Salmon, Feta and Lentil Salad

Serves 2

Syn Free in Extra Easy providing you use the cheese and olive oil as your Healthy Extras

150g puy lentils

80g pomegranate seeds

80g baby leaf spinach

50g radishes, sliced

80g baby plum tomatoes, halved

½ pack flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

100g feta cheese, chopped

1 tin of pink salmon

Dressing

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tbsp white wine vinegar

½ tsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp sweetener

Boil the lentils for 30 minutes or so in some stock until tender. Alternatively, you can use a tin of cooked lentils. Mix together with the pomegranate seeds, spinach, radishes, tomatoes and parsley. Mix up all the dressing ingredients and toss with the salad. Carefully stir in the feta cheese and salmon and serve. 

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. 

http://www.slimmingworld.com/

Cheese Topped Egg Stuffed Tomato

I was really excited when I found this recipe in the Guardian, as I've had a packet of zaatar in my cupboard for a little while, screaming out “use me, use me”. Zaatar is a condiment made from dried herbs, such as oregano, thyme and savoury, mixed with sesame seeds, dried sumac and salt. 

Known as Baid bi Tamaten in Arabic, this dish originates in Iraq.

Cheese Topped Egg Stuffed Tomato

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy providing you use the bread and cheese as Healthy Extra A&B

4 large beef tomatoes

4 eggs

4 slices bread

1 onion, chopped

¼ tsp turmeric

1 tsp marjoram

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

1 tsp zaatar

Sauté the onion in a little Fry Light until soft. Meanwhile, carve out the centre of the tomatoes and chop the flesh, saving the juices as you go. Personally I don't like the seeds, so I omitted those, but that of course is up to you whether you include them or not. Place the slices of bread on a baking sheet.

Mix together the onion, chopped tomato flesh, turmeric, marjoram and a little salt and pepper. Use some to stuff the tomatoes, spreading the rest on the bread. Place the tomatoes on top of the bread. Break an egg into each of the tomatoes, top with the cheese and sprinkle with zaatar. Bake at 200°C for 15 minutes or so until the egg is cooked to your liking.

This is what my husband ate. As I have already got plans for my Healthy B option later today, I served mine on some leftover risotto, with some of the tomato-onion mixture stirred in.

Two tomatoes each was way too much for breakfast, one would have been enough, but it would make a nice supper dish or a light lunch. 

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. 

http://www.slimmingworld.com/

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.

Pitta Pizza

Normally pizza and diets don't go terribly well together, but I have found a way that I can have my cake - or rather pizza – and eat it. And even better, I was able to use up some more leftovers. They don't call me the leftover queen for nothing!

When asked about the type of pizza he wanted, my husband's answer was 'Texan Spicy BBQ', so I was tasked with trying to recreate the flavour of his favourite pizza from the take-away.

Spicy Texan BBQ Pitta Pizza

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy, providing you use the bread and cheese as your Healthy Extra A & B.

2 pitta breads*

1 slice leftover meatloaf

8 cherry tomatoes, sliced

½ onion, thinly sliced

small handful of rocket leaves

½ red pepper, thinly sliced

½ cup leftover BBQ sauce

1 red chilli, finely chopped

2 tsp sweetener

45g of reduced fat cheese, grated**

Heat the oven to 190°C and grease a baking tray. Mix the BBQ sauce with the chilli and sweetener and add the chopped meatloaf. Split the pitta breads open and place all the other ingredients on top, starting with the rocket leaves and finishing with the grated cheese. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cheese is nicely browned on top. Serve with a salad of your choice.

*The Slimming World book says that only Co-Op 60g wholemeal pitta bread is permissible as a Healthy Extra B, but after I had my husband drive half way around the South West looking for a Co-Op which sold them, but to no avail, I decided to use a 60g Sainsbury's wholemeal pitta instead. Seeing as I'm not having any other syns today, I am willing to risk it.

** I used a mixture of mozzarella and low fat cheddar.

OK, so it wasn't quite the same as the take-away pizzas, but the taste was very similar. The pitta breads made a good substitute for normal pizza base, and best of all, I can have it on my plan. Definitely one to repeat.  

Indian Scrambled Eggs

I love the challenge of what to do with leftovers and absolutely hate wasting food, so everything that is not eaten goes in my fridge.

For breakfast this morning I wanted to make Indian Scrambled Eggs, knowing that I could use various leftovers in the process. I found half a red onion in my fridge as well as some leeks in a white sauce from last night's meal, which I decided to use too.

(* I had already counted the syns for the white sauce yesterday, so didn't include them today. Same with the milk from my Healthy Extra A allowance.)


Check out the Slimming World website for details.

Indian Scrambled Eggs

Serves 2

Free on Extra easy *

4 eggs

½ onion

handful of green beans, chopped

½ cup leeks in white sauce

½ tsp onion seeds

½ tsp black mustard seeds

½ tsp crushed coriander seeds

½ tsp chilli flakes

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp garam masala

½ tsp salt
small handful of coriander leaves, chopped

Finely chop the onion and fry in a little Fry Light with the onion, mustard, coriander and cumin seeds. Break the eggs into a bowl and mix together with the leeks in white sauce, coriander leaves, garam masala, salt and chilli flakes. Add the green beans to the onions in the pan, then pour in the egg mixture. Keep stirring until it is lightly set – it won't set completely because of the white sauce.

Serve with grilled tomatoes. 

It was actually quite a big serving and unusually my husband couldn't even finish his - although he have toast with his. 

Entertaining Dad

It's always difficult to think of what to serve when my dad comes over for dinner. Although he will always eat what's put in front of him (apart from spicy food – my dad thinks soured cream pretzels 'burn his mouth' - and fish, to which he is allergic), the proud chef in me wants him to enjoy his food too. He is not generally very keen on tomatoes, mushrooms, rice, couscous, Yorkshire puddings, yogurt, lentils or lamb to name a few, which does rather narrow the choice down. Then comes the list of foods he is not supposed to eat because of using Warfarin, which includes most dark green vegetables, cranberries, garlic and grapefruit.

We love our food spicy, so trying to think of bland food that fits in with most of the categories above, as well as my Slimming World plan, twice a week does pose some challenges. Of course, my pride doesn't allow me to repeat dishes too often either.

Meatloaf isn't something that has featured heavily on our menu over the years, and I don't think I have ever made it for my dad, so that's what I decided to do tonight. Had it been just for the two of us, the spice level would have increased tenfold for the recipe, but as it was I had to tone it down a little (lot) for my dad.

Meatloaf with barbecue sauce

Serves 4-6 (I cut it in to 10 slices)

Syn Free on Extra easy providing you use the bread as your Healthy Extra B.

500g extra lean beef mince

500g extra lean pork mince

2 small onions

3 garlic cloves

2 slices wholemeal bread

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp sweetener

salt and pepper top taste

8 slices of bacon

500 ml passata

1 tsp mustard powder

2 tsp bouillon powder

1 tsp sweetener

a few drops Worcestershire sauce

The easiest way to make the meat loaf is in a food processor – start with the onions and garlic and whizz until finely chopped. Add the bread and ensure it is just fine breadcrumbs before adding the meats, egg, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper and sweetener. Pulse until mixed. Mix together the passata, mustard powder, bouillon powder, sweetener and Worcestershire sauce until smooth and mix 100 ml of it in with the meat.

Stretch the bacon slices with the back of knife and line a loaf tin making sure all sides and the bottom are covered, reserving two for placing over the top. Press the meat into the tin and cover with the bacon pieces, wrapping any overlapping pieces over the top. Cover with tin foil and place in a large roasting tin. Fill boiling water to half way up the tin – I find the easiest and safest way of doing this is to put the roasting tin in the oven fist and then adding water from the kettle. That way I am less at risk of spilling boiling water over myself when I move it.

Bake at 150°C for 2 hours. Check that the meat is done by inserting a skewer into the meat and pressing down slightly to ensure that the juices are running clear. If so, remove from the oven and let it rest for 20-30 minutes, still covered with foil before turning it on to a board and cutting into slices and serving it with the rest of the BBQ sauce. 

I served it with whole roasted Apache potatoes, tomatoes stuffed with some leftover risotto, leeks in white sauce and fine green beans. 

Dinner service from John Lewis, tablecloth was my mum's. 

http://www.slimmingworld.com/

Wednesday 25^th April

There are many reasons why I decided to do a food blog – partly because so many people ask me for copies of my recipes, partly to keep me on the straight and narrow throughout my journey to a slimmer me, and partly because I thought it would be a good way of showcasing my love of cooking and photography.

I love going to local food stores and market when I travel, to see the different ingredients available, and maybe, if I'm lucky, try something new. We are very fortunately here in Bristol in that we have a fantastic ethnic supermarket with all sorts of unusual goodies (Bristol Sweetmart). Yesterday I bought some green bananas and for lunch today I adapted a recipe to fit in with the Slimming World plan.


Check out the Slimming World Website for details of the plan.

Generally speaking my cooking is far from an exact science, I usually add a little bit of this and a little bit of that until it tastes right. If you want a more detailed description of your recipes you are reading the wrong blog. As far as I can I will try and give the syn value (it will mean something to those of you following the Slimming World plan, the rest of you feel free to basically just ignore that information)

Back to the green bananas. Trying to peel them proved harder than I expected and when I sliced off a small piece to taste I can't say I was impressed. It tasted a bit like, well, unripe bananas. Not a pleasant taste at all. The finished product, however, was delicious!

Spicy Green Banana Salad with Sweet Ginger Chicken

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

3 green bananas, julienned or grated

small handful of grapes, halved

bunch of spring onions, thinly sliced lengthways

about ¼ of fennel, thinly sliced

small handful of mange tout, thinly sliced lengthways

juice of ½ lemon

small chilli, finely chopped

2 tsp sweetener

2 chicken breasts

knob of fresh ginger

juice of ½ lemon

1 tsp soy sauce

1 ½ tbsp sweetener

Cube the chicken. Whizz together the lemon juice and fresh ginger in a lisuidiser until a smooth and thick liquid. Add soy sauce and sweetener and coat the chicken well. Leave to marinade while you make the salad.

First make the salad dressing so that this is ready when you cut the bananas to stop them going brown. Mix together the chopped chilli, sweetener and lemon juice and stir well with the julienned bananas, making sure they are well coated. Add all the other salad ingredients and toss the salad well.

Thread the chicken cubes onto skewers and cook at 220°C for 10 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through and nicely browned on top. Serve with the salad. 

I was very apprehensive when i first started to eat the salad, although my husband assured me it was 'very tasty' (I was still busy taking photos of the dish as he was tucking in). He was right, it tasted nothing like the initial flavour and the combination mix was indeed very nice. Phew.