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 Two – Day One – Lunch (Smoked Mackerel and Potato Salad)

Oh my god, I am so failing with taking pictures today so I am afraid you are stuck with another of my half eaten lunch I’m afraid!

I had more potato salad from yesterday, salad and smoked mackerel (1 syn for 100g) with some fat free dressing. I had less of the potato salad than yesterday so I was able to finish it all! And there is some left for tomorrow.

I am taking full advantage of the sun and working outside this afternoon, we even have a little friend come visit and help us along!

Week One – Day Seven – Lunch (Smoked Mackerel and Potato Salad)

One thing about this blog, is it is making me more inventive with my food. If it were down to me alone, I would probably eat exactly the same thing every day as it would mean not having to think about it. However, when I am putting out my meal choices to the big wide web like this, I don’t want to seem boring and so make more of an effort 🙂

Today’s lunch was a bit of an experiment. I love creamy potato salad, covered in yummy high fat mayo and quite high in syns (around 8 syns for 100g). So, I challenged myself to make a syn free alternative. I came up with this beauty and I tell you, it’s pretty darn good (blowing my own trumpet!). I fed some to a diet adverse colleague and she told me off for not sticking to my plan!

I took about 300g new potatoes (you could use big potatoes and chop them up but be careful of them falling apart) and boiled them until they were cooked through but not mushy, I also added an egg to the water at the same time as I’m too lazy to wash up two pans. While they were cooking, I mixed 6tbsp fat free fromage frais, 2tbsp white vinegar (I used white wine vinegar but I’m sure cider vinegar so such would also work), 1tbsp sweetener and 1tsp mustard powder pre-mixed with 1tsp water. Once the potatoes (and egg) were cooked I threw them into the fromage frais mixture, still hot (again because I’m to lazy/impatient to wait for them to cool down). I chopped the boiled egg and threw that in too. Last step was to chop some spring onions (about 6?) and mix it all together.

I portioned this up into two thinking it would be enough for lunch today and tomorrow but having eaten my lunch today I would say there are definitely three if not four portions there!

To finish off the meal I had some salad (lettuce, cucumber and the like) with some smoked mackerel (1 syn per 100g and I think I only had around 50g on this) and some fat free dressing. Seriously yummy and way too much food to eat in one sitting!!