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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Light Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins & Light Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

Light Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins





Ingredients

1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup sweetener
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin (or pumpkin puree)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.

2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices.

3. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes.


Light Pumpkin Raisin Muffins





Ingredients

1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup sweetener
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin (or pumpkin puree)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.

2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices.

3. Add wet mixture and stir in raisins. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes.


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Lightly Spiced Pumpkin Potato Soup

Ingredients

2 cups pumpkin puree
600g potatoes, peeled and chopped
700ml chicken stock/broth
1 tsp ground cumin
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
salt and pepper to taste
Fry Light/Pam
2 tbsp. light butter or margarine

Directions

1. Fry up the onion and garlic cloves in a pan sprayed with Fry Light for 5 minutes or until soft.

2. Make up 700ml chicken broth/stock. Boil the potatoes in the stock for 20 minutes.

3. Add the butter or margarine and stir it in until it's melted.

4.Add the cumin and salt and pepper to the potatoes.

5. Add the onion and garlic to the potatoes, and continue to simmer on low for 5 minutes.

6. Add the pumpkin puree to the potato mixture. Simmer for 5 more minutes.

7. Using a hand blender, blend everything together until it forms a thick, rich soup.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Puree

This recipe is perfect for making up your own pumpkin puree for recipes. Make this to use in making pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup and many other recipes.



Ingredients

pumpkin


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190C.

2. Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits inside the pumpkin. Then peel and chop the pumpkin flesh into large chunks.

3. Spray the dish with Fry Light and add the pumpkin chunks into the dish. Pour 1/2 cup of water into the dish.

4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

5. Put the roasted pumpkin chinks into a blender and blend until liquidized.

6. Store until needed.




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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

This recipe makes a great healthier replacement for crisps/chips and other food you might like to munch on at parties.



Ingredients

pumpkin
seasoning (in this example: garlic powder, salt, pepper & mustard powder)
Fry Light (or other low calorie cooking oil spray)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Separate pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin. Rinse well and spread evenly on a baking tray.

3. Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, mustard powder & garlic powder. (Choice of seasoning can be varied.)

4. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the seeds are slightly crispy and a few on the edges are beginning to turn brown.



Use the leftover pumpkin for making Pumpkin Puree which is great to use in other pumpkin recipes. For example of what you can do with the left over pumpkin, see the other pumpkin recipes here at Skinny Dreaming Recipes, such as Pumpkin Soup and Pumpkin Pie.






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Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 butternut squash (2 to 2 ½ lbs.)
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
1 level tbsp. low-fat spread
1 ½ pints chicken stock or vegetable stock
Fry Light (or other low-calorie cooking spray)
a dash of dried parsley to garnish

Method

1. Chop up the butternut squash into chunks (about 1 inch thick) and cut the skin off it. Peel and dice the onions and peel and crush the garlic cloves.

2. Add the onions and garlic into a pan sprayed with Fry Light and sauté for 5 minutes until soft.

3. Add the stock, butternut squash and low-fat spread to the pan and bring to a boil. Then turn the heat down and simmer for 25 minutes. Then remove from the heat.

4 Using a hand blender, blend the mixture until smooth.

5. Sprinkle with dried parsley to garnish.

2 syns total
1/2 syn per serving on all plans

Beef Madras

Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients:
Fry Light (similar to the 1 calorie oil spray in the US)
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves
6 green cardamom pods
2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped (I put three in)
1 tsp peeled and finely grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 dried red chillies (I bought a seasoning packet of them and put loads in)
1 tbsp Madras curry powder (I used "hot" madras powder.)
2 lb. (900g) lean beef fillets, all visible fat removed, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
9 fl. oz. (250ml) beef stock
salt

To Serve:
freshly chopped coriander leaves

1. Spray a saucepan liberally with Fry Light and place over a medium heat. Add the onion, cloves, and cardamom and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the fresh chilli, ginger, garlic and dried chilli and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes.

3. Add the curry powder and beef chunks to the saucepan and stir-fry for 6-8 minutes until the meat is sealed. Add the ground coriander, cumin and beef stock and bring to a boil. Season with salt, cover tightly and reduce the heat to low. Cook gently for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender. Remove the pan from the heat and scatter over some chopped coriander before serving.

(Personally, I like to remove the cardamom pods and the cloves when it's all finished cooking and before garnishing with the chopped coriander leaves.)

I added extra water towards the end of the cooking (in the last 5 minutes or so) to create more sauce with it. We serve ours with rice, and it's lovely with a bit of extra sauce to help mix in with the rice.

Peppadew Pasta Pie

Serves 4

Ingedients
8 spring onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
6 tbsp bottled Peppadews (or substitute bottled roasted red peppers), drained and finely chopped
4 eggs, beaten
198g/7oz very low fat natural fromage frais
127g/4 ½ oz reduced fat Cheddar cheese, grated
255g/9 oz cooked macaroni
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

2. In a bowl, mix the spring onions and garlic with all the remaining ingredients, season well and place in a medium-sized non-stick cake tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the eggs have set and the top is golden brown.

3. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 15-20 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve with a crisp green salad.

Syns per serving
4 ½ Syns on Green
8 Syns on Original

Low Carb Banana Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
5 Scan Brans (1/2 pack)
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
8 tbsp sweetener
3 eggs
150ml hot water
1 banana (the browner the better)
1 package of blueberries

1. Grind Scan Bran into a powder.

2. Heat blueberries on high for 30 seconds in the microwave. Add 1/3 of the blueberries into bowl with the other ingredients.

3. Mix ingredients together with a mixer. Then fold in the rest of the blueberries using a spoon.

4. Separate the mixture between 12 silicone cupcake "papers" or a microwave-safe cupcake "pan."

5. Cook in the microwave for 6 minutes.

2.5 syns for all 12 muffins or b option
plus extra syns for the banana and blueberries because they've been mashed and cooked

Reduced Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients
2 oz peanut butter
2 oz light margarine
3 1/2 oz Splenda
1 beaten egg
4 oz self-raising flower

Cream peanut butter, light margarine and Splenda together. Beat in the egg. Stir in the flour and knead well. Place small balls well apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes at 200C/395F.

Pasta With Quorn Sausages

Two cups of whole wheat pasta
1 red onion (finely chopped)
2 Quorn sausages (grilled)(If you don't have the brand Quorn in your area, it is vegetarian versions of meats, so there was no actual meat in the sausages.)
2 medium eggs (boiled)
3 tbsp. extra light mayonnaise
100g low-fat cheese (grated) - optional
seasoning to taste

Boil the pasta until soft and then drain. Add three tablespoons of extra light mayonnaise (or make Slimming World's syn-free mayonnaise if you are following the plan) and mix in until all of the pasta is lightly coated. Add seasoning to taste. (I use Nature's Seasons seasoning blend, but it can only be found in the US. I get it shipped to me by friends and family.) Chop the sausages into small bits and mix in. Mix in the chopped red onion. Dice up the boiled eggs and mix into the pasta. Sprinkle the grated cheese over (while the pasta is still hot) and mix in.

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.