Amazing beef stroganoff

Quick, easy, delicious, mid week, weekend, dinner party.. anytime! (4-6 people)

400g Lean beef rump steak (all visible fat removed)
300g mushrooms (preferably mini mushrooms like small button or small chestnut mushrooms)
1 large red onion finely chopped
1tbsp dijon mustard (double check your syns my mustard i use is 1/2 a syn)
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree
3tbsp weight watchers west country thick cream (3 syns - 1 syn per tbsp)
handful of roughly chopped parsely.
200ml beef stock.
salt and pepper.

slice the steak as thin as possible.

Sear all the meat in a pan then move aside to rest then brown the mushrooms on a high heat till browned, add to the same plate as the steak.

Fry off the onion and add in the stock, mustard and tomato puree and stir in until dissolved.

Return the steak and mushrooms to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the cream and parsely.

serve with rice, potatoes or pasta or on its own with veggies. yummy!

smoked salmon linguine

simple, quick, easy, tasty.. what more could you want?

serves 4 or is good the next day for lunch

200g smoked salmon, roughly chopped into bite size pieces.
300g spaghetti or linguine.
250g cherry tomatoes halved.
2 generous handfuls of rocket.
Juice of half a lemon.
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and in bite size pieces.
2 tbsp (i used tesco its 2 syns per tbsp) reduced fat red pesto (also works with green pesto)

Start by cooking the pasta for 2 minutes less than the packet says. About halfway through cooking add the asparagus (reserve about 1/4 tea cup of the water)

mix the lemon juice, pesto and water together with a generous pinch of black pepper.

drain the pasta, add back to the pot you boiled it in, pour over the pesto and add the salmon coating the pasta, add in the cherry tomatoes too.

Serve and top with the rocket.

Chicken parmigiana

good for leftovers or to freeze after cooked, you could have this with pasta or potatoes and veggies or even just have a side of salad with it.

8 chicken breasts
1 large red onion (finely diced)
3 cloves of garlic
2 tins of tomatoes
8 tbsp of parmesan (1syn per person as 1 syn per tablespoon)
1 tsp dried basil
2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley.
salt and pepper

preheat the oven to 180oC

Season the chicken breasts generously on both sides.

sear both sides of the chicken breasts.

Meanwhile fry off the onion and garlic until softened.

Add in the basil and tinned tomatoes and cook down for 10-20 minutes.

lay the chicken breasts in a tray and spread the tomato mixture evenly between the chicken breasts and sprinkle each chicken breast with 1 tbsp of parmesan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Sprinkle over the parsley before serving.

hunters chicken

okay so hunters chicken isn't going to be syn free but its sure going to be delicious!

1 chicken breast per person (you could always use a turkey breast steak instead)
1tbsp BBQ sauce per person (usually around 1 syn depending what brand you use)
1 bacon medallion per person
25g low fat grated cheddar per person (4 syns or you could always use your HEA)

heat your oven to 180oC

season your chicken breast generously with salt and pepper then wrap the bacon medallion around the breast (or place on top)

bake for 15 minutes then coat the chicken breast/bacon in the tbsp of BBQ sauce

cook for a further 5 minutes.

Top with the cheese and leave till melted.

Coleslaw

This goes with everything in our house.. from grilled meats, burgers, chicken, pork to fish or as a side salad. you can top it with what you want but we usually dress it with the dressing that i will add to the bottom of the slaw recipe. its also lovely with light salad cream.

1 red onion
2 large carrots
half a small white cabbage

we use a mandolin as we have always had it in our family but you could use a food processor or if you are good with a knife do it that way.

peel then grate the carrot into a bowl.

peel and cut the onion in half and slice as thin as you can.

cut the half of cabbage in half then shred it.

combine together and that is the basic slaw.

for the dressing we use white or rice vinegar and tesco extra virgin olive oil spray we use 20 sprays (2 syns) we coat the slaw in the oil then add the vinegar.

the slaw will last 3-4 days in the fridge if you DONT add a dressing. ( you could always individually dress the slaw on the plate)

yorkshire puddings!!!

yorkshire puddings are my weakness.. i don't know why but they always have been, here is my slimming world recipe.

50g plain flour (8syns)
150ml unsweetened almond milk ( i use alpro which is hald  syn per 100ml atm so 1.25 syns may as well say 2)
2 eggs

get a muffin tin very hot in the oven

meanwhile blend the mixture or hand whisk or use an emersion blender to blend the heck out of the mix till fully combined and creamy.

spray the pan with fry light and divide the mixture into the 12 hole tray

*TOP TIP: make the mixture in a jug so you can just pour it in!*

Bake at 200 for 15-20 minutes (just keep an eye on them) depending on how many you make divide the total syn mixture by that much e.g whole mix = 10 syns so if you make 10 it would be 1 syn each

spinach and 'ricotta' lasagne

This is my take on spinach and ricotta, the most important step is trying to get moisture out of quark, if you have cheesecloth use that or when salted leave in the bowl and pour away as much excess moisture as possible!

you will need a lasagne dish (use whatever you have, a bowl or rectangular dish or anything you have)
lasagne sheets (dried)
2 pots of quark
2small red onion finely diced
1 large clove of garlic or 2 medium
salt and pepper
a bag of frozen spinach (thawed out, squeezed from excess water and roughly chopped)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
2 sticks of celery
2 carrots
2 egg yolks or 1 egg
4tbsp grated parmesan (4 syns)

starting with the quark, add 1.5 pots to a bowl and stir in a generous pinch of salt, if you can leave the bowl at an angle for at least an hour or even over night.

meanwhile you could either finely dice the vegetables or use a food processor.
process one onion with half the garlic to make a puree. add to a pan and cook until most of the moisture is gone, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper and add the spinach, again cooking till there is no moisture, move to the side and cool completely.

process your other onion, the other bit of garlic, celery and carrot until finely minced and fry off in a pan with fry light until they soften, add in the tomatoes (here you could add in some dried basil and some fresh parsley) cook down and season to taste.

pour off the excess moisture from the quark and stir in the spinach and onion mixture.

starting with a layer of tomato sauce layer it into your dish then a layer of lasagne sheet then the spinach mixture, layering until you have no spinach or tomato mixture left.
leave a blank layer of lasagne sheets on top of the dish.

mix together the remaining quark with the egg, 3 tblsp of water the parmesan and a pinch of black pepper and evenly layer over the top of your lasagne.

cover with foil and put in your oven at 180oC for 40 minutes, remove the foil and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Healthy Greek salad

This salad may not be slimming world or weight watchers but this is a relatively healthy salad that is delicious on its own or on a bed of salad leaves.

Serves 2-4
2handfuls of your favourite olives
1/4 cucumber in small bite sized chunks
3 large tomatoes or a pack of cherry tomatoes in bite size pieces
1small red onion, halved and finely sliced
Half a pack of feta crumbled into pieces.
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive
2tablespoons lemon juice
1tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1small clove grated garlic
Generous pinch of salt and black pepper

Mix the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, lemon juice and vinegar in a salad bowl.
Add in the rest of the ingredients and toss in the dressing.
Let sit for at least 20 minutes, toss again before serving.