DIARY OF AN INTERMITTENT FASTER

22nd February 2016
Bingeing - we've all done it!

You know the feeling you get when you've had a biscuit, or a piece of chocolate - your taste buds tell you, "That was nice, I'd like some more, please." Then before you know it, you're halfway down the packet of biscuits, or the bar of chocolate has gone!

As a vegan, I have a sure-fire way to halt a binge in its tracks - a teaspoon of 'nooch'.

That's nutritional yeast to the uninitiated - made by Marigold Engevita, it's £2.99 in my local HFS. (I use the version fortified with B12.)

It has many other uses, it's full of flavour and is low on calories - a heaped dessertspoon is only 17 cals. I use it on a bolognaise sauce instead of parmesan - I sprinkle it on pizzas instead of cheese. It's very versatile.

Back to bingeing on sweet stuff - if you've had one chocolate or the whole bar, one biscuit or half a packet, a teaspoon of nooch will reset your tastebuds instantly. 

I don't always, but I have in the past, taken one biscuit out of the packet, put the tub of nooch close to hand, had the biscuit, then straightaway had a teaspoon of nooch.

I'm posting about this today since this morning my daughter confirmed everything I've said about its binge-halting properties.

BTW, to halt a binge on savoury stuff, I've found half a square of dark chocolate does the trick - but I have no independent confirmation of this! 


9th January 2016

I've said elsewhere on these threads that fasting has made me pretty zen when it comes to food - and I proved it again today.

It was the monthly meeting of Taunton Humanists - 2nd Saturday in the month at 12.00 midday - in the Winchester Arms, Taunton. We hadn't been here for a while, and the pub was under new ownership.

I would have liked something to eat, but, despite having 5 choices of soup, none of them were vegan! They all had either cream, or, bizarrely, honey, in them. My goto meal in the average British pub is generally chips, mushrooms and beans, but the pub didn't have any of these! They had sweet potato chips, but I decided eating could wait until I got home.

For a late lunch I fried up a field mushroom and made an omelette from gram flour, spread with hummus and with the mushrooms. Simple, quick and absolutely gorgeous!

Dinner was homemade pizza (dough made with hot paprika) spread with Pateole mushroom spread and either pesto or hummus - plus sliced m/rooms, tomatoes, roasted red peppers and sun dried tomatoes. I had this with curried potato wedges.

While the oven was on I made a fruit loaf a la Swedish tea ring, but instead of spreading the rolled out dough with oil and sugar, I mixed some apple puree with leftover mincemeat and spread that over the dough. Rather than roll it round into a ring, I left it in a log shape, just tucking the ends in.

7th January 2016

I began IFing almost 4 years ago - after losing 24lbs in weight practicing 5:2 (eating normally for 5 days and fasting on the other 2).  I've now been maintaining my weight by using 6:1 - and on the day I fast I generally don't eat for 24 hours.

Today was a fast day (FD) - I ate last yesterday at 6pm and I've just had black coffee and water today. We're going out to dinner with some friends very shortly, so I won't eat until the starter arrives, which will be around 7.30 or so.

From the beginning I've considered myself very lucky in that I don't get hungry on these fasts - not at all. In fact I have in the past fasted for 48 hours and still didn't feel any pangs of hunger. Of course I drink a fair amount of water to keep myself hydrated.

I've had a great day - I always have so much energy generally, and even more so on FDs. I teach breadmaking, and this morning I had a Family Learning class with 11 families, in a lovely school in Bridgwater -Hamp Primary School.  12 children made pain au chocolat, mincemeat doughnuts and fancy dinner rolls. Then, this afternoon, I had a couple of students making de luxe Chelsea buns - de luxe in that, when the dough is rolled out, it was spread with mincemeat instead of oil and sugar, before being rolled up and cut into buns.

I then followed this session with a visit to my garage, then I did some food shopping for the weekend, returning home about 5pm.

After only 6 hours sleep last night, I was now knackered - and, since I wasn't going to be eating for another 2 hours or so - I did what any sensible person would do, and had a short nap.

To the pub about 6.30, and I ended my fast, and quenched my thirst with a pint of real ale - Barnsey, made in Bath.

Had a couple of pints+1/3rd of a bottle of Merlot with my risotto - which was OK.

On return home I treated myself to a couple of Crepe Suzette with a dash of Tia Maria.

I reported this on the latest Mumsnet 5:2 thread and received this advice:

Alcohol during / right after a fast removes health benefits

...which I wasn't aware of! :(

I'll know better next time.

FAMILY LEARNING AT HALCON PS

Chelle, one of the parents on my latest course, is a very keen student and makes many of the breads we make in the sessions at home with her children.

She's very kindly sent me some pics of her baking activities; here are some of them:

[More to come]

I've been running a Family Learning breadmaking class at this school in Taunton for over 13 years. The main thrust is family learning - parents and children learning together - the breadmaking is just a means to an end. However, the breadmaking is very serious - no child leaves Halcon without being able to make bread.

We began with year four children and their parents - but it didn't take long to realise that parents quickly became comfortable in the school surroundings - and not a few have gone on to take an active part in the school, listening to children read, etc. So the age was gradually dropped, and now we have year one children coming to the session. And very accomplished they prove to be.

Each course runs for 5 weeks, and every week we make two varieties of bread - generally a savoury and a sweet.

The families go home with recipes of the breads they have made - and I always give the children (especially) some homework. This is to go home and find someone who doesn't know how to make bread, and teach them what they've learned.

BREADMAKING AT WELLINGTON CHILDREN'S CENTRE, Nov 2013

Wednesday 20th November 2013
Another lovely session with 4 families attending. This time we made pain au chocolat, jam and mincemeat doughnuts and jam and mincemeat tarts.

The table before we start - mincemeat, jam and chocolate at the ready. The only equipment needed is a bowl, a beaker and a teaspoon for each family. Beakers in bowls so that any flour spillage is collected in the bowl.

15 minutes later - dough made and rolled out - circles cut out, turned into doughnuts and tarts

The beakers double up as cutters

The two small rolls in the middle are pain au chocolat. The chocolate pieces are halved chocolate squares from Lidl's Fair Trade range. Lovely dark chocolate costing £1.00/100g - bargain!

Noah's bread

Alisha's

Michelle's bread with one pain au chocolat missing already - but it was her birthday!

Kelly's bread. She came to the session a bit late and only had time to make the pain au chocolat. Shame! :)

Michelle and her birthday loaf - which contained, from  left to right, mincemeat, chocolate and jam

Here's a close-up of Michelle's bread - I'll turn it right side up when I get a moment.

[More to come]


Wednesday 13th November 2013
Much better turnout this time - making pizzas and sizzlers. 5 families turned up - with 2 dads and 3 mothers.

Once again, busy tables with lots of activity - this time I remembered to take a few pics, both of the proving dough and of the finished article.

The sizzlers were filled with either mushroom and cheese or tomato and cheese. depending on preference - and they're proving on top of the ovens to take advantage of the heat. 

They don't need to prove for long, since there is about 10g of fresh yeast to 150g of flour they rise pretty fast. But, since we only have an hour and a half for the whole session, there's no time to waste.

Some of the finished bread - could have taken Noah's pizza out a couple of minutes earlier, though! :(

Next week we'll be making pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts - probably I'll bring some mincemeat as well to make 


Wednesday 6th November 2013

The first of three visits this month to this Children's Centre I've visited several times before.

"It's a new group, so we're not sure how many will come" said Kelly, the organiser. And, in the event, two families came, one mum with two children and a dad with one - all of the children under 2 years old.

For the first session, we made bread rolls, which, with only a couple of families participating, didn't take long. So Kelly went downstairs to the playgroup and recruited half a dozen 2 to 3-year-olds!

Not many pics - just lots of activity! Once the half a dozen playgroup children joined us it became a very busy session indeed!

BREADMAKING AT QUANTOCK ECO'S GREEN FOOD AND CRAFT FAIR

Alex with his fancy dinner rolls. As can be seen by the identification number  10 (top right), Alex was my 10th customer. His sister Holly also made a batch of rolls.

Sunday 27th October 2013
Just a quick note to say that the day went well - I was told the fair had been a resounding success and that mine had been the busiest stall of them all - out of about 15-20 stalls altogether.

I had a total of 25 customers: one was a real expert, one or two had made bread before and several had breadmaking machines - but mostly they were complete beginners. They were of all ages from 3 to over 80 and there was a 50-50 split between women and men.

I gave them a choice of a simple, quick soda bread, which would take about 15 minutes, or a batch of fancy dinner rolls or freeform shapes, which would be ready after about 30 minutes. Once again the choice was half and half.

The recipes we were following:
Soda bread
1 mug self raising flour (this contains the right amount of raising agent)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3rd mug water
(Cost around 5p)

Bread rolls

1 mug strong bread flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3rd mug water

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast (this is a lot, I know, but it meant the bread rose quickly)

(Cost 9 or 10p)

BREADMAKING AND EDUCATION

Maths:

Since 1 mug of flour requires 1/3^rd of a mug of water, the ratio of flour to water is 3:1.

A full mug of flour is easy to judge, but 1/3^rd of a mug of water is a bit more tricky. (The mug should be just under half full.)

(Fortunately, adding a little extra flour or water produces the required result – a soft, slightly sticky dough.)

Salt: Salt is not essential, but, if using it, a quarter of a teaspoon is about right. So the student needs to judge this amount.

Water: The temperature of the water is important – it should be blood heat, between 35-40C. 2 parts of cold water to 1 part of boiling water in a jug will achieve this, roughly. (I like to compare it with bath water! You don’t jump into a bath without checking the temperature first.)

Yeast: A rounded teaspoon of fresh yeast is dissolved into the water.

Fractions:

Dividing the dough into 8 pieces (to make rolls for instance). This means cutting the dough into halves (2), quarters (4) and 8ths (8).

1/3^rd or 2/3^rds  of a mug of water

MY BREADMAKING WEEK - 5/7/13

...starts, ironically, with a cake.

Staying over at my daughter's in Basingstoke last Monday night, I fancied a bit of cake. Normally, I'd make a 'cake in a mug' in a microwave, but my daughter doesn't have such a thing. So, I made this vegan chocolate cake. My daughter also doesn't have a whisk, which I think is essential for mixing the ingredients properly - hence the lumps of flour in the pic.

Nevertheless, it went down well with everyone and was tasty enough. Every oven, in my experience, stamps its own character on cakes and bread, and this one gave the cake a firm crust! I wasn't at all keen on this - for a start it made it very difficult to cut - but my son-in-law especially loved the crust. 

I was in Basingstoke specifically to make some bread with my daughter's year group at St Marks PS. So the following morning, Tuesday, that's just what we did, creating a new personal best as we did so. In the space of 4 hours I taught 82 children how to make bread - last year it was 79 in exactly the same time - between 08.50 and 12.50.

No breadmaking on Wednesday, but on the Thursday I paid my usual visit to Longrun Care Home, Taunton, where we made petit pain au chocolat with the residents - and the obligatory curried snake bread, courtesy of Matt.

Matt's 'snakes' are getting shorter and shorter!

Then on Friday morning, we made pane casereccio and jam doughnuts in my Family Learning session at Halcon PS (no pics, I'm afraid). 

Following this session, I stay behind and run a session with 4 or 5 Key Stage 2 youngsters (my FL session is with year one kids). On the Thursday, I'd received an email from my support worker in that session, Sue, telling me that the school garden had produced a load of shallots - and could I use them? I did have a shallot and rosemary focaccia recipe, as it happens, so that's what we did:

Dimpling the dough

Topped with fresh rosemary - also from the school garden - shallots (sauted for a few minutes), then drizzled with olive oil

Washing up never gets a mention on these pages - but, rest assured, the youngsters have to do their bit!

These will be shared out with all the class members at the end of the school day.

Straight after this session, I drove across Taunton to another school, Wellsprings PS, where I was to run yet another Family Learning session. 

10 families turned up for the session - and I have to say the youngsters produced some of the most creative shapes I've seen for a while.

That evening I made 2 spicy fruited naan breads, my breakfasts for the next two weeks.

The lovely weather we've been having recently tempted me to bring the chiminea into action, for the fifth time this year.

3 pizzas resulted - one potato, mushroom and bratwurst pizza and two vegan pizzas with mushroom and pesto toppings:

This for my wife, who doesn't like tomatoes in any form

Pesto, tomato puree and mushroom pate, mixed and spread over the base. This gives me the same flavour hit as I used to get with cheese and tomato

These two for me, since I'm vegan

Finally this week, on the Saturday I began a sourdough loaf by refreshing the starter. I did intend to bake it on the Sunday, but events conspired against me and I ended up baking it on the Monday. All I say for now is that I'm more than happy to share my successes with you - so I should share my failures as well! More in next week's thread.

My Daily Bread (7)

After a very quiet April, May has been  - well, frenetic at times!

It began on the first of May with a Family Learning session at Fledglings Pre-school, Bishop Henderson PS with 12 parents and 15 children. I took three of my ovens, and there was one in the venue - so we did the session in 2 shifts.

In a busy session like this, I tend to just get the students to make half a dozen bread rolls in a variety of shapes. No pics, I'm afraid. 


On the 4th of May I fancied a lentil and potato pie (with a bread dough) and also an apple and sultana pie (also with a bread dough).

The savoury pie on the left, the apple pie on the right with a jam pasty made with some leftover doughh

The inside of the apple pie

Ditto for the lentil and potato pie

I should say that both pies were gorgeous!

[More to come from my sessions at
Brock House Sure Start centre, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton.

And the WEA course at Hornblotton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset ]

Family Breadmaking at Churchfield Primary School, Highbridge, Somerser

I was invited to run a breadmaking session as part of a Family Learning course at this school yesterday. 8 families, with their children from the reception class.

The first part of the session was parents only. We made a batch of dough out of which we made a small cheese and tomato pizza and a couple of sizzlers with tomatoes and mushrooms:

Some of the savoury breads. The other batch was too burned to show - but the family went home with my demonstration batch. The ovens are really fierce - you need to keep a close eye on them, and sometimes I get distracted! :(

The children joined us after about an hour and they were soon happily shaping the bread. From one batch of dough the children made 3 petit pain au chocolat, using the rest to make different shapes:

The initials on top of the rolls are there so that the families can be re-united with their bread!

A busy table!

The hardest part for the mothers (there were no fathers there, unfortunately)  - was letting the children do as much as they can for themselves. Inevitably, the children end up surprising their parents with their ability.

Everyone was pleased with what had been accomplished. We spoke about the health benefits of making your own bread, and also how cheap it is, compared with shop-bought stuff.

The parents were all impressed with how much their children can do on their own - and said they would carry on with this at home. They were all given the usual homework - which was to go home and teach someone what they had just learned.

All-in-all it was a fun session and I had terrific support from both Sue, who arranged the workshop, and  the reception class teacher, Anne.