Mexican Loaf

Full of fiber, this is a healthy Mexican dish to enjoy as a side dish or as a snack.

 

Serves 6


Ingredients:


12 oz can of spicy refried beans

packet of Batchelor's Mexican Rice

3 medium eggs
Fry Light or other light oil spray



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 220C/425F.


2. Spray low-calorie oil spray into deep, small rectangular glass pan.


3. Mix the eggs together in a bowl.


4. Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet.


5. Mix the refried beans into the egg mixture.


6. Add the rice to the refried beans and egg mixture and mix well.


7. Pour mixture into pan.


8. Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes.


9. Enjoy!

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Easy Banana Bread

This recipe only takes 5 minutes to prepare before baking.

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted light butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sweetener
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
Fry Light (or other low calorie cooking oil spray)


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

2. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

3. Mix in the sugar, sweetener, egg, and vanilla.

4. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

5. Add the flour last and mix.

6. Pour mixture into a 4x8 inch loaf pan that is sprayed with Fry Light.

7. Bake for 1 hour.

8. Cool on a rack.

9. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Enjoy!








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Andhra Chilli Chicken

Serves 4.

Ingredients

3 tbsp tomato puree
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 fresh red chilles, deseeded and chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp artificial sweetener
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp medium curry powder
Fry Light or other low-calorie cooking oil spray
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, peeled and finely grated
4 dried curry leaves
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
400g can chopped tomatoes
250 ml/ 9 fl oz chicken stock
8 chicken thighs, skinless and boneless
salt

Directions

1. Place the tomato puree, garlic, fresh and dried chillies, salt, sweetener, chilli powder, paprika and curry powder in a blender or food processor.

2. Add 60 ml/2 fl oz of water and blend until smooth. Set aside until needed.

3. Spray a large saucepan with Fry Light and place over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and fry for 1 minute before adding the onion and curry leaves and cooking for a furher 5 minutes.

4. Add the chilli paste mixture and fry for 3 minutes. Stir in the coriander, cumin, tomatoes, stock and chicken and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook gently for 35 to 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender, stirring occassionally.

5. Season to taste and serve immediately.

1/2 syn on original

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Reduced Sugar Mint Chocolate Truffles

A few weeks ago, we had a food tasting night in my Slimming World group and one of the ladies brought these truffles in for us to try. I was a bit sceptical about them because they were made with Quark, but I found, when trying them, that they were delicious and it felt really decadent to be allowing myself such a smooth and creamy mint chocolate truffle.

I have altered the recipe slightly, because I detected a very faint bitterness to the truffles when trying them, so I decided to add sweetener. The version brought for us to try was mint chocolate, but these could just as easily be made in any flavor, from simple chocolate to toffee chocolate or orange chocolate, depending on which flavor of Options sachet is used.

At the moment, I don't have a photo to add here. I would need to make them again to take a photo, and I am afraid the risk I run when I make these is that I would eat the whole batch! The next time I make these, I will add a photo to this post.

These are very easy to make and don't require any actual cooking other than a minute's use of the microwave, so even kids can make these! (I will be adding this recipe to Kids Creating Cakes: Cooking for Kids because it is something my kids will happily be making.)

Makes 20

Ingredients

50g Dark Chocolate
113g Quark
6 tbsp sweetener
2 sachets of mint chocolate Options (or mint chocolate Skinny Cow)
1 tsp Cocoa to dust (1/2 syn per tsp)

Directions

1. Melt chocolate in microwave for 1 minute

2. Beat Quark with sweetener until creamy. Add melted chocolate and mix well.

3. Add the Options sachets and mix well.

4. Make into 20 blobs using a teaspoon and put on greaseproof paper or wax paper.

5. Put into the fridge to harden for about two hours.

6. Remove from the fridge and shape into balls.

7. Roll in cocoa powder and set in the fridge overnight.

8. Serve and enjoy!

2 ½ syns for 2 on all plans









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Snickerdoodle Balls

(I will add a picture in here when I get one taken.)

When I lived in the US, once of my favorite cookies was the snickerdoodle. Snickerdoodles are wonderful cinnamon vanilla cookies, and I really wanted to come up with a healthier version of them. This is the result of my efforts.

Ingredients

6oz self-raising flour
3oz low-fat margarine
12 tbsp sweetener
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 egg yolk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Mix the sweetener, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the margarine and rub it in using your fingertips until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in the yogurt and the egg yolk. Knead the mixture with your hands until it forms a soft dough.
4. Divide the mixture into 24 small balls. Place the dough balls on a baking tray sprayed with Fry Light or other low calorie oil spray. Bake these in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool before serving.


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Healthy Pancakes

Happy Pancake Day! Becausr today is Pancake Day, I thought it would be appropriate for me to add a healthy pancake recipe.

Makes 2 pancakes.

Ingredients

6 tbsp sweetener
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Directions

1. Separate the egg yolk and the egg white into separate bowls.

2. Add 3 tbsp of sweetner to the egg white. Using an electric mixer, whip up the egg white until it makes stiff peaks.

3. Add the vanilla extract and the rest of the sweetener to the egg yolk and mix well.

4. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture.

5. Spray a pan with Fry Light and pour half of the mixture into the pan. After a minute, flip the "pancake" over.

6. Take it out a minute later and repeat the cooking process with the rest of the mixture.

Add your favorite topping and enjoy!

Syn free on all plans.




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Lasagna Sheet "Doritos"

Although pasta is allowed on the Slimming World plan, pasta was never intended to be eaten this way, so there is some discussion going on about whether or not these should be "free food" or not. My suggestion is that you pair these with other super free foods in order to consider them syn-free. You can make a salsa from canned chopped tomatoes and fresh ingredients to go with these, or you can use these in a taco salad, adding them to lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions, kidney beans, Quorn mince and healthy extra serving of grated cheese.

Ingredients

lasagana sheets
seasoning (whatever seasoning you prefer)
low calorie oil spray/Fry Light

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

2. Boil the lasagna sheets in boiling water for 4 minutes and then remove them from the water.

3. Lay the lasagna sheets on a cutting board and cut each one, individually, into four triangles.

4. Lay the triangles on a baking tray. Spray the triangles with Fry Light and sprinkle seasoning over them.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 5 to 7 minutes. (You want them to be starting to turn golden without going brown.) Then turn them over.

6. Spray the other side of the triangles with Fry Light and sprinkle the seasoning over them.

7. Bake in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until they are golden but before they turn brown.

Enjoy!

Note: For my "Doritos", I used butter flavored Fry Light and Tex Mex seasoning.


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Chocolate Drizzle Angel Cake

This one is so simple to make!

Ingredients

1 box of Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix
1 box of Fat-free Sugar-free Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
skim (fat-free) milk

Directions:
1. Make cake in a rectangle pan as directed.
2. Cut angel food cake into tiny squares.
3. Put three tiny squares of angel food cake into individual glass bowls.
4. Make chocolate pudding as directed on the box.
5. Pour chocolate pussing over the chunks of cake in the bowls.
6. Refirdgerate for 5 minutes.
7. Serve.

Serves 16.

3 syns each.

Potato Wedge Nachos

I love nachos, but the Doritos or other corn chips/crisps used to make them are counted as syns on the Slimming World plan that I follow. This is my solution. By using potato wedges instead of Doritos, I save on syns and still get to eat nachos!

Alternatively, you can just use potato skins instead of wedges.



Ingredients

900g / 1 lb. potatoes
1 can fat-free refried beans (regular or spicy)
1 pack Quorn mince (in the US: a ground meat substitute)
1 packet of Taco seasoning
salsa (to taste)
168g / 6oz. reduced fat grated cheese
Fry Light / low calories cooking spray

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 225F/110C.
2.. Wash and dice the potatoes into thick wedges and par-boil them for 10 minutes. Spray a large baking tray with Fry Light or any low-calorie cooking spray. Drain the wedges and spread evenly across the baking tray.

3. Bake for 45 minutes or until wedges start to turn golden.

4. While the wedges are baking, put the Quorn mince into a frying pan sprayed with Fry Light. Add 1/4 cup of water and the packet of Taco seasoning. Mix. Cover and cook for 12 minutes. Remove from heat.

5. Put the contents of the can of refried beans into a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 2 minutes.

6. Separate the wedges, when done baking, onto 4 plates. Top with the refried beans and then top with the taco mince.

7. Put 1/4 of the grated cheese on each plateful, and then top with desired amount of salsa.

Serves 4.

If making the salsa from scratch:
One syn per serving on Green or Extra Easy Days.



You can purchase the recipe card for this recipe here.

Healthy New York-style Meatloaf

This meatloaf was delicious and loved by everyone in the family when we tried it.



New York-style Meatloaf



Serves 4

Ingredients

500g/1lb 2oz extra lean minced beef
250g/9oz extra lean minced pork
1 red pepper, deseeded and very finely diced
8 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
4 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp English mustard
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
110g/4oz fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
salt and freshly ground black pepper (I used Nature's Seasons.)
400g can cherry tomatoes, drained

To Serve:

chopped basil (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Place all the ingredients, except the cherry tomatoes in a large mixing bowl, seasoning well. Knead the mixture with your hands until well combined.

2. Line a medium-sized loaf tin with non-stick baking parchment and transfer the mixture to the tin. Bake in the oven for 1 ½ hours or until cooked through. The meat should shrink away the sides of the tin when cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes, then turn out on to a baking sheet. Place the cherry tomatoes on top and return to the oven for 12-15 minutes. Garnish with the basil, if using. Carve the loaf into thick slices and serve.

Syns per serving
Extra Easy: 5
Original: 5
Green: 17 1/2

Vegetable Pizza

Vegetable Pizza

serves 6

Ingredients
Base
1 x 145g packet pizza base mix
Fry Light (or other 1-cal spray)

Topping
397g/14oz can chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp chopped basil
4 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tbsp artificial sweetener
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 courgette, thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced

1. Prepare the pizza dough according to the packet instructions. Form into a ball and place in a bowl lightly sprayed with Fry Light. Cover with a clean towel and let stand for 10-15 minutes.

2. Place the tomatoes, basil, garlic and sweetener in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool and season well. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6 and line a baking sheet with non-stick parchment.

3. Knead the dough and roll out into a large disc (about 30cm/12 inch in diameter) and place on a baking sheet. Spread the tomato sauce over the base, leaving a border around the edges, and arrange the courgette, pepper and onion on top. Season well and bake for 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Slimming World info: 4 1/2 syns on Green or Original

This recipe can be found in Slimming World's 100 Comfort Foods book.

Spinach, Onion & Herb Frittata

Spinach, Onion & Herb Frittata

serves 4

Ingredients
Fry Light (any 1 cal spray)
6 spring onions, sliced
255g/9oz spinach leaves, washed
3 tbsp freshly chopped basil
6 eggs, beaten
28g/1oz Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Spray a frying pan with Fry Light and cook the spring onions for 2 minutes. Add the spinach and fry for 2-3 minutes until it wilts.

2. Mix the basil with the beaten eggs and pour into the frying pan. Fry for 5-6 minutes or until the base is set.

3. Sprinkle the top with the cheese and place the pan under a hot grill for 3-5 minutes until the frittata is set. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Slimming World info: 1 1/2 syns per serving on Green

This recipe can be found in Slimming World's 100 Green Recipes book.

Bean Soup

Beans are rich in fiber and this bean soup recipe that my mom always made for me is a really healthy, fiber-rich meal that is perfect for anyone trying to lose weight.

When I lived in the US, we always made this using pinto beans, but I was unable to find dry pinto beans where I live in the UK, so I made it with two bags of dry crab eye beans instead. If just using the basic ingredients (beans, ham, onion, seasoning, garlic powder), this is also a very inexpensive meal that will feed about five people for two nights.

Ingredients:
2 bags of dry crab eye beans or pinto beans
2 thick slices of lean gammon/ham (optional but recommended)
2 large white onions
seasoning (I use Nature's Seasons from the US) - to taste
garlic powder - to taste

Tobasco sauce (optional)
low fat cheese (optional)
one baguette (optional)

First, soak the beans in water overnight.

In the morning, add the beans to a crockpot (called a "slow cooker" in the UK) and add water to cover them.

Chop the onions and add them to the crockpot. Chop up the gammon/ham and add it to the crockpot. Add seasoning and garlic powder to taste. (The ham/gammon is not necessary for bean soup, but it adds a nice flavor to the stock that the beans are cooked in.)

Let cook on high for 5 to 6 hours.

Serve up.

I sometimes add low fat cheese to my bowl of bean soup. It melts right away and tastes yummy, but I only add it if I have saved up enough extra calories for the day. I always add Tobasco sauce to my beans because I like my food spicy, but this is not for everyone.

I also like to have a baguette (the one pictured is an onion baton) with my beans to dip into them, but again, this makes the meal less healthy, so it all depends on how well I have been eating beforehand.

A large bowl of crab eye beans without gammon is about 468 calories, and very low in fat. (I do not know how pinto beans compare in calories to crab eye beans.) The gammon adds about 51 calories to the meal, and the low fat cheese adds another 67 calories (depending on the kind you use). The onion baton is about 200 calories. As you can see, if I plan on having all of the extras with my beans, I have to eat very light for the day prior to the meal.

But having the meal without the cheese or baguette makes for a very healthy meal that is not too high in calories, is very low in fat and is high in fiber too.

Also, for those following a Slimming World diet plan, beans are a "free" food on Slimming World's Green Days, and the meat can be used as a healthy extra.