Half A Syn Chocolate Brownies

You know your an adult when you have to make your own birthday cake!!

It`s my birthday tomorrow and being on Slimming World I was worried I wouldn`t be able to have a nice piece of cake to celebrate...that was until I found these 1/2 syn Brownies.

Who doesn`t like chocolate and cake and ONLY 1/2 syn per slices????

I found this recipe on mydietjourney, it is so easy and SOOOOOOO tasty!!

Here goes....

1/2 Syn Chocolate Brownies

Serves - 25

Prep Time - 10 mins

Baking Time - 30 mins

Ingredients

• 70gm of Sweetener
• 60gm coco powder
• 6 eggs, separated 
• 1tsp vanilla essence 
• Fry Light

Method

1. Spray a baking tray with Fry Light and line with greaseproof paper.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan assisted, adjust accordingly for gas)
3. Whisk the egg white till they form soft peeks.
4. In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks with the sweetener, coco powder and vanilla essence, you may need to add some water if the mixture becomes too stiff.
5. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture
6. Pour mixture into baking tray
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. ENJOY still warm or allow to cool.

You can eat the brownies as they are or you can top with quark and an options sachet mixture. At only 2 syns per options sachet spread onto 25 squares you cant really add any 0.08 syns to the total ;-) so lets not!!!!

Baked Eggs with Spinach, Tomato and Pepper

On Friday at my Slimming World club I was lucky enough to win the evenings food raffle which was all the ingredients to make Baked Eggs with Spinach, Tomato and Pepper from this months Slimming World magazine, page 34.

It is AMAZING!! You would never know that it was meat free, of course you can some meat if you want to. I think chicken would go lovely with this or even some bacon strips.

Unbelievably it is also FREE of syns!! I was honestly amazed at how tasty and satisfying this dish is.

Baked Eggs with Spinach, Pepper and Tomato

Serves 4
Ready in approx 40 minutes

Ingredients

400gm new potatoes, thickly sliced
Low calorie cooking spray
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 orange pepper, deseeded and cut into small chunks
400gm can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
400gm can of chopped tomatoes with herbs
300ml passata
1-2 tbsp or Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
100gm spinach
4 medium eggs
handful of basil to garnish

Method

1. Boil the potatoes for approximately 10 minutes or until tender. Drain well.
2. Whist the potatoes are cooking spray and large frying pan with low calorie cooking spray. PLace over a medium heat. Add onion, garlic and peppers. Stir fry until softened.
3. Mix in the beans and cooked potatoes. Then add the tomatoes, passata and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Season well and simmer mixture for 10-12 minutes, or until sauce thickened.
4. Stir through the spinach and allow to wilt down. Make 4 shallow wells in the mixture and crack an egg into each well. Either cover pan with lid and allow eggs to cook or pace pan under a hot grill till eggs are cooked to your licking.
5. Garnish with a handful of basil leaves.
6. Enjoy

How amazing does this look??

Cheesy Pasta Bolognase Bake

Since starting my Slimming World journey one of the main things that I miss is cheesy sauces on my pasta bakes.

Not any more!! I realised that I could blend a tin of macaroni cheese and pour it over the top of my pasta. The syn value may be increased as I have` tweeked` the product as I have blended it smooth but I`m sure that it cant be too high, I feel it is definitely worth it as it tastes soooo good. I worked it out that for a 410gm tin it has 7 syns and divided into 5 portions then its about 1.5 syns each portion. Plus the cheese and milk, which can be either your healthy choice a or syned. I`d take a guess at each serving having approximately 3 syns each.

Cheesy Pasta Bolognase Bake - Serves approx 5, 

Syn Value - approx 3 syns per serving

Ingredients

200gm 5% lean mince
1x tin of macaroni cheese
200ml of skimmed milk
1x tin of baked beans
1x tin of chopped tomatoes
1x clove of garlic, chopped
1x small onion, diced
A big helping of mixed veg or any veg you want to add
2x beef stock cubes
80gm grated cheddar cheese
500gm dried pasta of your choice

Method

1. Sweat down the garlic and onions
2. Add and brown off the mince.
3. Mix in tomatoes, baked beans, vegetables and stock cubes.
4. Simmer together slowly for apporx 20 minutes or till juices have thickened
5. Meanwhile cook pasta as per packet instructions.
6. Blend the tin of macaroni cheese with a hand blender with the milk.
7. Place bolognase and pasta in apporprately sized dish and mix together.
8. Pour blended macaroni cheese and milk mixture over pasta bolognase.
9. Top dish with grated cheese.
10. Cook at 200 till cheese bubbling and brown.
11. Serve with salad or more vegetables.

Chickpea Dahl Muffins

SNACKS, SNACKS, SNACKS.



This is my obsession at the moment; I`m constantly on the look out for Slimming World friendly snacks which are good enough to satisfy that annoying hunger niggle mid morning/afternoon.

These little beauties are amazing. Chickpea Dahl Muffins.

Thanks to theprmummy for introducing me to these little mouthfuls of delight!!

They are SO easy to make and are completely FREE on the extra easy plan, so no worrying about going off plan.








Ingredients

1 x 400gm tin of Chickpea Dahl (Asda)
1 x Bachelors Super Rice GOLDEN flavour
5 x whisked eggs

Thats it!!

Method

1. Cook rice as instructed on packet.
2. Once rice is cooked combine the whisked eggs and Chickpea Dahl.
3. Lightly grease baking tin of your choice, I used heart shaped mini muffin cases and muffin cases. You can also make a Dahl loaf in a 1lb loaf tin.
4. Divide mixture equally into cases.
5. Cook at 190 for approx 25 minutes or till firm.
6. Enjoy.

Makes approx 24, depends on what size you use.

See I told you these were so easy to make and are scrummy. I like them warmed up with a fried egg and baked beans...weird I know!

Mediterranean Cod

I`m starting to like this healthy eating lark, here is what I created last night......Mediterranean Cod.

Yet again all FREE on the Extra Easy plan!!

Serves 4

Cooking Time - approx 40 mins

Ingredients

4 x Cod pieces, frozen or fresh, if using fresh the cooking time is halved
1 x courgette, cut into large chunks
3 x tomatoes, cut into large chunks
1 x pepper, colour of your choice
handful of sliced mushrooms
1 x onion, finely chopped
1 x 300ml passata
Frylite
handful of olives
250gm rice

Method

1. Prepare rice to your preference. Whilst cooking...
2. Spritz a few sprays of Frylite into a frying pan and gently sweat down the onions for a minute.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, passata and your choice of vegetables bar the olives and pepper along with 200ml of boiling water.
4. Mix together and simmer for 15-20 minutes or till mixture has thickened.
5. Add your fish pieces and peppers, slightly pressing the fish into the sauce. Cover and cook till fish is cooked through.
6. Add chopped olives to sauce just before serving on a bed of rice.
7. Enjoy 

One thing I have learnt in the last few days is that I need to brush up on my photography skills as the last few photos haven`t done the meals justice!!

Aloo Gobi - Slimming World Style

Welcome to my first Slimming World recipe of 2015!!

My plan is to share with you some of the amazing tasting food that is available on the new Extra Easy plan. One thing you wont believe is that you can loose weight whilst tucking into these amazing meals.

This week I won the weekly food raffle at our group meeting and won all the ingredients needed to make Aloo Gobi on page 69 from the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of the Slimming World magazine.

The recipe below is not set in stone as to what you can put in it, get creative!!  I included some mushrooms and peppers that needed using up from the fridge; just make sure that they are free foods and ideally S & P.

Aloo Gobi

serves 4 

Ready in about 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

250gm dried long grain rice
Frylight
175gm spring onions, sliced, reserving some to garnish
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tbsp korma curry powder
juice of 1 lemon
1 large cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 x 300gm cans small new potatoes in water, drained and thickly sliced

Method

1. Cook the long-grain rice according to the packet instructions. Drain well.
2. Meanwhile, spray a deep frying pan or wok with Frylight and place over a medium-high heat. Stir-fry the onions for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes. Reduce the heat to medium and cook gently for a further 3 minutes.
3. Mix the curry powder with the lemon juice.
4. Add curry and juice mixture to pan and cook for 1 minute. 
5. Add the cauliflower, potatoes and 300ml of boiling water, cover and simmer for 6-8 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender
6. Serve with the cooked rice and garnish with the reserved onions.

Extra Easy FREE

I have to admit that the whole dish took alot longer than the advised time to cook, most probably because I may of not cut the cauliflower into small enough chunks! This dish is so filling and has the most amazing taste, you must give it a try!