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!

Slimming World Chicken Curry with Vegetable Rice...

I count this as six syns because a normal chip shop/chinese curry sauce is classed as six syns, although it could be less than this. To be on the safe side though, count it as six!

This makes three servings - dinner for me and J plus lunch for me the day after!

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs (skin, fat and bones removed) - I buy these in Tesco for £3.50 for approx. 5/6

value mixed veg OR value stirfry veg

value broccoli (optional)

Goldfish Curry concentrate (check out my Chicken Veg Curry with Noodles for a photo of this)

value long grain rice - 40p in tesco

4 small onions

First get your wok out, your kettle boiled and your rice cooker on (If you don't have a rice cooker read the rice to water ratio on the back of the pack and use a large pot)

Next put your veg in with your rice. I used the value stirfry mix, value mixed veg and value broccoli - put an handful of each (or the veg you are using) in the rice cooker/large pot -

I used about a cup of curry concentrate... put it in a pot with some water...

Simmer until dissolved... you can always add more water to dilute it if its too thick....

Chop your chicken and onion and simmer together in the wok on a low heat... once chicken is cooked add the curry sauce and leave to simmer until the rice is cooked... you can see in the picture below that J sneekily added some peas to the chicken and onion, naughty naughty!

When the rice and veg is cooked, use a spoons to mix it all together...

Dish up the rice and veg into a bowl and put a couple of big spoonfuls of the chicken curry on top...

I gave J most of the curry sauce to try and save on some syns.

I'm not too great at writing out recipes and stuff, so I hope this is not to much of a jumble to follow. I am not too sure what is on the menu tonight in Casa del Wilkie/Johnston, but I will post a recipe shortly of the Butter Fish and Rice dish when I next make it. I will also be trying out some Oh So Lean goodies next week when they are delivering around the Bangor area and will review them on here.

Before the week is out I will do a super quick review of Governor Rocks in Donaghadee - sister restaurant to Coco in Belfast. I went there last Friday night with a girlfriend and had a wonderful dinner... but more on that later! Unfortunately we were having such a good time I forgot to take any photos of the food, so a quick recommendation will have to do!

This is quite a busy week for us, with house viewings tonight, bridesmaid dress fittings in Dublin tomorrow, a special Valentine's dinner in Pier 36 on Thursday night, cupcake baking on Friday/Saturday and a bridal fair in the Clandeboye Lodge on Sunday. I'll try my very best to squeeze in a few quick slimming world recipes that I've been cooking up - you don't have to be bad just because you're busy - and to also do the restaurant review before the weekend, and also show you all my new shoes, lol!

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

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!