BBQ sides

So, people get stuck with what to have along with their grilled meat or fish, at least thats what i hear when i go to my slimming world group, so here is a few ideas.

Grilled corn on the cob

Mixed veggie skewers then push them off a skewer into a bowl or oven bake some Mediterranean style veggies.

My BBQ style baked beans (on my blog)

Boiled or baked potatoes or even slimming world chips.

Rice salad (or plain rice)

Pasta salad (or buy a passatta that has garlic and herbs in, add some salt and pepper and you have a syn free sauce)

Slimming world coleslaw recipe (also on my blog)

fruit skewers (obviously not for the BBQ but for dessert)

Salsa (roughly chop 3 large tomatoes, 1 small red onion finely chopped, pinch of salt and pepper, juice of half a lime, some roughly chopped coriander)

Boiled eggs

mexican salsa; 1 large can drained corn, 1 cn drained and washed black beans, 2 large spring onions finely chopped, 1/4 cucumber deseeded and finely chopped, handful of coriander OR parsely, finely chopped, juice of half a lime, generous pinch of cumin, salt and pepper.

Asparagus; 1 packet of aspargus trimmed coated in 1 tsp olive oil (2 syns) pinch of salt and pepper. You can either cook them in a foil packet or grill them straight on the BBQ.

Gherkins

A big bowl of fresh green lettuce or even the bagged stuff washed if you are short for time with slices of cucumber and a punnet of cherry tomatoes.

And of course, cloud bread! if you haven't heard of this phenomenon you can have it on an SP day it is literally eggs, a pinch of salt and quark! you seperate the eggs, whisk up the whites and well i am going to do another blog on that later!

I hope you liked this short blog on a few ideas to go alongside a BBQ or even just as side dishes!

Grilled steak kebabs

There is something primative about grilled meat. so what could be better than a grilled steak, potato and mushroom kebab that you can lay on a bed of crisp salad and drizzle over your favourite salad vinaigrette.

500g very lean steak ( all visible fat removed and cut into bite size pieces)
500g salad/baby potaotes (preboiled until only just fork tender)
200g baby mushrooms
salt, pepper
1tbsp freshly chopped thyme and rosemary or about tsp dry thyme.
1 tsp olive oil (2syns)

Put the steak into a sandwich bag with salt, pepper, herbs and olive oil, do the bag up and massage the seasoning into the meat and leave for at least 20 minutes. (this would be a good time to be boiling your potatoes then cooling them, this would also be a good time to soak your wooden skewers to stop them from burning)

Alternate the steak, mushrooms and potatoes on the skewers until the ingredients are used up.

Grill on the BBQ or griddle pan for about 2 minutes a side or cooked until the meat is to your liking.

Serve over salad or with coleslaw, grilled tomatoes and mushy peas like a mixed grill style dinner. yum!

BBQ SP Beans

Comforting and good for an SP day, if i'm doing extra easy day i usually do some of the SW iceland sausages like a sausage and bean bake and god is it good and makes a lot.

1 large white onion
2 large carrots
2 sticks of celery
1 red and green pepper.
4 smoked bacon medallions
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tins cannelini beans
2 tins haricot beans
1 tin of red kidney beans
2 tins of tomatoes
1 jar of passata
2 cloves of garlic
generous pinch of salt and pepper.

roughly chop the veggies then process until finely chopped.

Dice the bacon into small pieces and fry off in fry light in a big pot until turning crisp.

Add the garlic and the vegetables and cook down until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Add the remaining ingredients (fill the jar of passatta halfway with water and rinse it out adding it to the pot).

Let cook for about an hour or until thick and umptuous.

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.