Week Twelve – Day Five – Dinner (Spicy Chicken and Chips)

I was starving when I came home from work today (I have days like that, no matter how much I eat 😦 ) so I decided to make a syn free dinner which would fill me up and make sure I didn’t snack later 🙂

I still had some fat free greek yoghurt left over from the other day so I made a quick marinade for my chicken by mixing 2tbsp yoghurt and 2tbsp curry powder. I took my chicken breast and cut it in half lengthways to make two thinner pieces of chicken and covered them in the yoghurt mixture.

I also took one potato, peeled it and chopped it into chip shapes. These went on a baking tray and got liberally covered in FryLight and my homemade premixed ‘chip’ spice mixture (smoked paprika, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper). Popped into a hot oven for about 30mins.

I needed to add some ‘S’ foods to this so I sliced up some red onion, pepper and courgette to fry off in some FryLight.

Once the chips were about half way cooked, I added some FryLight to a non stick frying pan and put it on a high heat. I added the coated chicken to the pan and cooked it for a couple of minutes on each side until it was cooked through.

I made a little dipping sauce with some more of the yoghurt, mixed with salt, pepper and a little dried mixed herbs. This was a good alternative to a synned sauce such as mayo and was pretty darn tasty!

All in the meal took about 45mins but it was worth the wait and was a lot of food 🙂

Week Twelve – Day Five – Lunch (Vegetable Soup)

On Sunday I decided to do a bit of batch cooking in preparation for the week ahead.I actually didn’t get as much done as I had hoped but I did manage some soup for my lunches. I wanted cheap and cheerful for the week ahead as it’s still a few days until payday!

I took 100g of Morrisons Country Soup Mix (Country Soup Mix) and soaked it overnight (this needs to be done for at least 8 hours). This stuff only costs about a pound and adds a nice amount of protein and texture to soups and stews, it’s basically a dried mixture of pearl barley, split peas, lentils and beans.

The next day, I softened a large onion (finely chopped) in some FryLight then threw in a large potato (chopped in to small cubes), two large carrots (again chopped into small cubes), half a medium swede (small cubes!) and a large leek (sliced). The drained Country Soup Mix was next, along with a vegetable stock cube and then the large pan was filled with water. I set this to boil, after adding salt, pepper and some dried mixed herbs. This simmered for about 45mins to make sure the beans etc were all cooked through.

Once it was all done, I portioned it up and once cooled popped each individual portion in the freezer.

Then today, I took a frozen portion to work and used the microwave to heat it up come lunch time. Delicious and very filling.

Week Twelve – Day Three – Brunch (Veggie Omelette)

As the weekend is scheduled to be so lovely and I didn’t have any other plans, I decided to go and visit my parents, a couple of hours down the road in Wiltshire.

I was feeling a little disorganised when I left and completely forgot to have any breakfast! So, when I turned up at my parents house I was absolutely starving. They weren’t in yet, so I took it upon myself to raid their fridge (sorry mum if you’re reading this!) and make a quick brunch type snack to keep me going until they got back.

As expected, their fridge was much better stocked than mine!

I found a few veggies (red onion, pepper and courgette) and chopped them nice and finely. I softened these off with some FryLight and then added two beaten eggs. A generous dash of salt and pepper followed and then moved the veg around in the egg until the egg was almost cooked. Then I let it set on the bottom and brown slightly before folding and sliding onto my plate.

Took about 10mins all in and filled the whole I had stupidly left by forgetting breakfast!

Week Twelve – Day One – Dinner (Pork and veggie fried rice)

This afternoon, I snuck a few syns in as I really fancied some chocolate. I had a (very) mini Milky Way bar. I really enjoyed it and it kept me well within my syns for the day.

I wanted something quick and easy for my dinner as I was feeling rather lazy. So, a quick stir fry seemed like a good idea. I chopped a pork loin steak and rubbed some chinese five spice and garlic powder into it. This was fried over a high heat with FryLight, then I threw in a pre-prepared bag of stirfry veg and cooked it down a little bit. A splash of soy sauce and a dollop of oyster sauce along with some left over cooked rice to heat through. All in, it took about 15mins and was lovely 🙂

And there was enough left over that I’ll probably have it for lunch tomorrow 🙂

Week Twelve – Day One – Lunch (BBQ Chicken Salad)

After the BBQ last night there was loads of food left over, so I took some of the lemon and herb chicken and put it into a lovely salad for my lunch. Minimal effort with maximum taste! Haha.

A drizzle of fat free salad dressing and we were good to go.

Week Eleven – Day Seven – Dinner (Work BBQ)

My work decided that as it was the last day of summer, we would go out with a bang and have a BBQ and games evening in the grounds. This meant a potential minefield of syns and bad options. So, I decided to offer my cooking skills and do some prep at home to minimise (or completely remove) the syns I had to choose from.

I decided to make some potato salad, coleslaw, veggie skewers and some marinaded chicken – I figured this would give me a full meal without being tempted by the burgers and sausages that would also be available.

The potato salad was the same recipe I have used before (available here) but scaled up for more people. I also used the same mayo base (6tbsp fat free yoghurt, 2tbsp white wine vinegar, 1tbsp sweetener and 1tsp mustard powder) from this to make the coleslaw. I finely shredded one white cabbage and placed it in a colander in the sink, I then (very) liberally coated it in salt and left it to sit for around 20mins. You can skip this step but the process softens the cabbage down nicely and, in my opinion, makes it much nicer and less harsh. Once it has softened completely, I rinsed it in plenty of cold water to remove the salt, and then patted it dry with a clean tea towel. This was mixed with four large carrots which had been grated and one large red onion finely sliced. Once the veg was all combined, I threw in the mayo mixture and made sure everything was all coated thoroughly.

The potato salad was exactly the same as the link above with a small addition of a little red onion alongside the spring onions (because I decided it wasn’t oniony enough and I had run out of spring onions 🙂 )

The vegetable skewers were so easy, I just chopped peppers, red onion, courgette and aubergine and stuck it on wooden skewers with some cherry tomatoes. I seasoned with some salt, pepper and dried mixed herbs. Simple but effective.

For the chicken, I did four different flavours because I didn’t want people to be bored and I knew there would be a lot of chicken to cook! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the chicken because by that point, I was having too much fun to stop and take pictures! Sorry!

But the marinades I made were – Lemon and Herb; Chinese Style; Tikka and Dry BBQ rub.

For the lemon and herb, all I did was dress the chicken in lemon juice and dried mixed herbs – ridiculously simple!

For the Chinese Style, I took the sauce I would normally use for a stirfry and used it as a marinade. It was 4tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp fish sauce, 1tbsp oyster sauce and 2tsp chinese five spice. This was enough for around 900g chicken breast.

For the Tikka, I again went really, really simple. It was 4tbsp fat free yoghurt mixed with 4tbsp tikka curry powder. Again, enough for about 900g chicken breast.

For the dry BBQ rub, I took 2tbsp smoked paprika, 2tbsp paprika, 1tbsp garlic powder, 1tbsp sweetener, 2tsp mustard powder. This was all mixed together and liberally rubbed all over the meat.

All four of these were left to marinade overnight in the fridge and then chucked on the BBQ in the evening.

I had so many compliments about the food and no one had any idea that they were completely syn free and ok on my diet. In fact, I had a few people asking if I was having a ‘night off’ to enjoy myself! 🙂

The slight downside of this however, is I’ve been told I have to do it all over again every time we have a staff cook out!

P.S. It was also weigh in last night, so I snuck off to get weighed before the festivities started. I lost 3.5lbs this week 🙂 So so happy with that! I’m in a new number and it also means I am only 2lbs away from my Club 10! I am going to work extra hard this week to make sure I get that 2lbs and my Club 10 🙂

Week Eleven – Day Four – Dinner (Tomato and Bacon Pasta)

The yummy kedgeree this morning was so filling that I didn’t need any lunch. I had a couple of Babybel Light half way through the afternoon and then I didn’t need anything more until this evening.

For dinner, I decided on pasta as I love it and hadn’t had any for a while. It was very much a ‘throw it all in’ kinda sauce, using what I had in the fridge. It worked incredibly well and ended up delicious. I made enough for at least two meals (probably three if I’m not being greedy) and it was completely syn free.

I set 200g pasta to boil in some salted water. As this was cooking, I chopped one small onion, one yellow pepper, half a large courgette and three bacon medallions. All this was bunged in a pan with some FryLight to soften off. As it was cooking, I added some garlic powder, dried mixed herbs, salt and pepper. Once the veg and bacon was cooked through, I added a large splash of balsamic vinegar and reduced it down to remove the acidity of the vinegar. Once the mixture was glazed in the reduced vinegar, I added a tin of chopped tomatoes and simmered for a few minutes.

As soon as the pasta was cooked but still had a little bite to it, I drained it and added it to the tomato mixture. This was combined thoroughly and left to simmer for another couple of minutes.

All done and plated up, saving at least half for another day. It only took about 20mins to make and was very filling and satisfying.

Week Eleven – Day Four – Breakfast (Kedgeree)

Yesterday I promised something new for next weekend but I felt adventurous this morning and so went for it today instead. I have made kedgeree before but it normally includes things like butter, milk, and cream – big no nos if I want to keep the syns down. I challenged myself to make a syn free version which didn’t lose any of the full and exciting flavours. The other tweak I had to make was that I had smoked cod, not smoked haddock. Not the end of the world and certainly didn’t change the tasty end result.

I placed the 100g of smoked cod in a pan with half a stock cube (veg or chicken – not beef) and a small bay leaf, I added just enough water to cover the fish and brought to the boil. While this was cooking, I diced a small onion and softened it off in some FryLight, once it was soft and starting to colour, I added a heaped tsp of mild curry powder (I wouldn’t recommend using anything too hot as the fish is quite a delicate flavour and after all, it is a breakfast dish!). Also on the go at the same time was 70g easy cook long grain white rice in slightly salted boiling water. I boiled the rice for 10mins (so it was slightly undercooked) then drained it and added it to the onion mixture.

At this point the fish was cooked so I removed the fish and set aside and threw away the bay leaf. The stock the fish was cooked in went into the rice and onions along with a handful of frozen peas. I turned the heat down and set it to simmer gently, stirring often so the rice didn’t stick to the bottom.

I brought a pan of water back to the boil and gently lowered in one egg. This was boiled for 1min before turning off the heat, the lid goes back on and the egg is left to sit in the water for exactly 7mins. After 7mins, I ran it under some cold water to make it cool enough to touch.

Finally, the fish got folded back into the rice mixture and I peeled the egg. The kedgeree was popped into a bowl and topped with the quartered boiled egg.

My presentation of this one was a bit poor so the photo doesn’t really do it justice. I was so lovely and possibly nicer than the high fat versions I have made before. This will definitely be making it’s way onto the regular meals list 🙂

Week Eleven – Day Three – Dinner (Bacon Cheeseburger and Chips)

I have been going through the process of using up what is in my freezer this week. Not only to save money, there is no point in buying more food when I have loads of things in the freezer waiting to be eaten, but also to free up some space. I share a house with five other people and so space is at a bit of a premium, in fact I only have one freezer drawer and so, as I am sure you can imagine, that fills up pretty quick!

Having a root around in said freezer drawer turned up some of the burgers I made a while ago (I thought I had eaten them all but obviously not). I decided burger and chips would be a good way to end my Saturday. (Burger recipe from before is here)

For the chips, I took one large potato and chopped into chip shapes and liberally coated them with my favourite mix of ‘chip spices’ (Smoked paprika, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper) and plenty of FryLight. These went into a hot oven (around 210°C) for about 30mins until they were cooked through and crispy on the outside.

While the chips were cooking, I pan fried (with FryLight) the burger in a frying pan, alongside a bacon medallion and one Babybel Light. Once the burger was pretty much cooked and the Babybel was nice and melty, I moved the cheese on top of the burger to finish off cooking.

When everything was cooked and ready to go, it was a simple job of assembling it all with all my favourite toppings, onions, gerkins and a few peppers. I also used a couple of syns on some mayo and some tomato ketchup (2 syns in total). The cheese and the bun were my healthy extra choices so I only used 2 syns for the whole meal 🙂

Week Eleven – Day Three – Lunch (Curried cauliflower soup)

Although I had my breakfast quite late this morning, I was still a little bit peckish and I knew I hadn’t had a massive amount of ‘S’ foods so far. I decided to make some soup for the rest of the week so my lunches were all ready to go with minimal effort. I decided on curried cauliflower soup as I had all the ingredients and I wanted something a bit different.

I chopped one large onion and softened it in some FryLight, once it was soft but not coloured I added 2 tbsp curry powder. I went for a mild curry powder as I’m not too keen on very spicy food but if you are more spice inclined feel free to go for a stronger variation. I stirred this through the onion and cooked them together for approximately 3mins to fully release the flavour of the spices. While this was cooking, I took a head of cauliflower and separated it into the florets and chopped the stalks, for this soup I use everything but the outer leaves. I also peeled and chopped a large potato. Both of these got added to the pan with the spiced onions, along with a stock cube (I used a chicken one but if you want to keep it vegetarian, use a vegetable stock cube) and 1000ml water. I simmered this all together for about 15mins until the vegetables were cooked and soft.

I like my soup blended and smooth so I used my hand blender as a final step but if you prefer chunky soup, leave it as it is 🙂