Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

You can make these scotch eggs syn free if using the Linda McCartney’s Red Onion & Rosemary sausages, I prefer the ones that are 0.5 syn each (pictured below).

Makes: 3

Syns: 1 syn each

Time Taken: 25 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Linda McCartney Sausages

Linda McCartney Sausages

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of 6 Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausages, defrosted overnight
  • 3 boiled eggs

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

Method

Place the sausages out of the box in a bowl to defrost overnight in the fridge.

Once the sausages are defrosted, mash them all up.

Boil the eggs to your liking, I keep them with a soft yolk as the eggs will go in the oven later and I don’t like overcooked eggs!

Once the eggs are boiled, peel them and use the vegetarian sausage ‘meat’ to wrap around each egg. The sausages will stick to your hands a bit but keep wrapping it all around the egg. 2 sausages are enough to cover 1 egg.

Once all the eggs are done, place them in a pre-heated oven and cook for around 10-12 minutes, turning them halfway.

BBQ Chicken Marinade

I have used Crucials BBQ sauce for this recipe which is 0.5 syn per tbsp, if you use any other brand please check the syns before. This recipe can be counted as syn free as I’ve only used 1.5 syns worth of BBQ sauce for 4 people, but to protect your weight loss and to be on the safe side do count 0.5 syn.

Serves: 4

Syns: 0.5 per serving

Time Taken: 30 minutes plus marinade

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp Crucials BBQ Sauce
  • 50ml dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp ginger/garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp Chinese 5 Spice powder
  • 1 Maggie seasoning cube (crumbled)
  • 4 chicken thighs (all visible fat removed, no skin)
BBQ Chicken Marinade

BBQ Chicken Marinade

Method

Mix together the BBQ sauce with all the spices and adjust seasoning if needed.

Add the marinade to the chicken and let it marinade for a few hours if time permits.

When ready to cook, place the chicken in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 6 and cook for 30 minutes, or more if needed, until the chicken is fully cooked.

You can serve it with anything you like – rice, noodles, chips etc.

 

Masala Fish

Those who know me know that I am all for convenience when it comes to cooking! I don’t like spending hours in the kitchen if I can help it. This is another one of my favourite short cuts to make masala fish that packs loads of flavours without any syns. I find that I do not need to add any extra chilli when using Laziza spice mixes when cooking for the whole family, but if the children are having something else I do add chilli flakes for an extra spicy kick.

You can use any white fish for this but I find that the Aldi frozen Basa fillets are perfect for this and they won’t break the bank! Just check how many fillets you have in the packet before adding it to your trolley/basket as sometimes you only get 3 fillets!!

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 10 minutes plus marinade

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of Basa fillets
  • 2 tbsp Laziza Fish masala
  • 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp tandoori masala (optional – great to add colour to the fish)
Masala Fish

Masala Fish

Method

Defrost the fish for a few hours or overnight in the fridge if time permits.

Mix the spices with the lemon juice to form a paste and cover each fish fillet with it.

Let it marinade in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, the longer you leave the better.

Spray a large frying pan with a low calorie spray oil and cook the fish fillets for about 5-7 minutes on each side. You can serve it with anything you like – chips, salad etc.

 

 

Dhaal & Rice

This is one of our favourite family meals – pure comfort! I like to use Toor Dhaal but I am sure you can replace it with your favourite.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Dhal & Rice with Fish

Dhal & Rice with Fish

Ingredients

  • 200g Toor dhal, washed and soaked (if time permits)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely crushed
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • Salt to taste
  • Boiled rice to serve

Method

Place the dhal with the onion, tomato and salt in a pressure cooker covered with enough water and cook for around 20 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make this in a standard pan but it will take longer for the dhal to cook. I put enough water to cover the dhal and a little bit extra on top. It is best to not put too much at this stage or you will end up with a thinner dhal. You can always thin it down if too thick but harder to do it the other way round!

Once cooked, blend the dhal with a hand held blender.

In a pan spray lots of frylight (or any other spray oil – count syns if needed). Add the garlic, turmeric, black pepper, cumin seeds and chilli flakes and fry for about 3-4 minutes. Keep stirring so that the garlic doesn’t burn!

Add the blended dhal and check for seasoning. If needed, add boiling water to thin the dhal if too thick.

Serve with boiled rice and a speedy salad. We like to have fish with it too.

Chicken & Egg Fried Rice

Great way of using up leftover rice or you can make a fresh batch of boiled rice for this. You can replace the chicken for prawns or leave it plain.

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 25 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • cooked rice
  • 2 chicken breasts, chopped
  • 3 spring onions, finely chopped
  • mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 tsp garlic granules
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 grated carrot
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tbsp Chinese 5 Spice powder
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 eggs, beaten
Chicken & Egg Fried Rice

Chicken & Egg Fried Rice

Method

Spray a large frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and cook the spring onions, pepper, carrot and chicken for 5-8 minutes.

Add the tomato puree, garlic granules, Chinese 5 spice, chilli flakes and soy sauce. Stir fry for another 5 minutes.

Add the cooked rice.

Once the chicken is cooked pour the eggs over the mixture and cook over a low heat stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until the egg has set.

Hartley’s 10 Cal Jelly Pots

Who knew that a simple jelly pot could lead to many debates on my social media platforms!

Many slimmers may have recently come across the Hartley’s 10 cal jelly pots. I’ve been having them for a few years now since I was a SW member.

I didn’t think that posting a picture of it recently would cause such a stir with so many people doubting the jelly was suitable for vegetarians as the pot does not have a ‘suitable for vegetarians’ label which is fair enough, but I always check food labels before buying them! I check for two things:

  1. Ingredients
  2. Syns

I would not knowingly eat and post/share food that I would not be allowed to eat in my halal diet. I hope this post will help those that may need more clarification. I have included below a response from an email from Hartley’s. If in doubt please do your own research and contact them yourself.

“Thank you for contacting Hartley’s about our jelly range.

Most of our jellies are not suitable for vegetarians. Our tablet and powdered jellies, designed to be made at home, contain gelatine. Some of our Ready to Eat jellies contain the colouring Carmine, which is an animal product.

The jellies we have which are suitable for vegetarians are:

Hartley’s Pineapple in Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 10 Cal Mango & Passion Fruit Flavour Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 10 Cal Blueberry & Blackcurrant Flavour Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 10 Cal Raspberry Flavour Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 1 Fruit Portion Mango Jelly 175g
Hartley’s Blackcurrant Flavour Jelly 125g
Hartley’s Lemon & Lime Flavour Jelly 125g
Hartley’s Pineapple Flavour Jelly 125g
Hartley’s No Added Sugar Jelly Blackcurrant Flavour 115g
Hartley’s No Added Sugar Jelly Apple Flavour 115g

I hope that this information helps. If you would like to discuss your concerns, or have any questions, please call me or one of my colleagues on 0800 022 4339. We are available between 9.00am and 5.30pm, weekdays excluding Bank Holidays.”

Hope this clears up any misunderstanding. Here’s how I like to enjoy my favourite Hartley’s 10Cal jelly pot – with a squirt of light squirty cream topped with 100’s & 1000’s, a raspberry and a SW Double Choc Hifi light bar. Sooo nice!

 

Hartley's 10Cal Jelly

Hartley’s 10Cal Jelly

Crustless Quiche Muffins

I love making this SW crustless quiche recipe. There are so many variations to it but this one has to be my favourite. The basic essentials you need are eggs, cottage cheese and Pasta ‘n’ Sauce, you can then add anything you want to it –  any veg or meat/fish of your choice. The possibilities are endless! I made them into muffins but you can easily just make a large one and then slice it up before eating.

Makes: 15

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30-45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • Packet of Batchelors Pasta ‘n’ Sauce Cheese & Broccoli flavour (0.5 syn for whole pack)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tub of cottage cheese
  • Any veg of choice – I used mushrooms, 1/2 red pepper and some spring onions

 

 

Basic Quiche Essentials

Basic Quiche Essentials

Method

Cook the pasta in 350ml of boiling water for 10 minutes.

Pre heat the oven at gas mark 6.

Blend the cottage cheese with the eggs in a large bowl and then add the veggies you are using.

Once the pasta is cooked, mix in the cottage cheese mixture with the veggies and place the mixture in silicone muffin cases.

Bake in the oven for around 20-25 minutes till cooked. If you like you can also add some cheese from your healthy extra A choice before placing the muffin cases in the oven.

 

Crustless Quiche

Crustless Quiche

 

Crucials Sauces Syns

You can buy these Crucials sauces from places like FarmFoods and B&M Bargains. They are really handy for adding flavour to food with minimal syns! Below are the syn values that Crucials have provided for their products, all are per tablespoon. Have you tried any of the sauces yet? Do you have a favourite? I love the Yogurt Mint! When I first bought it, I checked up the syns on the app (as you do!) and got really excited at the amount I saw on the screen. I thought it was too good to be true! I carried on eating loads of it with pretty much every food.

I have the habit of looking at syn values of my favourite things every so often just to make sure syns haven’t gone up or down (that would be awesome!). Luckily, I checked on the Yogurt Mint sauce again and realised the syns I had originally found was actually for their Mint sauce and not the Yogurt Mint! You might say so what? It can’t be that much of a difference, but it is. I was having the one that was 3 syns per tablespoon and counting it as only 0.5 syns! I still haven’t come across the full range, I am on the lookout for this Mint sauce that is 0.5 syns per tablespoon, if you have come across it yet please let me know where from!

In the meantime I will carry on enjoying their BBQ sauce which is absolutely amazing!

Crucials Sauces Syns

Crucials Sauces Syns

 

Kheema Pilau

Another extremely easy recipe to make, courtesy of Laziza spices! It makes life so much easier when you don’t have the time to measure out individual spices! You can replace the keema (mince meat) with any other type of meat or if you are vegetarian you can use chickpeas instead.

If you don’t want to use Fry Light you can use any other type of spray oil, just remember to count the number of sprays you use so you can work out the syn values. If you prefer, you can use 1 tbsp of oil (6 syns) and divide the syns by the number of portions you make. For instance, this should feed 4 people, so if you divide 6 (syns) by the number of portions, 4 you get 1.5 syns per portion which is still well within your daily allowance.

Pilau ingredients

Pilau ingredients

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 60-75 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 500g lean mince
  • 4 small onions, finely chopped
  • 2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • handful of frozen peas
  • 2 tablespoons Laziza Yakhni Pilau Spice mix
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 4 tablespoons fat free natural yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon garam masala
  • 2 stock cubes
  • 2 cups rice
  • low calorie cooking spray

Method

Wash and soak the rice and keep it aside till needed.

Spray a pan with lots of Fry light and fry the onions in medium/high heat till they are a dark brown colour. Keep stirring your onions so they don’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pan! If you find they are starting to stick, you can add a little boiling water at a time. The browning of onions should take around 10-15 minutes.

Add the cumin seeds and fry for another couple of minutes before adding the meat and the potatoes. Fry for 5 minutes and then add the yogurt and the Laziza spice.

Let that cook on a low heat, covered for about 15 minutes or longer depending on the size of your potatoes.

Use double the amount of boiling water to the rice and add it to the meat and crumble your stock cubes in and add the garam masala. Check for seasoning, add chilli if needed.

Drain the water off the rice and place it in the pan. Once the water starts boiling again replace the lid and let it cook on low heat for about 15-20 minutes without stirring/mixing. After that time you can pick your pan up (with oven gloves!) and give the rice a good ‘shake’ while making sure the lid stays firmly on. All the water should be evaporated and it is ready to eat!

Keema Pilau

Keema Pilau

 

Lamb Chops

Tonight’s dinner was simply delicious! I cooked lamb chops in JD Seasonings Steak Rub (buy them here) in my Tefal actifry for 20 minutes and they turned out amazing!

I marinated the chops for about 3-4 hours before cooking them. I cooked them in batches of two.

Lamb Chops with JD Seasoning

Lamb Chops with JD Seasoning

They were so juicy and super easy too! I could have easily eaten the lot

Lamb Chops, Bulgar Wheat and Salad

Lamb Chops, Bulgar Wheat and Salad

I had mine with bulgur wheat and a speedy salad drizzled with the new Crucials Hot Pepper Sauce (0.5 syn for 3tbsp) I picked up from FarmFoods today.

Crucials Hot Pepper Sauce

Crucials Hot Pepper Sauce

Making Bulgur Wheat

Makes enough for 2/3 people. Finely chop 2 small onions and then fry till golden brown. Add:

  • 1 tsp of cumin seeds
  • 1 tbsp of tomato puree
  • 1 tsp of ginger/garlic paste
  • 1 tsp of cumin powder
  • 1 tsp of coriander powder
  • 1/4 tsp of turmeric
  • 1 crumble of chicken stock cube
  • chilli flakes to taste (more = spicier)

Fry all together for 3/4 minutes. Add 1 cup of Bulgur wheat, add 1.5 cups of boiling water and simmer for about 10 minutes or until ready.

That’s it. Done.