Slimming World Chilli Recipe

This has quickly become one of my favourite ever meals, I will never in my life ever use a packet mix for chilli now I've started making this one. It's packed with Speed foods (formerly known as super free) and is a great winter warmer served with a jacket potato or rice... make enough and it's also great microwaved for lunch!

Ingredients:

- 450g less than 5% fat mince

- 2 tins plum tomatoes

- 1 green pepper diced

- 1 red pepper diced

- Mushrooms (how many is personal preference, I like a lot)

- 2/3 onions sliced

- 1 tin red kidney beans

- Beef stock cube/melt

- 1.5 tbsp lazy chilli

- 1.5 tbsp lazy chopped garlic (in white wine vinegar)

- 1 tbsp tomato puree

Method:

- Brown the mince and onions in a pan

- Add the two tins of plum tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms, tin of kidney beans & stock cube (i put the water from the tin as well as the kidney beans but it's up to you if you want to drain first)

- Stir and leave on medium heat for 5 mins

- add lazy chilli, lazy garlic and tomato puree

- leave to simmer on a low heat for 30-40 mins, stirring occasionally. 

If you want a hotter chilli, feel free to add more lazy chilli but do keep tasting as you add because it does pack quite a punch! The above photo is an EESP version of a chilli meal which was still very filling but if you're following the regular SP plan you could have a jacket potato or rice in place of the cottage cheese.

My week on Extra Easy SP

Well it's been a while since I posted on here, i've been so busy and just not in the right frame of mind to write but I'm back with a fresh batch of post ideas so look out for some new stuff on here over the next couple of days/weeks!

You may or not be aware that the Slimming World plan has changed a teeny tiny little bit in the new year meaning that we all now have brand new books regardless of when you started. I will address the regular plan in another post but this post is going to be all about Extra Easy SP which is the 'booster' plan to be followed when you want to give your weight loss a kick up the backside!

The basics of EESP is that you cut out any food in your book which doesn't have an 'S' or a 'P' next to it. On each plate you have 50% 'S' foods and 50% 'P' foods, you still have your Syns (5-15 per day) and you still have your healthy extras but you can have 2 Healthy B choices on EESP as opposed to just 1 on normal extra easy (you do still only get 1 Healthy A choice).

I've done a full week of EESP this week, admittedly it hasn't been without a slip up because it took a couple of days to get to grips with it properly but here's some of the meals I've enjoyed this week:

Turkey steaks (P), Boiled Eggs (P), Cottage Cheese (P), Lettuce (S), Pickled Onions (S), Beetroot (S), Cucumber (S), Tomatoes (S), Red Pepper (S) 1/2 Tbsp 70% less fat Salad Cream (1 syn)

Prawns (P), Lettuce (S), Cucumber (S), Red Pepper (S) Beetroot (S) 60g Bread Roll (HEXB) 2 Tbsp Colman's Seafood Sauce (4)

Salmon (P), Cottage Cheese (P), Beetroot (S), Lettuce (S), Pickled Onions (S), Yellow Pepper (S), Cucumber (S), Tomatoes (S)

30g Cheese (HEXA) & Onion (S) Toastie (HEXB) with Beetroot (S) and Pickled Onions (S)

Speed Food Packed Chilli (recipe to follow) with Cottage Cheese (P), Lettuce (S), Cucumber (S), Red Pepper (S)

Steak (P) Carrots (S), Broccoli (S), Onion (S), Peas (P), Gravy (1.5 syns)

Small slip up:

- I went to Nando's with every intention of being 100% on EESP but thought I was clever enough not to read my book before I went. I ordered Butterfly Chicken (3.5 syns) with corn on the cob (free) and spicy rice (2.5 syns) only to discover that corn on the cob did NOT have an S or P next to it meaning that it wasn't 'allowed' on EESP, I didn't end up having any S on my plate at all (should have gone for the side salad!) and to be totally honest I shouldn't have had the rice because although it's synned and you are allowed syns, it's obviously rice which is one of the prohibited foods.

Fear not though, a small slip up like this doesn't ruin your week, I can vouch for that because I lost 4.5lb this week! Like I said earlier though, the idea behind EESP is that it boosts your weight loss if you feel as if you're stuck or lacking inspiration. Doing it this week I found that I really enjoyed having 2 Healthy B's and I actually found a renewed interest in eating Slimming World friendly foods.

Have you tried EESP yet? Please feel free to ask any questions below and I'll answer if I can. (although please remember I'm not an SW consultant; nobody can replace their knowledge and expertise)

Slimming World Onion Bhaji Loaf with Yoghurt and Mint Dip

We had a tasting night at our Slimming World group the other week and one of my fellow slimmers, Jane, brought an onion bhaji loaf for us all to try... it was absolutely amazing and surprisingly simple to make so I thought I'd give it a go and share the recipe with you. It's a perfect snack food or great for serving as part of a meal.

Onion Bhaji Loaf (free or 1.5 syns)

Ingredients: 

- 1 tin of Chickpea Dahl (Asda Chosen by you is free, Mazadar from Morrisons is free, Tesco - 1.5 syns for the whole tin, try to avoid Sainsburys as this is 8 syns!!)

- 1 Packet of Bachelors Mild Curry Super Rice

- 2 Onions sliced

- 3 eggs

Method

- Cook the rice as directed on the packet

- In the meantime, fry the onion in fry light until soft & pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees

- Beat 3 eggs and add the chickpea dahl, onions and rice and mix together 

- Transfer into a loaf tin and put in the middle of the oven for 40 mins

Yoghurt & Mint Dip (syn free)

Ingredients:
- Fat Free Natural Yoghurt
- Colman's Fresh Garden Mint Sauce

Method: 
- This is all about personal taste really, I just emptied the pot of yoghurt into a ramekin then added the mint to taste.

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'

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!

Big Mac in a Bowl

There's one reason why we're all following a healthy eating plan - we love food that makes us fat. Burgers, pizzas, creamy pasta etc. etc. it all tastes good but too much of it isn't overly good for the waist line. I've said this time and time again that people assume that because you're losing weight, you don't enjoy your food... well I can tell you that I enjoy every mouthful of food that passes my lips because there are some amazing SW friendly recipes out there which taste far too nice to possibly be on plan! Big Mac in a Bowl is one of those recipes which tastes so naughty but is actually totally on plan and it's so simple to do...

Ingredients:

Less than 5% fat mince or Quorn Mince

Iceberg lettuce

Gherkins

1 level tablespoon of Kraft Light Thousand Island Dressing (0.5 syns)

3 x Asda Chosen by You light cheese singles (HexA)

Method:

- Cook your mince (I used Quorn and it only tastes 5 minutes to cook half a pack in the microwave)

- In the meantime, line your bowl with chopped iceberg lettuce and gherkin slices (I know some people don't like gherkins, but I think they really make it)

- Once the mince is cooked pour it on top of the lettuce and gherkins

- Then tear the cheese into strips and lay it on top of the mince, you can either leave it to melt or pop it back in the microwave for 30 seconds (I put it in the microwave)

- Drizzle your tablespoon of thousand island dressing over the top and there you go... a Big Mac in a bowl!

McDonalds Big Mac syns: 24.5

Big Mac in a bowl syns: 0.5 (+1 HexA)

If you love Big Macs then you really need to try this, I've been doing SW since September and it's taken me 10 months to finally try it... now I'm asking why I didn't try it before now!!

Do you crave any fast foods??

Guilt Free Chicken Mayo Baguette on WHITE Bread

Earlier on today all I could think about was eating a massive chicken mayo baguette with chips and salad, and although to most it might not sound like an unhealthy meal, if you had something like that from a pub it'd probably set you back about 3 or 4 days worth of syns. White bread is very high, the chips would be deep fried and you can pretty much guarantee that the mayonnaise would be the full fat 5 syn per tablespoon kind... it might taste very nice but I personally don't think it's worth it when I know I can knock something up which is totally guilt free...

So what you see above is a white crusty roll with chicken and mayonnaise and celery with chips and salad. All this cost me just 4 syns and if you wanted to use lighter than light mayo you could do it for just 1 syn. I have an actifry to do my chips but you can also do SW chips in the oven, so I use 2 medium potatoes, peel and chip them and set them going while I prepare the other stuff. If you don't already know, one Weight Watchers part baked white petit pain roll counts as your healthy B choice (or 5 syns) so I cook this in the oven for about 12 minutes, get some cooked chicken, add 2 tablespoons of light mayo (4 syns), mix that together then cut the baguette in half and stuff the chicken mayo inside it. Then just chop up whatever salad you like (I personally think celery goes really well with chicken mayo), get your chips out when they're ready and there you go... a gorgeously naughty tasting meal for minimal syns!

Do you have a way to turn something naughty into SW friendly?

Slimming World Southern Fried Chicken Recipe

I used to eat a LOT of junk food before I started Slimming World but just because I am eating healthily, it doesn't mean that I no longer enjoy that kind of food; I just choose not to waste use my syns on it. Instead I try and do things the Slimming World way, and although it doesn't taste quite as good as KFC, this Slimming World version of southern fried chicken is blooming nice!

Ingredients: 

- Chicken (cut however you want, I like strips)

- Smash or other syn free instant mash powder (I used Mr Mash)

- American Chip Spice (found in takeaways, chip shops and Morrisons)

- 2 eggs, beaten

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Mix the mash powder and chip spice together in a tub, I tend to use 2/3 mash powder to 1/3 chip spice but it's very much about trial and error; seeing what you like.

Cut your chicken however you want it, I like strips but you could also use skinless drumsticks or thighs if you like that kind of thing. 

Spray a baking tray with fry light (to stop the chicken sticking)

Take a piece of chicken and dip it in the egg, then roll it around the mash powder mix. I like to double dip, so just repeat that to double coat the chicken, some people only do it the once though... again it's personal preference. Then place the chicken on the baking tray and repeat for all your pieces

Put in the oven for 25 minutes, turning half way through cooking

I served mine with a big crispy salad and a tablespoon of light mayo so the whole meal only cost me 2 syns; a fraction of what it would have been at KFC. This would also work if you were looking to make a chicken burger type meal with fake bread crumbs. This is another recipe that sounds odd because of the smash but you've really got to try it before you knock it! The next recipe I want to try is Big Mac in a bowl...

Slimming World Hunters Chicken Recipe

I think the below photo is unintentionally one of the best examples of 1/3 superfree that I've ever eaten, all the super free (cucumber and peppers) is arranged nicely on exactly one third of the plate! Anyway, the purpose of todays post is to show you how to do Hunters Chicken or BBQ chicken the Slimming World way. When on restaurant menus it does tend to be quite a high syn option because the fat is still on the bacon, it's swimming in cheese and sugary BBQ sauce... not to mention the chips that come with it but it can be done using only 1 syn!

Ingredients:

- 2 chicken steaks/fillets (I tend to buy my chicken from Lidl, I find it's the cheapest and best value by far, when doing hunters chicken or pizza topped chicken I buy the steaks as opposed to the fillets because they're already flat meaning that there's no need to butterfly them)

- 2/3 rashers of bacon with the fat cut off

- 65g Light Mozzarella, or any other cheese which you like, just check how much you can have (HEXA) 

- 2 potatoes, chipped

- Beans (optional, I just like them on my chips)

- Salad (whatever you fancy to fill up that third of your plate)

- 1 tbsp HP Honey BBQ Sauce (1 syn)

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

- Put each individual chicken steak/fillet onto tin foil and place 2 slices of mozzarella on each 

- Wrap each piece of chicken in bacon and pull up the sides of the tin foil and pinch at the top to cover the chicken and place on a tray in the oven.

- If you have an Actifry then put your chips in there and set the timer to around 35 minutes. If you don't have an Actifry see this method for Slimming World chips

- Chop up whatever salad you fancy and cover 1/3 of your plate with it

-  After 25 mins of cooking, take the chicken out of the oven and remove it from the tin foil (be careful as it will have some chicken juice in there, which will be hot). Place each piece of chicken back onto the tray and cook for a further 5/10 minutes just to firm up the bacon.

- When your chicken and chips are done arrange them on your plate however you'd like, measure out 1 tbsp BBQ sauce and pour it on top of your chicken.

- At this point I warmed my beans up and put them on top of my chips, as I said this is optional I just really like chips and beans! I also used any remaining mozzarella to put on top of my chips... gorgeous!

Another big plate full of food using only 1 syn (as long as you use your mozzarella as your HEXA)! No it's not swimming in cheese or BBQ sauce but there's more than enough of each to make it really tasty!

Diet Coke Chicken Recipe

This is probably one of the 'cult' Slimming World recipes, I have no idea who came up with the idea of pouring a full can of Diet Coke over chicken must have been a nutter but a full on genius at the same time! Lots of people will turn their noses up as soon as they hear that one of the ingredients is Diet Coke, and I will admit that it does sound odd but it makes the most amazing chinese style chicken dish and best of all, this method is completely Syn free on extra easy!

Ingredients:

2/3 chicken breasts, diced

2 onions diced or sliced (whatever you prefer)

1 330ml can Diet Coke

200ml Tomato Passata

2 crushed garlic cloves (or equivalent as garlic salt etc.)

1 chicken stock cube

Splash of soy sauce

Splash of Worcester sauce

Method: 

Use Frylight to fry the chicken and onion in a large pan until the chicken is sealed

Pour in the can of coke, passata, soy and worcester sauce, garlic, any spices you desire and the stock cube. Note: do not make up the stock cube with water as directed on the packet, you just put the full stock cube into the mix

Simmer on a low/medium heat for around 30 minutes, stirring every so often, this is what it will look like when you first add all the ingredients...

I thought I'd show you what it looks like because I think it worries people that it's so liquid; it takes the 30 minutes to reduce down to a more sticky, thick consistency that it's famous for.

While you're waiting for it to reduce, start to prepare your sides, I love plain long grain rice with lots of red and yellow peppers but it's up to you what you have. Just remember if you're following the extra easy Slimming World plan, you need that 1/3 Superfree on your plate!

This is what mine looks like served up on a plate, as you can see the sauce has reduced a lot and it's more of a thick sauce coating the chicken. It's still more than enough to eat with the rice and the peppers just give it a bit of colour and crunch.

If you haven't already tried Diet Coke chicken, regardless of what healthy eating plan you're following, you should definitely give it a try! Lots of the ladies and gents at my group make this for the whole family and it's also been a winner with their children! It's also totally adaptable to your own taste, if you want to add mushrooms or peppers into the mix at the beginning then you can, and if you want to take it off the heat before the 30 minutes up for a more runny sauce then there's nothing stopping you!

Have you tried this weird and wonderful recipe?

Afternoon Tea the Slimming World Way

Afternoon tea has become quite a craze over the past couple of years and it's something you'd probably want to avoid if you're on a health kick, but for Mothers Day I treat my mum to afternoon tea at my house, the Slimming World way. I got out all my tiered cupcake stands and my nice little cups and saucers and did a bit of baking... just minus the oodles of flour and sugar! Here's how I did it:

The Savouries

- 2 slices from a 400g wholemeal loaf for a HEXB which would get you 4 triangles. The fillings consisted of: salmon and cucumber, roast ham and tomato and egg mayonnaise (with extra light mayo). Not using butter on sandwiches also makes a difference in syn values, a lot of afternoon sea sandwiches will have butter slathered all over them which pushes the syn values higher than you may expect!!

- Short celery sticks with light primula cheese down the middle (80g of Primula for HEXA, that's half the tube!)

- Cherry Tomatoes

The Sweets

A small traditional fruit scone would be 7 syns and if you wanted to go all posh and have a Tesco Finest butter scone, that'd be 13 syns!!! 1 tbsp clotted cream (4 syns) and 1 tsp jam (2 syns) takes it to a very costly affair syns-wise! If you really want a scone I'd suggest just having half of the quantities and you can enjoy a little bit of naughty for a lot less syns!

I did buy a pack of scones, for the benefit of my guests as well as some other naughty bits; the short bread and chocolate tiffin pieces are 7.5 syns each!!!! To stop myself from over indulging on the naughty stuff, I enjoyed treats from two recipes which I found on different blogs and on the Slimming World website...

Lemon Drizzle Fairy Cakes (serves 16) 2.5 syns each

Ingredients

1 Lemon

2 Eggs

50g low fat spread suitable for baking eg. Anchor Spreadable Lighter

6 tbsp artificial sweetener

100g self raising flour

2-3 drops vanilla essence

For the drizzle

8 level teaspoons of icing sugar

Few drops of lemon juice

Couple drops of yellow food colouring

1 tsp icing sugar to dust

Method

Preheat Oven to 180 degrees (gas 4)

Whisk eggs together with low fat spread and sweetener

Sieve in the flour and fold into the mixture with lemon zest and vanilla essence.

Spoon into the 16 cases and bake for 15-20 minutes until firm and golden

Place on a wire rack to cool

To make the lemon drizzle, mix together icing sugar, lemon juice and food colouring to make a spoonable mixture, drizzle it over the top of the cakes and then dust with icing to finish.

Taken from Slimming World Website.

Squidgy Chocolate Loaf (13 syns for whole thing)

Ingredients

6 eggs (separated)

150g Splenda sweetener 

50g cocoa powder (not hot chocolate) (9 syns)

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 tsps sugar (4 syns, optional)

Fry Light

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (gas 4)

Whisk egg whites to soft peak stage

Put egg yolks, Splenda and vanilla essence in a bowl and mix until smooth (add the sugar now if you wish to)

Add the cocoa powder gradually mixing in the cocoa, if the mixture gets too stiff add a little of the egg white

Fold the egg whites into the mixture with a metal spoon, make sure you fold carefully do not just mix it because you need to keep the mixture light and airy.

Spray a loaf tin with fry light and pour the mixture in.

Bake the cake for around 25 minutes until firm but springy, remove from oven and stand to cool (Leave in the tin)

This should make around 20 pieces, which dramatically reduces the syn value of each slice; I also cut each slice in half.

Adapted from a recipe on Slimming Eats

My willing guinea pigs (my mum, nana and grandad) all preferred the chocolate cake to the lemon drizzle cakes, which surprised me. But it also astounded them how many syns they ended up consuming when they had a bit of everything! I ended up eating 15 syns which is my whole allowance for today but it's far better than what I would have eaten if I hadn't have planned it the Slimming World way. It just shows that you can do afternoon tea within your allowance and I can't say that I enjoyed it any less than the really naughty afternoon teas I've had in the past!