Recipe Wednesday: all-day breakfast

As I’ve mentioned previously, in the last few weeks of trying to get to my Slimming World target, I tried doing a few SP days.  Since getting to target, I’ve stuck with this habit the day before weigh-in, because I’m still getting to grips with maintaining and the summer has always been my most difficult time SW-wise – there are lots of special events like holidays and festivals going on, afternoons in beer gardens, and cravings for ice cream.

As such, I’ve settled into a pattern of having all-day breakfast for tea on a Wednesday night, because it doesn’t require cheese, which means I can use my Healthy Extra A for milk to go with my bran flakes, which are my additional Healthy Extra B choice on an SP day.

All-day breakfast
All-day breakfast. Nice and light for pre-weigh-in night – well, it is compared to the huge bowls of pasta I usually eat!

If Geth’s eating with me, he often helps out with cooking this one, because he really likes cooking sausages or thinks he’s better at it or something.  You start by frying sausages (I use Linda McCartney regular vegetarian sausages* but obviously if you’re a meat-eater you can use low-syn pork ones) in Fry Light, turning every few minutes.  After about ten minutes, you add sliced mushrooms to the pan, and then when everything’s got about five minutes left to cook, you add the halved tomatoes.  Finally, while the fried food is finishing up, scramble some plain beaten eggs in a non-stick pan.  Dish up and serve with a sprinkling of ground black pepper.

Ratio-wise for SP, I try and match the combined volume of tomatoes and mushrooms to the total volume of eggs in order to stick to the rules.  The sausages are synned rather than ‘S’ or ‘P’ so they don’t count towards either half of the plate.

*I have to use regular Linda McCartney sausages (half a syn each) rather than the rosemary and red onion ones I normally have (which are free), because on SP days you can’t have any free food that’s not ‘S’ or ‘P’.  This seems a bit counterproductive to me, but them’s the rules.  There aren’t any veggie sausages in either the Quorn or Linda McCartney lines that have enough protein to be classed as ‘P’ foods, more’s the pity – Quorn mince and chicken style pieces are both ‘P’, but not the sausages.  Hopefully this will change at some point.

Recipe Wednesday: pasta bolognaise

Veggie pasta bolognaise is one of my longstanding favourites, but I don’t make it as often as I used to, largely because I’ve developed so many other favourites that have become go-tos as well.

Fusilli bolognaise
Fusilli bolognaise – the latest version (I’ve tweaked the way I make it a lot over the years, most recently to make it more Slimming World friendly).

It’s nice and simple, just like all the pasta dishes I do.  Put some chopped carrots on to boil for twenty-five minutes; ten minutes in, start boiling some pasta in another pot.  Meanwhile, start frying some chopped onions and tomatoes in Fry Light.  Once the onions and tomatoes have reduced down sufficiently, add a bag of Quorn mince to the frying pan, and stir-fry until it’s browned.

For the sauce, I make my standard pasta sauce: passata, tomato puree, lemon juice, ground black pepper, dried basil, dried oregano, hot chili powder and Very Lazy chopped garlic, all to taste.

Once everything’s cooked, drain the pasta and carrots and mix them with the onions, tomatoes, Quorn mince and passata sauce in a large pot.  Shower with grated parmesan (30g per person for a Slimming World Healthy Extra A) to serve.

Recipe Wednesday: cheat’s pizza and chips

On the Slimming World plan, if I want to order pizza and potato wedges from Dominos, it costs 60 syns.  That’s a lot of syns to have to save for one meal (not that I don’t still do it occasionally!), given that I only have 105 syns to spend in a given week.  As such, one of the first things I did when I started Slimming World was to work out how I could have a lower-syn alternative.  This is the result.

Cheat's pizza and chips
Cheat’s pizza and chips. To make it properly Slimming World friendly, you should also have a side salad to make sure you’re getting your one-third of speed food, but I must confess I don’t always remember to have the salad.

For the wedges: these are standard Slimming World chips/wedges.  Chop potatoes into the desired shape, spray a baking tray with Fry Light, arrange the wedges on the tray and spray some more Fry Light on top.  Bake at 200°C on the top shelf of the oven for 25 minutes.  Free on the Slimming World plan!

For the pizza: for each person, slice two Schar white ciabatta rolls (use one as a Healthy Extra B, 6 syns for the other) in two lengthways, and place on another baking tray.  Mix together some passata, tomato puree, dried basil and dried oregano for the sauce and spread over each ciabatta half.  Split 50g of grated mozzarella per person (a Healthy Extra A) between the ciabatta halves, then top with chopped tomatoes and chopped olives (1 syn for 8 olives).

Once the wedges have had their 25 minutes in the oven, move them to the bottom shelf, and put the pizzas on the top shelf to bake for another 15 minutes.

Oh yeah, and you should make a side salad to make sure you get your one-third of speed food, of course.

When using all Healthy Extras, this meal is only 7 syns, which is a lot less than 60!

Recipe Wednesday: ‘chicken’ pesto

Back doing Recipe Wednesdays again – ’cause I’m hungry, and I can’t cook tea until Geth’s done the dishes.  Sadly I’m not making ‘chicken’ pesto tonight ’cause I don’t have enough syns left before weigh-in tomorrow, but I thought I’d share this recipe anyway.

'Chicken' pesto
‘Chicken’ pesto, or spirali alla genovese if I’m being fancy.

It’s another super-simple pasta recipe.  Boil some pasta for fifteen minutes, and five minutes in, start boiling another pot of chopped mangetout, chopped green beans and garden peas (make sure there’s plenty of the first two if you’re doing Slimming World).  Meanwhile, fry some Quorn chicken style pieces (or you could use real chicken if you’re not veggie) in Fry Light until it’s nice and crispy.

Once everything’s cooked, mix it all together in a giant pan then stir in a jar of supermarket pesto* (12 syns a jar, so 6 syns per person if you’re cooking for two like I am).  Shower with parmesan (30g for a Healthy Extra A) and serve.

This is a longtime favourite of Geth’s, so I make it at least once a week if I’ve got the syns going spare!

*I’ve tried making my own syn-free pesto but it never tastes right!

Recipe Wednesday: potato ‘n’ carrot pasta

It’s still emphatically winter (I was too busy with work to leave the house today, but Geth informs me that it was snowing again) and so I thought I’d start my weekly food series with my most stodgy, wintry pasta dish.

Potato 'n' carrot pasta
It’s stodgy, ridiculously carb-heavy, and one of my favourites, especially at this time of year.

I’m a lazy cook, so like everything I make, it’s ridiculously easy.  Boil chopped peeled potatoes, chopped carrots and chickpeas for 25 mins (no measuring free foods on Slimming World – I just make sure that the carrots constitute a third of the total food I’m eating); with 15 mins to go, start boiling some pasta in another pan.

While everything is boiling, I make up my pasta sauce (passata, tomato puree to thicken it up, lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper, dried basil, dried oregano, hot chili powder and the lifesaver that is Very Lazy chopped garlic, all to taste) and grate some parmesan (30g for me as my Slimming World Healthy Extra A, lots for Geth).

Once the 25 mins are up, I drain everything, mix it all together, mix in the sauce, and serve with the grated parmesan.  Highly comforting on winter evenings!