A Week of Food Diaries: Day 5 & 6

Yet another weird food day, another day of grabbing what I can, when I can so just one meal again with some snacks.

DINNER:

6 x chicken breast dippers (12)

TEA: 

Slimming World Spaghetti Bolognese with Red Pepper

Syns & Snacks:

Chicken breast dipper x 6 (12)

Apple (SF + S)

Healthy Extras:

A: 250ml Semi Skimmed Milk

B: 2 x Weetabix

DAY 6:

Dinner

No photo unfortunately but it was another roast dinner with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, peas and sweetcorn with Pork, 100ml gravy with meat juices (5), 2 roast potatoes (2) and 1 small yorkshire (2.5)

Tea

2 x Weetabix (HEXB) with 250ml semi skimmed milk (HEXA) and Apple (SF + S)

Tomorrow is weigh day so we'll see what the verdict is...!

A Week of Food Diaries: Day 4

Yep, another 2am blog post. I've just literally finished work, had a quick bath and sat down to blog about todays food. To be honest it's been so hectic at work that I've had very little time to eat. I literally woke up at 9, got up at half past then forced some breakfast down me because I knew it was going to be a long day and I didn't know when I would have opportunity to eat.

DINNER

errrm...? I didn't have any. Well I lie I had a piece of jam roly poly and custard, one roast potato and half a small yorkshire. Not healthy in the slightest, I know but to be honest I was more concerned about just grabbing something and they were almost within my daily syns so I can deal with that.

TEA

We did a carvery style meal for the wedding we had on so I took advantage of the left overs and did myself a proper dinner with Broccoli (SF + S), Cauliflower (SF + S), Carrots (SF + S), Peas (F + SS), Turkey (F) & gravy (1 syn). I didn't eat everything on my plate because I was so full and it saw me right through the night which I was pleased about.

Syns & Snacks

Apple (SF + S)

Gammon (F)

Jam Roly Poly & Custard (13)

1 Roast Potato (1)

1/2 Small Yorkshire Pudding (1.5)

Gravy (1)

Total Syns: 16.5

Healthy Extras

A: 250ml Semi Skimmed Milk

B: 2 x Weetabix

P.S. Skipping meals is not a good idea. It's just that I literally sometimes don't have time to eat, I'm that busy I just forget about food. I still eat plenty so please don't think I'm depriving myself.

Quick & Easy Chicken Korma Recipe

So many of the Slimming World curry recipes are far too complicated and they require far too many ingredients for my liking. I found a recipe which is both cost effective and doesn't take an absolute age to do (no marinating etc. etc.). I'm gonna be honest with you and say i've yet to find a Korma recipe which tastes like creamy coconutty takeaway korma, this is actually more of a tikka masala.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 2-3)

Diced Chicken Breast (1 or 1.5 packs)

1 Onion

2 Garlic Cloves

1 tbsp Korma Curry Powder (you could use any curry powder really)

200g Passata

400ml Chicken Stock

6 tbsp tomato puree

100g fat free natural fromage frais

METHOD

- Spray a pan with fry light and brown the chicken, onion and garlic cloves

- Add the curry powder, passata, tomato puree, stock and whatever seasoning

- Bring to the boil then cover and turn the heat to low

- Simmer for 20 mins or until chicken is cooked through (I always make sure mine is cooked before adding the saucy bits, I'm a bit weird about chicken)

- Put the savoury rice in the microwave (this takes 15 mins so you know the curry is almost done when the microwave dings)

- Remove from the heat and stir in the 100g of fromage frais

- Serve with whatever salad or veg you'd like, I chose spinach because I have a thing about it at the moment :)

And there you go, easy peasy 'korma'

A Week of Food Diaries: Day 3

Another weird day to be honest... I've had the same meal for both meals today, not that it's a bad thing because I really enjoyed it but still. 

DINNER & TEA

Slimming World Easy Chicken Korma, Savoury Rice & Spinach (SF & S)

Syns & Snacks

Nectarine x 2 (SF & S)

Muller Light Vanilla (FREE)

Morrisons Egg Custard Tart (13)

Total Syns: 13

Healthy Extras 

none.

A Week of Food Diaries: Day 2

Today's been a bit weird food wise, I didn't sleep properly last night which meant I didn't get up while 11am and then I didn't eat anything until 2pm so it kind of threw my meal times out and I've not snacked but hey ho still on plan...

DINNER

Sunday Dinner on a Thursday

Broccoli (SF)

Cauliflower (SF)

Carrots (SF)

Peas (FREE)

Sweetcorn (FREE)

Gammon (FREE)

Large Yorkshire Pudding (only ended up eating half 2.5 syns)

Mash (2 syns)

Gravy (1.5 syns)

TEA

Yep Salmon again, simple and easy

2 x thin salmon fillets (FREE)

Half pack Bachelors chicken savoury rice (FREE)

Cucumber (SF)

Pepper (SF)

Tesco Light Choices Sweet Chilli Cottage Cheese (FREE)

SYNS & SNACKS

Large Yorkshire Pudding (only ended up eating half 2.5 syns)

Mash (2 syns)

Gravy (1.5 syns)

250ml Glass Red Wine (9 Syns)

Apple (SF)

HEALTHY EXTRAS

A. 250ml Semi Skimmed Milk

B. 2xWeetabix

Quick & Easy Slimming World Cowboy Pie

The thought of Cowboy Pie repulsed me to begin with; baked beans in a pie?! blergh no thanks but I can honestly say I actually really enjoyed it and it's so easy to make, here's how...

INGREDIENTS (serves 4-6 depending on portion size):

5% fat lean mince (Lidl have it on offer at the moment, 2 packs for £3.50)

1 tin baked beans in tomato sauce (SS)

Tomato Puree

300ml Beef Stock

2 Onions

4 Carrots

6 Potatoes (approx, depends how big your dish is, they need to make enough mash to cover it)

1-2 tablespoons of Worcester Sauce (depends how much you like worcester sauce)

Seasoning of your choice

METHOD:

- Peel the potatoes and put them on to boil

- Put the mince in a pan to fry along with the chopped onions and carrots until the mince is browned

- Add the baked beans, beef stock, tomato puree, worcester sauce and seasoning

- Bring to the boil then leave to simmer and reduce for approx 30 mins, stirring occasionally.

- In the meantime mash the potatoes

- Then transfer to an oven proof dish and top with mash

- Pop in a preheated oven (180) for around 15 mins. You can top with cheese if you want to use a few syns or if you've still got your healthy A.

And there we go, serve with whatever veg you want (I had swede mash) and you've got a really easy syn free meal for you and your family!

A Week of Food Diaries - Day 1

So I put on a pound this week after spending weeks just messing about; you know how it is, half off, half on etc. etc. so this week I'm taking action to get 3 pounds off (would love 3.5 for my 5 stone award but we shall see). Obviously the first part in my action plan is to actually be 100% on plan 100% of the time... the second is to increase my intake of speed and super speed foods (to up my weight loss) and the third is to do these food diaries. These will hopefully not only encourage me to be on plan but they might also give you some meal inspiration. 

(You might wonder why I only have two proper meals per day, that's because I very rarely eat breakfast... and I also say dinner and tea not lunch and dinner because I'm common).

DINNER

Leftover Slimming World cowboy pie with swede mash and gravy (1 syn)

TEA

Baked Salmon Fillets with cucumber (S), pepper (S), spinach (S), potatoes and Tesco Healthy Living sweet chilli cottage cheese (FREE). 

SNACKS & SYNS

- Pineapple (S)

- Apple (S)

- Muller Light Vanilla (FREE)

- 50ml Bisto Gravy (1 SYN)

- 2 x Caramel Freddo (10 SYNS)

Todays Syn Total: 11

HEALTHY EXTRAS

A: 250ml Skimmed Milk

B: 2 x Weetabix

Easy Syn Free Pulled Pork

There are times in our lives when we don't have the time, inclination or energy to stand in front of the stove and cook something from scratch and the general misconception is that quick and easy things which come from the frozen or chilled area of the supermarket are ladened with syns. Well, that's not strictly true because Tesco have a little hidden gem in their freezer department...

I can't actually believe that this whole thing is completely free, but I have checked and double checked on the SW website and it definitely is... BBQ sauce and all!! You just put it in the oven for 1 hour and 25 minutes covered with tin foil, adding the BBQ sauce 10 minute before the end. Then you use a fork and pull the pork apart so all the tasty BBQ sauce goes right through the meat. 

The meat joint itself looks really small; the box says it serves 3 but by my portions I would say more like 1 or 2 people because there's a bit of fat on the top which I always take off but it makes a really tasty meat for either a pork sandwich with salad or a pork salad with new potatoes or chips. It tastes absolutely amazing and you'd think it'd be really high syn but it's not!

This is what my BBQ pork sandwich looked like... it was delicious!!

Tesco also do a few more meat joints in the frozen 'Simply Heat' range; Beef Brisket in ale gravy (free) and also Lamb Shanks in mint gravy (1.5 syns each) they're perfect for a saucy meat without the hassle, I think I'm going to try the beef next!

Have you tried these yet?