dessert

No-Bake Cheesecake

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A super easy dessert you can whip up in a few minutes. My family love this cheesecake and now they can make it themselves with this recipe! This isn’t a SW friendly recipe, you can however work out the syn values yourself by working out the syns for all the ingredients and dividing by the number of servings you get.

You can top the cheesecake with pretty much anything you want. When I am pressed for time, I add chopped chocolate (as pictured), or grate a couple of digestive biscuits over it. Other toppings I love to add to the cheesecake are: fresh strawberries pureed and sweetened with a little icing sugar and crushed meringues (best to do this just before serving), crushed oreos, Ferrero Rocher, mango or passion fruit. What do you like to top your cheesecake with? Comment below with your fave toppings.

You can vary the biscuits you use for the base to include your favourite one – if I am making an Oreo flavoured cheesecake, then I’d use Oreo biscuits for the base and I would also add crushed Oreos to the cream mixture too.

Enjoy and feel free to tag me in your creations x

No-Bake Cheesecake

No-Bake Cheesecake

 

Ingredients

  • 250g digestive biscuits (crushed)
  • 100g butter (melted)
  • 600ml cream cheese
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 284ml tub Elmlea double cream
  • Vanilla extract

Method

Make the biscuit base first – crush the biscuits in a blender or you can crush them by hand. I usually get my kids to do it as they absolutely love bashing the biscuits with a rolling pin! Place the biscuits in a clean bag and bash it with a rolling pin until it is finally crushed. Add the melted butter and mix well. Place the biscuits in a flan dish and place it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to firm up.

Mix the cream cheese with icing sugar (don’t overmix as the cream cheese will turn runny). Mix until the sugar is evenly mixed. Add the Elmlea cream and vanilla extract and mix till it makes soft peaks.

Add the cream to the biscuit base and chill. Add topping of your choice before serving.

White Chocolate Mousse

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A few weeks ago I bought tofu as I’ve always wanted to try it but didn’t know what to do with it! I finally got round to making this super easy & delicious mousse after getting some advice from friends on Instagram.

One thing I didn’t realise was that there are different types of tofu you can buy, luckily I bought the right one to be used for making desserts – silken tofu.

Are you a fan of tofu? Are there any recipes that you’d recommend? Please comment below with your fave ways of using tofu.

Silken Tofu

Silken Tofu

 

Serves: 2

Syns: 1

Time Taken: less than 5 minutes plus chilling

Difficulty: Easy

 

Ingredients

  • Silken tofu
  • 1/2 tbsp. sweetener
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • one sachet of Options white chocolate

Method

Put all ingredients together and blitz till smooth. Divide the mixture into two ramekins and chill for at least an hour.

Tofu Mousse

Tofu Mousse

Coffee & Almond Rice Pudding

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Rice pudding is one of my fave foods ever – it is a complete bowl of comfort food, I could eat it anytime! This is an adapted version from the latest Slimming World magazine issue. The original recipe was coffee and walnut but I didn’t have any walnuts at home so made it with almonds instead. My recipe is slightly higher in syns as I used dark chocolate flavoured almond milk instead of the unsweetened almond milk the original recipe states. But having said that, the extra syns are totally worth it as it makes this rice pudding even more indulging!

You will love this if you love coffee and dark chocolate, it is such a perfect combination.

 

Serves: 4

Syns: 5

Time Taken: just over 2 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Coffee & Almond Rice Pudding

Coffee & Almond Rice Pudding

Ingredients

  • 120g dried pudding rice
  • 500ml Alpro Dark Chocolate Almond Milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 tbsp. Beanies Amaretto flavour  brewed coffee
  • 3 tbsp. sweetener
  • 350ml water
  • 20g almonds, roughly chopped

Method

Pre heat your oven to gas mark 2. Mix the pudding rice with the almond milk, vanilla extract, coffee, sweetener and water in a deep baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Stir, then re-cover with the foil and bake for a further 30-40 minutes, or until the rice is tender and creamy.

Divide the rice pudding between 4 bowls and top each with a quarter of the chopped almonds.

Hartley’s 10 Cal Jelly Pots

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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

Rice Pudding – Slimming World style

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In group this morning we were talking about rice pudding amongst all other things! My gorgeous members were sharing some pudding ideas and somehow we all ended up talking about almond milk, then cheese and then bread, suddenly we were talking about crustless bread!! It is funny how talk of one thing can lead to something completely different.

I absolutely love rice pudding, it is one of those comfort foods that makes you feel all warm inside. This is one of the easiest ways I have found of making it Slimming World friendly. I find that it does dry up if you leave it till the next day but I don’t mind cold rice pudding! I love it when it is all stodgy.

All you need is 125g pudding rice (you can find this on the baking aisles in the supermarkets, or you can use any type of short grain rice), 1lt of unsweetened almond milk (healthy extra A choice or 6 syns), 1 tsp nutmeg and sweetener (0.5 syn per tbsp.) to taste (it is best to add this at the end of the cooking) and cook it in the slow cooker for around 4-5 hours on low. I also like to add a bit of cinnamon once cooked, but this is optional. You can leave it out if you prefer it with just nutmeg.

Mmmm! Simply delicious.

Topping mad

Although this pudding tastes perfectly delish on its own, sometimes a little dollop of that certain something can top it off perfectly:

  • Sweeten it up with one level tablespoon of reduced-sugar jam for 1 Syn or 1 level teaspoon of honey for 1 syn
  • For a chocolatey treat, why not indulge in a 15g bag of Cadbury Chocolate Buttons stirred in until they melt, for an additional 4 Syns (soooo good)
  • Bananas, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries can be added for Free
Supermarket sweep

Ready made rice puddings tend to be quite high in Syns, due to the sugar content. Co-op’s Truly Irresistible Clotted Cream Rice Puddings are a whopping 23½ Syns per portion!!! And a 180g pot of Mulle Rice Original (described as low-fat) is a surprisingly high 9 Syns. Here are a couple of selections that are better options for us slimmers:

  • Ambrosia Rice Pudding, light, 115g pot, 5 Syns
  • Ambrosia Rice Pudding, Chocolate , 120g pot , 6½ Syns

How do you make your rice pudding Slimming World friendly? If you do it differently please comment below how you make them.

Alpro Dessert Moments

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I popped in Tesco this morning to pick up a couple of things and noticed these Alpro Dessert Moments – as soon as I saw Hazelnut and Chocolate on the packet, I knew I had to get it! Plus it was only £1 for a pack of 4! I found them in the chilled section at Tesco’s.

Alpro Dessert Moments Hazelnut Chocolate

Alpro Dessert Moments Hazelnut Chocolate

I thought it was delicious! I was expecting a stronger hazelnut taste, it was quite a subtle hazelnut but it was chocolatey. The texture wasn’t as thick as I’d hoped either, for some reason I was expecting it to be thick like the Alpro Go On pots! But I can’t complain as it was perfect to dip in my oaty doughnuts and only 4.5 syns each pot which has quite a generous amount in it.

Alpro Dessert Moments with Oaty Doughnuts

Alpro Dessert Moments with Oaty Doughnuts

There are also a couple of other flavours available but I am yet to try them – Almond Vanilla (4.5 syns) and Coconut (5 syns). I am quite excited about the coconut one as I love coconut! If you have spotted them do let me know where please.

My oaty doughnuts are just baked oats ( recipe here) made in my mini doughnut maker I bought from B&M Bargains. I love the gadget! You can also make waffles in it.

Coconut Macaroons

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These coconut macaroons are absolutely divine! Crunchy on the outside with a soft and chewy interior. Perfect sweet tooth fix.

Makes: 30 portions

Syns: 2 syns each

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 egg whites
  • 198g sugar
  • 71g desiccated coconut

Method

Beat the egg whites until frothy (Make sure no yolk whatsoever has contaminated the egg whites, otherwise you could be whisking for ever!) Add the sugar and beat until stiff.

Fold in the coconut, put mixture into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe 30 macaroons onto a parchment covered baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven (170ºC/150ºC Fan/Gas Mark 3).

Remove from oven, and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the baking sheet.

Quark Pancake

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I know this may sound like a weird combination, but it tastes lovely when topped with fruit. It is so low in syns that you don’t have to feel guilty about having a couple or more!

Serves: 1

Syns: 0.5 syn

Time Taken: 10 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon Quark
  • 1 tablespoon sweetener
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Crack the egg in a cup and mix it with the Quark, sweetener and vanilla. Try not to over mix as the Quark will make the pancake thicker!

In a frying pan, spray a low calorie spray oil and add the pancake mix. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes before flipping the pancake. Do be patient, try not to flip it too soon.