Motivational Meal Plan Mondays

Hello my lovelies!

I don't know about you, but weekends can be my downfall. It's very easy to fall off the Slimming World bandwagon when your other-half offers to buy pizza... and garlic bread... and chips.... *ahem* on a Saturday night. So today I just wanted to do a quick Slimming world Monday meal plan for you all. I know a lot of you have very busy lives and need something that is not only quick and tasty, but is also SW approved - especially on a Monday! 

When I have a lot on my plate (no pun intended) I revert back to the good old green days - for me carbs are a little gift sent from heaven to make me feel full, satisfied and full of energy.

This is my typical busy day meal plan:

BREAKFAST - HEa & HEb

Two Weetabix with sweetener and semi-skim milk

Coffee and semi-skim milk

LUNCH - 3.5 syns

Uncle Ben’s Vegetable Express Rice (2 syns)

Small can of Heinz curry flavour baked beans (1.5 syns)

Water or a Diet Coke

DINNER - 2 syns

Batchelor’s Pasta ’n’ Sauce Macaroni (2 syns)

Water or a Diet Coke

SNACKS

Muller Light Fat Free Fruitopolis (1/2 syn per pot) - I would normally have a coupe of these.

In general a busy day for me would use up more syns than if I had time to make completely free meals but I don’t think this really matters. SW is about learning how to eat healthy no matter how much time you have and it gives you plenty of options to help you do that. Of course a little preparation would help me stay syn free on these days, but to be honest sometimes I’d rather use a couple of syns and have an easy life than struggle around an already busy schedule to prepare meals in advance. 

Today’s total syn count will be 6.5, which keeps me well under the 15 syn recommendation and I’ll have used 1 HEa and 1 HEb. If I’m feeling a bit luxurious tonight I might add another HEa worth of cheese to my Macaroni… the frivolity!

I hope you are all having a happy and healthy Monday! Don't worry if you've fallen off the bandwagon over the weekend (or even with that cheeky Mc D's on the way to work this morning), every meal is a fresh start!

Big love, 

Kiki x

A quick supper of Feta and Tomato Stuffed Chicken

Hello my lovelies!

This is a super quick, super easy slimming world recipe that I threw together last night for a quick supper. This is for two people so just multiply the ingredients as necessary.

I served this with salad and Mash Direct chilli baby bakes. I’m not too sure how many syns they are, but I don’t think they could be that many. If you are worried at all about using something that you don’t low the syns for then please just use the baby boiled potatoes in the micro bag (the ones from Tesco - I hope you know what Im taking about) or rustle up some SW chips or a baked potato.

I was also going to use up the rest of the asparagus and tenderstem broccoli for some extra super free but they had gone off… oops!

STUFFED CHICKEN

2 chicken fillets

50g feta cheese

Handful of Plum or Cherry tomatoes

1 chopped scallion (green onion)

4 strips of bacon (fat cut off)

LETS COOK!

1. Get your oven heated up to 190oC and chop up your tomatoes and scallion.

2. Place the chicken breasts on a large piece of grease-proof paper and give them a bash until they are about 1.5 cm thick (I cover them with greaseproof paper before bashing so the chicken doesn’t stick to the rolling pin)

3. Top them with the copped tomatoes, scallion and some crumbled feta. Cover with bacon and put in the oven. I just put mine straight onto the rack on the greaseproof paper.

4. Cook the chicken for 30-35 minutes depending on how crispy you like your bacon.

(Sorry, I had already started!)

It was super quick to make and really tasty! I hope you like it. Let me know if you try it or if you have any quick supper ideas like this. Bon Appetit!

Kiki x

Slimming World style Jamie Oliver Cajun Chicken

Hello my lovelies!

I know in my last post I wrote that I would try and make Sundays my outfits of the week post, but to be honest I've been putting them on Instagram daily and I feel like it would just be too repetitive to do a whole post on it, especially since my Intagram feed is linked to this blog in the panel on the left.

So instead I'm dedicating this post to food.. what else, ha!

A lot of you may not know this but I am super interested in cookery books and have amassed a little collection on my kitchen windowsill.

One of my favourite TV chefs is Jamie Oliver. I watch the majority of his cooking programmes and his food always looks soooo good. My lovely husband bought me two of his cookery books for Christmas two years ago, but I never got around to making any recipes from them because it was right around that time that I started Slimming World and just automatically assumed that none of the recipes would be suitable for SW. Oh how wrong I was. I recently got back into watching his 15 minute meal series and realised just how SW friendly his meals are!

The majority of the 15 Minute Meal recipes can be really easily adapted to be SW friendly - and more pocket friendly. Seriously, who buys corn on the cob over a tin of sweetcorn? And who has a griddle pan just laying around the house? Also, Jamie must have a seriously big stove top because trying to fit all these pots and pans onto the stove at the same time was just ridiculous. Rant over. For now.

Anyway, I tried out the Spicy Cajun Chicken with Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Fresh Corn Salad this week and although it took me 30 minutes, not 15 (thanks Jamie!) it was still a beautiful meal, really high quality flavour and a few tweaks made it 100% SW friendly. It was honestly delicious. I divided the ingredients in half because I was only cooking for two, but the below is to serve four.

So here are Jamie’s recommended ingredients and my tweaks:

SALSA:

4 corn on the cob - substituted 2 cans of Tesco Value Sweetcorn

1 small bunch of fresh coriander

1/2 fresh red chilli

4 spring onions

3 ripe tomatoes - substituted a handful of plum tomatoes that were on offer in Tesco

2 limes - didn’t bother with these at all

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - left this out

SMASH:

800g sweet potatoes - 3 or 4 sweet potatoes depending on size

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce - this was syned at 3 syns between 4 people - I counted as 1 syn each to be safe

CHICKEN:

4 x 120g skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp Cajun seasoning

1 tbsp polenta - did’t use this

olive oil - substituted for Frylight

2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon - make sure the fat is cut off or use the rindless medallions

175g okra - substituted for asparagus and tender stem broccoli (come in a double pack in tesco)

20g feta cheese - used as HEA (or 5 syns - split between 4 I would count that as 1.5 syns per person to be safe)

Jamie says to get the kettle boiled and get a griddle pan on high heat. If you have a griddle pan, great, get it going. I don’t, so I got a non-stick frying pan on the go.

If you want to follow Jamie’s recipe, i.e using corn on the cob then I recommend you get the book or have a wee look online, I’m are it’s on his website. From here on out I’ll be changing the steps to fit how I did it SW style.

START COOKING

1. Drain the corn and cook it with some Frylight in a pan.

  

2. Wash the sweet potatoes, peel, then finely slice. Put the sweet potatoes into a large pot, then just cover with boiling salted water and the lid.

3. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt and the Cajun seasoning. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to approx 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put the chicken into a frying pan with some Frylight, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through.

4. Drain the cooked sweet potatoes, return to the pan and mash with the sweet chilli sauce, pop the lid on and leave on a very low heat. 

  

5. Slice the bacon and add to the frying pan (use the same one as the chicken if you have room, if not get another pan out, or take the chicken out of that pan). As soon as the bacon starts to crisp up, add the tenderstem broccoli and asparagus to the pan.

6. When the corn is slightly charred, put it in a bowl. 

7. Roughly chop the top leafy half of the coriander and add to the corn. Finely slice the chilli and trimmed spring onions, chop the tomatoes, and add to the bowl, then mix well. 

  

8. Serve the sweet potato smash with the chicken and veg, crumble over the feta, and serve with the fresh salsa on the side.

 I also added some rocket salad to the plates just to get a bit more super free food in there.

I’m thinking I might make a bit of a series of this - maybe trying one or two of the recipes from the book per week? What do you think? Would you be interested in that?

I really hope you give this one a try, it is super good. I have never been keen on mashed sweet potato, but with the chill sauce and the corn salsa and the whole combination of flavours, it was just so darn tasty that I actually crave it a bit! 

I reckon you could do this recipe with any meat too, it doesn’t have to be chicken. This is aimed at being an ‘extra easy’ day recipe, but you could easily leave out the chicken (substitute with a Quorn fillet) and the bacon to make it a totally green recipe. For a red day you would have to leave out the corn, and I’m not 100% on the sweet potato, but I’m certain you can use some substations for it, maybe butternut squash? I’ve never done the red days so I’m not too sure about it. If you do red days and you know more about them please let me know.

I hope you enjoy this one and you are all staying motivated and body confident. Remember that you are all fantastic no matter what your size or shape. Your weight does not define you!

Big love,

Kiki x

Slimming World Chinese Spring Rolls...

I work very close to Camseng, the Chinese superstore in Belfast, so it is really easy for me to get hold of lots of super low syn Chinese food. The wrappers I used for these Spring Rolls are 1.5 syns each, I would normally buy the Wonton Wrappers, which are slightly smaller, but only 1 syns each, but they didn't have any left. They are very cheap, around £1.50 for a packet of approx. 50 wrappers. With the big ones, you can stuff these with any ingredient you want... they are also really handy to layer in a tart dish and make goats cheese and roast tomato tartlets, yum! I also like to cook up some apples with sweetener and some nutmeg then fill the pastry and bake... you can use any fruit though, sometimes I use pear and apricot, which is delicious! I also want to mention the Tesco Value Raspberry Ripple Mousse... this is only 4 syns and tastes great with the fruit puffs I mentioned above.

You find all the wrappers in the freezer section and need to leave them out to defrost before use. They don't keep very well when they aren't cooked as you need to keep them moist, so I would normally make up as many spring rolls (or whatever I'm making with them) as I can, then throw out the leftover wrappers. There usually isn't many left.

So here is the recipe for the Spring Rolls, each one is 1.5 syns each. I was in a bit of a hurry making these as I was on my second glass of wine and was feeling the need to munch, so these are not the neatest ones I've made and look more like little parcels than rolls, but they taste great all the same.

Ingredients:

Chinese Wonton/Spring Roll Wrappers
Bag of Vale Mixed Stirfry Veg
Frylight
Soy Sauce
Lazy Garlic
Lazy Chilli
Curry Powder

First thing first... open your wrappers and separate them, they are quite thin, so be gentle or they will tear. Dampen a clean tea-towel and open it out flat. Layer the separated wrappers on the tea-towel and then fold the tea-towel in on itself to cover the wrappers. This will keep them moist while you use them.

For handiness, I always keep a bag of Tesco Value Stirfry Veg in the freezer as you can cook it straight from frozen. You can add many other things to these wrappers - shredded duck, chicken and beansprouts, minced prawns or pork etc...

Get your wok on and add the frylight, lazy chilli and lazy garlic... then empty in the whole bag of veg...

Once the veg has started to cook, add the curry powder (as much as you want) and a splash of soy sauce...

Once the veggies are cooked it's time to wrap... lay out one wrapper....

Place a spoonful of veggies in the corner of the wrapper... I've used a bit too much here, about half of that would have been better...

Wrap the spring rolls like this...

Lay them on a baking tray sprayed with frylight and put in the oven for approx. 15 minutes or until crispy...

I used too much filling in each of these which is why they didn't wrap properly, it's much easier to roll them with less filling. It's also a good idea to drain off any excess liquid from the wok as the dried the veggies, the crispier the wrapper! Tuck in!

If you do make the sweet filled ones, serve them with some of the Tesco Value Raspberry Ripple Mousse.... it's only 4 syns per tub and very tasty - I usually put one filled sweet pastry wrapper in a bowl and top with half of a tub of mousse - it's only 3.5 syns (if you use one of the big wrappers)! You could even have second helpings!

Slim Rice...

I had read about this no calorie, no carb Slim Rice in the Daily Mail a few days ago, but only got around to getting a bag yesterday. Last night I used up the last of my Oh So Lean sauces, so I can't wait until next week when I can get another delivery! I still have three chicken breasts left though so I think I will make some low syn chicken and stuffing rolls tonight or tomorrow, we'll see how pressed I am for time today as I have an appointment for wedding dress fittings tonight and may not have enough time to cook them when I get home from work. It may just be a case of eating a couple of bananas while I take Turf a walk... multitasking at it's finest!

So last night I wanted to use the Oh So Lean speed curry pot. It was the last sauce pot I had left from the family deal and so decided to make a chicken and veg curry with it and include the slim rice as well to bulk it out without the carbs and cals.

I had frozen the speed curry and left it out overnight and all day while I was at work to defrost... now I really don't think I should have frozen the speed curry as when I tried to take it from the tub last night it had the consistency of a sponge, and I don't mean the cake-y kind, and I couldn't use it. It was my own fault really, but I'll know for next time not to freeze it.

The Slim Rice didn't resemble rice at all, it was more like noodles that had been cut up into little squares, but it really did bulk out my dinner and fill me up.

So without any further preamble, here's my recipe for Chicken and Veg Curry with Slim Rice... this makes a lovely big portion for one person.

Ingredients:

One Chicken Breast (chopped)
Two cups of Mixed Veg (I use Tesco Value)
Speed Curry Sauce (mine went funny when I froze it so I had to resort to my usual Goldfish Curry Concentrate)
1 large onion
1 packet of Slim Rice

First chop the chicken....

Spray a pan or wok with frylight and brown off the chicken....

Chop an onion (I used red as I had run out of white)...

Add it to the pan with the chicken and let it soften...

Measure out two cups of frozen mixed veg and place in a microwavable dish. Add boiling water and cook on high for 3-4 minutes...

Drain and add to the pan...

Open the packet of Slim Rice and tip it into a sieve... rinse it well under cold water until the smell has gone - it has a bit of a fishy smell, but this is just the smell of the water preserving it, it washes off really quick and it doesn't smell strongly in the first place...

Add to the pan and cook on a medium heat until everything is cooked and the Slim Rice is heated through...

Add the speed curry sauce... I had to use the Goldfish Curry concentrate as my speed curry had gone a bit strange in the freezer... do not freeze your speed curry sauce, lol!

Cook until everything is heated through and the Slim Rice has gone a bit mushy - this means it's absorbed the flavour!

Serve and enjoy!

This really was very tasty and filling. I would use the Slim Rice again in curries, but also maybe in soups instead of lentils and as a thickener in stews instead of potatoes. It would also be handy to add to a shepherds pie or a chilli as it really does fill you up! I don't know whether it would count as a free food, but at 15 calories for the whole pack and 0g of everything else, I would count it as 1 syn. It's a filling food with no carbs. A true little diet helper!

First Recipe using Oh So Lean...

So I picked up my very first order from the Oh So Lean delivery van last night. I ordered the family deal for £25 which includes -

1 pie - I chose the chicken ham and stuffing (15 syns for entire pie)
1 two pack of beef burgers (syn free)
1 two pack of chicken burgers (syn free)
2 packs  of sausages - I chose the chicken curry and the pork and leek (both syn free)
1 pack of 5 chicken fillets
1 pack of rindless bacon
3 pots - I chose 1 pepper (2.5 syns for pot), 1carbonara (syn free) and 1 speed curry (syn free)

I thought this was a brilliant price for all that! All I need to buy in in my normal shopping this week is some fruit, bread, diet coke and frozen veg, which I can get for under £10! A total of £35 for a weeks grocery shopping is really excellent!

The first thing I used out of the Oh So Lean order was the Pepper Sauce. I made a Shepherd's Pie with it last night - it had a total of 2.5 syns for the whole thing (as long as you use the cheese as a HEa), or 684 calories. You could easily split this into four and serve it the sweet potato wedges or slimming world chips and a big heap of free salad. I had half of it with my HEb of nimble bread - yummy!

Ingredients -

150g Quorn Mince
2 cups Value Mixed Veg
4 Value Onions
1 small butternut squash
25g Light cheddar cheese
1 pot Oh So Lean Pepper sauce - only 52 cals / 2.5 syns for the entire pot!
frylight

I was so hungry buy the time I got home last night that I whizzed round the kitchen and had most of this recipe done before I had thought to take a photo....

So first I measured out 2 cups value mixed veg into a microwavable bowl and added boiling water. Put in the microwave for 3 minutes.

While that is in the microwave, peel and chop the butternut squash and chop the four value onions.

Tip the onions into a large pot coated in frylight and cook for a few minuted until softened.

Put the butternut squash in a pot with boiling water and cook.

Tip the veg into a colander to drain when it's finished in the microwave.

Add the quorn mince to the onions. I used frozen so I let this cook for a little longer than I would if it was chilled.

Add the drained veg to the pot, then add the pot of peppered sauce (this is where I started taking photos!)...

Mix everything together in the pot and let the sauce heat for a few minutes before tipping it into a casserole dish...

Check that the butternut squash is cooked before draining and mashing...

Gently spread the mashed butternut squash on top of the mince mix and sprinkle with the cheese...

Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the cheese melts...

 Serve, eat and enjoy!

It was really very tasty! I ate half of it as soon as it came out of the oven, and it was very peppery. I split the other half into half again for today's lunches, and when I heated it up some of the peppery spice had gone out of it, still delicious though! So if you prefer less pepper spice, cook it the night before or in the morning to reheat later. I wish I had ordered more of the peppered sauce and frozen it as I would use it quite a lot, it's so tasty!

You can of course top the pie with potato (or sweet potato) mashed with parsnips and some healthy living cottage cheese with chives, this would made it a proper comfort dish... I just didn't happen to have any of those in the house, so used up the butternut squash I did have - a bonus being that butternut squash is a superfree food.