Shakshuka

I can’t believe I haven’t posted on the blog for such a long time! Well here I am now with a Slimming World friendly recipe which I hope you will enjoy recreating, perfect for breakfast or any time of the day really. If you’d like to, you can have one wholemeal pitta bread as part of your healthy extra B choice with this meal or have it on its own making this a syn free recipe which is also perfect if you are doing an Extra Easy SP day! Hope everyone is keeping safe during these unprecedented times x

 

Shakshuka

Shakshuka

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1cal spray oil
  • 1 small red onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 pepper (red or yellow), chopped
  • a few chestnut mushrooms, chopped
  • 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 1tsp chilli powder
  • 1/2tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2tsp paprika
  • 1tsp ground cumin
  • 3 or 4 eggs
  • Seasoning to taste
  • Fresh coriander to garnish

Method

Spray a frying pan with spray oil and fry your onion, garlic, pepper and mushrooms until soft and the onions start to turn brown (add water if needed to stop it sticking to the pan).

Add the tomatoes and all the spices bringing the pan to the boil, stir and simmer for around 5 minutes.

Make wells in the tomatoes with the back of a large spoon to make space for the eggs.

Crack the eggs in, cover and simmer for around 10 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

Season to taste and garnish with fresh coriander before eating.

Overnight Weetabix

This is one recipe I get asked about a lot for some reason, so I have finally done a video showing you how I make mine. You can replace the Weetabix with oats if you prefer (40g porridge oats is a healthy extra B choice) but I personally do not like overnight oats, hence why I make with Weetabix instead and I almost always have chocolate Weetabix!

You can make this syn free by using a natural fat free yogurt and counting the Weetabix as your healthy extra B choice. You can add some vanilla flavouring to your yogurt to add a bit of sweetness and flavour, I only like eating Alpro yogurts so always have to syn mine. The one featured in the video is 1 syn for 200ml which is not bad at all.

This yogurt can also be eaten straight away after it is made, so if you are not as organised as I am most of the time, I eat this as soon as I make it and tastes great too.

Ingredients

  • 1 apple, chopped
  • Cinnamon powder
  • 200ml Alpro mango yogurt
  • 1 Chocolate Weetabix, crushed

Method

Chop the apple and sprinkle some cinnamon on it.

Crush the Weetabix.

Layer a mason jar with some yogurt, followed by the yogurt and the apple. Continue doing this till you’ve used up the Weetabix.

Place in the fridge till you are ready to eat.

Rajma Curry

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 cal spray oil
  • 2 red onions, chopped
  • Salt, to taste
  • 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • 1 tbsp ginger & garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp curry powder/bassar
  • 1/2 tbsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2 tins red kidney beans, drained
  • Fresh coriander to garnish

Method

Spray a pan with 1cal spray oil.

Fry onions with the salt till lightly golden. Add cumin seeds and fenugreek. Add water to the pan if the onions start to stick to the pan.

Add the ginger & garlic paste and continue frying for another couple of minutes.

Add the curry powder and garam masala. Cook the spices for around 5 minutes, adding water if needed.

Add the tomato puree, cook for a minute before adding the kidney beans. If you want to you can add more water if the curry looks too dry.

Cover the lid and simmer. Cook gently for 10 minutes before garnishing with fresh coriander. Serve with boiled rice.

Sweet Potato Pakoras

These sweet potato pakoras reminded me of the Aldi sweet potato burgers! If you’ve had them before you’ll know what I am talking about. The mix makes enough for 12 pakoras making them 1 syn each. I haven’t tried them with regular potatoes but they should work with them too. Let me know if  you try them with regular potatoes. Hope you enjoy x

Serves: 12 units

Syns: 1 syn each

Time Taken: 40 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 3 red onion, finely sliced
  • 1 large sweet potato, grated
  • 75g gram flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tbsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Spray oil

Method

Mix the onions and potato together so that they are evenly distributed.

Add the gram flour (a bit at a time, you may not need all the amount) and all the spices. Mix it well again. Add the baking powder. If needed, you may add water to the batter (I don’t as there is enough moisture from the onions and potatoes).

Spray a muffin tin with spray oil (or you can use a baking sheet instead and do them free form). Evenly distribute the mix into each muffin hole, you should have enough for 12 pakoras. Press down the mix into the muffin tin and bake them at a preheated oven at 180c for 30 minutes.

 

Ramadan 2020 Planner Week 2

Here’s what week 2 of my Ramadan 2020 meal planner looks like. Please note that if I have leftovers I won’t cook the following day. I hate to waste food, so I end up eating the leftovers and might cook something different for the kids if needed. So far this Ramadan I haven’t had any leftovers, I have been cooking enough for each day so I am on track with my first week. As always, please note this is just to give you an insight of what I like to eat and to give you ideas. You may not like some of the foods I have on my planner so please eat what you like as long as it fits within the Slimming World plan if that’s what you’re following.

If you’d like to try some of the meals from my planner, you will find most of the recipes on my blog (use the search button to find the recipe you want). If you’d like to purchase the Spicentice spice kits mentioned below, you can use my discount code to save you some money (20% off code – RM20). I like to use the spice kits from time to time as it saves me time in the kitchen. All the spice kits come with full instructions on how to make the meal and are very easy to follow. You can find the whole range here.

 

Ramadan Planner Week 2

Ramadan Planner Week 2

 

Please also note that I have not included my syns. That will depend on what I fancy on the day. Fast is always opened with a date (3 syns) and fresh fruit. Hope your Ramadan is going well, please remember me and my family in your prayers x

Ramadan 2020

Ramadan is almost upon us and this year it is going to be challenging for many Muslims around the world with the pandemic going on. Please remember to observe social distancing guidelines and stay safe.

For the last few months I have kind of fallen off the Slimming World wagon and have just been eating what I wanted. This Ramadan, I intend on fully getting back on track with my food habits and hopefully will carry on after Ramadan ends too.

I have done my first week meal planner for Ramadan to include foods I enjoy eating and all part of the plan. My healthy extras are mainly being used at Suhoor time with my meals at Iftaar mostly being Free Food or low in syns. All the recipes can be found here on my blog. I hope this is useful for anyone following Slimming World or anyone that just wants some ideas on what to eat!

I will open my fasts everyday with a date (syns) and fresh fruit with plenty of water, followed by the main meal. I intend on keeping active this Ramadan by doing home walking videos. If you’ve not tried this before, do give it ago. It is amazing! There are lots of Youtube videos of walking at home to choose from, I usually follow ‘Walk at Home by Leslie Sansone’. There are different miles to chose from and you can work up a sweat without having to do any burpees or squats! I will do around 3 of these a week.

What are your plans for this Ramadan? Are you going to be following Slimming World or being active at all? Remember this planner is just to give you an idea of what I will be eating, you don’t have to follow it to the letter or follow it at all. Everyone likes different foods and with SW it is so easy to adapt many dishes, it is not all just salad! Plan meals you’ll enjoy eating that fits with the plan. I know some people find there are too many carbs on my planner but with SW carbs are not banned! The carbs included in my Iftaar are Free Foods (apart from the pitta bread on day 7), and if you are a SW member, then you’ll know that Free Foods are unlimited and you don’t have to weigh, measure or count quantities of these foods in any way. Remember the two golden rules of a healthy diet:

  1.  A wide variety of food
  2.  Everything in moderation

If you follow the plan properly, you will lose weight. Measure your healthy extras accurately and count your syns carefully. It is as simple as that!

Hope you all have a blessed Ramadan. Please remember my family and I in your prayers.

Ramadan Mubarak x

Ramadan 2020 Planner Week1

Ramadan 2020 Planner Week1

 

Chickpea Pilau

An easy pilau recipe that is syn free if you are following Slimming World. Serves: 4 Syns: FREE Time Taken: 30-45 minutes Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • Salt to taste
  • 3 black cardamoms
  • 3 cloves
  • 1 green chilli, whole
  • 1 tbsp ginger/garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp garam masala
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 tin chickpeas, drained

Method

Spray a pan with plenty of spray oil. Add onions, salt and cumin seeds. Cook until onions are browned (this may take a while, be patient), add hot water as needed to the pan to stop onions from sticking to the pan. Add the ginger/garlic paste. Add the chilli, cardamoms and cloves, followed by the garam masala and black pepper. Cook the spices for a few minutes before adding the stock. Remove the whole spices (cardamoms and cloves) and add the chickpeas. Let most of the water evaporate before closing the lid and cook on a low heat for around 15 minutes.

Quorn Chilli

A vegetarian alternative to making chilli, using Quorn mince.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 40 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 1/2 tbsp paprika
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 500g lean beef mince
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • Passata
  • Tin red kidney beans, drained
  • Spray oil

Quorn Chilli Ingredients

Quorn Chilli Ingredients

Method

Spray a pan with spray oil and fry the onions until soft with the cumin seeds. Add hot water to the pan if needed to stop the onions from sticking to the pan.

Add the garlic, chilli flakes, paprika, ground cumin and mixed herbs. Stir well and cook for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the Quorn mince. Crumble the stock cube over it and mix well. Add passata and cook the mince on a low heat for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain and rinse the red kidney beans and stir them into the mince in the last 10 minutes of cooking. Add some water to the mince if it is too dry and season to taste.

Serve with plain boiled rice, fat free yogurt and cheese.

Karak Chai

The recipe below makes 2 cups of karak chai using evaporated milk, but any milk will do. I don’t use evaporated milk all the time, but sometimes I like to treat myself. Normally I just use semi skimmed milk. This recipe can be made SW friendly, make sure you measure the amount of milk used as part of your healthy extra A choice and use sweetener instead of sugar (or syn the sugar used accordingly).

My top tips to a good cup of karak chai is to always use good quality loose black tea (I am lucky my sister always supplies me with a huge batch from India, so I haven’t ever had to buy the tea myself, yet!); and secondly, make sure you keep stirring the tea whilst cooking. I know lots of people don’t, but I always stir.

If you don’t have loose tea, use a couple of tea bags instead. We like to have Yorkshire Gold tea bags.

Adjust the amount of loose tea depending on how strong you want your chai. Do note that as the tea is brewing the colour will get darker so take that into account when adding your loose tea. Add less to begin with and if you think that once it has boiled a few times it is still not strong, then add more tea.

You could also make karak coffee this way with evaporated milk, replacing the tea with coffee granules obviously!

Karak Chai Ingredients

Karak Chai Ingredients

 

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cup of water
  • 2 tbsp black loose tea
  • 1 small cinnamon stick
  • 2 cloves
  • 5 green cardamoms, lightly crushed
  • 1 tin of evaporated milk
  • sugar to taste

Method

Bring the water to boil. Add the loose tea, spices and sugar. Let it boil a couple of times before adding the milk.

Once you’ve added the milk, keep stirring the tea on a medium heat, taking care it doesn’t boil over. Make sure you keep a close eye on the tea and lower the tea (or remove the pan from the heat) once it start to boil to the top of the pan.

Do that a few times (around 5 times is enough) and strain the tea into cups.

Karak Chai

Karak Chai

 

Chilli Con Carne

Haven’t shared a Slimming World friendly recipe for a while, so I thought I might as well post this one as I haven’t made this in such a long time and this is not in my recipe list!

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I have been having some major house building work done since March this year and we have been without a kitchen all this time. Cooking has been extremely difficult! So this is how we have been coping. We have 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. We turned the smallest bedroom (hubby’s office) into our kitchen with a table top electric hob, a small fridge (big enough just for the essentials like milk, cheese, butter), a microwave, slow cooker and my trusty Tefal Actifry. My youngest daughter’s bedroom has been turned into our living room. We moved her bed and most of her furniture away so we could put the sofas and TV there. Luckily we had our loft conversion done a couple of years ago so we gained two bedrooms and a bathroom there so all the kids (I have 3 daughters) share that space. Our main bedroom is also hubby’s office for the time being.

I have to admit the work has taken much longer than we anticipated, we did have a few problems along the way which delayed the work but it looks like it will be end of September/ early October before we can start using the downstairs space again and I cannot wait!

I can’t wait to share with you once it is complete, in the meantime, if you are on Instagram please follow me on there for my house renovation updates and other bits and bobs about me on @Rahema_m.

Anyway, back to the recipe! Hope you enjoy this simple chilli recipe. We had it served with boiled rice topped with cheese and jalapenos, but it is lovely on a jacket potato too. As always, if you make this or any other recipes featured on my blog, feel free to tag me in your creations. I love seeing your versions of them x

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Chilli Con Carne

Chilli Con Carne

Ingredients

  • 2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 1/2 tbsp paprika
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 500g lean beef mince
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • Tin chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • Tin red kidney beans
  • Spray oil

Method

Spray a pan with spray oil of your choice and fry the onions until soft with the cumin seeds. Add hot water to the pan if needed to stop the onions from sticking to the pan.

Add the garlic, chilli flakes, paprika, ground cumin and mixed herbs. Stir well and cook for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the mince and brown it off on a high heat. Crumble the stock cube over it and mix well. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and cook the mince on a low heat for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain and rinse the red kidney beans and stir them into the mince and cook for a further 10 minutes. Add some water to the mince if it is too dry and season to taste.

Serve with plain boiled rice.