mardi 22 septembre 2015

The best SW burger in the world





Hey Slimmers,
Well I have been good today, all on plan.  Had a yummy “fry-up” for breakfast and some free soup for lunch, which I will post the recipe for tomorrow probably.  And then oh my word I had the most AMAZING burger ever, I’m drooling thinking about it and I just ate it!


It was very similar to the burger here but I didn’t add egg, breadcrumbs or herbs but instead added some pickled jalapeno’s when mixing it all together in the food processor and probably a little bit more liquid beef stock but it was soooo tasty!  I then added cheese (HEA), fried onion and a bacon medallion.  This was all on a warburtons thins bun which is about 4 syns but I cheated and called it my HEB since I had a bite of my daughters toast this morning(cheating I know before anyone says it but I am not that strict!)  I also added a teaspoon of sweet chilli sauce at about 1 syn.  This was all served with garlic and herb wedges and some coleslaw to make up my 1/3 superfree.  You can find the recipe for that here
You HAVE to make this, just have to!


Sw Ragu Bolognese




It has taken me years to get my other half to start eating bolognese after years of being practically force fed it my his mother (his story, not sure how factual that actually is) and I finally found a recipe which he looks forward to eating.  There is nothing worse to me than jarred sauce for something like bolognese, and this recipe more than fits the bill!
Syns per recipe: 7.5
Serves: 3
Syns per serving:  2.5
Ingredients:
  • 50g Parma Ham chopped – 1 syn
  • 2 medium carrots finely chopped
  • 2 celery sticks finely chopped
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 100g extra lean minced beef
  • 100g extra lean minced pork
  • 125ml red wine – 4.5 syns
  • 300ml beef stock
  • 4 tbsp tomato puree – 2 syns
  • salt and pepper
Method:
  • Heat a pan sprayed with fry light and add parma ham, carrot, celery and onion.  Fry gently for 10 mins.
  • Add the minced meat, stir and break up with a spoon until browned
  • Add the wine and a ladle of the stock  and cook for a couple of minutes to allow the wine to reduce slightly


  • Stir in the tomato puree and reduce the heat to low.  Cover and simmer for an hour, stirring every so often.  Add more stock if the mixture starts to dry out.
  • After an hour season to taste and if required add a little more stock to thin the sauce out slightly.
Serve with spaghetti or tagliatelle and a sprinkling of parmesan, making sure to add the syns accordingly.


Awesome fresh coleslaw

Coleslaw

Hey peeps,
I have been meaning to post for ages but you know what this time of year is like, it is so busy just now and when I do have a spare minute I am normally vegging in front of the TV!
Now this recipe wasn’t created by me, don’t think I have ever created a recipe????  But anyway I have tweaked it slightly to make it more Slimming World friendly and I urge you to try it.  It is so light and fresh, the last time we make it we couldn’t help but eat it right out of the bowl like the pigs that we are…….
Anyway here it goes and it makes alot and is best used straight away so just adjust the ingredients to suit the amount you need.  I also make this using the shred blade on my food processor so it literally takes about 2 mins to put it all together.
You will find the original recipe here, and the picture at the bottom of the page is also from that website (Which I love by the way, their food is always great.  Just a shame most of it isn’t SW friendly).  I will update with my own when I make it next.  I can promise you though that mine won’t look as pretty!
Syns per recipe: 4 1/2
Servings: 4-6 generous portions
Syns per serving: 1 to be safe
Ingredients:
  • 180g finely shredded cabbage
  • 180g  finely shredded red cabbage
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
  • 1 small onion, shredded
  • 24g  finely chopped spring onions
  • 9 tbsp extra light mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons (40ml) white vinegar
  • 1-3 teaspoons sweetner – I would add a little and taste and add more if you need it
  • Salt
Method:
  • Stir mayonnaise, white vinegar, sweetner together in a small bowl. Cover bowl and refrigerate until required.  Once needed taste and season accordingly.
  • Mix all the shredded/grated vegetables together in a large bowl and add the dressing when about to serve.  If you mix the vegetables and dressing a while before serving it can make the vegetables go limp so only dress the coleslaw as you are going to serve it.
I urge you to make this, it is really worth it.  Would be excellent with homemade burgers……
Now this isn’t my picture as you will notice straight away, my camera certainly isn’t good enough to take a picture like this.  Come to think of it neither am I….

The best chicken tikka marinade ever




I went through a phase of trying to make as good a curry as you can get from a takeaway, I am still searching for a recipe for the ever elusive South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken!  However on my curry journey I came across a few recipes which are complete winners, one of which is the recipe I am about to show you.
Now I am not sure where I could put this recipe as it could easily be a good and a bad recipe, I guess it depends on what you would use it in (mine went into an exceptionally calorific curry).  I am not going to give syn values at the moment because I can’t be bothered but if anyone wants me to please just let me know and I will update it.
Now this is not my recipe but was added by Blade1212 on a fantastic website called crO which you can findhere, and the recipe can be found here also.  I am going to add the recipe this time though because I have taken about a million pictures to show the steps involved. Silly me though, forgot to take pictures of the finished article but I can assure you they were absolutely fabulous!
Serves: 4-6 people
Ingredients:
600g Chicken  – 4 or 5 breasts
1 heaped tbsp Pataks tandoori curry paste (the KEY ingredient as it includes lots of tamarind)
1 tsp mint sauce (Could use reduced sugar one to make it free)
1 heaped tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
2+2 tbsp lemon juice (Jiff is ok)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 dsp spice mixture (equal parts ground coriander, turmeric, garamasala, curry powder).
1/4 tsp red food colouring
1 lvl tsp methi
1 lvl tsp salt
2 tbl veg oil – Could leave out also
3 tbl water
You can see the ingredients below

Chop the chicken breasts into bite size pieces and place in a bowl.  Then mix in 2 tbsp of lemon juice to the chopped chicken and leave for 15 mins

Meanwhile mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl (including the additional 2 tbl lemon juice)
As you can see I pretty much buggered up this montage, my first time and I didn’t realised it was saving all the changes.  Oh well you live and learn.

Add the chicken to the spice mixture , cover and leave in fridge for 2 hours minimum.  I went for 24 hours.

Thread the chicken onto skewers making sure to leave a small gap between each piece
Place the skewers onto a tray, preferably one that is deep so the chicken is suspended.
Please the tray with the chicken into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees celcius, and turn after about 10 mins
Cook for a further 5 mins and remove a piece to check it is cooked.  Once the chicken is cooked remove from the skewers and serve as is or add to any curry that you like.

Gorgeous Lamb, chickpea & spinach curry

Gorgeous lamb, chickpea and spinach curry



This is a recipe I found on my fave, the BBC Good Food, website and I haven’t made it in a while.  When I was following WW the lamb was too high in points for me to consider using it.  I have now checked the values on the Slimming World website and I can’t wait to make this.  Soooo tasty and very low in syns too.  I have changed the recipe slightly from what it was on the website, to make it a bit more Slimming World friendly but you can find the original recipe here.
Serves – 4
Syns – Free on EE
Ingredients:
  • 500g lean lamb stewing cubes
  • 1 red onion , sliced into half moons
  • 1 cm piece ginger , peeled and finely chopped


  • 2 garlic cloves , crushed
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp ground coriander
  • 2 tsp chilli powder – or more if you like it really hot ;-)
  • 400g can tomatoes
  • Splash of concentrated beef stock, about a tsp or less
  • 200g can chickpeas , washed and drained
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 100g spinach , roughly chopped
Method:
  • Spray a pan with frylight, cook the lamb until browned all over for about 10 mins, then remove from the pan.
  • Cook the onion in the same pan until golden brown, about 5 mins. Stir through the ginger, garlic, cumin and coriander, then cook for 2 mins more until you smell the spices.
  • Return the lamb to the pan, pour over the tomatoes, bring to the boil, then leave to simmer over a gentle heat for 11⁄2 hrs until the meat is really tender.
  • Top up with a little boiling water if the sauce becomes too dry. Add in the chickpeas and garam masala, then simmer for 5 mins more. Stir through spinach and cook until wilted slightly then season to taste.
The recipe says to serve it with masala mash, which you can do just remember to syn it accordingly.  I would definately recommend having it with mash or rice or even Slimming World chips.  Think this is definately going to be dinner on Sunday :-D


Simple Vegetable Chilli

Easy Vegetable Chilli



I have made this many many times and it is always lovely and so easy to make.  It freezes really well and only ever needs a touch more chilli powder once defrosted :-D

Serves – 2 really hungry people
Syns per serving -Free on EE
Ingredients:
  • 2 garlic cloves , crushed
  • 2 red chillies , finely chopped
  • 1 large onion sliced
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 250g chestnut mushrooms , quartered
  • 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 400g tin of kidney beans
  • 150g green beans , cut into lengths
  • 1 tbsp chilli powder – or less if you don’t like it too spicy
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree – 1/2 syn
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 Courgette chopped if you have any lying around
Method:
  • Fry the garlic, onion and chilli in fry light for 2 minutes.


  • Add the cumin, mushrooms and courgette if using and cook for 3 minutes.
  • Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and kidney beans and 100ml water, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add the green beans and cook for another 5-10 minutes until the sauce is thickened and veg is tender.
Enjoy.


Chicken Chilli

(Low-Fat) Chicken Chili Recipe



I have been looking for a recipe for chicken chilli for a while and stumbled across this recipe this morning whilst trying to decide what to make for dinner.  It is a low fat chilli chicken recipe and was found on the myrecipes site.  Now I haven’t made it yet but I think I will attempt it tonight or tomorrow depending on whether I have everything in the fridge for it :-D.  I have adapted the recipe slightly to make less and also to make it more Slimming World friendly and as soon as I make it I will update the recipe with any modifications and of course a picture.  If in the meantime anyone else decides to make it please let me know how it turns out.  The original recipe can be found here.
Serves – 4
Syns per serving – Negligible on EE
Ingredients:
  • 4 Chicken breasts – chopped into chunks
  • 2 cloves of garlic – crushed
  • 1 medium onion – chopped


  • 2 tbsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 200 ml chicken stock
  • 400g tin of chopped tomato’s
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree – 1/2 syn
  • 1 tin red kidney beans
  • salt and pepper
Method:
  • Spray a large saucepan with fry light and over a medium heat add chicken to pan. Cook chicken, until starting to brown.


  • Add garlic, onion, chili powder and cumin. Cook, stirring often until onion is tender.
  • Stir in stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Stir in the beans and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick, about 10 minutes.