Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomatoes

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I initially came across this recipe when one of my members tagged me in one of those short recipe videos, I can’t remember if it was Tasty Food or something similar! I then saw this on Instagram on this lovely lady’s page (@whatsianeats check her page out for the most amazing plates of foods) and thought why not give it a go myself, it is such an easy way of making egg and beans. I served it with Slimming World chips that were seasoned with JD Seasonings Chips & Wedges seasoning. If you haven’t come across them do check out their website for all other spices and seasonings to add flavour to your meals.

My members absolutely them, there is such a huge range of products to choose from. I tend to buy the same ones, I guess I need to be a bit more adventurous with trying out different seasonings! What is fab about their products is that they are all Syn Free, so it is great for us Slimming World foodies and come with the easiest instructions on how to use them. I have been using the code ‘Slim20’ to get 20% off.

I used chilli baked beans in this recipe but you can replace them with regular beans if you prefer.

Serves: 1

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomatoes

Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomatoes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 tin Heinz chilli baked beans
  • Handful of baby spinach
  • 75g cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 eggs

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6.

In a small shallow baking dish layer the spinach leaves at the bottom, followed by the beans and scatter over the cherry tomatoes.

Make 2 indents with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each.

Scatter the oregano and some black pepper over the whole tray.

Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until the whites are just set.

Turkey & Egg Cups

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Super easy and syn free snack perfect for picnics or breakfast!

Serves: 1

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Turkey & Egg Cup Ingredients

Turkey & Egg Cup Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 slices of Najma Wafer thin Turkey slices
  • Salt and pepper

Method

Pop each turkey slice into a muffin tin and crack an egg into each one.

Pop them in a pre heated oven for about 15 minutes or longer if you prefer a fully cooked yolk. Once cooked season with salt and pepper.

Turkey & Egg Cups

Turkey & Egg Cups

 

Sweetcorn Fritter with Salsa

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This is a recipe from the latest Slimming World magazine. It is so easy to make and it tastes amazing!

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Sweetcorn Fritter with Salsa

Sweetcorn Fritter with Salsa

Ingredients

  • 6 large eggs
  • 340g can sweetcorn kernels, drained
  • 6 spring onions, finely diced
  • 1 green pepper, deseeded and diced
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
  • 3 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded and diced (optional)
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • Juice of 2 limes

Method

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the sweetcorn, half the spring onions and the green pepper. Season to taste.

Spray a large frying pan with fry light and pour the egg mixture to it. Cook it on a moderate heat for around 8 minutes. Once cooked on the bottom, place the pan under the grill and cook for a further 8 minutes or until cooked though.

For the salsa place the red pepper, the rest of the spring onions, tomatoes and the red chilli (if using) in a bowl. Mix the tomato puree to the lime juice before adding it to the chopped veg. Season to taste.

 

Jam & Coconut Sponge Cake

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I came across this recipe from a lovely lady on Instagram (do check out her account if you use IG – @skinnycakesnbakes). She makes the most amazing low syn cakes and bakes!

Serves: 12 slices

Syns: 14.5 syns

Time Taken: around 60 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Jam & Coconut Sponge Ingredients

Jam & Coconut Sponge Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 37g coconut flour
  • 5 eggs, separated
  • 2 tbsp sweetener
  • 1 tsp coconut essence
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 3 tbsp reduced sugar raspberry jam
  • 15g dessicated coconut

Method

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the egg yolks, sweetener, essence and water.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the mixture

Pour the mixture into a square 7/8 inch lined cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Once cooled, spread over the jam and sprinkle coconut.

Jam & Coconut Sponge

Jam & Coconut Sponge

 

Lentil & Chicken Soup

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In one of my groups yesterday one of my lovely members mentioned chicken soup as one of her family’s favourite meal this week. I normally just make this Chicken & Noodle Soup but thought I’d try something different. She said she added a load of different veggies to it, chicken and potatoes. So after I got home from group yesterday, I raided my fridge and checked what veg I had in to make chicken soup. I already had leftover cooked chicken from the day before which made it ideal to use up. I replaced the potatoes with red lentils to make this a high protein packed soup. It turned out amazing!

Serves: 2

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 45 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, grated and chopped
  • 1 courgette, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
  • Handful of fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 veg stock pot
  • 600 ml hot chicken stock (make more if needed)
  • 1/2 cup red lentils
  • Cooked chicken, shredded
  • 1 tsp basar (curry powder)
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
Lentil & Chicken Soup

Lentil & Chicken Soup

Method

Spray a pan with low calorie cooking spray and add all the veg – onion, carrot, courgette and pepper. Cook for around 5-8 minutes till it starts to soften.

Add the fresh parley and the lentils with the spices and the stock. Let the stock come to a boil and reduce the heat and cover the lid on the pan to cook the lentils for about 20-25 minutes. If needed add more stock/water to cook the lentils. You can also add more hot water at the end of cooking if the soup is too thick.

Add the shredded chicken to the cooked lentils and cook for another 10 minutes till the chicken is heated through.

 

Smoothies!

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Smoothies are not something I usually have, if ever. I made one the other day as my daughter really wanted one for Suhoor (pre dawn meal in Ramadan) and thought I would do myself one too. To be fair I don’t think I would make them again for a couple of reasons: 1) it took me a while to work out syn values for all the fruit I was going to use! I wanted to keep it as low as syns as possible. Fruits are a Free Food if you follow Slimming World but only when eaten whole, so if blending you have to count the syns accordingly. 2) It did not fill me up, I need proper food! Smoothies are fine as a drink but I would personally rather use my syns on something other than blended fruit and I am quite happy drinking Free drinks.

But if you are partial to smoothies, why not give this one a go and let me know what you think! If you make any other low syn smoothies do share what you have.

Serves: 1

Syns: 5

Time Taken: less than 5 minutes, if you don’t include time taken working out syn values!

Difficulty: Easy

Smoothie

Smoothie

Ingredients

  • 200ml Alpro Unsweetened Almond milk
  • 50g fresh strawberries
  • 50g frozen blueberries
  • 50g banana
  • 1 tsp sweetener

Method

Place all ingredients in a blender and blitz! Enjoy 🙂

 

 

Spicy Rice

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I have adapted this recipe I saw online and it turned out delicious! It is supposed to be a ‘fakeaway’ to Nando’s spicy rice, although it doesn’t taste exactly like the Nando’s version, it tastes amazing anyway. We had it with chicken tikka (made using Laziza spice mix, mixed with ginger/garlic paste and lemon juice).

Serves: 6

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 30-40 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Spicy Rice and Chicken

Spicy Rice and Chicken

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
  • 1 carrot, peeled and grated
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
  • 1 vegetable stock pot
  • Handful of frozen peas
  • 2 cups of rice

 

Method

Spray a pan with low calorie oil spray and fry all the veg together in medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the spices and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the rice to the spices and mix thoroughly so all the rice is coated in the spices and veg.

Add 4 cups of boiling water, the vegetable stock pot and the chicken stock cube to it.

Lower the heat and cover the lid on the pan and cook the rice gently for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes into the cooking, add a handful of frozen peas and gently stir them into the rice and replace the lid again to cook for a further 5 minutes.

 

Barbecue Pulled Chicken

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This is such a delicious meal, we have it normally with wraps but they taste great with potato wedges and a salad. It is perfect if you haven’t much time to cook as it is done in the slow cooker so you can be out all day whilst this is cooking! This is a Slimming World recipe that has been adapted slightly.

Serves: 4

Syns: FREE

Time Taken: 6-8 hours

Difficulty: Easy

BBQ Pulled Chicken Wrap

BBQ Pulled Chicken Wrap

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts

5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp mustard powder

500g passata

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tsp sweetener

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

In a small bowl, mix passata, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, mustard powder, garlic, sweetener, chilli flakes and seasoning. Transfer to a small pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Transfer to a slow cooker coat with the sauce and cook for 6-8 hours on LOW.

Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and place on a cutting board. Allow the chicken to cool for approximately 15 minutes, then shred into bite-sized pieces using two forks.

Remove the sauce from the pan and set aside to drizzle on the chicken later if needed.

BBQ Pulled Chicken w/ Sweet Potato Chips

BBQ Pulled Chicken w/ Sweet Potato Chips

 

Laziza Biryani Mix

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I’ve had a few people asking me for the biryani recipe I posted on my Instagram a few days ago, so I thought I’d write a post about it so people can refer to it when needed!

Laziza Biryani Mix

Laziza Biryani Mix

 

I use Laziza Biryani Mix spice which is syn free. You can keep the whole dish syn free by replacing the oil with a syn free spray oil or count the syns accordingly if using regular cooking oil. Remember 1 tbsp of oil (regardless of what type – sunflower, vegetable, olive etc) is 6 syns. I know a lot of my members use only water to fry the onions which is possible but may be a little time consuming.

I also use a fat free natural yogurt instead and sometimes I even leave the yogurt step out if I don’t have any and it tastes just as good too!

I cook for a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 children) and use half of one of the spice packets as that is spicy enough for my family, I don’t use the whole packet. I like my food super spicy so I usually cut up green chillies to add to my food separately.

I follow the recipe on the back of the spice box and once I’ve layered the rice with the chicken/meat, I add a few drops of yellow food colouring to the top of the rice to add some colour to the rice. And that is it! It really is a very easy and simple recipe to follow.

 

I absolutely love the Laziza brand spices as most are syn free and they are very easy to follow, even if you are not a very confident cook. Hope this helps those that were wondering how to make biryani Slimming World friendly 🙂

If you do anything differently please do share how you make yours.

Chicken Biryani

Chicken Biryani

Mithai!

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Mithai an Indian Subcontinent Sweet

Mithai

One of the most common syn value questions I get asked quite often from both my members and other people is the syn values for Mithai and related products. These delicious treats originating from the Indian Subcontinent are often eaten at special occasions like weddings and Eid. Well you can eat (and buy them) them all year round if you wish but be careful of over consuming these lovely delicacies as they are extremely high in sugar and fat content!

To get accurate syn values for mithai is not an easy task. Mithai vary from shop to shop, there are many variations in recipes, different sizes and unfortunately they never come with nutritional information on the boxes.

I have done some research and tried to work out average syn values for common mithai so my members can have an idea on how many syns roughly to count for them. I hope this is useful especially with Ramadan coming up, the Eid celebrations straight after and then particularly the summer Wedding season. Please bear in mind that these are average syns values, not exact figures so please use your best judgement and adjust syn values accordingly. If you are still not sure of syn values, it is better to over estimate rather than under estimate to protect your weight loss.

The values are per one standard ‘shop bought’ piece unless specified.

I have to admit I was so shocked with the syn value for Halwa Puri with Chana. It is crazy how high it is!

Balushai – 6.5 syns

Barfi – 6.5 syns

Bessan Ladoo- 7 syns

Boondi- 13.5 syns

Jalebi – a single piece weighing on average 25g is 4.5 syns

Gajar Halwa – 13.5 syns

Gulab Jamun – 7.5 syns

Habshi Halwa – 41 syns

Halwa Puri with Chana – 60 syns

Kaju Katli – 3 syns

Kheer – 1/2 cup serving 14 syns

Ladoo – 12.5 syns

Patissa – 7.5 syns

Rasgulla – 9.5 syns

Shakarpara – 6.5 syns

White Cham Cham – 9 syns