Pescatarian Keto for my Type 1 Diabetes

A quick post pub dinner!

I popped to the local rugby club for a couple of glasses of dry white wine (the carbs seem to balance the alcohol pretty well) to celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday. Before I went I put a dab of butter on a couple of large field mushrooms, seasoned them and stuck them in the oven for half an hour at 180C, and just left them in there to cool and be dealt with later.

When I got home a couple of hours later, I sprinkled/smeared 25g Roquefort cheese on each cooked mushroom, and gave them a few minutes under a hot grill until the cheese went all bubbly. Served with a 100g pack of smoked salmon I found half price in Aldi, I had a really tasty meal.

2g carbs
40g fat
36g protein

Blood glucose was 5.3mmol beforehand, so I dosed just 0.2u Novorapid on my Omnipod pump - as salmon doesn’t affect my levels, I didn’t bolus for the protein in that. Two hours later I was at 5.6, so I’d count that as a win! 🏆

Big changes afoot! A little update, with more detailed posts to follow 😊

Been very inactive with regard to posting due to some family stuff, but I’m now undergoing some seriously big changes in my diabetes management! Basically I’ve turned cyborg.

As you may recall, I’ve been using a Freestyle Libre glucose monitoring system for a few months now, and it’s fantastic as it is. However, I’ve now pimped it with a MiaoMiao transmitter, which pings it every five minutes, sends the data to my phone via Bluetooth - and I’ve rigged that up to push my numbers to my ancient Pebble smartwatch. Cyborg step one.

And then last week, after twenty years of injections, I have had an upgrade! I’ve been lucky enough to be approved (and very quickly issued) the Omnipod insulin pump system. The improvement in my control is already significant - in the first 24 hours I was 90% within my 4-7mmol target range, what an amazing bit of kit! I’d always been put off by the tubes that come with insulin pumps, but with this system, the only thing that’s stuck to you is the little pod - it’s controlled remotely.
Step two towards becoming a dalek.

🤖🤖🤖 INSULINATE 🤖🤖🤖

In other news, I fried an avocado in some butter, and it was amazing!

Sometimes, only fish and chips will do, but they’re not exactly the most low carb of foods! Time to get creative!

I found some skinless and boneless cod fillets on the reduced counter in Lidl, and grabbed a couple of turnips while I was there to make the chips with - while most root veg are waaaaaay too starchy for we ketonians, swede, turnips and celeriac are manageable.

First up, I peeled a turnip and cut in into chunky chips, and tossed it in 2 tbsp olive oil and a tsp sesame oil, with plenty of salt and black pepper. Into the oven for 45 minutes at 200C, turning halfway through.

While that was cooking, I cut my cod fillet into chunks that would fit in my pan, washed them in beaten egg and coated with 40g finely grated halloumi cheese (it’s brilliant, doesn’t melt when you cook it!). When the chips were almost done, I fried the coated fish until it was golden and cooked all the way through in a k**b of butter and a splash of sesame oil to stop the butter burning. I cooked the asparagus in a second pan, just fried gently in some butter. When it was all cooked, I served it with a blob of mayonnaise flavoured with a little dill.

Husband and son tried it and reckon it was really rather good. I thoroughly enjoyed it 😊

Carbs 9g
Fat 84g
Protein 43g

As this was my only proper meal of the day, (other than a protein shake earlier), I needed to get all my fat and protein in, so don’t be alarmed!

I’ve had a busy few weeks since I last posted - a trip to London for a few days, busy with some work, busy with the fam, and busy being ill.

Busy, busy, busy. 🐝 🐝 🐝

I’ve had some fab food though, and I’ll try to share some of it with you over the next week, even if only in pixel form!

Went to Marlborough today, as that was where we collecting my son from this afternoon - and as usual we like to make a day of it. There are some amazing charity shops (changing body shape is a great excuse for new clothes), a good selection of nice coffee shops and decent sized Waitrose, so I could stock up on goat cream, cow-free halloumi and my new find - “Vegetarian Butcher” vegan chicken that isn’t squelchy like Quorn! It’s made from soy, so not the first choice of some, but had the texture and flavour of leftover roast chicken, so perfect for a dish like this...

Peri-Peri “chicken” with mashed swede.

I just fried the chickenstuff with a teaspoon of cold pressed Welsh rapeseed oil to brown it, and added 2 tablespoons of Nando’s hot Peri-Peri sauce, and warmed it through. Meanwhile I microwaved a 400g bag of diced swede, and mashed it with some goat butter and lots of salt and pepper. Plonked the chickenish on top, and fed my face. Was delicious. The fam had similar, but with actual chicken and rice.

Carbs 18g
Fat 37g
Protein 33g

Blood sugar was 5.1mmol before we ate, and while the carb count looks high for me, I’d fasted all day, so was well within my macros. None of it was “fast carbs” so I’ve not taken any Novorapid. I’ll correct later if need be. I’ve been running quite stubbornly high today,high 7s and 8s. I’m in the process of moving my background insulin from morning to evening at the moment, so today’s dose was six hours later than usual. I was also diagnosed with asthma last week (hurrah, another chronic condition!) and prescribed a steroid inhaler, which could also have been responsible. And it was warm today, so it could have been that - and I didn’t sleep well last night which can cause insulin resistance... just too many variables to pin down the cause. Or it could just be one of those days.

Update: two hours after dinner and I’m at 5.3mmol. I’d count that as a win!

Two quid dinner.

I do love surfing the reduced counter, and my local Asda came up trumps on Saturday afternoon. A salmon fillet for £1.24 and a pack of samphire for 55p. Add in a couple of poached eggs, and it’s a lot of protein for not much money!

Very, very simple to cook, this one. I heated a small pan of water with a splash of vinegar for the eggs, and a couple of non stick pans with half a tablespoon of goat butter each. The salmon went in one to sear while the samphire went into the other, and covered to allow it to steam a little too. Meanwhile, I stirred the boiling water and broke the two eggs into it to poach (the vinegar helps keep the white together) for a couple of minutes - I like mine runny. Shove it all on a plate, and dinner is served 😊 Didn’t look like much, but it was really filling.

Carbs 5g
Fat 36g
Protein 39g

Blood glucose before dinner was 4.8mmol, exactly in my happy zone. I didn’t inject any Novorapid, as there was only 5g carbs, but I’ve set an alarm for an hour’s time to see if I need to inject for the protein. I seem to have my background insulin set about right so I don’t need to, but it doesn’t do to get complacent!

Diaversary.

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of my type one diabetes diagnosis. A funny thing to celebrate, but I kind of am. I’m not dead. Had I not been lucky enough to be born when and where I was, it would have killed me very quickly - insulin was only discovered less than a century ago, and in many countries is prohibitively expensive. Hell, I’ve even been seeing crowdfunders from American diabetics trying to raise money for insulin. In 2018.

It’s almost killed me twice and landed me in intensive care. But thanks to medical science and our wonderful NHS, I’m still alive. And that’s what I’m celebrating.

But while a diabetes diagnosis used to be a death sentence, it is still a life sentence. It’s psychologically incredibly draining, every single day you are making life or death clinical dosing decisions with a drug that can kill you. Every day. Even doctors get a day off every now and then from that s**t. In my twenty years I think I’ve probably taken over 40,000 injections of insulin.

But I’m still here, and I’m mostly pleased about that.

We were invited for a late lunch by my wonderful friend Jean today, she cooked the menfolk a full Sunday dinner with lamb shanks, roast potatoes, new potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, carrots, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, sugarsnap peas, gravy you can slice (it’s actually a food group all of its own), and a fruit pie with custard. And a Christmas cake. Because why not.

And because she’s totally wonderful, she made me salmon fillets, and entire roasted cauliflower, asparagus, peppers stuffed with mushrooms, braised leeks, green beans, purple sprouting broccoli, and just in case that wasn’t enough, a salad 😋🤤 It’s gone eleven at night and I still can’t move. And I had to bring most of it home! Still, not going to need to cook for any of us for about four days now 🤘🏻

Cake recipe, modified slightly from this one (https://www.rachelcooks.com/2013/03/01/meyer-lemon-mug-cake-low-carb-gluten-free-guest-post/), partly because I have no idea what a Meyer lemon is but mostly because I hate recipes in cups.

90g finely ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
Zest of a lemon
Pinch salt
2tsp erythritol (an artificial sweetener without a nasty aftertaste), I have to get mine online because I can’t find it in shops - https://amzn.to/2GbaMws
Juice of the lemon
25g melted butter
1 beaten egg

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients together and add the wet stuff. Spoon into a cake tin of your preference and bake at 180C until cooked and golden brown on top. These little bugs took 20 minutes, a bigger cake would take a bit longer. You can also split the mix into two, and microwave in mugs for 1 minute 20 seconds.

Per bug (1/8 of the mix):

Carbs 3g
Fat 9g
Protein 3g

Had to guess the carbs for dinner a bit, so estimated it as 20g for the main course plus the 6g for two of the little lemon cakes I’d made. Blood glucose was at 5.7mmol before we ate, the salmon have about 40g protein, so I injected a unit of Novorapid, and set an alarm for an hour later to see how things were going. It was up to 6.4, and 7.5 after two hours, so I took a second unit - I think this was the protein beginning to kick in. Up to 7.9 after four hours so I had a third unit, and another before bed an hour after that, as protein takes a long while to break down. “Stacking” insulin in this way isn’t really officially recommended, and I’d never do it for doses of any size, but the single or even half units I use don’t add up to anything dangerous. With injections, we’re told to wait four hours between jabs to make sure the previous dose has cleared the body before adding more. However, with the new tech like the Libre glucose sensor I wear which tells me in which direction my levels are trending, and meters and apps that can calculate exactly how much insulin you have on board, I feel this advice is outdated. And if I’ve got it wrong, it’s nothing a dextrose tablet or two can’t pull me out of. Diabetics who use an insulin pump can set it to do something similar, where the dose for a meal that is expected to raise blood glucose slowly is set to match the breakdown of the food by being infused at the same speed. I’ve had the right number of units for my meal, just spread out over a longer period of time than if I had shoved the whole lot in at once.

Shake it all about...

I never thought I’d become someone who’d actively enjoy a vegan protein shake, but here we are...

One of my Christmas sock staples ever since I was a child was a dark Terry’s Chocolate Orange. It’s been one of my favourite flavours since I was very small. Problem is, even the dark one contains milk, and I’m allergic to that 😭 Oh, and it’s not exactly keto-compatible either. Hey ho, time to get inventive!

400ml unsweetened almond milk
25g Pulsin pea protein (https://amzn.to/2ryStfk)
20g Cacao powder (https://amzn.to/2KbFhoy)
20g Xylitol (https://amzn.to/2wucUQn)
1tsp Orange essence (Tesco!)

All whizzed together and chucked in a pint glass. I like it pretty intensely chocolatey, so feel free to add less cacao powder. I didn’t add any extra fat to this, as I’m planning on a fair bit with my dinner, but it would happily take a tablespoon of coconut oil.

Carbs 7g
Fat 10g
Protein 27g

Blood glucose before was 7.0mmol, and I didn’t take any insulin with it. It was 7.9mmol two hours later, so I corrected that with a half unit. It came down to 6.6 an hour or so after that, so hopefully the protein will stop the early evening dip I’m prone to 😊

Chips!

There must be few people who don’t like chips, and I love them. But sadly, they are horrendous for my blood sugar levels, even with the benefit of injectable insulin. The fat content affects how quickly the carbs from the potatoes are absorbed, and it’s just so difficult to get the dose and timing right, either the food is absorbed before the insulin acts and you get a massive spike, or vice versa, resulting in a hypo. Not ideal.

A lady in a low carb Facebook group I am a part of posted a photo of some delicious looking battered fish - turns out she’d used egg wash and grated halloumi 😱 Who knew? Anyway, while proper halloumi cheese is made from just sheep and goat milk, most of the stuff available in the U.K. contains cow’s milk as well - which I am allergic to 😖 However, Waitrose sell a variety which doesn’t, so happy days! Shame I don’t live anywhere near one... handily, I pass a big branch in Faringdon every fortnight when I drive from South Wales to oxford to take my son to his dad’s for the weekend.

When you don’t eat meat, protein is a constant issue, I don’t eat fish every day. It gets quite expensive! And there’s only so many eggs I can get down my gullet (quite a lot, but variety is the spice of life and all that), so enter TOFU. My husband brought a couple of packs of the Cauldron stuff home last night on his way home from work - just at the perfect time to raid the reduced counter.

I pressed the moisture out of half a block in my little press (https://amzn.to/2JMuctF), and cut it into chunky chips. A dip in a mix of beaten egg and marmite followed by a coating of finely grated, well seasoned halloumi cheese. I fried the chips over I moderate heat in a ceramic frying pan, turning regularly, until they were golden brown on all sides. Meanwhile I prepped the salad (by opening a bag and putting it into a bowl 😬) and tarted up the zero-carb tomato ketchup with some extra salt and black pepper.

I didn't marinate the tofu for these, so while they had the proper "armadillo" (crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle) texture I was looking for, they weren't desperately tasty inside. Next time, I shall marinate the chips overnight in a marmite and liquid smoke broth before I cook them. But on the whole I was thrilled with my chips!

Carbs 4g
Fat 48g
Protein 35g

Blood glucose before lunch (first meal of the day today) was 4.9mmol - I’ve been running in the 5s and 6s all day which is where I like to be. I didn’t take any insulin for this meal, as I often have a bit of a dip in glucose levels late afternoon, so hopefully the slow release of the protein in the tofu will carry me through that. The liver makes a small amount of glucose from protein in the absense of carbohydrate, to fuel the very few processes that require it and can’t run on ketones. My ketone levels are currently running at 1.7mmol, about where I want them.

Update: two hours later and I’ve dropped to 4.3mmol so a “microcarb” of a single 3g dextrose tablet will bring me up to around 5. Hopefully. That’s the theory, at least!

No-tato salad, with a spot of trout.

My lovely friend was having a bit of a freezer clearout, and gave me three lovely chunks of trout that she thought I might like.

One of the pleasures of a warm summer day is some grilled fish and a potato salad, but of course, spuds are way too carby for how I eat these days. I’d tried a recipe for roasting radishes low and slow, to create a roast potato substitute that was really good.

I poached a 250g bag radishes in a little water and olive oil (plus lots of salt and pepper!) on a low heat until the water had been absorbed and they were soft. The oil stops them from catching and burning, as well as being delicious. While they were cooking, I combined a little finely chopped onion with three tablespoons of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of dried dill (the stuff I planted has only just germinated), two chopped hard boiled eggs, a teaspoon of mustard, more salt and pepper and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Once the radishes has cooled, I stirred them into the mayo mix and let it sit for a couple of hours on the side (covered, because I have cats) to let the flavours get to know each other. This made two servings.

My husband cooked the trout, because I was pretty knackered after a day gardening in the sun. He just fried the steaks in goat butter, with a splash of cold-pressed rapeseed oil to stop it burning. We use a really nice ceramic pan (https://amzn.to/2I3gt1q) for frying our fish and meat (husband and son eat meat), as we often cook for vegan friends, and our usual cast iron pans tend to soak up cooking oils.

It was a lovely, light, but very satisfying meal - husband and son had lemon couscous with theirs instead of my salad. Nicely washed down with a dry, crisp rosé.

Carbs 6g
Fat 63g
Protein 62g

Blood glucose was 7.3mmol at dinner, and I took a single unit of insulin to deal with it. It was 7.9 a couple of hours later, so I took an extra unit to bring it down overnight. It was a lot of protein, so I should have taken more, as it rose to double figures overnight, so I ended up taking 3u at 03:37 😖 It was 7.2 when I woke at eight, so it seems to have sorted itself out. All part of the unpredictability of T1 diabetes - some days you’re the pigeon, other days you’re the statue...

Breakfast of champions! Except I had it at lunchtime, because I wasn’t hungry yet.

Peanut butter salted caramel milkshake sounds just too naughty to be true, doesn’t it? I had a new blender from Lidl to christen, and this seemed like the perfect thing to make. I got the recipe from: https://www.ruled.me/peanut-butter-caramel-milkshake/ and I just used the almond milk, peanut butter, salted caramel flavour and coconut oil as I didn’t have any xanthan gum or ice. I added some lo-salt for potassium and sodium too. This drink is totally vegan friendly 🌱

It. Was. So. Filling.

I didn’t want to eat until the evening, so it makes a nice change from bulletproof coffee and marmite drinks for a meal replacement. I’ll definitely make it again 😊

Carbs 7g
Fat 42g
Protein 18g

Blood glucose was 6.7mmol when I drank it, and 7.0 two hours later, with no Novorapid injected. I think the increased background insulin is now covering the protein in my food. We shall see, I’m having sardines for dinner... 🐟

Cauliflower rice really is my new best friend since going low carb, and egg fried rice is an absolute favourite weekday dinner for the whole family.

I usually just microwave it for half the time suggested on the pack and then chuck it in the wok with the rest of the meal to finish cooking, but this time I thought I’d try roasting it first, to get that nutty flavour I loved in my roasted cauli lunch yesterday.

I melted a tbsp of coconut oil in a roasting tray on the hob with a teaspoon of sesame oil, and emptied the pack of cauli rice into it, stirred it around to coat it in the seasoned oil. Lots of salt and pepper! I roasted it for 30 minutes at 200C in my little combi oven, stirring every ten minutes to cook it evenly. It came out a nice golden brown.

Meanwhile I marinated the tofu cubes (I used the firm Cauldron one, and squeezed some moisture out with a cheap tofu press, you can get them here: https://amzn.to/2JMuctF) in a mixture of soy sauce, liquid smoke (I use this one: https://amzn.to/2jnxZm3) and chilli flakes. I fried those in a tablespoon of coconut oil until crispy.

The only other vegetable ingredients were a green pepper and a handful of mushrooms, so I fried those in some coconut and sesame oils, then added the roasted cauliflower rice and stirred around to mix well. I then added a couple of well beaten and seasoned eggs, stirring around until the egg was cooked. Just a case now of serving and topping with the crispy tofu and maybe adding some more soy sauce. I have to say, it was the best egg fried rice I’ve ever made using cauliflower - it’s a bit of a faff to roast it first, but it’s definitely the way to go. Husband loved it.

Blood glucose at dinner time was 5.1, and as the 9g of carbs was just in the veg, I didn’t inject for it - nor the protein, as vegetable protein isn’t broken down as effectively as animal protein, and I’ve raised my background insulin so I shouldn’t need too. Two hours later it was 6.0, and I want to bed and woke at 6.1 🤘🏻

Carbs 9g
Fat 33g
Protein 27g

A light, nutty lunch. With no nuts.

For over forty years I’d only had cauliflower boiled. I liked it, but when it’s roasted it hits a whole new level - I like it slightly crispy around the edges 😊 It tastes nutty and full of umami flavour.

I roasted 250g of cauliflower with a tablespoon each of goat butter and olive oil, and plenty of salt and pepper for 30 minutes at 180C - that’s it. I’d normally give it the first 20 minutes covered in foil, but I seem to have run out 🙄

So, so simple. I made sure to pour any buttery oil left in the roasting pan over the top after serving.

Carbs 7g
Fat 28g
Protein 9g

Blood glucose was 6.2mmol before eating (told you it was back in the green!), I didn’t inject any Novorapid as I’ve upped my background Tresiba dose to keep things level. I’m at 6.0 an hour later...

Hipster w**k breakfast!

I’m quite carbohydrate sensitive and insulin resistant in the mornings, so if I have breakfast at all (and I often don’t), it’s very low carb. Avocados are a particular favourite, as are eggs. I’ve been having a bit of an egg mayonnaise fe**sh recently, so it kind of made sense to put them together!

I hard boiled some eggs while drinking my first coffee of the day, and when they had cooled, peeled and chopped one and mixed it with a tablespoon of mayonnaise, lots of pink salt and black pepper and a shake of smoked paprika. I shelled the baby avocado with my actual, real, avocado knife (told you it was hipster w**k, I’ll be getting the tofu press out later 😳), and shoved it all artfully on one of my favourite old lady plates. A few drops of chilli and garlic sauce gave it a good kick.

Carbs 2g
Fat 31g
Protein 9g

Blood glucose was 8.1mmol before food, (I’d managed to sleep through my usual wake up to take a couple of units of quick acting insulin which prevents the dawn rise in levels and hit a 9.2 😩), I’d already taken 1.5 units to bring it down so no need to take more with the meal. Two hours later I was at 7.9, which is still above my ideal range but I was back under 7 an hour later, so I’m happy with my levels today 😊

🤬🤬🤬Rant alert🤬🤬🤬

It’s been one of those days where I can’t do right for doing wrong, it seems. I went for my regular HbA1c blood test last Friday, this is the one that all diabetics have at least annually, and type ones more regularly. It measures the amount of glucose that is stuck to your red blood cells, and gives an average of your glucose control over the last three months, as that’s how long red blood cells tend to last in the body.

Mine has varied from awful to horrendous in the last twenty years, if I’m being honest. But since I started eating keto and using an implanted glucose sensor, my diabetes control has been a million times better. Within range most of the type, with hardly any lows, and pretty much never into double figures. My last one was a score of 50 (“good”), down from 89 (“poor”), and I was quite pleased with that.

I had a call from the practice nurse at my GP surgery today. She just said that they’d got my results and my HbA1c was 43. And then silence. I assumed it was to give me time to gush, and I said how thrilled I was with such a good result. More silence.

They want me to drop my insulin and get it back up to 50.

I said no way, that 43 comes under “excellent control” on the chart they have on their wall, and that I was delighted. Cue a lecture about hypos, and I tried to explain that I don’t really have any, maybe one mild one a week (never at night), and that I never drop below 3mmol. She actually said she didn’t believe me! And wants me to come in so I can have hypos explained to me. I explained that having had T1 for 20 years, I was very experienced at having hypos, but I’m now managing it in such a way with my Libre as to make sure I don’t get them, and explained the “sugar surfing” methods of a glucose tab here, half a unit there to nudge my sugars into range if they’re drifting off. Apparently I must be having night hypos! I’m going to have to go in armed with printouts of my Libre traces to prove that I’m not - I haven’t had a night hypo since flippin’ January!

So that’s rather taken the shine off a result I’ve been working so hard to accomplish.

🤯🤯🤯

Anyway, I’m seeing the GP at the end of the month to discuss it all, looks like I’ll have to go armed with my lever arch file of results and dig out the battle handbag again 🙂

/rant

So I’m having my very favourite fish pie for dinner, with mushrooms and asparagus. Blood sitting pretty at 5.9, so 1.5units of Novorapid should see me right. I’ve upped my background insulin a little, so am taking a bit less with food and seeing how that goes!

I sautéed the onion and mushrooms in the butter, and when they were soft, added the goat cheese, cream soya yogurt and stock, together with the dill. When that had boiled down a little and thickened, I added the fish pie mix and finally the prawns - you don't want to overcook these! I put the mix in an oven dish, and topped with a simple mash made from celeriac and butter, topped with grated manchego cheese.

Carbs 17g
Fat 43g
Protein 40g

Boiled eggs and veggie soldiers!

I adore boiled eggs but can’t cook them to save my life. Luckily I’m married to a man who can 😍

While I do have the option of LivLife low carb bread (3.6g carbs a slice) to dip in my eggs, I’m very carb sensitive and quite insulin resistant in the mornings, so I try to keep breakfast as low carb as possible.

I fried 100g asparagus and 50g mushrooms with around 30g sprouted mung beans in a tablespoon of goat butter, together with a lot of black pepper and about half a teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt. Meanwhile, Beardy boiled my eggs (not a euphemism 😉) to perfection. I like them RUNNY. With a lot of black coffee.

Carbs 5g
Fat 23g
Protein 19g

My blood glucose has been running slightly high, and will be for the next few days, as we are approaching THAT time of the month 😱🌛. I’ve found that I need to up my basal insulin by a unit or two, and increase my Novorapid by 10-20% for this particular week. I started the day in the small hours in the high eights, and have already taken 8 units to try and bring it back into my happy range (4.5-7.5mmol). It was 8.1 when I sat down to eat my breakfast, I’d taken two units an hour beforehand, so didn’t inject with the meal.

Two hours later it’s at 7.1 😊

It's Saturday, and that usually means a leisurely breakfast with the family. We had to get up super early today as my son is off yomping across the Brecon Beacons for his Duke of Edinburgh award, and while the husband went back to bed, I decided to have a go at some cinnamon rolls using this recipe (http://meatfreeketo.com/low-carb-vegan-cinnamon-rolls/). I had to get out of my pyjamas and go out for some cinnamon though, which was a slight flaw in the plan!
As suggested in the recipe, I presoaked the psyllium husk with vanilla and water while I measured the rest of the ingredients. When it came to add it to the spiced coconut flour, I found it had solidified into a gelatinous hockey puck kind of thing... so I binned that, stirred some more into the dry mix and added vanilla and water to that to make the nice sticky dough. I used soft goat cheese instead of the vegan one in the recipe, and that was quite wet, so for the filling I omitted the almond milk, and added a teaspoon of psyllium husk, which gave me a nice spreadable texture.

All looking good so far! I used the baking mat to roll it up, and popped it in the fridge until the husband surfaced...

They cut very neatly (the ends are a bit scruffy and out of shot!) and I melted a little coconut oil in the pan to stop them sticking. Into the oven at 180C for half an hour, a bit less than specified in the recipe, but it was enough. I didn't do the frosting as a) I ran out of goat cheese and b) I don't have an especially sweet tooth.

Husband's opinion: a good start for further experiments! We'll have a play with this recipe and see what fabulousness we can come up with...

Three of these scrumptious little beauties came in at 9g carbs, 9g fat and 3g protein after I'd run the ingredients through MyFitnessPal.

My blood glucose before breakfast was 5.6mmol - I'm quite carb sensitive and insulin resistant in the morning, so I took one unit of Novorapid for the carbs.