Salt And Pepper Chicken

So I know i've posted this recipe before but I thought it needed posting again as it's been so popular and I've had a lot of people asking for it...

 
To make this BEAUTIFUL dish...

Ingredients
Chicken breasts, cut into chunks I use 2 as theres only 2 of us so adjust if needed
Plain flour (25g is 4 syns)
Salt & Pepper
Garlic granules
One egg, whisked
Fry Light
A pepper
An onion
Soy sauce
White wine vinegar
Sweetener

Method

Preheat oven to approx 180 degrees.
Combine 25g of flour in a bowl (25g is 4 syns you can use more but please adjust syn value accordingly), with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper, along with a teaspoon of garlic granules.
In another bowl, whisk your egg and add a splash of soy sauce to season.
Pop your chicken chunks in the egg and then in the flour mix.
Once this is all done, arrange on a nonstick baking tray, sprayed with some Fry Light first.
Then spray the chicken with Fry Light - this will help it to brown.
Cook the chicken for 15 minutes, and turn over, and then give it another spray of Fry Light and then give it another 10 minutes, or until golden.
When the chicken is on the second round of cooking, in a non-stick pan, gently soften your peppers and onion.
I'd add a splash of soy sauce for extra flavour.
Once everything is soft add your cooked chicken from the oven.
Mix together two teaspoons of sweetener with two tablespoons of white wine vinegar and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Add this to the pan and stir on a gentle heat.
This will be quite dry, as Salt & Pepper chicken is, but that vinegar/sugar mixture really makes the dish.
Taste and add some further salt and pepper if it needs it.

The only syns are for the flour - I used 25g so 4 syns and 2 of us had it so was only 2 syns each!

Porky Light Sausage Rolls

So after the success of the sausage rolls I made at Christmas from the Festive Feasts book, I thought I'd play around with the new Porky Lights and make some more low syn SAUSAGE ROLLS!

Ingredients

4 Porky Light Sausages (2 syns)
150g Pork Mince 5%
1 small onion, chopped
100g cooking apple, chopped (1.5 syns)
Sage, Salt & Pepper
1 39g filo pastry sheet (6 syns)
1 egg

Method

Deskin the Porky Lights and put in bowl,
Add all ingredients apart from pastry (save a little egg wash) and then combine thoroughly
Fold out the pastry sheet and then create a sausage along one of the sides (lengthways)
Slowly roll the pastry up and then use the remainder of the egg wash to seal the edge at the other side.
I cut it at this point into three, mainly because the pastry split slightly - I would recommend slicing it up into however many piece you would like at this point to ensure it cooks thoroughly.
Cook in the oven for approx 45 on 160 - I find it cooks better on a lower heat as if it's too high the pastry will just burn.

The total for this recipe is 9.5 syns so please split this into however many you decide to slice your piece into. I got 11 pieces out of mine but chose to count them as 1 syn each purely for ease. The choice is yours.
If you use this recipe could you kindly credit this blog post or just link back to it.
Hope you enjoy! X

KFC Chicken And Gravy

So there has been this massive hyper over the new Southern Style Gravy that Mayflower have released... and I finally managed to pick some up yesterday!

 

 

I even picked up some for the girls at group as it's the only place i've been able to find it as yet! I currently have 15 boxes all allocated to different members and I need about 6 more. I feel like some kind of drug dealer!
ANYWAY! armed with this new gravy I thought it was only right that I tried it out with the good old KFC Inspired Chicken...

 

Ingredients for KFC Chicken
Chicken Breasts
1tsp of dried oregano
1tsp of garlic salt
3tsp of paprika
Black pepper
Pinch of salt
Pinch of ground ginger
An egg
Smash

Method
Combine the spices with the smash
Cut up the chicken
Beat the egg in a bowl and then dip the chicken in the egg followed by the spice & smash mix
Cook in the oven for approx 20 mins on 180 degrees
Turn and cook for approx 15 or until golden brown.

To make the gravy...
According to the box 50g of powder makes 270ml, and according to the app 100ml is 3.5 syns.
I made it up as directed on the box and this filled 3 ramekins (see picture), I would reduce the water ratio going forward to make it thicker but obviously that won't affect the syns. I had one ramekin so would still syn this at 3.5 syns for the portion I had.

Chicken & Doner Kebab Fakeaway

So since Thursday night all I've thought about is tonight's tea. 

I used the BFree Pitta as my B choice and it was 3.5 syns for the Garlic Mayo but everything else was prepped using syn free methods!

 

Ingredients for Doner Meat:
1tsp dried oregano
1tsp dried herbs
1tsp garlic powder
1tsp onion powder
1/2tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp salt
1tsp black pepper
500g extra lean beef mince 

Method:
Combine all ingredients
Shape into a loaf and place on baking tray
cook in oven (180c) for 1 hour, turning over half way through
Remove from oven and wrap in foil, leave for 10 minutes to rest

To make the Tandoori Chicken:

Combine Natural Yoghurt with the juice of half a lime add some tandoori powder then marinate chicken and leave in the fridge for a few hours to marinate. 

Then place under grill until cooked - turning half way!

The carrot chips were just placed in the oven with a sprinkle of paprika whilst the doner meat was cooking I usually cook them for approx 40 mins. 

Absolutely stuffed and feeling great that I've only used 3.5 syns for all of that. It really felt like I was having a takeaway! 

Salted Caramel Loaf Cake

I have previously posted this recipe but thought it worth re posting as I tried it again but this time doubled up the flour to make it more cake like.

Ingredients:

100g self raising flour
4 eggs
Salted caramel flavouring
1 tbsp Sweetener

 

Method
Separate eggs
Combine the egg yolks, sweetener, salted caramel and flour
Whisk the egg whites into firm peaks
Fold in the egg whites
Cook for approx 25 mins or until golden brown
Enjoy

The whole cake is 16 syns so if you slice it into 8 each slice would be two syns etc. Please adjust syn amount to suit your slices.

Obviously it will never be as amazing as a full fat million syns a slice cake but I think it's a good substitute!

 

Lunch Ideas

I find the best things to take to work for lunch tend to be soups, I don't do salad and I get bored of pasta n sauces as well as mug shots and what not. Batch cooking and bringing last nights leftovers is also a good option but I rarely have leftovers :)

As you'll have seen from a recent post I tried the Pea & Ham soup and had that for lunch again yesterday but I've frozen the rest before I get sick of it like I do if I eat the same thing all week...

I whipped up a spicy tomato soup last night so I could have a 'speedy lunch' today. I love that I've picked up the basics of Slimming World and have the confidence to adapt them and make my own recipes up now.

For this I simply used:
Chopped tomatoes
Several pickled onions
Mini tin of baked beans
(like the speedy tomato soup uses)
Chicken stock cubes (as I didn't have any veg ones left)
Jalapeños
Tsp of Lazy Garlic
Tsp of Lazy Chilli

Just brought it all to the boil and let simmer for about 20 mins then used my hand blender to blend it all.
So Simple and it gave the usual tomatoey soup a lovely kick. All of it is syn free and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've got enough for a second portion too which is always handy!

I find potato and leek and those sort of soups really bland and boring but if anyone has any recipes that have a kick to them I'd love to know about them!?

Low Syn Treats

Another one of the Photo Challenge pictures for this month is titled 'Low Syn Treats' so I thought i'd pick my top 9.
I've picked ones you can make rather than buy and I will post a link to each recipe.

1. Chocolate Orange Squares - Each piece is 2.5 syns. I haven't made these for ages but I think I need to, just been looking through my camera roll and completely forgot about these little gems!

2. Coconut Macaroons - Admittedly these look more like Meringues but they are still yummy and I love making these, I make them a lot for tasters as they're a huge hit at only 1 syn each!

3. Cinnamon Swirls - Easily one of my favourites. 1 syn each and worth every bit of it!


4. Lemon Cake Pops - These are simply the Lemon Loaf Cake recipe make into cake pops, I find it a lot easier to snack on and you feel like you're eating more!

5. Half A Syn Cake - Admittedly if you're a newbie I think you'll be disappointed with this if you're expecting an incredible Victoria-esque sponge, but if you've been doing the plan a while and struggling with your sweet tooth I think it's definitely a good substitute!

6. Low Syn Chocolate Cake - Similar to the above, they certainly don't put Mary Berry to shame but they're a means to an end and at 10 syns for the WHOLE cake, you can hardly complain!

7. Ombré Jelly Slice - 3 syns for this entire thing. I love it, especially in summer. You can add 1.5 syns for another layer if you like, it's easy enough to experiment with and the flavours can easily be changed!

8. Salted Caramel Loaf Cake - I amended the Lemon Loaf cake recipe and made it into a Salted Caramel one so really I could have posted them together but oh well here goes!

9. Last but not least, the Fake Jelly Sweets - These are 1.5 syns for the whole lot! I ended up portioning them up into 3 so I could sit watching TV and know I was only using half a syn munching on these!

I definitely want to try some new ones, there's probably a heap more that I could have included but I thought i'd just share some old and some new ones that I've found really useful in keeping me on plan!

Slimming World Top Tips

So following on from the Photo Challenge I thought it might be worth expanding on some of my top tips for following Slimming World...

1. Take Photos: if anyone ever looked at my camera roll I'd probably look extremely vain and obsessed with food! But it helps massively. I regret deleting old photos because I don't have many to choose from now but I am constantly taking photos so I can compare them along the way as I don't think you can always see a difference when you're looking in the mirror on a daily basis.

2. Identify Your Weaknesses: by that I mean if you've got a sweet tooth, make sure you look for low syn treats etc so you aren't going without, if you're a brew addict make sure you're measuring your milk and synning excess. If you love pizza, find a way to make it work for you. Everyone is different and everyone will use their syns for different things which leads me into my next point...

3. Plan Ahead: if you know you get a sweet tooth at night, make a syn box or have low syn treats in so when it strikes you aren't drawn to the highest synned chocolate in the house. Also, if you know you're off out for a meal it always helps to try and see a menu online or search the SW website for syn values to see what will work best for you.

4. Batch Cook: I'm not saying batch cook a months worth of meals and start from there (feel free if that's your thing but it's definately not mine) but if I use a recipe that's for 4 and there's only us two, I can portion up the others for lunches or freeze them so I've got them for a busy day. I also like to batch cook soups etc so I've got them handy for work and I don't have to go in search of food on my lunch.

5. Variety: I think this is the biggest thing, if you make the same thing day in day out you get bored, anyone does. Try and vary the meals you make. This works well with the batch cooking as you can build up a nice variety in the freezer to pick from. I try and do a new recipe a fortnight even if it's a new dessert recipe or try a new snack. I know some people are busier than others so some have the ability to make a new one a week or every day but that's certainly not me!

Chinese Fakeaway

Saturday Night and I really wanted a takeaway... say hello to the Chinese Fakeaway!
In a bid to use up things in the cupboard before a mammoth food shop I decided to use the Mayflower Curry Powder again (you can buy from heron/b&m etc and it is 99p for a tub).
Decided to actually take photos of me making it this time so you can see how easy it is. The sauce was 4 syns for 28g worth of powder (which made a lot) and everything else in the recipe is free.

The egg fried rice was also completely free and is so easy to do. It works a lot better if your rice is cold as I find it goes sticky if you try and use just cooked rice.