Alpen Baked Apple

I have only recently discovered how the Red Days work on the Slimming World Plan, and have taken advantage of that to have two Healthy Extra B choices today.

Serves 2

Syn Free on a Red Day*

* Providing you use the Alpen Light and cooked apple as you 2 HEXB

I suppose it works on a Green Day too, but it took me long enough to get my head around the Red days, I don't want to confuse myself.

2 apples

2 Alpen Light Apple and Sultana bars

sweetener and cinnamon to taste

200ml diet appleade

1 tub quark

sweetener and cinnamon to taste

100ml diet appleade

Core the apples and immediately dip them in cold water with lemon juice. Score the skin all over. Place in a deep ovenproof dish. Break up the cereal bars and stuff into the centre of the apples. Mix appleade with cinnamon and sweetener, and pour all around the apples. Bake in the oven at 220°C for 15-20 until the apples are just soft but not mushy.

Serve with cinnamon sauce: mix together quark, sweetener and cinnamon, and add appleade until you get a smooth pouring consistency. 

 

Celeriac Chips

These make an unusual alternative to potato chips, and fit in well if you're doing a Red Day on the Slimming World plan and want to avoid having potatoes. They are syn free and superfree.

Peel a celeriac and cut into chips sized chunks. Blanch in boiling water for a few minutes, the drain and shake well to rough up the surface a little. Place on an oven tray and bake at 240°C for 35-40 minutes until nicely browned. 

 

Spiced Marmite Chicken

I love Marmite and thought I'd give it a go as a coating for grilled chicken. I saw a recipe for something similar, but decided to create my own spice mix. You can add all sorts of different spices to this as you please, but as we were having my dad over tonight, it couldn't be anything spicy. 

 

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy

4 chicken breasts

2 tbsp Marmite

½ tsp celery salt

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp onion seeds

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp white pepper

½ tsp dry mustard powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp marjoram

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp bouillon powder

Coat the chicken breasts with the Marmite. The easiest way of doing this with your hands in a large bowl, rubbing it in. You will get very mucky, but it ensures a much more even coating than if you try to do it with a knife or spoon.

Mix together all the spices . Place the now-coated chicken breasts side by side on a plate and sprinkle the spice mix over, using your hands again to pat them down to ensure they stick to the chicken. Turn the chicken breasts over and repeat on the other side. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 220°C until the meat is cooked through. The spices and Marmite give it a nice crunchy coating and seems to help keep the meat moist and tender. 

 

Serve with vegetables of your choice – we had celeriac chips, cabbage and leeks in white sauce. 

 

Mango and Passion Fruit Pannacotta

I made this to take on our picnic this afternoon, and it was so quick and easy. Asda is selling six individual jelly moulds for £2, so I bought some this week, and the recipe fitted exactly into two of them.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

Providing you use the milk from your Healthy Extra A allowance

100ml skimmed milk

1 tbsp sweetener

1 sachet gelatine crystals

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tub Müllerlight Mango and Passion fruit Yogurt

3 passion fruits

½ mango

Heat the skimmed milk in a pan with the sweetener until just boiling. Sprinkle on the jelly crystals and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla essence and leave to cool. Gradually stir in the yogurt and put into individual jelly moulds.

Finely chop the mango and mix with the passion fruit pulp and seeds.

When ready to serve, invert the jelly mould carefully and serve with the passion fruit and mango mixture.

Cauliflower Cheese Topped Gammon Steaks

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

2 gammon steaks

½ cauliflower

90g reduced fat Cheddar cheese, grated

Break the cauliflower into florets and boil for 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, grill the gammon steaks for 5-7 minutes each side. 

 

Place the gammon steaks on baking sheets to take the overflow of cheese, and top with the cauliflower florets. I found the easiest way of doing this was to cut the stems off them to give each floret a flat bottom. (Now I have lots of bits of leftover cauliflower to use up another time....) Top with the cheese and grill until the cheese bubbles and has turned nicely brown. 

 

Thai Green Chicken Salad

There is nothing remotely authentic Thai about this salad, I was just inspired by the green coloured ingredients and the Thai curry paste in the dressing. I made this for our picnic last night, but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the salad after the dressing was drizzled over. Bad Grete. 

 

Serves 2

1 syn on Extra Easy

150g cooked chicken, chopped

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced

½ red onion, finely sliced

1 green pepper, finely sliced

150g green grapes, halved

3 apricots, chopped

2 little gems, thinly sliced

2 Müllerlight coconut and vanilla yogurts

1 tsp Thai green curry paste.

Mix all the salad ingredients together in a salad bowl. For the dressing, mix the yogurt with the curry paste and stir well. Drizzle over the salad.

Keema Pie

A cross between keema curry and cottage pie, Keema Pie is spicy minced beef with a thatch topping. I used swede and carrot for my thatch but it would be equally nice with sweet potato or the more traditional mash. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g minced beef

100g green beans, chopped

2 onions, chopped

tin tomatoes

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp turmeric

1 ground coriander

1 tsp sweetener

1 swede

2 carrots

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Fry the onion and mince in Fry Light and add the beans. Add the tinned tomatoes and spices, and cook until the beans are tender.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the swede and carrots, and boil until soft. Mash, using a potato masher and stir in the chopped parsley.

Place the mince in an ovenproof dish and top with the carrot and swede mash. Bake at 240°C for 10-15 minutes until heated through and browned on top.