Stabilization I think that is it for me :-)

[m-mouse]

It was these - they seem pretty hardy!!
Quality Vegetable Seeds through Suttons Seeds - Suttons Seeds and Plants

I can't bear beetroot but my OH loves it so I thought I might find this less unpleasant since it won't stain anything else on my plate! I have been having them roasted with a squirt of fry light and have been pleasantly surprised, but try not to have them too often .
I have never eaten kohl rabi - what does it taste like?
Oh my celeriac are doing well too but not ready yet.

My raspberries have been doing really well and I have been picking them and freezing them for when I can have them! No flowers on my peas yet though - everything seems later for me this year - not even had a red tomato yet!

 

[Poppy03]

They look interesting, may well grow some next year. Shall write it on my planner. Kohl Rabi is like a posh turnip. Milder and lovely eaten raw in salads. Hubby hates turnips/swede etc but will eat kohl rabi so can't be bad. They grow like alien veggies and you can eat them at all different sizes. Ones that I let get too big I often store and put them in casseroles. One of my pumpkin plants has set a fruit so I am happy with that, hopefully everything else will follow suit. My tomatoes are late, or they feel late since we had that heatwave earlier and brought most things on. I don't like raspberries at all so I have been cooking desserts with them in so I am not in the least bit tempted I shall have to make a cake soon for the family but will put raspberry jam in it, yuk!

I got really early peas this year because my little one is completely mad for them. As soon as we go onto our allotment, she is in the pea bed. Can't really complain though, could be worse. Hubby likes to grow giant pumpkins so this year he is trying to beat his record of last year. 640lbs! Mad fool.

 

[dukandebut]

I've never tried eating kohl rabi and often wondered what it tastes like. Sounds really nice and pretty versatile.

 

[m-mouse]

I have always like the look of them - a bit alien like as Poppy says - I am a sucker for anything a bit different looking

 

[Poppy03]

Lol me too. I was surprised at how tasty they were and how easy to grow. I shall be having them in strips in my salad today, extra crunch.

Today I put on my size 10 jeans and they now fit I have kept these jeans as a goal for years now. At one point I couldn't get them past my thighs :-O but today I can wear them comfortably with a muffin top when I sit down. Hubby has been commenting that all my jeans are baggy now, so in 2 weeks time I shall be buying some new ones.

 

[m-mouse]

Fantastic news on the jeans!!! I need to get some celeriac in waitrose tonight so I am going to see if they have any kohl rabi so I can try it before planting a ton of them next year

 

[Poppy03]

You can still plant some at this time of year. Try it and see if you like it but you have a good couple of months you can still get a crop. Need to cover it to stop the pigeons as it is a brassica and they love it too

 

[m-mouse]

You OH pumpkin efforts sound amazing! I do like my squashes but have tried to cut down on the varieties this year as I went a bit mad last year and ended up overrun with them! Basically I forced myself not to buy any new seeds and just use the ones I had! They are all just so pretty although the turks turban has to be my favourite for looks! Hopefully I will get some more random ones growing out of the compost heap again this year too!

 

[Poppy03]

He was in the paper with our little girl with the pumpkin as it won the local competition. We then carved it! It was in the paper again!!! This year he wants bigger (a man thing I believe).

I love Turks Turban, such a beautiful pumpkin and can be used instead of potato. My favourite to grow are butternut squashes along with Jack Be little which has a lovely flavour but is small. Hooligan taste lovely roast with a bit of garlic, goes all chewy.

I am lucky in that I have two allotments, side by side and hubby has put 40 large beds in with a wonderful large fruit cage. I could actually live down there.

 

[m-mouse]

I love the turban taste and the little bears I like too. I love butternut but haven't grown them after the first year I tried when I got nothing!!!! Maybe I will try them next year - they are just such a convenient shape!! Wow 2 whole allotments is a big area! I just make do in the garden. i am please with my sprouts - they are coming on well, and seem to thrive on the neglect I offer them I will definitely look for the kohl as it would be something a bit more fun to try especially if I can still put them in this year!

 

[Poppy03]

For butternut squash you could try Avalon, it is more suited to growing in this country. Slightly smaller squashes but lovely flavour, haven't had a failure yet. I am trying other butternuts this year too along with some pumpkins (normal size!), I just love them cooked in the bottom of a casserole, making the sauce all lovely and thick.

Little bears? Are they a squash too? Just had my lunch and cut up all my veg along with the beetroot from the other plot holder and I had to laugh as it is white! Slightly pink lines through it but a white as white can be. Quite sweet too.

B - skipped was not hungry
L - early as little one goes to pre school. Tuna salad with greek yoghurt and balsamic vinegar, bit of cottage cheese.
D - chicken meat balls with fennel seeds and herbs, tomato and fennel based sauce with galette.
S - if I feel like it, yoghurt.

 

[m-mouse]

Little Bears are little pumpkins - one person affairs! I will try some Avalon next year. Sweet potatoes is the pother thing I have on the go this year - but not sure they look too brilliant!! How nice to have found someone new to talk about growing veggies with!

I am just so glad that squashes are allowed on this regime!!! I sometimes cut my squash into strands using my spiralli cutter, so it looks like spaghetti - that is really nice.

 

[Poppy03]

I wish I had grown spagetti squash this year! It really does look like spaghetti when cooked and its prolific! Little bears sound like the hooligan and jack be little, its the taste you can't beat. Nothing compares to what you grow yourself. Just been to the allotment and picked about 16lbs of rhubarb, two enormous fennel bulbs, loads of herbs, spring onions and fruit. I could talk about veggies all day, love it. I assume then, you like to cook also?

I have 100 plum tomato plants growing in makeshift tunnels to protect them from blight. I am hoping I will be self suffient in tomatoes once I get them all preped up and canned, made into passata etc. In my greenhouse I have mini plum tomatoes which are delicious (Floridity) and some cherry red and gold ones too. Last year I managed to can some so I could make some cherry tomato lasagne (definately not a Dukan recipe) in the winter. It was sooooo good.

 

[m-mouse]

I grew spaghetti squash last year too but none this year! Yes I love to cook and seem to spend my life chopping veggies up into tiny pieces so that my son will eat them!!!! I always have cooked from scratch like my Mum did and so I find it a bit sad that I got so fat when I've never eaten tons of junk and processed food!

I have got 'Berry' tomatoes in the greenhouse this year - they look like strawberries - don't know how they will taste!! last year I made my own ketchup - bit of a faff but worth it! I have some fruit trees this year that are on year 2 so I actually have some fruit, which I am looking forward to.

Fennel I have never really got on with - just don't like the taste!

 

[Poppy03]

I want to make my own ketchup this year. Have been reading a book called 'One man and his dig' all about allotments etc (very funny) and he recommends a recipe for ketchup.

How old is your son? It isn't fair to get fat when you are so productive with fresh fruit and veg in the kitchen! Mine is down to a thyroid complaint that was undiagnosed and then poorly treated for years. My friends couldn't believe how little I ate and still was gaining weight. Just because I didn't get into the overweight category (by the skin of my teeth) my gp dismissed it regardless of the fact I was on less than 1,000 calories per day most of the time to just stay still. Now much better, thankfully but I hoped the weight would just melt off once the meds were better but no such luck! I am looking forward to being able to eat veggies every day as I miss that as I am such a veggie eater. Bit of fruit wouldn't go amiss either after all my strawberry picking!

We have some fruit trees at home and a few at the allotment. One tree down there is tiny but produces huge apples, really tasty and so many of them. There is also a cooking apple tree, mature and huge and we get at least 100 lbs of cooking apples off it. Way too good.

 

[m-mouse]

My Son is 13!!!! The only way he eats anything that's good for him is f I cut it up as small as possible!! I just figure he is lucky that he has someone who cooks proper food for him because if someone fed him something processed and chips every night he would eat it quite happily!

I have made a few things from here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Velvet-Chocolate-Heartache-feel-good/dp/0593062361
but prefer not to have cake in the house

I think my fatness is just down to eating too much good food as opposed to too much bad food!

 

[Poppy03]

Haha, sorry assumed he was a toddler! My middle one was a very picky eater, slightly better now, but I used to hide things in her food too. My little one, 3, pretty much eats anything. Garlic stuffed olives, she has to put lime juice on her potaotes! She is a strange thing. I learned from the older ones (now aged 24 and nearly 22) what I would and wouldn't allow on the eating front so little one got it full force.

I make cakes with good things in them too. Courgette cake with lime custard is a favourite, carrot cake of course, beetroot brownies. The girls all ask 'what's in this!'. I also make jams etc so when all else fails some jam between a Victoria sponge goes well and because they are so packed with fruit I figure it has to be good for them ;-)

So I assume you are on conso since you have lost an amazing 60lbs! Is that all Dukan?

 

[m-mouse]

You'd think he was a toddler the fuss he makes about fruit and veg The silly thing is he knows it goes into is food and it doesn't stop him eating it, he just wouldn't eat big chunks!! He will eat peas and mushrooms, and maybe some roots if they're roasted but that is about it! He won't eat any fruit apart from strawberries, and that is only a recent thing - but he has strange tastes and likes really dark bitter chocolate, so I wonder if there is something in this thing that foods taste different to different people and the sweetness of the fruit really doesn't taste good to him?

It's funny, but both kids off school today due to strike and my Son has just made a victoria sponge, sandwiched together with the gooseberry jam I made a couple of weeks ago!

I'm not on conso yet because I want to go lower but not sure how much lower - just want to get rid of as as much tummy as possible! I am just finding it very slow going at the moment, but saying that I was struggling to lose weight at all before Dukan.

I should change my goal but I have only recently got to this first goal and I quite like it saying I have 0 to lose!

Yes the 60lbs was all on Dukan. I had a 4 week foray into the world of Atkins in January, but lost absolutely nothing!!

 

[Poppy03]

Lol, how nice to have a cake made for you Goosberry jam, I could actually kill for a bit at the moment. My all time favourite is gooseberry and red currant jam, which I have just made. I am planning my first gala meal and it will include a slice of my favourite cake with gooseberry and redcurrant jam Hubby offered to take me out for my first meal but I actually want to cook something, how sad.

You must feel so good for loosing all that weight. What would you like to be? Is it more about clothes fitting? I would love to loose my tummy but after having a child in my 40's I think that unlikely now :-( What does the Dr Dukan say about your true weight? part of me would like to be less than my true weight but I think he is right, that probably is a good weight for me. He says around 8st 13lbs to 9st 1lbs. For some reason it never accepts that I am 5'4" despite my retyping it in. I am always 5'3" now. I know I am getting older but I don't think I have shrunk!

 

[m-mouse]

Yum gooseberry and redcurrant sounds delicious!
I am at about the lowest I have been in my adult life and I would be happy here, but I want to get my BMI down below 25 and I want to try and get rid of as much of my tummy as possible but the trouble is, the more I lose the more out of proportion I look due to a lifetime of obesity. I was almost 20 stones at my heaviest and it hows in my tummy

So I guess I am at my Dukan ideal weight but who knows what that really is for me, because i ma down to what I was just before I conceived my daughter 17 years ago, so I didn't ever maintain it really! I would like to get down to between 140 and 147 I think, because after a lifetime of blaming big bones etc I am now realising that I am in reality meant to be quite petite

The clothes thing is nice although I do find myself wearing clothes in 5 different sizes at the moment