Fake Jelly Sweets

So to ween myself off chocolate and sweets I've made up these fake ones. 1.5 syns for the lot. Basically make up a heartless jelly sachet as directed and also add in some powdered gelatine. I put one sachet in these but I think i'd put another one in next time so they set a little firmer! Still, can't complain for 1.5 syns!

FREE FOOD FEBRUARY - TASTER

So as it was taster last night and we'd been set the task of creating something SYN FREE... You ARE allowed to use your healthy extras but anything else is a no go. For those of you that have seen my previous tasters... I tend to make sweet things that are usually 1 syn or so, which meant I had to find something new to make...

I've made some Loaded Slow Cooker Potatoes that are SYN FREE if using your cheese allowance! The original recipe I found can be seen here

I've made a few tweaks to make sure it works out as syn free so I will post my recipe below...

Ingredients
Frylight
1kg of baby potatoes, halved and quartered if large
120g of Cheddar Cheese (this recipe serves 4 so if split into 4 would be your A choice (you could use the lighter cheddar if you wanted more)
2 tsp of garlic granules
8 bacon medallions, cooked and thinly sliced
2 bunches of spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp. paprika
Salt flakes
Black pepper

Method
Line a slow cooker with foil and spray with frylight.
Add half the potatoes, half of the cheese, half the garlic, half of the cooked bacon, half the spring onions, and half the paprika
Season with salt and pepper
Repeat
Cover and cook on high until potatoes are tender, 5 to 6 hours. (The bigger your potatoes, the longer they'll need.)
About 20 to 30 minutes before serving, top with remaining cheese and bacon

Joe Wicks Beef & Mushroom Pie

So I got the latest Joe Wicks book for Christmas off my boyfriends brother and I finally got round to trying a recipe this week! I decided to make the Beef and Mushroom Pie based on the meat that I had in the freezer. I tweaked it slightly to make it more Slimming World Friendly and this came in at 3 syns per portion and that was for the pastry!

*PLEASE NOTE: I substituted some ingredients as listed below and I also halved the rest as I made it for 2 people rather than the 4 suggested servings*

Ingredients
2tbsp coconut oil - I used coconut frylight
1.25kg rump steak, chopped into large chunks - I used diced beef so cooked it longer
1tsp butter - didn't use
1 onion, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 carrot, diced
12 mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
1½tbsp tomato purée
1½tbsp Worcestershire sauce
500ml beef stock
1tbsp cornflour - didn't need
large handful of parsley, roughly chopped
4 sheets of filo pastry - I used 1 sheet between 2 making it 3 syns each
drizzle of olive oil - didn't use

Method
Preheat oven to 190°C, Gas mark 5.
Melt half of the coconut oil in a large pan or casserole dish over a high heat.
Add half the meat, brown it all over and remove to a plate.
Repeat with the remaining coconut oil and meat.
Dollop the butter in the pan and melt it over a medium to high heat.
When bubbling, fry the vegetables, stirring occasionally, for about 5 mins.
Drop in the herbs and fry for another minute.
Return the cooked meat to the pan and squeeze in the tomato purée.
Stir-fry for 1 min and then pour in the Worcestershire sauce and stock.
Bring to a gentle simmer.
Mix the cornflour with 1tbsp water and stir into the beef mixture until thickened.
Tip the lot into a baking dish and leave to cool for 10 mins.
Crumple the filo pastry sheets into loose balls and cover the top of the stew.
Drizzle the pastry with olive oil and bake for 20 mins, or until it is browned and crisp.

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

Spaghetti Carbonara

So after skimming through Joe Wicks latest book I got for Christmas I really fancied making a Spaghetti Carbonara... so here's my take on it using what I had!

Ingredients
1 chicken breast
2 bacon medallions
Egg noodles (dried - I had no spaghetti)
Light Philadelphia Cheese
Spinach
Garlic granules
Mustard powder
Fry light

Method
Spray a pan with fry light
Slice the chicken and bacon into little chunks
Add to pan and sprinkle with garlic granules and mustard powder along with a little salt and pepper
Boil spinach and egg noodles in a pan
Once cooked drain the noodles and spinach add a little bit of the cheese and mix
Mix the rest of the cheese with the bacon/chicken
Add salt and pepper to taste
Serve
Simple!

What Makes Me Proud

So the #swphotochallengejanuary for today was 'makes me proud'... This might just be a picture of a food diary (from Fox And Moon by the way!) and a SW book to some, but to me, still doing Sliiming World is what makes me proud. It's taken me a good while to get where I am and I'm still a way from where I want to be but the fact that I haven't thrown the towel in when it hasn't gone my way is what makes me proud.

I genuinely love Slimming World, it's changed my life. I love cooking again, I've tried fruit and veg I'd never have dreamed of putting on my plate. I've made friends that I'd never have met otherwise, I'm in a happy place, and I try and help and support anyone else wanting to do the same. The love and support that Slimming Worlders have for each other is amazing and I'm so proud to be a part of that. If I had the time and the money I would train to be a consultant without a doubt. Maybe one day! ❤️

Sweet Chilli Chicken

So in an attempt to stay on plan this evening I made the Sweet Chilli Chicken recipe from the booklet we got at group over Christmas. It works out at 1 syn for these two pieces and it was lovely. I didn't feel much like having any 'speed' veg if i'm honest but I still added an onion to some egg fried rice so there was some in there! The egg fried rice I made was free and is my obsession at the moment!

Successful day on plan complete, I just have a really bad headache but I'm putting that down to being completely back on plan and the sugar withdrawal!

Mayflower Curry - Weigh Day

So tonight at group I had an unjustified gain of 1.5lb! I say unjustified... it probably was justified in some way I just refuse to believe it! I had a week off work which meant a week where I should have been planning meals and eating well which transpired to eating cake and living off service station coffee. Oh well! Hoping for a loss bigger than 1.5lb next week to balance it out! Here's my weigh day treat this week, no chippy or takeaway...a FAKEAWAY. It's the Mayflower Curry with some Egg Fried Rice. I really need to make this more! It was 4 syns worth because I used ALL the sauce but its a damn sight better than my other options!

Successful Day On Plan!

I've decided i'm going to try and photograph all my meals not just the pretty ones. And really look at what i'm eating vs. my losses etc. I had a beef stew for lunch after my Overnight Oats for breakfast (see previous post), followed by Salt & Pepper Chicken with peppers and onions and then a Fibre One bar with muller and raspberries for dessert.
All of that totalled by B choice + 6 syns, leaving me with 9 to use on snacks if I wanted to. I won't lie, I used it on chocolate, but that's fine, I satisfied my sweet tooth and I had the syns there to use. Winner!

The beef stew was done in the slow cooker and was quite literally some diced beef, 2 stock cubes and a bag of frozen casserole veg. I even chucked in some mushrooms and carrots that were left over and added salt and pepper. Popped the slow cooker on low for about 8 hours and thats it. Simple yet a real Winter Warmer.

Overnight Oats

A lot of people seem to ask how to layer their oats so I took these step by step pictures to show how I do it. I do tend to find the more you layer the better it turns out the morning after, I tend to just make it up as I go along in all honesty. It just depends on how much fruit I have to add to it as i don't like putting in really thick layers of fruit as I find the yoghurt/oats don't really mix as well.

Chocolate & Strawberries

Some mornings I struggle having something filling like porridge or a full breakfast, due to time or just not being hungry. This morning I wanted something sweet so I had this that I had conveniently prepped the night before.
It's simply syn free natural yoghurt mixed with an options sachet (2 syns) then some strawberries chopped and thrown in. Then simply popped it in the freezer to set overnight. I took it out and took it to work so there was approx 90mins/2 hours between removing from freezer and eating which gave it time to soften a little. It was really enjoyable and satisfied my sweet tooth.

Rhubarb Crumble Baked Oats

So I have to say, getting to this time of year is great because it really puts me in the mood for wintery snacks and baked oats are one of my favourites. Theres a million and one different recipes to make baked oats but here is how I do mine:
40g Porridge Oats (see previous post for news on increase from 35g)
1 Rhubarb Crumble Muller Light
1 egg
1 tsp sweetener
Cinnamon and Mixed Spice

I simply combined all of these ingredients and spooned into my silicone moulds, cooked at approx 180 degrees for half an hour (and sprinkled some sweetener over them half way through). They feel lovely and wintery and my kitchen smelled like Christmas, I'm surprised they lasted till morning! Obviously you can switch the muller to any of your choosing, I have an Apple Crumble one I will be trying next I think. You also don't need to add sweetener if you find the muller lights too sweet, but i'm a sucker for really sweet things. As I only used minimal sweetener I am not worried about synning it as suggested in previous post, so this would be syn free using my Porridge Oats allowance (b choice) for the day.

Overnight Oats

Overnight oats are always a winner, when I remember to prep them!

Health Extra for the oats, frozen fruit and a syn free muller - NO SYNS in sight and super filling!

Chicken & Tomato Soup

I'm finally at a stage where I feel I can make up my own recipes. I used to try to make soups but I didn't know what worked with what and it always tasted horrible. But last night I made a lovely fruity tasting tomato soup and then added some shredded chicken from Iceland just to bulk it out a bit and make it more filling.

To make the soup:
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 can of sliced carrots
2 stock cubes & approx 1 pint of water
frozen onions
1 carton of passata

Simply heat all the above and then blitz, I then added salt and pepper and a sprinkle of Paprika then threw in the shredded chicken that was frozen (pre cooked) from Iceland, I'd taken it out to defrost earlier so it was ready to add.

 

Overnight Oats

I think the thing with anything is that if you over do it and make it repeatedly you lose interest and it becomes boring. I haven't made Overnight Oats in ages! It's basically my hex b oats (35g) layered with frozen raspberries and a syn free yoghurt. So refreshing and keeps me full till lunch which is always a good thing!

Fakeaway Feast

There's nothing like a Fakeaway to bring in the weekend! Salt and pepper chicken for 2 syns. Syn free egg fried rice and then 3 syns for the mayflower curry sauce. Yum!

Salt and pepper chicken recipe previously posted!

Fruit Wobble & Chilli

Fruit wobble is basically a hartleys jelly crystals sachet (1.5 syns) made up with hot water and then quark mixed through then set. Used 1/3 of it today so only 0.5 syns.

Had some leftover syn free chilli to use so reheated that for lunch too, feels good to be back on plan!

Spiced Carrot Muffins

These are called Passion Cake Muffins on the website not sure why seeing as there's no passion fruit etc in them! They're basically mini spiced carrot muffins and I'm amazed they're only 1.5 syns each!!

Ingredients

• 3 medium eggs
• 6 tbsp granulated artificial sweetener
• 75g self-raising wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 175g grated carrot
• 110g quark skimmed milk soft cheese
• 1 tbsp granulated artificial sweetener
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

If preferred, replace the mixed spice with ground ginger or cinnamon for a different flavour.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4. Line eight deep muffin tins with paper cases. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and 6tbsp artificial sweetener until pale, thick and frothy - the mixture should be thick enough to hold a trail from the beaters.
2. Sieve in the flour and mixed spice, adding any husks that remain behind in the sieve. Add the carrot and, using a metal spoon, gently fold the ingredients together using a figure-of-eight action, taking care not to beat the mixture.
3. Spoon into the muffin cases to fill them and bake for 20 minutes until firm and lightly golden. Set aside to cool in the tin.
4. Meanwhile, make the frosting: beat together the quark, vanilla essence and 1 tbsp sweetener and chill in the fridge until required.
5. To serve, spread some of the frosting over each muffin to decorate.

Next time I make these ill up the flour to 100g and make them two syns each I think! 

**EDIT** I made them again and used 100g flour which would make the recipe 16 syns. I then made smaller cakes (18) which would make them 0.88889 syns (rounded up to 1 for ease) and they looked like this...

Weigh Day

So weigh day wasn't kind to me last night I gained 3.5lbs and it was completely unjustified.

But if I keep that in my mind it will effect this week and I don't want that. So enough said on that matter. Line drawn and back on it today.

Breakfast was an Arla Protein Yoghurt for 1 syn, with strawberries and a crumbled up Alpen Light Bar for half my b choice. Also had a mint tea.

Pesto Pasta n Sauce for lunch (syn free) and undecided on my tea yet but going to be on plan as much as possible. Also aiming to drink my 8 glasses of water a day and try and mix up my A & B choices so I'm not having the same everyday.

Transformation Tuesday

Some Tuesday motivation for myself. This is why I love Slimming World. I will never be 'skinny' nor do I want to be. But I'm finally getting to a place where I feel comfortable in myself. 

It was never about my weight when I started this, it was about feeling fat and repulsive and putting that much strain on my health that I knew I needed to change something. 

I then became fixated on an ideal weight, but if I went down to 8 stone whatever (which I apparently can and that's a healthy weight for me) I know I would look like skin and bone and not in an attractive way. 

I'm learning that it's less about the number on the scale right now and more about what I see in the mirror ❤️ and thanks to Slimming World I can do it without feeling like I'm missing out. 

Having the support of a significant other is incredible, and I'm lucky enough to have that in Rob. I was on the larger side (not my biggest) when we first got together. And I don't think I was small when we met almost 10 years ago, but he loves me for me and having him with me whilst I do this is amazing. He tries recipes I make and supports me when I'm having a wobbler. I know I could have not done any of this and he would have loved me anyway but I'm so glad he accepted that I wanted to do this for me and has supported me throughout. 

The photo on the left was me on Sunday and the one on the right was me at uni around 6 years ago. Size 18/20 - size 12 (approx) 

Don't ever feel like you can't do it, you just have to take the first step!