Reviews

Jilabi Review

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Selfie Time

Selfie Time

I visited Jilabi on Saturday 4th March 2017 with some friends to celebrate a birthday. As you can imagine the restaurant was packed on a Saturday night, but luckily we made a reservation a couple of weeks before.

We were shown to our table straight away and the waiters were very attentive. They even placed the napkins on our laps! Drinks orders were taken straight away and we were asked if we wanted poppadums whilst looking through the menu. I did find them quite pushy with the poppadums though!

The menu is pretty standard as you’d expect to see in a curry house, all the regular dishes were there as well as a few named after people. There is also a selection of ‘Desi Specials’ which is supposed to be slightly spicier.

I ordered one of my favourite food ever for starters – Paneer! Whenever I go to an Indian Restaurant I have to choose a Paneer dish of some sort. I have no idea on the syns for it but this is one the foods that I never make at home so I really enjoy it when I am out. Paneer is an Indian cheese and it is sooo nice.

Paneer

Paneer

For mains I chose a chicken dish from the ‘Desi Specials’ expecting it to be spicy, I even asked them to make sure it was hot but it wasn’t as I expected. It was nice but not spicy. I can’t even remember what the mains was called but it was nice. I had it with boiled rice to save on syns instead of naan bread or chappatis.

Mains

Mains

Jilabi always bring a chocolate cake and ice cream at the end of your meal which is a really lovely touch from them. They did make my friend’s birthday special by bringing her cake with a candle and they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her. We were also given a complimentary bottle alcohol-free bubbly! Top marks for the service there. You can see from Julie’s face how happy she was to have us all sing to her.

Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl

I can see why so many of my friends go to Jilabi quite often as their customer service is something you do not expect or receive at any other Indian Restaurant. Absolutely amazing service! You can check out their website and have a look at their menu here.

 

 

 

Hartley’s 10 Cal Jelly Pots

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Who knew that a simple jelly pot could lead to many debates on my social media platforms!

Many slimmers may have recently come across the Hartley’s 10 cal jelly pots. I’ve been having them for a few years now since I was a SW member.

I didn’t think that posting a picture of it recently would cause such a stir with so many people doubting the jelly was suitable for vegetarians as the pot does not have a ‘suitable for vegetarians’ label which is fair enough, but I always check food labels before buying them! I check for two things:

  1. Ingredients
  2. Syns

I would not knowingly eat and post/share food that I would not be allowed to eat in my halal diet. I hope this post will help those that may need more clarification. I have included below a response from an email from Hartley’s. If in doubt please do your own research and contact them yourself.

“Thank you for contacting Hartley’s about our jelly range.

Most of our jellies are not suitable for vegetarians. Our tablet and powdered jellies, designed to be made at home, contain gelatine. Some of our Ready to Eat jellies contain the colouring Carmine, which is an animal product.

The jellies we have which are suitable for vegetarians are:

Hartley’s Pineapple in Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 10 Cal Mango & Passion Fruit Flavour Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 10 Cal Blueberry & Blackcurrant Flavour Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 10 Cal Raspberry Flavour Jelly 175g
Hartley’s 1 Fruit Portion Mango Jelly 175g
Hartley’s Blackcurrant Flavour Jelly 125g
Hartley’s Lemon & Lime Flavour Jelly 125g
Hartley’s Pineapple Flavour Jelly 125g
Hartley’s No Added Sugar Jelly Blackcurrant Flavour 115g
Hartley’s No Added Sugar Jelly Apple Flavour 115g

I hope that this information helps. If you would like to discuss your concerns, or have any questions, please call me or one of my colleagues on 0800 022 4339. We are available between 9.00am and 5.30pm, weekdays excluding Bank Holidays.”

Hope this clears up any misunderstanding. Here’s how I like to enjoy my favourite Hartley’s 10Cal jelly pot – with a squirt of light squirty cream topped with 100’s & 1000’s, a raspberry and a SW Double Choc Hifi light bar. Sooo nice!

 

Hartley's 10Cal Jelly

Hartley’s 10Cal Jelly

Crucials Sauces Syns

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You can buy these Crucials sauces from places like FarmFoods and B&M Bargains. They are really handy for adding flavour to food with minimal syns! Below are the syn values that Crucials have provided for their products, all are per tablespoon. Have you tried any of the sauces yet? Do you have a favourite? I love the Yogurt Mint! When I first bought it, I checked up the syns on the app (as you do!) and got really excited at the amount I saw on the screen. I thought it was too good to be true! I carried on eating loads of it with pretty much every food.

I have the habit of looking at syn values of my favourite things every so often just to make sure syns haven’t gone up or down (that would be awesome!). Luckily, I checked on the Yogurt Mint sauce again and realised the syns I had originally found was actually for their Mint sauce and not the Yogurt Mint! You might say so what? It can’t be that much of a difference, but it is. I was having the one that was 3 syns per tablespoon and counting it as only 0.5 syns! I still haven’t come across the full range, I am on the lookout for this Mint sauce that is 0.5 syns per tablespoon, if you have come across it yet please let me know where from!

In the meantime I will carry on enjoying their BBQ sauce which is absolutely amazing!

Crucials Sauces Syns

Crucials Sauces Syns

 

Eating Out Advice & Pizza Hut

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As a Slimming World member you might think that you have to stop eating out to lose weight. But luckily you don’t have to give up on your social life, you just need to make better choices.

I know that is not always an easy thing to do. If you’re anything like me and go to a restaurant hungry, you might order a lot of things that you don’t normally eat or end up ordering more than you need.

What helps me and a lot of other slimmers is to check out the menu before going. Nowadays that is not hard to do, nearly every restaurant has their menu online. Study the menu well – opt for foods that are grilled or baked but watch out for creamy sauces or any other hidden syns.

If I am going to an Indian, I will always choose boiled rice over naan bread or even chappati. I ditch the poppadoms and sauces too! I choose a grilled chicken/meat starter and I tend to stay away from kebabs as these are most likely made in meat that is not lean.

If going out for a dessert, I tend to choose a sorbet over an ice cream and have a fruit platter with it.

Pizza Hut

Last night we went out for a meal to celebrate my youngest daughter’s birthday (I can’t believe she is 7 already today!). The only place she wanted to go to was Pizza Hut! That is one place that we stopped going to as a family because it is usually so high in syns and a slimmer’s nightmare to be honest! But life is all about balance and I didn’t want to be a party pooper so I made sure I examined the menu really well a few days before so I knew what to have once there.

To be honest there wasn’t much choice available, I could have had one slice of pizza which would have been within my 15 syns allowance but I knew I could not stop at just 1! I would still be hungry. So I chose to have the healthier pizza available which was their Virtuous Veg pizza at only 3 syns per slice and it was supposed to be cut in 6 so 18 syns in all not bad at all! When it arrived though it was not cut into 6 and it wasn’t that big at all so I did end up eating the lot! 18 syns for a whole pizza is great!! I filled up on all the free salad as well. Best to avoid all the pasta salads as they are quite high in syns, the couscous is ok. It is 2 syns per 100g but I am not very good at guessing 100g so I just had a spoonful and counted 2 syns to be on the safe side. For drinks I chose the unlimited Diet Pepsi (Syn Free).

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut

I even took some hifi bars with me to have as dessert! I knew the kids would have cookie dough as they absolutely love it, so I planned to have a coffee with my bars whilst they scoffed on the cookie dough.

It worked out perfectly! All in all I only used 20 syns for a meal out and felt in control the whole night and back on track this morning.

Aldi Yogurt

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I have to admit when it comes to yogurts I am extremely fussy! I absolutely love the Alpro ones so when my members raved about this Aldi yogurt, I was a little dubious. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted quite nice!

I love coffee and it is so difficult to find syn free yogurts that are suitable for vegetarians as well. I wasn’t expecting it to be as thick as it was for some reason.

Although it was nice, I don’t think I would be rushing out to stock up on them. I do have so many Alpro yogurts in my fridge that will last me for another couple of weeks.

These were at a bargain price of only 30p!!

Brooklea Light Skinny Latte Yogurt

Brooklea Light Skinny Latte Yogurt

Do you have any favourite yogurts? Please comment below with your favourites so that I can try something new.

Alpro Dessert Moments

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I popped in Tesco this morning to pick up a couple of things and noticed these Alpro Dessert Moments – as soon as I saw Hazelnut and Chocolate on the packet, I knew I had to get it! Plus it was only £1 for a pack of 4! I found them in the chilled section at Tesco’s.

Alpro Dessert Moments Hazelnut Chocolate

Alpro Dessert Moments Hazelnut Chocolate

I thought it was delicious! I was expecting a stronger hazelnut taste, it was quite a subtle hazelnut but it was chocolatey. The texture wasn’t as thick as I’d hoped either, for some reason I was expecting it to be thick like the Alpro Go On pots! But I can’t complain as it was perfect to dip in my oaty doughnuts and only 4.5 syns each pot which has quite a generous amount in it.

Alpro Dessert Moments with Oaty Doughnuts

Alpro Dessert Moments with Oaty Doughnuts

There are also a couple of other flavours available but I am yet to try them – Almond Vanilla (4.5 syns) and Coconut (5 syns). I am quite excited about the coconut one as I love coconut! If you have spotted them do let me know where please.

My oaty doughnuts are just baked oats ( recipe here) made in my mini doughnut maker I bought from B&M Bargains. I love the gadget! You can also make waffles in it.

JD Seasonings

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I recently bought some spice mixes from an online company called jdseasonings.co.uk after seeing so many people using it and recommending it. I must admit I was not impressed with their piri piri seasoning. As soon as I opened the little pot all I could smell was smoked paprika. It had a strong odour, it was really off putting but I did use it hoping it would taste better than it smelled, but it didn’t!
That’s just my own personal view, I know there are a lot of people that love their products. I am not one of them, not with the piri piri seasoning anyway. I’ve used their chips and wedges rub which was nice but I think I would happily just sprinkle my chips with salt and chilli only. I also bought the fajitas blend and steak rub. I am hoping I will love one of them!

Selection of JD Seasonings

If you’ve bought anything from this company, do let me know what it was and what you thought of it.

I can’t fault the company’s service though. My order arrived within a couple of days of ordering and it was very easy to order.