Sweets!!

Ta daa - I made my first batch of slimming world sweets.  1 syn for 15 sweets and this recipe made 25.  They are kind of harribo-ish but but not quite as you know they are jelly.

I bought myself some silicone sweet moulds from ebay which were pennies.

Add a sachet of sugarfree jelly and a sachet of gelatine to 1/4 pint of boiling water and mix thoroughly until disolved.  Cover the bases of the moulds with the jelly (about half way up the mould) you should be left with half of your jelly mixture.

Put the moulds in the fridge to set for 10 mins.

Whilst they are in the fridge, add half of a mullerlight yogurt to the jelly mixture and mix.  

Once the moulds come out of the fridge, top each one with the yogurt/jelly mixture, then place in fridge for 30-40 minutes to set.

You can use any combination of flavours you like.  I ate all 25 sweets one after the other which was a bit sickly but I think if I popped 15 in a tub and took to my work to nibble on throughout the day that would be just fine!

Enjoy X

Macaroni Salad

This is delicious - I'm not a fan of mustard so didn't think I would like it but how wrong was I??!!  The recipe is from 'Eat Yourself Skinny' and I have adapted it only very slightly and really only slightly in that I only substituted the chopped peppers and celery for some cucumber and tomatoes. 

I really had to try and figure out the syn value per serving - but roughly speaking the entire weight of everything combined was just over 900g - so for a 100g serving it worked out at about 2.5syns if using light mayonnaise and 1.5syns if using extra light mayonnaise and that was me over estimating.

250g dried macaroni

10 tablespoons of light mayonnaise 20 syns or extra light mayonnaise (10 syns)
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard (1 syn)
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
2 tablespoons of artificial sweetener
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper
1 red onion chopped
1/2 large cucumber chopped
3 tomatoes chopped

Cook the macaroni, add the mayo, vinegar, dijon mustard and mix.  Add the sweetener, salt and pepper and stir through - add chopped ingredients and mix.

Refrigerate for about 4 hours before serving - or overnight.

Sticky Chicken

I've seen this on quite a lot of different Slimming World forums.  It's very quick and easy - which I love!

Serves 4 (2 syns per person)

3-4 chicken breasts diced

3 level tablespoons honey (7.5 syns)

3 level tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

3 level tablespoons light soy sauce

Stir fry the chicken with frylight until browned.

Mix the sauces together in a bowl and add to the chicken and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the sauce reduces and thickens.

Tasty enough but I think next time I might add some chopped garlic and some dried chilli flakes to give it a bit of a kick.

Done!!

Big Mac in a Bowl

OK now apologies for this looking like a dog's dinner but I tried to titivate it the best I could!!  This is Slimming World's Big Mac in a bowl - the recipe is all over the internet and Youtube.  I'm not a big big fan of McDonalds but everyone who had posted this recipe said it was better than the real thing so I thought I would give it a go!

The verdict - it was ok and it was nice enough.  Wouldn't call it a firm favourite but would have it again if I was ever in the mood of a burger type dish.  I must admit that I didn't eat it all although I wasn't all that hungry when I made it.  I felt it needed something to accompany it, maybe something like slimming world syn free chips - however if you are a Big Mac fan then you will probably love this!  

It was really easy to make - the ingredients are:

shredded lettuce

1 finely chopped onion

crushed garlic

250g extra lean beef mince (or less than 5% fat mince)

1 tablespoon of Kraft reduced calorie Thousand Island Dressing (1/2 syn)

mini pickled gherkins (you either love them or hate them - personally I love them, I think it makes it the whole Big Mac taste)

3 light cheese slices (this is a Healthy Extra A - otherwise you would have to syn them)

Spray a frying pan with frylight and brown your beef and drain away any excess water.

Fry the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes until they soften and then add the mince.

Cook for 5-10 minutes and season with salt/pepper.

Layer a plate with shredded lettuce, add the mince, thinly slice a couple of gherkins and add them, drizzle a tablespoon of the Thousand Island dressing (or as much as you want but just remember to syn it), and then chop up the cheese and layer on top.  Voila!

You are allowed 3 cheese slices as your Healthy Extra A but I only used 2 and actually probably could have only used 1)

Tuna Pasta in Chilli Garlic Sauce

This was so simple, quick and easy to make and really tasty!  It was nice actually to have something tuna based that wasn't in mayonnaise either.

I fried some chopped onion in frylight until it was soft then added a tablespoon of Chilli Garlic sauce, added 1/2 can tuna and mixed through for a couple of mins.  Then added it to some cooked pasta.

It was that simple!!  The sauce I used was from the 'ethnic' aisle in Tesco, it's just a little jar.  I worked the syns out online and for the tablespoon that I used (10g) it was only 1/2 syn!  I did add a tiny sprinkling of grated parmesan once I had plated it up but to be honest it really didn't need that added as it is tasty enough without it.  It had a wee bit of a kick in it - not much but just enough!  So I wouldn't bother adding the parmesan again.

I had this warm but I think I will definitely make some up ready to have at lunchtime when I'm at work.

Jelly

My friend Karen gave me a great tip - make up a sachet of sugar free jelly.

I checked online and the entire sachet is 1.5 syns - but the amount I'll be having is so minimum, it would be 1/2 syn at the very most.  I don't think I'll be munching my way through a pint of jelly in one go...lol :)
  

You could add fruit or serve with fruit and fat free yogurt.