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. 

 

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. 

 

Spicy Sausage and Cauliflower Pasta

I used the leftover spicy cauliflower from a couple of says ago from this, but below is the instructions on how you would make it from scratch. 

 

Serves 2

½ syn for the entire dish

½ cauliflower

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 fresh red chilli, seeded

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 tub Müllerlight coconut and vanilla yogurt

1 tsp sweetener

1 tsp tamarind powder

3 cooked Joe's sausages, sliced

150g cooked pasta

2 tbsp Greek Basil, Chopped

Trim the stalk from the cauliflower and break into tiny florets. Cook in plenty of salted water for a few minutes until tender. Grind the onion, garlic, chilli and turmeric together in a food processor to form a smooth paste. Stir in yogurt, sweetener, salt and tamarind powder. Add the cauliflower, sausage, pasta and basil. Gently heat in a saucepan without boiling. 

 

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. 

 

Mixed Onion and Tomato Pasta

I had a little accident in the greenhouse today, one of the chilli plants became top heavy and toppled over onto the floor, breaking off a branch in the process. There were four unripe chillies on the branch, so I had to find a dish to add them to. My first dish cooked with my own, home-grown chillies! Not knowing the strength of the Goat Horn chilli, I only risked one in the dish – but wish I'd used more, as it was very mild.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, sliced

4-5 shallots, sliced

1 tin chopped tomatoes

200ml passata

1 tsp bouillon powder

1 chilli, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

150g pasta shapes

fresh basil to serve

Sauté the onion, leeks, shallots and chilli in Fry Light until soft. Add the tomatoes, passata, herbs and bouillon powder and simmer for a few minutes. Meanwhile, boil the pasta until cooked to your liking. Stir the pasta in the sauce and serve sprinkled with a little fresh basil. 

 

Spaghetti with Creamy Watercress Pesto and Crushed Tomatoes

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy*

*Providing you use the cheese as you healthy Extra A

150g wholemeal spaghetti

85g watercress

2 cloves garlic

80g parmesan cheese, grated

4 tbsp fat free fromage frais

125g cherry tomatoes, quartered

Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, in a food processor, whizz together the watercress, garlic, cheese and fromage frais.

Drain the spaghetti and return to the pan with the pesto and tomatoes and stir over a very low heat for a few minutes until it is all well mixed and heated through, the cheese has melted and the tomatoes have crushed a little. 

 

Penne Arrabiata

This is by no means an authentic recipe, but it suits me and the Slimming World plan.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

150g wholemeal penne

500g passata

2 onions, chopped

4 sticks celery, chopped

1 red chilli, finely chopped

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp sweetener

1-2 tsp dried basil*

1 tsp dried oregano

Fry the onion and celery in Fry Light until soft. Meanwhile cook penne in plenty of salted water until al dente, usually around 10 minutes.

Add the passata, chilli, bouillon powder, sweetener and herbs to the vegetables. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add the drained penne and mix well.

* the dish would probably be even more awesome with fresh basil, but I didn't have any.

Gammon and Mustard Fusili

Serves 3

2 Syns on Extra Easy*

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

225 g fusili

2 gammon steaks, grilled and chopped

200g mixed baby tomatoes, halved

2 onions, chopped

100g green beans, cooked and chopped 

100g rocket 

2-3 tsp dried mustard

1 pkt Coleman's white sauce

Fry the onion in Fry Light until soft. Meanwhile cook the pasta in plenty of salted water for 10 minutes or so until al dente. Make the white sauce according to packet instructions. Mix in the mustard with the white sauce to taste.

Stir the tomatoes into the onion with the beans, gammon, rocket and pasta. Cook on a low heat until the tomatoes and rocket start to wilt ever so slightly, about one or two minutes. Stir in the white sauce and serve. 

 

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. 

 

Picchi-Pacchi Spagetti with Prawns and Chilli

Picchi-pacchi is an Italian expression for 'fresh', which describes this dish perfectly.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra easy

150g wholemeal spagetti

2 onions, chopped

4 vine-ripened tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped

4 large garlic cloves, sliced

1 red chilli, chopped

1 bunch spring onions, sliced

250g cooked king prawns

½ pkt flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp course ground black pepper

30g grated parmesan from your Healthy Extra A to serve (optional)

Sauté the onions and garlic in a little Fry Light until soft but not burned. Meanwhile cook the spagetti for ten minutes in plenty of salted water. Just before the spagetti is ready, add the prawns, tomatoes, chilli, and spring onions to the pan with the onions and garlic. Stir until heated through. Add the lemon juice, parsley, black pepper and drained spagetti and toss together. Serve with the parmesan cheese if using. 

 

Spätzle Bake

Wandering around Lidl yesterday, I came across a packet of dried spätzle on special offer. Although I have heard of spätzle, I have never tasted it and was unsure of what to do with it. Internet searches suggested it is mostly used as a side dish to meat dishes, but I wanted something a little more than that and I noticed a dish of spätzle baked with vegetables and cheese. As I had lots of leftover vegetables to use up, and a tub of Low Low cheese in the fridge, that seemed ideal.

Similar in texture to regular pasta, spätzle is a German speciality food which differs in that it is normally scraped off a board or pressed through a grater to create irregular shapes. It seems to fluff up more when boiled.

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

a couple of handfuls of spätzle

leftover vegetables such as onions, shallots, Broccoli, red pepper and tomatoes

a few leaves of fresh basil

Low Low cheese

Cook the spätzle according to packet instructions – usually 15 minutes. Fry the onion and red pepper in a little Fry Light until slightly softened, then add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a few more minutes. Soften the cheese for 30 seconds in the microwave, then add to the mix with a little water from the spätzle if necessary. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish and bake on a high heat for 5-7 minutes until nicely browned. Serve with a side salad of your choice. 

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.