Turkey Saltimbocca Skewers

Turkey fillets flattened and rolled up with red pepper pesto, sage leaves and Parma Ham, then cut into short pieces and skewered. I served mine on jewelled amaranth, and as I was eating it suddenly panicked about the syn value of amaranth. I always assumed it was syn free, and checking it afterwards I was right. Phew! Amaranth is a grain that was popular with the Aztecs and ancient Mexicans, and is regaining popularity as a healthy alternative to rice or couscous. I simmered mine in some stock with chopped red and green peppers and baby sweetcorn.

The plates were a gift from a very good friend in Texas, and the skewers I brought back from  Burkina Faso. 

Turkey Saltimbocca Skewers

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

300g turkey fillets

½ red pepper

50g tomato purée

bunch sage leaves

4-5 slices Parma Ham (same amount as the number of turkey fillets)

Flatten the turkey fillets as much as you can, either by using a kitchen mallet or a rolling pin, covering the meat with cling film to stop it splitting. Liquidise the half a red pepper and mix with the tomato purée, then spread on each of the flattened turkey fillets. Place the sage leaves on top and then the ham. Roll up from the long side and cut each roll into slices around one inch thick. Thread the slices on to skewers, ensuring that the ends of the rolls are secured well. Grill on a high heat for 10-15 minutes, until the turkey is cooked. Serve with accompaniments of your choice.

WARNING: if using metal skewers, they will be hot. I know, I am sporting two nice little blisters as I write this. 

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Scotch Egg with Salad

I love Scotch eggs, and now I can also eat them on my Slimming World plan. These were particularly nice, so I shall be making these again, that's for sure. They'd be great for picnics.

Serves 2

½ syn on Extra Easy providing you use the bread as a Healthy Extra B

200g Joe's sausagemeat

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried sage

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 eggs, hard boiled

2 slices bread

2 tbsp extra light mayonnaise

2 tbsp fat free plain yogurt

juice of 1 lime

a pinch of chilli flakes

sweetener to taste

Salad leaves of your choice.

Using a food processor, make the bread into crumbs and spread thinly on a baking plate. Bake at 200°C for 5 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.

Mix the sausagemeat with the salt, pepper and spices. Peel the eggs and wrap them with the sausagemeat. Roll in the breadcrumbs to ensure they are completely covered. Bake at 220°C for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the dressing. Mix together the mayonnaise, yogurt, lime juice and chilli flakes. Add sweetener to taste. Serve the Scotch egg on the salad and drizzle with the dressing. 

Asparagus Mimosa

This would make a very impressive looking starter for a dinner party. It looks really complicated, but it is in fact far easier than it looks, and only two ingredients. If you find it a bit dry, serve with mayonnaise or a Hollandaise sauce. We used the leftover shallot and garlic sauce from yesterday.

Asparagus Mimosa

Serves 2

Free on Extra easy.

250g asparagus spears

3 eggs

Boil the eggs for ten minutes. Put the asparagus in a pan of boiling water, then switch off the heat. Leave in the pan to keep hot.

Shell the eggs and separate the white from the yoke. Press the white through a sieve with the back of a spoon, repeating with the yoke. Arrange on top of the asparagus and serve any sauce separately. Voilà! 

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Monkfish with Shallot and Garlic Sauce

I'm not often 'allowed' to go grocery shopping in Waitrose, as I tend to buy to many of the nice things I see there that are not usually available in Tesco or Morrisons. Yesterday was no different. We only bought 21 items according to the receipt, but it came to £67 – that's over £3 per item. Oops. And there was I supposed be trying to save money...

Some lovely monkfish fillets caught my eye, so I had to put my thinking head on to create a recipe for tonight.

Monkfish with Shallot and Garlic Sauce, Samphire and Crushed Soya Beans

Serves 2

4 Syns on Extra easy

2 monkfish fillets

150g samphire

150g soya beans

1 tsp mint sauce

150g shallots, very finely chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, very finely chopped

2 tbsp tartare sauce

4 tbsp extra light mayonnaise

4 tbsp fat free plain yogurt

Grilled tomatoes to serve

Sauté the shallot and garlic in a little Fry Light until soft. Mix together the tartare sauce, yogurt and mayonnaise. Add the shallots and garlic mixture and mix well.

Boil the soya beans for 10 minutes until very soft. Briefly blanch the samphire. Grill the monkfish for 7-10 minutes, depending on the size.

Drain the soya beans, reserving the water. Crush the beans with a potato masher adding a little salt and the mint sauce. Using a chef's ring, place the crushed soya beans in the centre of the plates. Top with the samphire and last the monkfish. Using the hot water from the soya beans, dilute the shallot mayonnaise mixture to a runny sauce consistency. Poor some over the monkfish, and serve the rest separately. Serve with grilled tomatoes.

I also topped the whole thing with a few chilli sultanas, allowing ½ syn for 3g of sultanas. I keep a small jar of these in the fridge – they keep almost indefinitely and a great added to salads or like this, just a few to garnish a dish. Sultanas and fresh chillies squashed tightly into a jar and topped up with dry sherry. Keep for a few weeks before using to let the flavours develop.

I also keep sultanas in balsamic vinegar in the fridge, as well as raisins in rum. 

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Freekeh Salad with Sumac Lamb

Always one to try something new when I see it; when I discovered a box of Freekeh on the shelves of Bristol Sweetmart the other day, I couldn't resist buying it.

Freekeh is a roasted green wheat which is particularly popular in Palestine, the Arabian peninsula and Egypt. According to Wikipedia: "The wheat is harvested while the grains are yellow and the seeds are still soft; it is then piled and sun-dried. The piles are then carefully set on fire so only the straw and chaff burn and not the seeds. It is the high moisture content of the seeds that prevents them from burning. The now roasted wheat undergoes further thrashing and sun-drying to make the flavour, texture, and colour uniform. It is this thrashing or rubbing process of the grains that gives this food its name, farīk or “rubbed.” The seeds are now cracked into smaller pieces so they look like a green bulgur."

The initial plan was to make this as a vegetarian salad, but a surplus lamb shank changed that plan. Buying three of any piece of meat usually proves difficult as the store normally packages them in twos. Although shanks were available to buy singularly at the butcher counter, they were much smaller and looked inferior.

This recipe would work equally well with other cracked wheat such as bulgur, or even couscous or rice.

Freekeh Salad with Sumac Lamb, Figs and Feta

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

150g cooked lamb

1 tsp sumac

100g freekeh

5-6 small fresh figs, quartered

100g feta cheese, cubed

½ red onion, thinly sliced

small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Cut the cooked lamb in to small slivers and coat with the sumac. Leave in infuse for a while. Cook the freekeh in plenty of salted water for 30 minutes or until cooked to your liking. Mix together all the ingredients and serve.

This was a great salad to take for a car picnic today, although I did carry the feta cheese and parsley separately and mixed in just as I was serving. 

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Jerk Chicken Rice 'n' Peas

I felt like a jerk today. Jerk chicken that is.

The chicken breasts have been marinating for 48 hours – not because they needed that long, but because I started a day too early. It was great homing home tonight to find that most of the hard work for this evening's dinner had already been done – all I had to do was stick it in the oven and get the accompaniments ready.

Jerk Chicken Rice 'n' Peas

2 chicken breasts

1 small handful coriander leaves and a lime to serve

For the jerk seasoning

2 tbsp allspice berries
½ tsp coriander seeds
½ tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
6 garlic cloves
4 spring onions, chopped
1 small bunch coriander
4 Scotch bonnet chillies, deseeded
1 small knob of fresh ginger
2 tbsp sweetener
3 tbsp lime juice

For the rice and peas

100g basmati rice
410g tin kidney beans
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ground allspice

For the melon pineapple salsa

¼ melon, chopped

¼ fresh pineapple, chopped

½ red onion, thinly sliced

salt and pepper to taste

juice of one lime

a little sweetener (optional)

Grind together the allspice, coriander and peppercorns until quite fine, then liquidise with all the other jerk ingredients until it forms a smooth paste. Place chicken breasts in a plastic bag and coat with the paste, giving them a good massage with your hands to ensure they are well coated. Refrigerate overnight.

Cook the chicken at 220°C for 20-30 minutes until cooked through. Boil the rice in the liquid from the tin of kidney beans with the garlic and allspice, adding water if necessary. For the last few minutes, add the beans to heat through. Mix all the salsa ingredients together.

Serve with your favourite chilli sauce on the side for those who like their food hot!

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Leftover Lunch

Today has been an easy day so far for the cook (me) – I had breakfast made for me, and lunch was leftovers.

He is anything but a cook, but my husband makes yummy bacon butties.

Leftover Meatloaf Hash with Jersey Royals

I can't really offer a recipe here, as I mostly used leftovers. I fried up a chopped onion in some Fry Light, then added the rest of the chopped meatloaf, a tin of tomatoes, the rest of a tube of tomato purée residing in the fridge and some garlic masala. Meanwhile I boiled some Jersey Royals, and lunch was done! Voilà!

I was glad to be able to use the garlic masala, as it has been bugging me ever since we bought it on our trip to Rajasthan. On hearing that I am a keen cook and love spices, our driver took us to a very touristy spice shop which mostly dealt in blended spices. I am not one for using pre-mixed spices, much preferring to combine my own according to my mood, but I was persuaded to buy a few packets of various masalas by the very friendly salesman. I was, however, dismayed to find that they were way more expensive than I could have bought them for back in Bristol at Bristol Sweetmart. Oh well, you live and learn. The masala was to be fair, very tasty. 

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It's pasta time!

My dad likes to help himself to food when he comes here, rather than being served, as he doesn’t eat very much, so pasta is ideal for this. Generally speaking it doesn't require much last minute preparation either, as my dad tends to turn up at least ten minutes, more often 15 minutes early. He rarely stays more than an hour, it is just a case of eat and go really – it used to drive my mum mad, as she always wanted to stay and chat.

Radiatori with Pork and Mushrooms

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy providing you use the cheese as Healthy Extra A

1 pork tenderloin fillet

200g mushrooms

3 onions

1 tub quark

1 tbsp bouillon powder

a little sweetener

a few drops of Worcestershire sauce

small bunch of basil, to serve

30g Parmesan cheese

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water for ten minutes. Meanwhile chop the onions, and pork, removing all visible fat as you go along. Slice the mushrooms. Fry the pork and onions in a little Fry Light until the pork is cooked through. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving the liquid. Turn the heat right down and add the quark, bouillon powder and sweetener to taste and Worcestershire sauce, thinning the sauce with the pasta water until you have a nice consistency, creamy but not too runny. Stir in the torn basil and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

A decadent dish for a miserable Sunday morning with howling winds and driving rain. No Sunday papers for us today, as neither of us wanted to go out in this weather. This would work equally well as a nice starter at a dinner party too.

The recipe is not dependent on accurate measurements, just grab a handful of this and some of that.

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2-3 potatoes, depending on size

1 small onion

a little salt

freshly ground black pepper

a pinch or two of caraway seeds

1 egg

a tub of quark

a small packet of smoked salmon (probably around 100-125g)

a few sprigs of dill to decorate

Peel and grate the potatoes, chop the onions finely and mix with the salt, pepper, caraway seeds and egg.

Spray a large baking tray with Fry Light and place half a dozen blobs of potato mixture on the plate, pressing them down to form small pancakes. Spray well again with Fry Light and bake at 200°C for 15-20 minutes, until nicely browned. Keep an eye on them and turn the heat down if necessary.

Cut the salmon into thin strips. Give the quark a good stir and add some water if necessary to give it a nice, smooth consistency.

Serve three pancakes on each plate, top with the quark and arrange the salmon strips over the top. Decorate with a sprig of dill on each.

Even the husband, who is not a great lover of smoked salmon, commented how nice this was. 


The plates were won in a raffle at my local Slimming World club. 

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Hot Tuna Salad with Mango Coconut Dressing

Tuna is a fish we were only introduced to fairly recently, by a good friend and neighbour. Now we both love it! Shame it's so expensive; we paid over £7 for two medium sized steaks.

This is a really quick and easy dish to make, and great for a hot summer's day. Now all we need is a hot summer. The dressing would probably be really nice with some white wine in it, or even rum – something to try if I ever reach my target weight and can allow myself a few more syns each day.

Hot Tuna Salad with Mango Coconut Dressing

Serves 2

3 syns on Extra easy

2 tuna steaks

½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)

Salad leaves of your choice

½ red pepper

2 sticks celery

1 bunch asparagus

1 mango

1 small tub Müller Light Coconut yogurt

Cut the asparagus in one inch long pieces, and blanch for a couple of minutes. Rinse under cold water and leave to cool. Mix together the salad leaves, chopped red pepper and chopped celery and divide on two plates. Add the asparagus.

Peel the mango and liquidise the flesh with the yogurt, adding some water if the consistency is too thick.

Coat the tuna steaks with the chilli flakes and fry in a little Fry Light until done to your liking.

Serve the salad topped with the tuna steaks and a little of the mango dressing. Serve the rest separately. 

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Black Bean Salad

If you are using dried beans, remember to soak them overnight and cook according to the packet. This recipe called for half a red pepper but my personal shopper (AKA husband) seemed to have somehow missed that. He swears black and blue that he bought it, he must have left it behind in the shop. Oh well, just a slight variation. Anyway, while looking for the absent pepper, I came across an orange, and thought that would go well with the black beans. I was right. I also had a lone tomato hanging around, and as it was the same colour as the missing pepper, I decided to include that too.

Black Bean salad

1 cup of cooked black beans

Juice of 1 lime

2 tsp sweetener

2 tsp samal oelek

1 green chilli

1 orange

1 large tomato

small handful of coriander leaves

handful of rocket leaves

handful of baby spinach

½ red onion

In a large bow, mix together the cooked beans, finely chopped green chilli, finely chopped tomato, rocket and spinach leaves and the thinly sliced red onion. Peel the orange, divide into segments and cut each segment in two. Add to the salad bowl. Mix the lime juice, sambal oelek and sweetener and toss into the salad with the chopped coriander leaves.

My main purpose of making this salad was to go with a cold slice of the leftover meatloaf. I still have three slices left, so I will have to put my thinking cap on again for another meal involving some variation of meatloaf. 

Despite the green chilli and the sambal ealek, it was hardly spicy at all. Personally I would have preferred it with a bit more kick, so if I make it again I will add more chilli. 

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Punjabi Potato Patties

I do like a bit of spice in the morning to wake me up. I have never understood the significance with certain foods at certain times of the day, and I love the Indian breakfasts when we travel on the Subcontinent – my favourite being paper masala dosa. Having a few leftover potatoes in the vegetable basket, I boiled some up last night and made them into patties which I put in the fridge overnight to save some time this morning. I'm not really a morning person, so I prefer to not have too many things to sort out first thing.

Punjabi Potato Patties

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g potatoes

1 medium onion

¼ tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp garam masala

Peel the potatoes and halve or quarter them, depending on how large they are. Boil for ten minutes in plenty of salt water, until cooked but not mushy. Grate the onion, then mash together the potatoes, onion and spices. Form into little patties, spray with Fry Light and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until nicely browned.

I should imagine the people of Punjab would most likely serve the patties with a chutney of some sort, but I had a craving for baked beans this morning. 

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Lentil and Sausage Casserole

I'm a great lover of lentils and have eight or nine different types of dried lentils in my store cupboard. I prefer to use the dried variety for several reasons – there are no added preservatives or salt, less packaging, cheaper and I can use the amount I want not the amount that fits into a can. And unlike dried beans, they don't have to be soaked, so there is no excuse about having forgotten to put them in water the night before. Although he is not so keen, I am lucky in that my husband will eat anything I put in front of him.

It was my Slimming World consultant who introduced me to Joe's Sausages, and I haven't looked back since. They come in a variety of flavours, and are syn free on the plan. I buy them in bulk and stock up my freezer with them. For this recipe I used the chilli and garlic ones.

Lentil and sausage casserole with chilli and garlic

4 sausages, grilled

400g lentils (I used brown)

2 onions

2 carrots

4 sticks celery

1 red pepper

4 cloves garlic

stock made from bouillon powder

1 red chilli

2 green chilli

handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

tub of Total 0% fat yogurt

Finely chop the carrots, onions, celery, garlic and pepper, and sauté in a little Fry Light for a few minutes until soft. Slice the sausages – I like to slice mine thinly as I always feel I am eating more if the pieces are smaller. Add the lentils, chopped chillies and enough stock to cover, and simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils are cooked, but still retain a little bite. You will probably want to check from time to time to ensure you have enough liquid. For the last few minutes of cooking, add the sausages and cherry tomatoes. Take the pan off the heat and add the yogurt. Patience has never been one of my strong points, and I added the yogurt just a little bit too early, and it separated. Oh well, the taste is just as good, and you couldn't really see the little white bits as the light was bad tonight. Sometimes I am grateful for grey days and dark evenings. 


Place mats brought back from Bali.