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 🙂
Slimming World Friendly 