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?

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??

Quick & Easy Meal Ideas with Tesco Vegetable Chilli

One of the main reasons why people struggle with the Slimming World plan is that they assume that everything has to be made from scratch. Trust me, my life does not allow me to make a lot from scratch so I rely on quick and easy meals which can be rustled up in minutes. I recently found out that a tin of Tesco Veg Chilli is only 1 syn for the whole thing so if you like veg and you like chilli, what's not to like?!

 Tesco Vegetable Chilli 400g can £1.49

It's packed with carrot, potato, onion, peppers, chopped tomatoes and red kidney beans with a mild to medium chilli sauce. It's really chunky rather than being mainly sauce and I think it's perfect as a jacket potato topping. I also added some extra super free on the side because I like to be on the safe side with my 1/3 super free and it was just nice to have something cool and crunchy to eat with the chilli. 

You could also do it with some rice or even with some potato wedges... chilli cheese wedges sounds amazing actually, I think I might try that next!! A can of this 1 syn chilli is ideal to have in your cupboard or for taking to work if you have access to a microwave!

So you want to go out & still lose weight?

One of the best things about Slimming World is that you can still carry on with your life as normal without your eating habits having to change what you do in terms of enjoyment. I have been on many a night out and eaten lots of meals in restaurants since I've been following the plan and I've always lost weight that week. One bad meal or even a bad day does not have to mean a gain at the end of the week. This is how I 'limit the damage'...

use 'flexible syns':- This is where you decide a set figure for the day/night and you count down from that to zero, when you get to zero you stop eating syns. If I'm on a night out I generally allow myself 40-50 syns, this sounds like a lot but if you follow SW you'll know alcohol isn't very syn friendly and one of my favourite tipples is white zinfandel which comes in at 9 syns per 250ml so for my syns I can have 4 large glasses of wine and have a few syns left over. Obviously it's upto you what you use your syns on but as long as you don't go over the amount you agreed with yourself, you are still maintaining a degree of control and therefore you should find it easier to stay on plan for the remainder of the week.

plan before you go:- If you're going out for a meal and you can get hold of a menu online then you need to be having a look at the different options available to you. My usual SW friendly choices include steak, jacket potato and salad & tomato based pasta dishes. There are of course lots of different things you could have within your usual daily 15 syns (or you could use flexible syns).

be good the rest of the week:- Might sound obvious but if I'm going out at the weekend I find it's a bit too close to weigh in day for comfort so I'll make sure I keep under 5 syns on all the other days and I also get straight back onto the regular plan afterwards. So many people think that a bad day has ruined their whole week so they'll continue to sabotage themselves for the days leading up till weigh day. There really is no need to do this, trust me I've been really naughty before and still managed a loss or a maintain on weigh day. 

Do you have any ways of coping with days/nights out?

What to buy on your first Slimming World shop

One of my friends from twitter (@what_a_twit) gave me a really good idea for a post on here the other day so I thought I'd get on and do it because I do think it'd be a massive help for anyone just starting SW, or even people who have been doing it a while. I think the first couple of weeks of Slimming World are the hardest because you struggle to know what to eat and it's the worst when you don't have enough in your fridge. Here are a few of my staple products that I ALWAYS have in without fail:

Salad items (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes & peppers)

Eggs

Lean Meat (whatever takes your fancy)

Extra Lean Mince (less than 5% fat)

Fruit (not in a tin)

Frozen Peas

Veg (fresh or frozen)

Potatoes

Fat Free Yoghurts (my favourites are Muller Light and Weight Watchers... stay away from Yeo Valley)

Mug Shots (the ones with the black 1% triangle in the corner are free)

Bachelors Savoury Rice (these are all free)

Baked Beans

Alpen Light Bars (these count as a Healthy B)

60g Wholemeal Breadcakes (I buy Kingsmill)

Cottage Cheese

Semi Skimmed Milk

Babybel Cheese (great for grabbing as a healthy A)

Philidelphia Light or Lightest (great for spreading or cooking with)

Dried Pasta (white or brown)

Tinned chopped tomatoes (these are included in so many recipes)

Ready meals under 5 syns (for when you're in a rush)

Salt & Pepper

Dried Mixed Herbs (these can be used in lots of recipes)

And not forgetting some stock for your syn cupboard. This will obviously vary from person to person, if you're a savoury kind of person then you'll want low syn crisps which include Quavers and French Fries... I will be doing a full post about low syn savoury snacks so watch this space! If you're into sweet treats then you'll want to pick up things like treat size chocolate bars or a selection of chocolate bars under 10 syns.

As I said, this will vary from person to person, this is just an idea of what I always have in. Your first shop tends to be an expensive one but trust me, once you have got going it gets cheaper. You can buy frozen meat and veg if this is cheaper and easier for you, it doesn't change the fact that it's free/superfree.

What are your staple foods for living a healthy lifestyle?