free food

BBQ Chicken Marinade

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Crustless Quiche Muffins

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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

 

Lamb Chops

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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.

Snacks & Nibbles

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I absolutely love this feature on the SW website, which I’ve included below, that is all about snacks & nibbles! This is perfect whether you’re in need of a tasty lifesaver to keep you going, a mid-morning munch or simply a healthier alternative to a high-Syn snack, for when a ‘nibbly’ moment comes. Some need no cooking at all and some are simple to cook in advance and keep in the fridge ready for those times. Please do share using the comments box below what your favourite snacks & nibbles are.

Speed Free Food snacks
Snack on these for the BEST weight loss results. The more Speed you choose the more weight you’ll lose!

Savoury

  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Veg crudités – carrot, peppers, celery, sugar snap peas, and dips like homemade houmous
  • Sweet baby cucumbers
  • Roasted butternut squash chips (cooked in low calorie cooking spray)
  • Pickled beetroot, gherkins, cabbage and onions
  • Slimming World quiche muffins packed with your favourite Speed Free Foods

Sweet

  • Fruit bowl favourites – apples, satsumas, pears, peaches
  • Melon chunks – pop in the freezer for a cool nibble
  • Fat free Greek-style yogurt mixed with 1 tsp sweetener and top with strawberries and raspberries
  • Apple wedges dunked in your favourite syn free yogurt
Other Free nibbles include:

Savoury

  • Boil or bake a fresh corn on the cob, season well – I like to add chilli powder to it too
  • Hardboiled eggs

    Boiled Eggs, Clementines & Activia 0%

    Boiled Eggs, Clementines & Activia 0%

  • Seafood sticks dipped in soy sauce
  • Lean turkey, chicken,  chicken drumsticks (skin removed)
  • Sweet potato chips
  • Drain a can of tuna in spring water and blend with lemon juice and quark to make a pâté. Mix in chopped chives and spring onions, and serve with veg sticks
  • Asda Chosen by You Vegetable Chilli, from a 400g can, topped with a dollop of fat-free natural yogurt
  • Whizz roasted red peppers in brine from a jar with fat-free natural fromage frais and paprika, then use as a dip for cooked and peeled prawns.
  • Mugshots – my favourite one has to be the Cajun pasta flavour. Be aware that if you buy this flavour in a sachet it is 0.5 syn! The pot is FREE.

    Cajun Pasta Mugshot

    Cajun Pasta Mugshot

Sweet

  • Fat-free yogurt. Not all fat-free yogurts are Free eg. Onken Fat Free Yogurt Vanilla is 5 Syns per 450g pot  (double check your favourite flavour in Syns Online to protect your weight loss)
  • Freeze an Activia 0% strawberry yogurt in an ice-cube tray and enjoy like frozen sweets
  • Ice cream: Chop a handful of cherries and stir into two pots of Activia 0% (or similar) cherry yogurts and a large tub of fat free fromage frais. Pop it in the freezer for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally
  • Fresh pineapple chunks
Healthy Extra bites – If you’ve got your Healthy Extras left, tuck into one of these super snacks!
Hifi Light Bars

Hifi Light Bars

  • Cereal bars – 2 Hi-fi Light or Alpen Light bars (Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice)
  • 4 Ryvita Original/Dark Rye (Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice) topped with 4 Laughing Cow Light Triangles (Healthy Extra ‘a’ choice) and mixed pickles like gherkins and onions
  • 60g of any wholemeal bread, toasted (Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice), topped with 40g reduced fat Cheddar (Healthy Extra ‘a’ choice) and halved cherry tomatoes
  • 30g bag Ryvita Minis, all varieties (Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice)
  • 500g cooked rhubarb (Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice) topped with fat free Greek-style yogurt mixed with 1 tsp sweetener
  • 35 pistachio nuts (Healthy Extra ‘b’ choice)

Homity Pie

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This is one of my favourite Slimming World’s recipe, it is such a good comfort food. Perfect for cold nights. I also added some broccoli to mine as I had some that needed using up, you can add any extra speedy veg to it that you like. In the past I’ve added carrots in it too!

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE when using cheese as a Healthy Extra A choice

Time Taken: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients

  • Low calorie cooking spray
  • 340g potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 225g onions, chopped
  • 225g leeks, thinly sliced
  • 198g frozen peas
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • A handful of fresh parsley, chopped
  • A handful of fresh thyme, chopped
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 85ml of vegetable stock
  • 160g reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, grated
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Homity Pie

Homity Pie

Method

Preheat your oven to 220°C/200°F/Gas 7. Spray a medium-sized, ovenproof dish with low calorie cooking spray.

Boil potatoes for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Drain return to the pan and mash. Set aside until needed.

Spray a large non-stick frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and stir-fry the onions, leeks and peas over a medium heat for 6-8 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened.

Add the mashed potatoes, garlic, parsley, thyme eggs, stock and half the cheese, season and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into the prepared ovenproof dish and scatter over the remaining cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Caribbean Beef Pepperpot Stew

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I don’t know why it took me so long to try this recipe! This is absolutely delicious. You can replace the beef with chicken instead if you prefer and adjust cooking times as chicken will not take as long to cook. We had it served with boiled rice. Don’t let the long ingredients list put you off! It is really easy to make this.

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 1.5 hours

Difficulty: Easy

ingredients

  • Low calorie cooking spray
  • 400g stewing beef, all visible fat removed, cut into bite-size pieces

    Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

    Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

  • 2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 200g green beans, trimmed and halved
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp jerk seasoning
  • ¼ tsp sweetener
  • 200g passata with onions and garlic
  • 200ml beef stock
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 200g dried long-grain rice
  • A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, to garnish

Method

Place a medium, flameproof casserole dish sprayed with low calorie cooking spray over a high heat. Add the beef and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
Add the peppers, sweet potato, beans, garlic, jerk seasoning, wine vinegar, sweetener, passata, stock and Worcestershire sauce. Season and stir well. Cover and cook for 1½ hours, or until the beef is meltingly tender.

Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

Caribbean Pepperpot Stew

Tip: Make it serve 4: Increase the beef to 800g, add another red pepper and small sweet potato, increase the beans to 300g, add another garlic clove and double the amount of passata and stock. Cook for an extra 20-30 minutes, or until the beef is tender.

Ways to eat more Speed Foods

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Free Foods are naturally low in calories, bulky and filling. Speed Free Foods are even lower in calories so they’re the very best foods to eat when you want to lose weight. So if you swap one third or more of the slimming Free Food on your plate for super-slimming Speed Free Food, you’re naturally reducing the calories – without weighing, measuring, counting or going hungry.

You can find the fruit and vegetable lists that are just bursting with Speed Free Foods in your Food Optimising book – just look for the ‘S’ symbol. If you haven’t got your book handy, in the Weight Loss Planner section of the Slimming World website you’ll find drop down lists of all the basic Free Foods. Speed Free Foods are all marked with an ‘S’.

If you are a Slimming World group member you must have heard at least once in your group ‘The more speed you have, the more weight you’ll lose’!!! And that is correct, but it does not mean filling up on Speed Foods after a meal full of syns hoping it will counteract the calories consumed! What Slimming World mean by ‘The more speed you have, the more weight you’ll lose’ is replacing Free Foods and Syns on your plate with Speed Food, not adding extra calories if you do not need them.

Below are just some of the ways that helps me and my members get our Speed Free Food in our day. Please do share how you get more Speed Foods in your day!

  1. Fill at least 1/3 of a plate, add more if you like! I always find filling my plate up with Speed Free Food first helps me get this right
  2. Reach for them first as a snack between meals – whether it be a Satsuma, an apple, carrot batons or cucumber sticks, whatever you enjoy the most, reach for that Speed Food first
  3. Enjoy them for desserts – you can make a delicious Speed Food fruit salad with all your favourite fruit
  4. Whizz them into a soup, great for lunch or as a warming snack – soups are a great way of getting more Speed vegetables into your day
  5. Cram them into your Free main meals – this is ideal especially if you don’t enjoy bulky veggies or have fussy eating children and partner like mine!
  6. Sizzle them in a stir-fry – drizzle some soy sauce and oyster sauce for flavour
  7. Load them into a quiche, frittata or omelette – I love adding veg like onions, mushrooms and peppers into these
  8. Enjoy them as an alternative to pasta, rice and noodles – if you haven’t tried cauliflower rice yet, you must! There are so many other veg that can replace pasta too like courgetti or butternut squash lasagne sheets!
  9. Get creative with your cooked breakfast – how about using asparagus or spinach into your cooked breakfast for a change!
Lasagne with butternut squash sheets

Lasagne with butternut squash sheets