up, so I'd highly recommend it, but what we've gained from it most is the straightforward recipes. We went through the book and created quite a list of new recipes we'd like to try. We'll write blog posts about our progress through these. 

The Banting diet is quite a big thing in South Africa and proving to be quite popular with those that try it. I'm sure Gary can write more about the science in the book but I focus on the food. 

When I described our changes to my dad he suggested getting an old war book because we are going back to the roots of food and saving everything. We will make our own stock from our saved chicken bones. Make mayonaise from scratch and also our own yoghurt. By making everything from scratch we are ensuring we are aware of everything that is in our food and keeping all carbs to a minimum. 

So far we used the turkey stock by boiling the leg bones with some onions, carrots, parsnips and swede. We boiled this for several hours and then strained off the liquid discarding the rest. We intend to do the same with some chicken bones we have been collecting. 

To make the mayo I put 2 eggs yolks with a tea spoon of lemon juice into a mixer. To this I added 3/4 cup melted coconut oil and the same of oil olive. This needs to be added very slowly while the mixer is on full speed. You need to ensure this combines gently and the mayo will thicken. Add 1 tbsp of yoghurt to this mixture once completed. The yoghurt will prevent the mayo from thickening in the fridge and slightly weaken the taste of the coconut oil, which can be quite strong. You can also add any flavourings in to give some variety.