Turkey and mushroom stroganoff

This dish is nowhere near as difficult as it looks and is sure to impress your guests. It has plenty of superfree, especially as I served it with carrots, sugar snap peas and baby sweetcorn. 

 Lots of superfree

Serves 4

Syn free on extra easy

500g turkey breast, cubed

200g mushrooms, sliced

3 leeks, sliced

200g fat free fromage frais

1-2 tbsp bouillon powder

½ tsp mustard

1-2 tbsp sweetener

dash of Worcestershire sauce

500g wholewheat tagliatelli

Sauté the turkey, mushrooms and leeks in Fry Light until the vegetables are soft and the turkey cooked through. Turn the heat right down and add fromage frais, bouillon powder, mustard, sweetener and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Stir until heated through, but make sure it doesn't boil at it will curdle. You may want to add some water to get the right consistency.

Meanwhile, cook the tagliatelli as per packet instructions, and drain. Grease a doughnut-shaped baking tin and stuff the pasta in the ring. Place a flat serving dish over the top and put the whole thing in an oven on very low for a few minutes to firm it up a bit. It is best to have a dish that is quite a bit larger than the size of the ring as the content will spill over the edge when you cut into it if the plate is too small (as I found out). When you are ready to serve, turn the plate upside down and ease the tagliatelli out of the ring. Spoon the stroganoff into the centre and serve with vegetables or a salad. 

 

Croatian Pork Schnitzels

During our tour of the Balkan states a few years ago, we felt after a while that we were having meat overload – some of their dishes were so laden down with meat, and not a vegetable in sight. It is certainly not a place for vegetarians! The picture below shows a mixed grill just for one person! I really missed vegetables on that trip – they rarely came as standard with the meal and often weren't available to order as a side dish. And almost everything came with chips – I am not a great lover of chips....

These schnitzels are not that heavy on the meat, and I have included a few vegetables for good measure (and to fill up on superfree foods). I have also used fromage frais in place of soured cream.

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy

4 pork steaks

115g chicken livers, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

175g mushrooms, all visible fat removed and chopped

2 onions, chopped

4 rashers bacon, chopped

2 tsp bouillon powder to make stock

1 tsp mustard powder

250ml fat free fromage frais

Place the pork between 2 pieces of cling film and flatten using a culinary mallet or a rolling pin. Season well. Sauté the chicken livers with the garlic in Fry Light for a few minutes. Leave to cool. Divide the chicken livers between the steaks and roll up, securing with a toothpick (remember to remove before serving). Fry the schnitzels in Fry Light for a few minutes each side until cooked through.

Meanwhile, sauté the onions, bacon and mushrooms in Fry Light, then add stock, mustard powder and fromage frais. Heat gently without boiling. Serve the schnitzels with the sauce. 

 

Mushroom Melt

I used potrobello mushrooms for this recipe, but any flat cap mushrooms will do. I also used my home dried tomatoes, but it would be equally good with fresh tomatoes.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

4 portobello mushrooms

1-2 tomatoes (see note above), de-seeded and chopped

100g cooked ham, cubed

1 tube Primula Light Cheese

a few stems of fresh thyme, leaves removed

Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and chop. Spray the caps with Fry Light and bake in the oven at 150°C for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms stalks and tomatoes for a few minutes, then add the ham, cheese and thyme leaves and stir until the cheese has melted and everything is heated through. Place the mushroom caps on two plates and fill each one with the ham and cheese mixture. 

 

Beef Lasagne

This was really nice and rich, and my dad loved it. He took the rest of it home with him for the freezer. 

Serves 4

2½ syns on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A

500g extra lean minced beef

2 onions, chopped

200g mushrooms, chopped

300ml passata

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp sweetener

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

2-3 tsp bouillon powder

9 dried lasagne sheets

180g reduced fat Cheddar, grated

1 pkt Coleman's white sauce

300ml skimmed milk

Salad to serve

Fry the onions and meat in Fry Light until the onions are soft and the meat slightly browned. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes. Add the herbs, bouillon powder, sweetener, Worcestershire sauce and passata. Stir well and simmer for a few more minutes. Make up the white sauce according to packet instructions. 

 

Place a layer of three lasagne sheets in the bottom of a dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then another three pasta sheets. Next, put the rest of the meat sauce and another three pasta sheets. Pour over the white sauce and top with the grated cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 200°C until the pasta is cooked and the cheese browned. Serve with your choice of salad. 

 

Marmalade Soy Chicken with Vegetable Orzo

You can use almost any vegetables you like in with the orzo, just remember to cut them up finely. 

 

Serves 4

1 syn on Extra Easy

3-4 chicken breasts, depending on the size

2 tbsp orange marmalade

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

250g orzo

1 courgette, grated

handful green beans, chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

5-6 mushrooms, finely chopped

1-2 carrots, grated

Cut the chicken into mini fillets and marinade for several hours in the soy sauce and marmalade. Sauté the onion with the green beans until soft, add the carrots and mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes. Cook the orzo according to packet instructions. Mix the vegetables and orzo together and stir well. Grill the chicken mini fillets for 5-10 minutes until cooked through and browned. Serve on top of the vegetable orzo. 

 

Gammon Stuffed Mushrooms

Having some cut-offs of gammon from yesterday's brunch, and a couple of flat mushrooms in the fridge, I came up with this idea.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 cup chopped gammon

2 large flat mushrooms

2 tsp bouillon powder

2 eggs

a pinch of dried tarragon

a pinch of celery salt

2 tomatoes

a pinch dried basil

a few drops balsamic vinegar

Simmer the mushrooms in plenty of water with the bouillon powder added. In a poaching pan, add the eggs with the celery and tarragon. Poach until done to your liking. Halve the tomatoes and top with the basil and a the vinegar. Grill for a few minutes. Sauté the chopped gammon in Fry Light until cooked.

Place the mushroom on two plates, top with the gammon and then the eggs. Serve with the grilled tomatoes. 

 

Breakfast Tian

A tian is a layered dish, usually using food presentation rings. This is just a different way of serving the usual breakfast ingredients. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 potatoes

a little salt and pepper

100g minced pork

½ tsp chilli flakes

½ tsp salt

1 tsp sage

¼ tsp white pepper

a little milk

2 gammon steaks

2 tomatoes

a few mushrooms

2 eggs

tin of baked beans to serve

Peel the potatoes and grate them using the finest part of your grates. Squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can and mix with the salt and pepper. Using a food ring, make two circular shapes, spray with Fry Light and bake in the oven at 200°C until cooked through and browned and crispy on top.

In a food processor, combine the pork, spices and a little milk from your allowance (or water), ca 1-2 tablespoons. Using the same food rings, shape into circular patties and bake in the oven at 200°C until cooked through.

Using the food rings as cutters, shape the gammon steaks into round disks (save the cut-offs for use in something else) and grill for a few minutes each side until cooked through.

De-seed the tomatoes and chop finely. Heat some Fry Light in a pan and gently cook the tomatoes for a couple of minutes until heated through but not too soft.

Finely chop the mushrooms and cook in Fry Light until cooked to your liking.

Fry the eggs with the food rings to create perfectly round eggs.

Assemble the tian with the potato hash in the bottom, then the gammon, sausage patties, the mushrooms and tomatoes, and finally the egg on top. Serve with the baked beans. 

 

Garlic Mushrooms

A nice little side dish, excellent served with a steak; or you could just have them on toast for a light lunch. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

150g mushrooms

1 bulb garlic

1-2 tsp bouillon powder

Cut the papery top off the garlic bulb, exposing the cloves inside. Spray with a little Fry Light and wrap in kitchen foil. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 200°C. With a blunt knife, remove the cloves, which should now be very soft. Place in a small bowl and mix well with a little water to make a smooth paste.

Sauté the mushrooms for a few minutes in Fry Light, then add the garlic purée, a little water and the bouillon powder. Continue cooking for a few minutes, then drain and serve.

Chateaubriand with Pepper Sauce

We decided to have a date night in on Saturday night, and popped to Morrison's for a steak. I love their meat and fish usually, but this time they really excelled themselves – the steak was one of the best we've ever had! It was meltingly tender and beautifully tasty. Heavenly.

Chateaubriand is a lot of hassle and work, but oh so worth it in the end. I would usually make a sauce with lots of cream and sherry to go with it, but as that does not fit in with the Slimming World plan, I decided to try out the Coleman's Pepper sauce. It was nice, but I could probably make my own just as easily with just as few syns. Oh well, it was nice to have one less thing to do as the whole meal was quite labour intensive. 

 

Serves 2

3 syns on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the milk as part of your Healthy Extra A.

1 whole piece end fillet steak

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp whole black pepper

1 tsp whole coriander

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp celery powder

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

1 pkt Coleman's Pepper Sauce

300ml skimmed milk

Grind all the spices to a fine powder using a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar. Spray the fillet with Fry Light and coat with the spice powder. Use your hands to massage the spices into the meat, making sure that all exposed surfaces are covered. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours or more. 

 

Heat a pan with Fry Light until very hot. Place the whole fillet in the pan and sear on all sides. The outside is supposed to be almost burnt and crusty, so don't worry if it seems overdone at this stage. Lower the heat and fry, turning regularly (you may have to support the steak with something when cooking the end sides) for around ten minutes or so. This may seem like a long time for a steak, and of course it does depend on the thickness of the meat, but the inside will still be pink after that time. My piece was rather large, and I cooked it for around 15 minutes, and it was still rare in the middle.

Meanwhile make up the sauce according to packet instructions.

Leave to rest for a few minutes before carving in thick slices and serve with the pepper sauce, potatoes and vegetables of your choice.

 

Mushroom and Bacon Omelette

This is a great little breakfast for the Slimming World plan, as it ensures you get your one-third Superfree in, and doesn't use any of your Healthy Extras. You can either cook it in one large pan and divide the omelette afterwards, or – as I did – make the omelette in two smaller frying pans. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy

4 eggs, whisked

4 slices bacon, all visible fat removed

200g mushrooms, quartered

Grill the bacon and chop. Sauté the mushrooms in Fry Light until done to your liking. Pre-heat the grill. Heat two small frying pans and add the eggs, then the mushrooms and bacon, spreading it evenly around the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes until the underside is cooked, then stick the pans under the grill to set the top, making sure you don't burn the handles of the frying pans of course. I like my omelette soft, so I cook it until it is literally just set, but the timing is up to you. 

 

Beef Stroganoff

Traditionally stroganoff is served with chips, but I decided to serve the it with plain boiled rice and some broccoli to ensure I get plenty of superfree.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy

300g lean beef

2 onions

1 green pepper

125g baby button mushrooms

200ml fromage frais

1 tsp mustard powder

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp bouillon powder

½ tsp sweetener

Rice and vegetables to serve

Thinly slice the beef into sliver and chop the onion and pepper. Sauté with the mushrooms in Fry Light until the beef is browned and the onion soft. Meanwhile boil rice for ten minutes and the vegetables to your liking. Take the meat off the heat for a couple of minutes, then stir in the fromage frais, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, bouillon powder and sweetener. Stir well to ensure it is all mixed and heated through.

Serve with the rice and vegetables. 

 

Baked Spaghetti 

This is an excellent way of using up leftover meat and vegetables. You can of course use any kind of cooked meat – gammon goes particularly well.

Serves 4

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the cheese as you Healthy Extra A

300g wholewheat pasta

400g cooked meat

2 onions, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 leek

4 eggs

100ml fat free fromage frais

2 tsp bouillon powder

180g mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Boil the spaghetti for 10 minutes, drain, and using scissors, cut into smaller lengths by sticking the scissors in the drainer randomly.

Sauté the onions and peppers in Fry Light until soft. Add the leeks and fry for a couple of minutes more. Mix in the spaghetti and stir well.

Whisk the eggs with half the fromage frais and 1 tsp of the bouillon powder. Stir into the spaghetti mixture and place in an oven proof dish. Mix the rest of the fromage frais with the remaining bouillon powder and enough water to give it a pouring consistency. Drizzle over the spaghetti and top with the mozzarella slices.

Bake at 200°C for 35-40 minutes, until the egg is set. Serve with a salad. 

 

Llama Steak

At the Bath & West Show recently, there were a couple of stalls selling unusual meats, and always being up for trying something new, I bought a couple of llama steaks which were the only meats there that we had not tasted before.

It's a very lean meat and should apparently be flash fried over a high heat to a rare or medium rare. The steaks looked very good, and for the first few bites its denseness came across more than anything else. As I got nearer the centre of the steak, it became disappointingly tough. There wasn't a strong flavour to the meat, however, and the taste was very pleasant. I doubt if I'll bother again though, as I didn't feel they were worth the cost.

I served the steaks with jacket wedges, garlic mushrooms, broccoli, grilled tomatoes and a green peppercorn sauce. The steaks certainly needed the sauce, being really quite dry.

To make the garlic mushrooms, slice a few cloves of garlic and fry in a little Fry Light for a few minutes until fragrant and slightly browned, taking care not to burn. Add quartered chestnut mushrooms and fry for a couple more minutes, then add about 1 cm of water to the pan along with a stock cube or a teaspoon of bouillon powder. Simmer over a medium heat until all the liquid has been absorbed, around 5-7 minutes.

Pork and Pasta Bake

Yet another dish where I am not going to offer a recipe – gosh I feel lazy today! To the leftover pasta with pork and mushrooms from Sunday night, I added a small carton of passata and some chilli, cinnamon and cumin powder; then topped the whole thing with a little grated reduced fat Cheddar cheese and baked it in the oven until it was nicely browned. Love it when dinner is that easy. I did however, spend quite some time making a picnic for tomorrow's day out, so hopefully I am forgiven for my lack of culinary activity today. 

We did treat ourselves to small but syn free dessert this evening though: jelly with blueberries, topped with fat free yogurt.

http://www.slimmingworld.com/

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.