Black Pepper Chicken Pasta

I used Joe's Black Pepper Chicken Fillets for this, but you can of course use just a standard chicken breast and just add more pepper. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 pkt Joe's Black Pepper Chicken

2 onions, chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp bouillon powder

60g parmesan cheese

fresh grated black pepper

1 small chilli, chopped (optional)

1 tsp sweetener

150g pasta, boiled

Grill the chicken fillets/breasts for 7-10 minutes, or until cooked through but not dried out. Meanwhile sauté the onions in Fry Light until soft. Add the tinned tomatoes, bouillon powder, chilli and sweetener. Slice the chicken and add to the sauce with the pasta. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and extra black pepper before serving. 

 

Mulligatawny Soup made from Leftover Chilli Con Carne

Nice and quick, nice and comforting, nice and easy, nice and warming, nice and healthy. What more can you want on a miserable day? 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 cup leftover chilli con carne (syn free of course)

½ cup red lentils

2 onions

2 stems celery

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ cup cooked carrots, chopped

a few drops food colouring

a small handful chopped coriander leaves

1 red chilli (optional), finely chopped

Finely chop the onion and celery and onions and sauté in Fry Light until soft. Add the lentils and bouillon powder and enough water to make it a soup consistency. Boil rapidly for ten minutes. Turn the heat down, add the leftover chilli con carne and spices and simmer for another 15-20 minutes until everything is cooked through and the lentils are soft and mushy. Add the carrots and fresh coriander and heat through. Add a few drops of food colouring if the soup looks a little insipid. Serve topped with some chopped coriander. 

 

Lobster Piri Piri

Frozen lobsters were on special offer at Costco a while back, and continuing with my 'international week', I adapted an original Nigerian recipe for this.

Many years ago I inherited 12 solid silver lobster forks – not the most useful of kitchen implements, not for me anyway: I think I have served lobster at home a total of four times including today! So at least the forks got a quick polish and an outing into the real world. The place mats with the fish motifs came from Bali. 

 

For some reason I wasn't expecting a great deal from this meal, but it was absolutely delicious! 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 cooked lobster, halved

200g cooked prawns

1 red onion

1 green pepper

200ml passata

small knob fresh ginger, cut into thin strips

1 red chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp bouillon powder

½ tsp sweetener

boiled white rice to serve

Sauté the onion, pepper and ginger in Fry Light until soft. Add the passata, and chilli with some water to dilute to a thinner consistency. Simmer for a few minutes, then add the prawns and heat gently.

The recipe suggests adding the lobster to the pan to heat, but I decided to leave it cold until after we'd picked the meat off it, then mixing it all in with the sauce and rice, the lobster meat heated through that way. I find it difficult enough to get the meat out of a lobster without the shell burning my hands! 

 

Steamed Pork Cups

This is my adaptation of a Thai recipe – substituting coconut flavoured yogurt for coconut milk and sweetener for palm sugar to make the recipe more Slimming World friendly. I used a chilli from my Aji Hot plant for this, and was disappointed by how mild it was, so next time I will increase the quantity.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

250g extra lean minced pork

½ tub Müllerlight coconut and vanilla yogurt

4 spring onions, chopped

juice of half a lime

1 tsp sweetener

1 chilli, chopped

handful coriander leaves, chopped

1 egg

stir fried vegetables to serve

Blend or process the pork, yogurt, spring onions, lime juice, sweetener, chilli and coriander leaves until combined. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg until thick and creamy and fold into the pork mixture. 

 

Spoon the mixture into 4-6 small cups – I found the Chinese tea cups perfect size for this, but egg cups would be a good alternative. Steam the cups in a bamboo or electric steamer for 20 minutes until cooked through. Serve with stir fried vegetables of your choice – I used a packet of ready cup vegetables as I knew I was going out for the day and wouldn't have much time when I got back.