Steak!

On our anniversary, we decided the best thing we could have would be a beautiful steak dinner. Homemade peppercorn sauce (free), butternut squash cubes (free, though didn't work out as planned - not crispy enough), salad - and the main event, the biggest piece of meat you have ever seen.

I left half of mine and had it with salad for lunch the next day!

Never let it be said that SW isn't full of possibilities for having all the things you love!

:D

Cape Cod Chowder

Well this is a true thing of beauty. One of the recent SW magazines had this recipe in there and we decided to try it, given that we had fish in the freezer from a clearance shelf at Tesco and decided we fancied sea food.

Smoked river cobbler, prawns, mussel meat, and bacon cooked in milk with leeks, parsley and probably coriander (the boyfriend made it, and he got himself some plants this week and loves the coriander) -  it was so good we had it two days in a row.

This is probably one of my new favourite SW recipes. It's also 'fancy' enough that if we had people over for dinner, I could serve it and be proud of it and no one would know it was on plan!

Beef Olives

Look at these:

I have never had these in my life and my other half is trying to convince me that they're a common thing and it's me that's odd for not knowing what they were!

Beef Olives are (apparently) minced beef and onion formed into balls and wrapped in bacon, then baked. And usually served with gravy, but we didn't fancy it.

They were nice, don't get me wrong! But I've never heard of them!

A Catch Up: Goals and Challenges

I've been remiss on updating the blog because I have a new job and it has utterly zapped me of time and energy. In fact I have two new jobs, but the point is still the same. I am exhausted.

Because of work, I couldn't go to my regular SW group (9.30am) and had to go later (5.30pm) and I was terrified it was going to affect my losses. I text my consultant and asked her about it and she agreed that maybe 1/2 a pound - 1 pound, but it'd show the week after as a bigger loss.

Come the evening of the weigh in, I crept onto the scales rather scared. I lost half a pound. That was it. I was devastated. We'd had a really good week, I was excited, I thought I'd get my certificate for half a stone. All I can say is that I hope it does show up this week at the next weigh in otherwise I will be losing faith in this plan a little, heh. The consultant of the evening said he would tell my consultant how upset I was, and I think I thought she'd get in touch - but to be honest I've been so busy I probably wouldn't have been able to talk to her anyway. I was really down, though. Eventually I convinced myself to use it as motivational, and inspire me to make sure this week is a huge one and maybe even get Slimmer of the Week (maybe? it's good to have goals!) so we've tried really hard, and my new job (1) is 1000000 times more active so that will be good too!

I think I could be near my goal by my birthday next March. I've decided that's the big picture aim. We're going to a Masquerade Ball in November, and I'd like to be in a slinky costume for that night (as I should theoretically be half way to my goal, no?) And we've decided to go on a big holiday in the February, which means I would like to be looking fantastic for all of our photos. So again, I say, it's good to have goals.

We've tried really hard again this week, reprieving the Chicken and Mustard Casserole from last month (yummy again, though not quite as mindblowingly good). We made a macaroni cheese dish, which you're not going to see because it was revolting. We've had healthy fruity breakfasts, I've been taking salads to work and snacking on fruit and syn free yoghurts, drinking plenty of water. Hopefully, when this weigh in comes around, I'll be happier. I've resisted all of the cravings I've had (and there have been many, in my new workplace, and lots of things I would LOVE to indulge in) and have been 100% honest about what I've eaten. It needs to go well and I want to be happy when I get to group.

Eggs Cooked In Things!

After seeing this article on Buzzfeed about eggs cooked inside things, I decided to make a SW version and had a tasty brunch: eggs baked into my wholemeal bread and served with baked beans! Because it's a bit unusual as well, it felt like a real treat. And the boyfriend was impressed too! I used Martha Stewart's bacon and egg cup recipe but made it a bit more SW friendly and they were really very tasty!

Brunch is an underrated meal. The boy wants to reinstate Brinner (a la Scrubs) and I'm 99% certain he'll convince me to do a full fry up one night next week to sate his cravings, but for me, brunch is the best. Lazy lying in bed until 9am (or, shock horror, even later!) then a late breakfast/early lunch combo on one plate. Win.

Fake-Take-Away: Pizza!

This week's takeaway was to be pizza, and I'm not going to lie, I was very skeptical about the idea of smash potato pizza bases!

However! They were fab! Topped with all manner of things - peppers, onion, sweetcorn, pork, even some spicy 'sausage' we made especially to imitate real pizzas - and smothered in fabulous melty cheese - happy tummies!

Unlike lots of people on the internet, we managed to get crispy bases on our first attempt - you can even pick up a slice and eat it from your hand like a 'real' pizza!

And there's some left for the boy's lunch tomorrow, so everyone is happy!

Sushi

I made my boyfriend this sushi selection for his work lunch, and when I worked it out the sushi nori (seaweed sheets) are only 1.5 syns. So it's a healthy lunch too! (I was going to make some with avocado, but it turns out that it's ridiculously high syn! So I'll not be bothering with that!)

Little cucumber and carrot maki, smoked salmon in the bigger ones and a nice rice ball with a little heart on top. I do spoil him!

Manhattan Cheeseburger

In one of the recent SW magazines there was a feature of American inspired recipes, and we really liked the look of this cheeseburger. A wholemeal roll as our HEb option, with the cheese from HEa - with loads of salad bits and sweet potato fries, yum yum yum!

And even better (probably) - the fact that we buried cheese into the middle of the beef burger so that when you cut it open, gooey melted cheese escaped out! Divine! With a trimmed bacon rasher and a good spoonful of our syn free barbecue sauce, this was a nicer burger than you'd ever get in a restaurant and we were thrilled we'd made it ourselves!

We <3 Slimming World!

Fish Fingers and Chips

After not being too happy with the Chinese take away imitation, I decided I wanted another treat. Fish fingers and chips!

I saw a piece of coley fillet on the clearance at the end of the day at the supermarket, and it was only £1.36! With delicious sweet potato chips (spiced with cayenne pepper), SW coleslaw and a green salad. Delicious! I used HEb wholemeal bread for the crust on the fish fingers (which I admit are more like fish nuggets?) after dipping them in egg. The coleslaw was the nicest we've made it - probably because this time we grated the cabbage as well as the carrot so it was finer - and the only difference for next time will be that I want to make the fries thinner! There will be a next time for sure!

I apologise for the dodgy photo, we just wanted to dive in!

Fake Take-Away: Chinese!

Another Friday, another fake take away!

This week we had diet-coke chicken with water chestnuts and onion, egg fried rice, stir fried soy sauce vegetables and home made SW spring rolls!

My major disappointment was that I over cooked the chicken and all of the sauce was gone. It was too wet and not thickening so I cranked up the heat... and then got involved in something else and came back to it too late. Alas.

The spring rolls are made of lasagne sheets cooked for 5 minutes then rolled with the filling and baked for 20mins in a warm oven. Not quite the same as the real thing, but close enough for me!

Butternut Cottage Pie

The other night, instead of making the traditional cottage pie I decided I wanted to use the squash I had sat looking at me. I had planned to make a risotto - it was on the menu plan and everything! - and then at the last minute decided I didn't fancy that. I am fickle! Some brief Googling later and I came across the idea of using butternut squash as the topping for a cottage pie.

So I made my usual recipe cottage pie - extra lean mince, onion, chopped vegetables (frozen - I am also lazy!), stock, herbs - but instead of topping with mashed potato, I steamed cubed butternut squash for 25 minutes until soft enough to mash and used that instead! Finally put it in the oven for 20 minutes to brown the top - and I was really impressed!

A nice spinach side salad and it was lovely, and the butternut squash topping snuck an extra superfree vegetable in there over and above potatoes! 

And it got another thumbs up from the boy. Success!

Fake-Take-Away: Doner Kebabs!

It sounds like a cruel joke but I assure you it is not! And best of all? It's syn free!!

These were incredible. I would prefer them over kebab-shop kebabs. I don't even know how to be begin to describe how satisfying they were - and how filling! By the time I was starting to feel like I'd had enough dinner, my plate looked barely touched.

Homemade syn free kebab meat, wholemeal pitta (HEb), spinach salad, homemade SW chips and coleslaw, with some of that syn free bbq ketchup from the pork dish to add a bit of spice to the kebabs.

I can't adequately explain how proud I was of this. Fake-take-away night is going to become a regular thing each friday evening, and next week we're having Chinese themed delights. I can't wait!

BBQ Slow Cooked Pork

OM NOM NOM.

A few days ago we made BBQ pulled pork (although I got lazy with the 'pulling' so it was quite chunky!) with potato rosti, spinach salad and homemade coleslaw.

Boyfriend says he's never letting me get away.

That pork is to die for. I also made some of the sauce as a syn free 'ketchup' alternative which I then served with the fake-take-away the following night (photos to follow, because it was incredible!) and will keep making as our condiment to go with practically everything.

Shoulder of pork went into the slow cooker and then was covered in the BBQ sauce and cooked on low for about 8 hours. I suspect the recipe originally came from Vicki Kitchen but I can't find it at the moment, sorry! A carton of passata was boiled with 5 tsp worcestershire sauce, 3 tsp of lemon juice, 3 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of mustard powder... and probably some other stuff too. >.< Then into the slow cooker!

Slimming World coleslaw is the easiest thing - simply chop or grate carrots and white cabbage and mix together with a good tablespoon of fat free yoghurt, salt and pepper.

And the potato rostis that survived this feast made a lovely brunch the next morning! I feel like I haven't stopped eating in the past couple of days - I hope it pays off on weigh in!

The most recent issue of SW magazine has yet more lovely recipes, and also mentions a voucher in Bella for free joining fee. I think I'm going to start going to group again. I think I would like that.

Carbonara and Imam Bayildi

Savoury things are something I can easily neglect - my problem has always been the cakes, doughnuts, pastries, sweets of the world.

These are two of our most successful slimming world dinners of recent times - not perhaps beating the 'KFC' (of which there is a batch for 'nibbles' in my fridge 99% of the time!) but nonetheless, things we loved and were relatively easy.

Firstly, a friend recommended that carbonara made with Quark fat free soft cheese was indistinguishable from the full fat version, so we had to put this to the test. And since then we've had it several times - it's so quick to knock together after a full day at work and, more importantly, delicious! I'm sure there are recipes out there on the internet, but for ours I boiled pasta/spaghetti for however long stated on the packet, and whilst that was cooking fried off some extra trimmed bacon with an onion or two. I also mixed together in a jug a good heaped tablespoon of quark with two eggs, salt and pepper. When the pasta was done, I stirred the bacon into it with the creamy sauce mix, gave it a minute to warm through and served over some fresh spinach leaves. So good. Last time we had a more generic lettuce salad, and the sauce soaked into the leaves like a beautiful dressing. Perfect for that quick supper that doesn't leave you just making beans on toast!



Our second recent success is an Imam Bayildi. I have made this dish for years, ever since I had to present a dinner party at which several guests were vegetarian. I only remember that the cook book I used in the first place was full of garish photos - ever since then I've worked from memory (or experimentation, depending on who you've asked). This recipe is perhaps the most similar, though not Slimming World converted. For this dish, I also added a sausage for each of us, cut into pieces and served on top for 8.5syns each - which is a lot, but they're really delicious pork and leek ones from a local butcher! Worth it!
Aubergine are halved and then the soft inside flesh removed, leaving a shell about 1cm thick. Some prefer to cook the shells first - drop them into boiling water for about 5 minutes, and turn upside down to cool to help them retain their shape. The other way is to bake them with an amount of liquid in the bottom of the dish, which does mean baking them for longer but is generally a nicer result. In my opinion. Anyway. Make the stuffing sauce with fried onion, chopped tomatoes, plenty of herbs, any other vegetables you particularly enjoy (grated courgette can be nice, as can grated carrot), and add the chopped aubergine flesh, cooking down to make a thick rich sauce. Put it back into the shells and put them in a medium warm oven for about half an hour if you've pre-cooked the shells, an hour if you're putting some liquid in the basin with them in the oven. About half way through you will need to cover them to stop the tops burning, but remember to leave a little hole in the foil for the steam to escape.

Sweet Potato Curry

Yesterday's dinner wasn't a patch on the Chicken and Mustard Casserole but few things ever would be! Following on from a success like that is rather a big ask! (I was made incredibly smug by one of my boyfriend's colleagues reportedly saying to him, upon having a small taste of my boy's lunchtime pasta salad in the reduced-down bacon & mustard sauce, that he "wishes his missus cooked like that for him!")

All things considered, though, this Sweet Potato Curry was good, if not fantastic to photograph. Sweet potato chunks were cooked in the slow cooker with tinned tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onions, lentils and stock, with peas, broccoli, chopped peppers and hard boiled eggs added 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time to cook through. This is another one adapted to suit Slimming World from the Hamlyn cookbook, though turned out differently than I imagined. The boyfriend wasn't terribly impressed when I said we were going to have at least one 'vegetarian' day per week, but he seemed happy enough with his dinner last night and I haven't heard any complaints so far today!

And yesterday's sadness was helped greatly by the beloved bunny, who is such a mummy's boy that he decided that the place to be was directly under my chair whilst I was eating said curry (also pictured in the low quality iPhone photo: fuzzy slippers.)

It's not even as if he's begging for food - he hasn't learnt yet that (some) human food can be delicious for small rabbits, he just likes to be close to me. He is a darling. 

Tonight is just a simple fritatta made with red onions, potatoes, pepper and a sliced sausage (8.5 syns per sausage) so I doubt there will be anything worth saying about that - but tomorrow is the first weekly weigh in and chance to move our markers along the ribbon chart of progress, so either way, come success or disappointment, I'll have something to say!

Chicken Mustard Casserole

Turns out I was wrong, and my brother didn't insist on McDonald's! As we were walking and trying to decide, he volunteered Pizza Hut as his choice, which I politely suggested wasn't a good idea, and then he saw a Subway in the distance. Seeming to be the lesser evil, I thought that would be fine - but as we walked towards it, we saw a lovely little local cafe next door to it! Perfect!

I was planning on having a jacket potato with beans, but after ordering, the lady came back to the table and said "we've been so busy.. we've run out of beans... what else would you like?" and after a minor fluster, decided I could use cheese as my Healthy Extra 'A' and that'd be okay. I'm glad I did; I haven't had cheese in so long and it was delicious!

Dinner, though, was a whole new level of amazing. Boyfriend sounded like he was having a religious experience eating it! He said it was the best thing I've made from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbooks: 200 Slow Cooker Recipes (though of course I Slimming World enhanced it) and I have to admit it was pretty special even if I say so myself!

Chicken drumsticks and thighs (skinless) were browned in a frying pan before going into the slow cooker. I then dropped half a leek in to the frying pan with some chopped bacon, added stock and three tablespoons of wholegrain mustard, brought to the boil then put that into the slow cooker too. I added baby new potatoes and cooked the whole thing on low for about 9 hours. When we got home from work, I added the other half of the leek and gave it 20 minutes to soften, then served with salad. The other half used his Healthy Extra 'B' wholemeal bread to mop up the sauce, too. The meat just falls off the bone, no effort involved, and it was sweet, sticky, om nom nom.

Later I boiled up the remaining sauce into a much thicker one, cooked some pasta and that's the basis of lunch today as a cold pasta salad. So it's frugal, too, in a way! We're not exactly on a high budget at the moment so most of what we're making is fairly cost efficient, budget brand, so I'm very proud that we're still eating such nice things. And, yesterday I treated myself to the Slimming World magazine which has a good 40 recipes in it, so we've plenty of ideas to be playing with!

ETA! Forgot to mention the Syns! The casserole would be just 0.5 syns per level tablespoon of mustard!

Slimming World 'KFC'

Several Good Things happened today! Or rather, some 'things' (neutral) happened but we make the positive spin ;P

One genuine real good thing! I had another three hours work on my tattoo - we were going to finish it today as it doesn't need a lot more (some final shading to the mandala and the birds) but I had a funny low sugar turn and got very faint, causing an unplanned break, and my wonderful artist was himself exhausted and suggested we finish it off when he's refreshed rather than just power through. So stopping suited both of us. 

There's a whole story attached to it, but I'll save that for another time. The short hair is also new this week, and I love it! I feel cute and feisty and a bit more like myself again. My previous growing-out style was doing nothing for me; this definitely is. I love it. 

But as to the topic of this post, and the more relevant information for this blog!

Tonight we made SW 'KFC' - and believe me when I say it is incredible. I possibly even liked it more than actual KFC - made all the better by knowing it's almost free! The only countable elements are the breadcrumbs - made from your HE-B it's your fibre choice for the day, or if not then I believe you just need to syn the bread. 

We googled of a recipe then made adjustments based on what we had in the cupboards. Cut chicken into goujons (or use drumsticks as per your preference). Mix one beaten egg with some chicken Bovril paste (or Marmite!) and a selection of spices, then dip your chicken first into this gloopy sludge then into breadcrumbs. Bake in a hot oven (225^ ish) for 15-20minutes, until golden and crispy. 

SO GOOD. We had ours with SW chips, green salad and a low fat coleslaw - SW coleslaw is also rather good. 

Yum yum yum! This is definitely going into our regular recipes!