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!)

Family heirlooms, a free lunch and low syn noodles...

Really now, there aren't many things better than a free lunch? Especially a surprise free lunch from The Bay Tree in Holywood! I was all set for boring old Ramen Noodles for lunch when a courier van pulled up outside our office and delivered two brown bags filled with yummy goodness - one for my Editor, and one for me!

I have just scoffed this extremely tasty triple decker BLT on farmhouse bread...

And am about to tuck into this absolute divine looking slab of malteaser square...

The Bay Tree is located in the lovely little town of Holywood and is open seven days a week. That lunch was just DELICIOUS! I wonder if I could convince my work to relocate to Holywood?

Anyone who is friended with me on Facebook, knows all about my nan's glass door bookcase that was headed for the charity shop until I rescued it! I was in two minds about whether to have it shabby chic'd, or leave it as it is... so far I've left it as it is, and I think it looks quite well!

As you can see, we are in the middle of re-doing our living room (as much as we can in a rented place) so the walls are a bit bare! I'm forever throwing things away and it drives J mad, but I can't stand to have clutter ad mess around me...

But I think this antique unit really adds a little bit of character to this bare corner! And it's a great place to store all the little nick-nacks we pick up on our travels, and packs away books and DVD's neatly - I've just given about 60 books to the charity shop, I couldn't stand to have them cluttered on shelves around me! this little unit means the ones I did keep can be packed away neatly and don't bother me at all!

Last night J and I sat down to watch a bit of TV - Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners was on... I love that show! I can't believe the state of some peoples homes! Anyway... one lady was talking about how she started hording after some very traumatic events in her life - first, both she and her husband were stabbed in their shop... then their son died. I am the complete opposite of this - I used to hoard loads of crap, and I mean I would have piles of junk in my bedroom, things I would never use or need in a million years, but after Karl died in 2009 I literally stopped collecting things and now I can't stop throwing things away, I just can't stand to have any kind of clutter of mess around me - sometimes I have even thrown out things that we actually use, just because I can't stand to have them sitting around.

I used to have a collection of literally hundreds of books, but I threw half them away when J and I moved into the apartment a year ago and last weekend I got rid of the rest... this little unit and another very small bookcase in the dining area hold all that remain after the cull! I have just done another cull on shoes and handbags too... not that I've bought many new ones, just that I'm throwing more and more away... J says I'll end up with nothing left, lol, and he is probably right! Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a word (apart from mental or mad) for a person who enjoys throwing things away?

I also promised to share with you pictures of the low syn noodles I eat... I'm a big fan of Ramen and I love Curry Noodles. These are the lowest syn ones I could find -

You can find the ones above in the Chinese section of your local Tesco's. These are the chicken flavoured ones, but Tesco's also stock the Beef and Sesame flavoured ones. If you can, go to Camseng, the big Chinese superstore just off the Lisburn Road - down Lower Windsor Avenue, you will find lots more flavours there - I bought the pork and veg ones and also the duck ones to try this week. Each packet made up as directed is 3.5 syns - I checked this with the syns calculator online.

These noodles are found in the Polish food section of Tesco's (I go to the one in Newtownards) - they are delicious and only 1 syn per packet.

Both the ramen and the noodles make great lunches or snacks, but sometimes for a quick slimming world dinner, I will fry up some value stirfry veg and some thin sliced chicken to eat with each. For anyone who hasn't heard of ramen before, it's basically a noodle soup - lots of tasty noodles in a tasty broth - it's a really filling dish and it only takes 3 minutes in the microwave to make.

Slimming World Chicken, Veg and Noodle Stirfry with Curry Sauce

I wasn't meaning for this dish to be a blog post, and I wasn't expecting to be posting this regularly! I threw this in the pan last night when I got home from work, then thought, "oh, maybe I should put this on the blog" and took a quick few pictures. I don't have a picture of the ingredients list, but its really simple... here goes -

This makes enough for 2 people. 

I normally like to add frozen broccoli to this to, but I'm running low and wanted to keep it for tonights dinner.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

2 parcels of amoy medium egg noodles (you can use the fine ones too)

1/2 bag of tesco value stirfry veg (frozen)

Heaped tablespoon of Goldfish brand curry paste

frylight

First I chopped the chicken and frylighted the wok - then simply cooked the chicken strips until almost done before adding in 1/2 a bag of the frozen stirfry veg mix. Turn the heat down and let the mix cook...

Next I placed two parcels of the amoy medium egg noodles in a bowl of boiling water and left them to soften...

I use this curry sauce - its a brand called Goldfish. I had read a blog (mummypinkwellies) where a lady doing slimming world used it a lot and said it was low syns. I can't find a syn value for it in the book or online, but if you read the ingredient list on the side, its basically just a whole load of spices with some dried coconut milk preserved in oil, so for one heaped tablespoon I syn it as 8 (which is 4 syns per person) - this might be a bit high, or too low, but until slimming world syn it I really have no idea! I hasn't affected my weight loss though, so it can't be that bad....

Put one heaped tablespoon of it in a pot with some boiling water and whisk until dissolved, then let it simmer...

When the noddles are softened, drain them and add them to the wok, whack the heat up to high and cook for a few minutes, mixing everything together....

Add the curry sauce to the wok and turn the heat down to a simmer - you can just pour it on top of the wok mix after you've plated it up but I prefer to let the curry simmer with everything for a bit for flavour...

Dish into serving bowls...

Dig in!

I know I'm sometimes wary about using ingredients that I don't specifically know the syn value for, so if it helps you can syn it as 6 per serving - if you type curry into the online syns finder you get this - 

Basic, Fish & Chip Shops, Curry Sauce, average portion, per serving = 6 syns