slimming world

Chicken Katsu Curry

Leave a comment

This is a mild Japanese curry with a Slimming World take! To save on time and convenience you can use ready made breadcrumbs, just remember to look up the syns beforehand. I served it with boiled rice and pickle cucumbers.

Serves: 4

Syns: 1.5 syns per serving

Time Taken: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Chicken Katsu Curry

Chicken Katsu Curry

Ingredients

For the chicken

  • 4 skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 slices of wholemeal (from a 400g loaf)
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the curry sauce

  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and grated
  • 4 celery sticks, thinly sliced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp mild curry powder
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 600ml chicken stock
  • Low calorie cooking spray
Chicken Katsu Curry

Chicken Katsu Curry

Method

Pre heat your oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Place the chicken breasts between cling film, beat until 1 cm thick and season.

Whizz the bread in a food processor to make fine crumbs. Tip onto a large plate and season well. Dip the chicken breasts into the eggs, then lightly coat each in a quarter of the breadcrumbs. Transfer to the baking tray sprayed with low calorie cooking spray and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Season the breadcrumbs with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place each chicken breast in some clingfilm and flatten with a rolling pin or meat tenderiser. Remove the clingfilm and dip the chicken in the egg, then coat with breadcrumbs and place on a baking tray sprayed with low-calorie cooking spray.

For the sauce, spray a large frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and place over a medium heat. Stir fry the onions for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic, carrots and celery. Stir fry for a further 5 minutes then add the curry powder, stock, soy sauce and season. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Blend the sauce for a smooth curry.

To serve, slice the chicken breast into pieces, spoon over the curry sauce and serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Speedy Hummous

Leave a comment

Hummous is such an easy thing to make and great to have with some speedy crudités as a snack or even a light lunch with crispbreads.

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 10 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Speedy Hummous

Speedy Hummous

Ingredients

  • 400g can chickpeas, drained
  • 2 garlic clove, crushed
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice, plus extra to taste
  • 2 tbsp fat free natural Greek yogurt
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Method

Put the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and yogurt into a food processor and pulse until fairly smooth. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, add more lemon juice to taste and sprinkle with cayenne pepper if you want a bit of spice.

Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days and serve with your favourite crudités or crispbreads.

Sweetcorn Soup

Leave a comment

One of my favourite soups from the Slimming World ready meals frozen range is the Sweetcorn Chowder soup, it is super delicious. So I though I’d try to recreate my own version of it and it came out quite nice! Here’s the recipe below.

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Sweetcorn Soup

Sweetcorn Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 medium potato, peeled and chopped
  • 2 celery sticks, chopped
  • 1 tin of creamed sweet corn
  • 1tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 stock cube

Method

Put the potato, celery and stock cube in a pan with enough water and cook for about 15-18 minutes till the potato is cooked.

Once cooked, blitz. Add the basil, chili flakes and tinned sweetcorn and cook for a further 5 minutes. Adjust any seasoning if needed.

It’s a wrap!

6 Comments

Wraps can be so high in syns, it can vary from 5 syns up to 9 syns each in some cases! It is great that there are a couple of options for us slimmers to choose from as part of healthy extra B choice – BFree Gluten Free Wrap or Weight Watchers Low Fat White Wraps. You can choose to have either as a B choice or if you want to syn them, the BFree wraps are 5 syns each and the Weight Watchers one is 5.5 syns which is not that bad at all if you love wraps!

They are really handy for a packed lunch, you can load it with any Free Foods you enjoy, or if you fancy something else, have a look at the following ideas.

Wrap Pizza

Wrap Pizza

Pizza – Spoon some tomato puree all over the wrap and sprinkle in some mixed herbs. Then just top it with all your favourite Free toppings and add 40g of light cheddar cheese as your healthy extra A choice. If you prefer a different cheese, just look up on your food optimising book for the amounts you can have for a different cheese.

Egg & Sausage Wrap

Egg & Sausage Wrap

Breakfast Wrap – Fill the wrap with two cooked sausages of your choice, I love the Linda McCartney’s Vegetarian Sausages (0.5 syn each), a fried egg or two and fried mushrooms. Then lightly toast the wrap for a warm breakfast wrap.

Masala Fish Wrap

Masala Fish Wrap

 

 

Masala Fish – Cook your masala fish as normal and fill your wrap with the fish, lettuce, tomato and cucumber. So simple and so good, perfect served with syn free chips.

Breakfast

Leave a comment

Some people eat breakfast whilst others cannot eat anything first thing in the morning, not me though! I can eat anytime! Breakfast is one of my favourite meals of the day, having a good breakfast  sets me up for the rest of the day. I do find on the days I just grab a piece of fruit or have nothing to eat because I am in a rush, those are the days I tend to go overboard with my syns.

If you don’t enjoy eating breakfast, you don’t have to force yourself to eat it. Maybe just grabbing a piece of fruit may be enough for you.

My breakfast tends to be the same most days. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that the majority of the time my breakfast consists of half a pot of Alpro Plain with Coconut ‘yogurt’ mixed with 1tbsp of sweetener, layered with crushed Weetabix and fruit. Raspberries are my favourite fruit for this breakfast, sometimes I add chopped mango or kiwi and drizzle some passion fruit on top. This is my all time favourite breakfast! I have recently started having chocolate Weetabix and oh em gee it is soooo good. You can have the chocolate Weetabix as a healthy extra B choice which is a bonus! But I tend to just syn my breakfast and use my healthy extra B choice later on in the day on Slimming World hifi bars. You can prepare this breakfast the night before as you do with overnight oats or make it in the morning.

Alpro with Weetabix

Alpro with Weetabix

I do love overnight oats but don’t make it as often as I don’t like to use my healthy extra B choice first thing in the morning! If I do overnight Weetabix that is fine for me as I only ever use 1 Weetabix which is half a B choice or just 3 syns each for the plain Weetabix.

If I have the time, I do enjoy a Slimming Word friendly cooked breakfast. I have fried eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and vegetarian sausages. This is a great way of saving your healthy extra B choice for later in the day and it is a completely FREE breakfast depending on what type of sausages you use.

Another breakfast that I enjoy eating is scrambled eggs! Get the recipe for perfectly scrambled eggs every time here

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms & beans

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms & beans

Eggs are just good in any way really, I do always have boiled eggs ready in the fridge to snack on throughout the day or breakfasts when I am in a rush.

On the odd occasions I do have porridge – sometimes just cooked simply in half water half milk mixture and topped with fruit or I do baked oats. Recipe here for baked oats. Bear in mind not all porridge sachets can be used as a healthy extra B choice, do check your food optimising book or the Slimming World app for all the up to date healthy extras. This one below is a B choice and it is lovely.

Big Bowl Porridge

Big Bowl Porridge

What is your favourite breakfast? Do share in the comments below what you enjoy eating for breakfast.

 

 

Nacho-Style Feast

2 Comments

This is such an easy meal packed full of flavour. The original SW recipe uses Primula cheese but I didn’t have any in the house so just used what I had in – light cheddar cheese and it was still delicious! Using Primula cheese will give you a more creamier topping.

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE if using cheese as healthy extra A choice

Time Taken: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Nacho-Style Feast

Nacho-Style Feast

Ingredients

  • 2 baking potatoes, cut into wedges
  • 250g lean beef mince
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 250g passata
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp fajita seasoning
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 80g light cheddar cheese, finely
  • Jalapeno peppers

Method

Chop potatoes in wedges and cook them in the actifry for around 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, spray a frying pan with low-calorie cooking spray and place over a medium-high heat. Add the mince and stir-fry for 10 minutes, then add the onion and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the passata and sprinkle in the cumin, fajita seasoning, paprika and chilli flakes. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Remove from the heat. Preheat your grill to high. Tip the wedges into two ovenproof dishes, spoon over the mince equally and sprinkle 40g of the cheese into each dish. Add the jalapenos and grill for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Nargisi Kofta Curry

Leave a comment

Nargisi Koftas are basically an Asian version of a Scotch egg! It is packed full of flavour and can be served on its own with a salad or chaat, or you can make it into a curry and serve it with boiled rice and/or chapattis and naan bread. I’ve used Laziza Kofta spice mix to the mince to add more flavour but if you haven’t got that you can use curry powder instead.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 60 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Nargisi Kofta Curry

Nargisi Kofta Curry

 

Ingredients

  • 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped in half
  • 500g lean mince
  • 3 tbsp Laziza Kofta mix
  • a handful of fresh coriander, chopped
  • 4 onions
  • 1 tsp ginger/garlic paste
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 5 tbsp passata
  • 1 tbsp hot curry powder
  • 2 tbsp fat free natural yogurt

Method

Chop 2 of the onions finely and blend using a hand blender. Add the onions, fresh coriander and Laziza spice mix in to the mince and mix well.

Flatten some of the mince into the palm of your hand and add one half of the boiled egg and cover it completely with the mince. Repeat this until all the eggs are covered in the mince. If you have any leftover mince you can shape them into meatballs without the egg.

In a frying pan, gently fry the koftas till all the meat is sealed around the egg. Remove from the pan and set aside till needed.

Chop the other two onions finely and fry in a pan with the ginger/garlic paste for around 10 minutes till the onion are lightly golden. If the onions start to stick to the bottom of the pan, add hot water to stop it sticking.

Add the tomato puree, passata and curry powder and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes before adding the koftas in to it. Lower the heat and cook gently for around 20 mintutes until the mince is cooked all around. Try to be very gentle when stirring the koftas to avoid them breaking up. Add the yogurt in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

Serve with boiled rice.

 

 

Vegetable Risotto

Leave a comment

You can add anything to the risotto, meat, fish or other veggies of your choice. I kept it really simple by using what I had in the house. Adding the dairylea cheese triangle at the end gives this risotto a lovely creamy texture. One triangle is 1.5 syns only or you can use it as part of your healthy extra A choice (5 triangles) making this dish completely Free!

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30-45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Vegetable Risotto

Vegetable Risotto

Ingredients

  • 125g risotto rice
  • 500ml chicken stock, use more if needed
  • 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 celery, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, chopped
  • Handful of frozen peas
  • Tinned sweet corn
  • Artichoke hearts
  • 2 dairylea blue cheese triangles (optional)

Method

Spray a pan with fry light and fry the shallot, celery, chilli and rice for 5 minutes.

Mix the dried herbs into the stock. Add the stock, a little at a time, to the rice whilst mixing it throughout.

Keep mixing the rice until all the stock has been used. If the rice still feels too Al dente, add more stock if needed.

Add the veggies and cook for a further 5 minutes, mixing all the time.

Add the cheese triangles, if using, and stir till melted into the rice. Serve the risotto immediately.

Aldi Shopping Essentials

4 Comments

Below are my Slimming World friendly goodies I picked up from Aldi today. I find Aldi such good value for money. My must-haves I get from there:

  • Cauliflower rice – I usually make pizza with this (recipe here)
  • Cottage cheese – Aldi one is the best cottage cheese. I absolutely love the onion and chives cottage cheese, it is syn free too! I top a jacket potato with it or make crustless quiche with it (recipe here) or eat it straight from the tub! It is sooo good.
  • Fry Light – when on offer I buy a few to keep me going.
  • Salmon – although the price has gone up recently, Aldi salmon is still the best value. I keep it simple by just grilling it for around 10 minutes and add salt and chilli flakes to it once cooked.
  • Quark – you can make so many things with it. Use it for savoury or sweet dishes. I like to make pancakes with it (recipe here)
  • Skinny Latte Brooklea Yogurt – I have to admit that I am slightly fussy when it comes to yogurts. My absolute favourite are the Alpro yogurts. I tend to find other yogurts a little bit too thin in texture. I like the creamier versions and this one from Aldi although is not as creamy as I’d like it to be, it is an amazing flavour and syn free unlike the Alpro yogurts!
  • Passata – you can this in most of the supermarkets and I don’t think there is much difference to the taste. Passata is great for pasta sauces or curries. Syn Rree and Speed Food.

What are your must-haves? Please comment below with your favourites.

 

Aldi Essentials

Aldi Essentials

 

 

 

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

Leave a comment

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.