Lentil & Chicken Soup

In one of my groups yesterday one of my lovely members mentioned chicken soup as one of her family’s favourite meal this week. I normally just make this Chicken & Noodle Soup but thought I’d try something different. She said she added a load of different veggies to it, chicken and potatoes. So after I got home from group yesterday, I raided my fridge and checked what veg I had in to make chicken soup. I already had leftover cooked chicken from the day before which made it ideal to use up. I replaced the potatoes with red lentils to make this a high protein packed soup. It turned out amazing!

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
  • 1 courgette, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
  • Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
  • 1 veg stock pot
  • 600 ml hot chicken stock (make more if needed)
  • 1/2 cup red lentils
  • Cooked chicken, shredded
  • 1 tsp basar (curry powder)
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
Lentil & Chicken Soup

Lentil & Chicken Soup

Method

Spray a pan with low calorie cooking spray and add all the veg – onion, carrot, courgette and pepper. Cook for around 5-8 minutes till it starts to soften.

Add the fresh parley and the lentils with the spices and the stock. Let the stock come to a boil and reduce the heat and cover the lid on the pan to cook the lentils for about 20-25 minutes. If needed add more stock/water to cook the lentils. You can also add more hot water at the end of cooking if the soup is too thick.

Add the shredded chicken to the cooked lentils and cook for another 10 minutes till the chicken is heated through.

 

Smoothies!

Smoothies are not something I usually have, if ever. I made one the other day as my daughter really wanted one for Suhoor (pre dawn meal in Ramadan) and thought I would do myself one too. To be fair I don’t think I would make them again for a couple of reasons: 1) it took me a while to work out syn values for all the fruit I was going to use! I wanted to keep it as low as syns as possible. Fruits are a Free Food if you follow Slimming World but only when eaten whole, so if blending you have to count the syns accordingly. 2) It did not fill me up, I need proper food! Smoothies are fine as a drink but I would personally rather use my syns on something other than blended fruit and I am quite happy drinking Free drinks.

But if you are partial to smoothies, why not give this one a go and let me know what you think! If you make any other low syn smoothies do share what you have.

Serves: 1

Syns: 5

Time Taken: less than 5 minutes, if you don’t include time taken working out syn values!

Difficulty: Easy

Smoothie

Smoothie

Ingredients

  • 200ml Alpro Unsweetened Almond milk
  • 50g fresh strawberries
  • 50g frozen blueberries
  • 50g banana
  • 1 tsp sweetener

Method

Place all ingredients in a blender and blitz! Enjoy 🙂

 

 

Spicy Rice

I have adapted this recipe I saw online and it turned out delicious! It is supposed to be a ‘fakeaway’ to Nando’s spicy rice, although it doesn’t taste exactly like the Nando’s version, it tastes amazing anyway. We had it with chicken tikka (made using Laziza spice mix, mixed with ginger/garlic paste and lemon juice).

Serves: 6

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30-40 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Spicy Rice and Chicken

Spicy Rice and Chicken

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
  • 1 carrot, peeled and grated
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
  • 1 vegetable stock pot
  • Handful of frozen peas
  • 2 cups of rice

 

Method

Spray a pan with low calorie oil spray and fry all the veg together in medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the spices and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the rice to the spices and mix thoroughly so all the rice is coated in the spices and veg.

Add 4 cups of boiling water, the vegetable stock pot and the chicken stock cube to it.

Lower the heat and cover the lid on the pan and cook the rice gently for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes into the cooking, add a handful of frozen peas and gently stir them into the rice and replace the lid again to cook for a further 5 minutes.

 

BBQ Pulled Chicken

This is such a delicious meal, we have it normally with wraps but they taste great with potato wedges and a salad. It is perfect if you haven’t much time to cook as it is done in the slow cooker so you can be out all day whilst this is cooking! This is a Slimming World recipe that has been adapted slightly.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 6-8 hours

Difficulty: Easy

BBQ Pulled Chicken Wrap

BBQ Pulled Chicken Wrap

  • Ingredients
  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp mustard powder
  • 500g passata
  • 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 2 tsp sweetener
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

In a small bowl, mix passata, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, sweetener, chilli flakes and seasoning. Transfer to a small pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Put the chicken in the slow cooker and coat with the sauce and cook for 6-8 hours on LOW.

Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and place on a cutting board. Allow the chicken to cool for approximately 15 minutes, then shred into bite-sized pieces using two forks.

Remove the sauce from the pan and set aside to drizzle on the chicken later if needed.

BBQ Pulled Chicken w/ Sweet Potato Chips

BBQ Pulled Chicken w/ Sweet Potato Chips