Syn Free Pho Ga...

So yesterday I discovered these lovely syn free instant noodles. I just had them for my lunch today and damn were they delicious! They are called Pho Ga noodles and you can generally find them at your local Chinese supermarket or in the foreign section of your local supermarket - I got mine in Tescos.

They are essentially rice noodles in a chicken broth. They are free on Green and Extra Easy and 2 1/2 syns on Red, which I think is pretty good if you're having a red day but just want something super quick and super filling that isn't meat.

These noodles come in their own little container, all you have to do is add boiling water - this makes them especially handy if you are heading away for the weekend camping or such and you really want to stick to plan but don't want to eat BBQ the while time. I will definitely be stocking up more of these. At only 50 calories a pot you could have a lot of these in a day and gain no weight at all... maybe that's why Chinese ladies are so skinny!

They aren't a really big portion too, so you could easily have two pots and not feel too greedy!


I already posted about going back to the Green and Red days rather than the Extra Easy, which just doesn't seem to work for me. But I also wanted to mention a little trial I am doing as well. J's mum and dad did the 5:2 diet for a while and it worked really really well for them! My problem is I like to have a treat EVERY day though so I will be doing the 5:2 diet the Slimming World way... 5 days of green and 2 days of red or extra easy. I like the idea of mixing it up a bit and the last time I did Slimming World I did 5 green days and two red/extraeasy - my red days were generally Wednesday (I had a low fat chicken dish from the chinese after weigh in) and I had an extra easy day on Sundays, when I cooked a Slimming World friendly roast dinner.

I am very excited about tomorrow night - J and I are having our first date night in a loooong time! We haven't had a date night since Valentine's day. We have been saving so hard and paying for bits and pieces of the wedding so we decided that tomorrow night we will go out for dinner and see a movie. We are seeing The Host (I re-read the book on Saturday and Sunday in preparation) and am very excited! Haven't decided on where we will be having dinner - generally we choose a place for burgers before the cinema, just because burgers, milkshakes and movies seem to go so well together (or is that an American idea?). I'm partial to the burgers in Makhulu 5, whereas J prefers a Big Mac! For a change we might go to the Mandarin Chinese in Bangor... yum, I love that place! It's sooooo much better than the China Buffet up the street... better quality food, service and price! Papa Joes is good too though! Oooooh decisions! I'll let you know what we decide and how the movie was (minus the spoilers!)

Breaking the habit...

I don't know if I am the only one who has this habit or not, but I wanted to share some of the methods I'm trying to combat it.

My name is Kirsty and I like to reward myself with food...

I have a very bad habit of rewarding myself with food, which really needs to stop. Instead of going to weigh-in on Wednesday night and rewarding myself with food after I loose weight... I need to reward myself with something unrelated to food, like clothing, shoes or a new DVD.

I have been trying really hard to break this habit... rather than thinking "Great, you've made it all week without eating any syns, now you can have a Chinese takeaway and a glass or two of wine"... I've started to think - "Great, you've made it all week without eating any syns, now you can buy yourself a new jumper."

Trust me, I know this is a very hard cycle to break - but it's one that is definitely worth breaking. I have also started to think more before I eat syns - I think to myself "Do I really want this?" If I really want it then I have to work for it - do 30 minutes on the stepper, or take the dog for a 30 minute walk. If I'm not prepared to do the exercise in order to eat it then I don't really want it - bottom line. And sometimes after doing the exercise I get the endorphin rush that makes me not crave the syns, so I have the bonus of getting some extra body magic time in and not eating any syns!

It doesn't always work like this - over the weekend when it was freezing cold and blowing a blizzard I ordered Chinese takeaway AND had it delivered... no exercise involved at all. I have also started asking for my Chinese takeaway to be made without MSG... I find that this helps me stop eating when I'm full - although I don't know for sure if getting it without the MSG helps or if that is just in my head. It's worth a try though.

These are my new rewards...

I'm more of an Irregular Choice fan... but these new designs by Iron Fist really caught my eye!

Slimming World Chicken, Veg and Pasta - eat your heart out Nigella!

I don't really like posting recipes and things, I prefer to just cook, eat and go! But since everyone I know is on Slimming World at the minute trying to shift those extra Christmas pounds, I thought I would post some recipes which I like to cook - maybe one a week - and hopefully you will share your recipes too! Nigella Lawson, eat your heart out!

This is a great way to make a big pot of slimming world friendly food for very little money. It's handy to have a big pot of something you know you can just grab a bowl off when your hungry without having to tot up syns/divide into thirds (superfree, green and red) etc. It's also a great way to use some superfree cottage cheese! I'm not a fan of it and have kept away from it, but I know a lot of people at my old Slimming World class found it really helpful to their weight-loss, so I've tried to use it in a lot of my cooking, especially as the base for cheese sauces - I do a mean free Italian Tagliatelle dish using cottage cheese. I'll post the recipe and pics for that next time I make it! 

Today's post is a really quick, simple and filling dish that I find makes 6-8 portions. When I get home from work at night I don't want to stand in the kitchen making a healthy meal that takes FOREVER... this one is really quick and simple and takes about 20 minutes MAX - and that includes my 5 min shower while the veggies are cooking!

You will need:

1 bag frozen Value Mixed Veg

1 bag frozen Value Broccoli

Frylight

2 packets of Tesco Chicken, Garlic and Wine Pasta

1 tub of Light Choices Cottage Cheese with onion and chive

4 chicken breasts

4 small onions

1 large pot with lid

1 frying pan or wok

1 colander 

Blender - handheld or other

This recipe has a total of 1 syn for the whole pot on extra easy, which should make 6-8 servings! Eat up!

This is the stuff you will need - as you can see I shop at Tesco, but any brand will do! I have here one bag of Value Mixed Veg, one bag of Value broccoli, Frylight, two packets of Tesco Chicken, Garlic and Wine Sauce Pasta (1/2 syn each), Light Choices Cottage Cheese with Onion and Chive and a four pack of chicken (which was on offer for £4). I also used four small onions (Tesco Value), but these aren't pictured

First thing first - boil your kettle!

Put the frozen mixed veg and frozen broccoli in the large pot, the frozen mixed veg has peas in it, which are classed as a 'green day' food so remember these are not superfree like the carrot and cauliflower in the mix. This is why I make sure to add the same amount of broccoli as I do mixed veg - approx three cups.

 

Pour boiling water over the veg and bring to the boil... this is where I popped off for a quick shower, and when I returned...

The veg was cooked! Tip it into your colander.

Boil your kettle again and tip both packets of pasta into the now empty pot.

Cut up your chicken - I like to cut mine into strips as they cook faster - and add them to a wok/frying pan with some frylight. Put it on a very low heat and let them cook (doing it this way means you will get tender chicken that's not dry)

Empty you cottage cheese into a dish - as you can see it doesn't look good at all!

Get your blender - I have a handheld one, but any one will do...

And give the cottage cheese and good whizz... it will turn out lovely and smooth and creamy!

Pop a lid over your wok/frying pan and let the chicken steam in it's own juices for a few minutes

Tip the chicken into the same colander as the veg, give it a shake and leave to drain

Meanwhile add 900ml of water to your pasta and bring to a simmer

Chop your onions...

And add them to your pasta pot...

The onions will soften as they cook with the pasta

Once most (not all) of the water has evaporated the the pasta is cooked add the colander of mixed veg, brocolli and chicken to the pot and stir

Cook for a couple of minutes then add the cottage cheese - you can use more than this to make it really saucy, but I found that the pasta packets have enough flavour in them that you don't need to much

Give it a stir and leave to cook for a couple of minutes until there is only about 3cm of juice in the bottom of the pot

You can eat it on it's own or bake some superfree butternut squash in the oven as a side dish with some mixed leaves.

NOTE: You can also add spinach to this dish (I just didn't have any in my fridge) - cook it in the pan with the chicken until wilted.

I hope you enjoy this! We certainly did!

Food Provenance excellence!

It's all about the food...

When I was at the Culloden Hotel on Tuesday night there was one thing in particular that really impressed me... the dedication to supporting local food producers - they use local produce in all of the six Hastings Hotels across Northern Ireland.

Food is a great love of mine, I believe it's one of life's greatest pleasures, something to be savoured and enjoyed, and I really love knowing that the food I'm enjoying is sourced locally and supports local producers.

Moyallon dry cured back bacon and breakfast sausages, Gracehill award winning black and white puddings and eggs sourced locally from Crossgar are a staple of all Hastings Hotels Ulster Frys, while musesli and granola, handmade by Crawford's Foods in County Down, and porridge, made with White's porridge oats (and a touch of Bushmills Whiskey) graces the breakfast tables of those who prefer a healthier start to the day.

The Armagh Cider Company provides all hotels in the Hastings group with their Apple Juice, while the milk, butter and cream is all fresh from Farmview Dairies in the Castlereagh Hills, and the yoghurt is naturally made just a few miles down the road at the Clandeboye Estate.

The famous Irwin family provides the finest Irish breads for toast, sandwiches and burgers, while The Yellow Door Deli and Patisserie bakes some delicious speciality breads for the hotels.
I was extremely proud to hear that all the vegetables and salads are provided by Killinchy-based Willowbrook Farm as I am a former employee and can personally vouch for the freshness and delicious farm-to-fork flavour of their produce.

Potatoes are provided by Wilson's Country Potatoes in County Armagh - who have also just patented a very special hexagonal Causeway chip for the hotel group... these are delicious and we were lucky enough to get to sample these crispy, chunky delights on Tuesday night!
A firm Northern Ireland favourite, Tayto NI Ltd supplies the crisp garnishes for the sandwiches and panninis... a real lunch time treat.

The list goes on with pork sourced from locally reared Irish pigs, grain-fed chicken and duck (again reared locally in counties Down and Armagh), grass-fed lamb, prime local breed Irish beef including the native Dexter and Irish Moiled. Glenarm Organic Shorthorn from the Glenarm Estate is on the menu alongside certified Northern Irish Hereford beef from Hannan Meats in County Armagh. Glenarm Organic salmon and langoustines landed in Kilkeel (which is used in their signature Guinness battered scampi) ensure the survival of the fishing trade by being sourced responsibly and sustainably.

No great dinner would be complete without a cheese board, and Hastings Hotel's is a truly Irish affair - Kearney Blue from County Down, Coolkeeran from the Causeway Cheese Company, Fivemiletown Ballybrie and the famous Irish Gubbeen all served with delicious handmade Ditty's oatcakes.

Afternoon tea? The Yellow Door Deli and Patisserie (a firm Belfast favourite and a regular at St George's Market) is one of the artisan producers who prepare the hotel's baked goods and patisseries while Glastry Farm near Kircubbin in County Down provides delicious handmade ice-cream.

The unique Hastings House Blend tea is made by the Thompson family in Belfast while the iconic Irish brand Bewley's provide the coffee.

In a previous post I called the fillet of beef I had on Tuesday night "the best piece of meat I've ever tasted" (or something to that effect)... and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the culinary genius behind such a sublimely tender piece of meat was so young (there he is in the wee picture below with Managing Director of Hastings Hotels, Howard Hastings... chef's the one in the white hat)! Many chefs twice his age would be in envy at his skill!

Howard Hastings with the uber gifted Culloden chef!

The bottom line is I enjoy good local food and I love it when hotels and restaurants share that passion - it makes my dining experience one hundred per cent better to know that my gorgeous beef fillet came from the farm only a couple of miles from my home and hasn't been frozen and bounced about in a container on it's way from France or Spain or Germany.

So get out there and experience this for yourselves - get yourself some locally sourced proper Irish grub at one of Hastings Hotel's fine establishments!

Here's a wee video from Howard Hastings...

Hastings Hotels - Food Provenance from AV Browne on Vimeo.