Fakeaway Friday: Sweet and Sour Chicken with Boiled Rice

The recipe I will share with you today is sweet and sour chicken with boiled rice.  Quite easy to make and very tasty.
I served it with boiled rice but I tried it with noodles before and it's just as nice :-)

INGREDIENTS: serves 4 about 1 syn per serving on Extra Easy

• 4 chicken breasts diced
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 1 large red pepper chopped
• 3 carrots finely sliced
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1/4 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• 4 tbsp tomato puree 
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce 
• 150ml chicken stock
• 400g fresh pineapple flesh, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 spring onions to decorate

METHOD:

• Spray a pan or a wok with Frylight (cooking spray). Place the diced chicken breast and fry till brown. Remove and put on a plate.
• Spray some more cooking spray to the pan and add the garlic, onion, pepper, and carrots.  Fry for about 5 minutes.
• Add the chicken to the vegetables and fry for a couple of minutes.
• In a separate bowl mix 2 tbsp of water with cornflour, wine vinegar, soy sauce, tomato puree and stock.  Add it to the pan and cook it for a few minutes till the sauce thickens.
• Remove from the heat and add the pineapple.
• Serve with boiled rice or noodles and decorate with finely slices spring onion.
• Enjoy your meal.

My family loved this recipe.  I added some hot chilly pepper to mine as I loooove spicy food!!

Please, do send me pictures if you make this recipe.  I will definitely be making this again, next time with noodles :-)

xoxo

Pizza Topped Chicken

Whenever I feel like having something really tasty and don't have too much time to spend in the kitchen, the pizza topped chicken is one of my options.  

I love the sweetness of the sauce, and what to say about the cheese: I adore cheese!

I usually use the low fat cheese and count it as my HEA so that the whole recipe is syn free.

This is how I make it:

INGREDIENTS: (syn free if using cheese as HEA)

serves 4

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 red pepper (finely chopped)
• 1 small onion (finely chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• half a tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 and 1/2 tsp oregano
• 50 ml of stock
• 160 gr low fat cheese

METHOD:

• Spray a saucepan with frylight and sautee the pepper, onion and garlic for a few minutes.
• Add the chopped tomatoes, the tomato puree, oregano, stock and simmer for a few minutes.
• Spray a pan with Frylight, butterfly the chicken breast and fry till it gets a bit of colour on both sides.
• Place the chicken breast in an oven proof tray, top it with the sauce and put cheese on top.
• Cook in hot oven at 180 degrees for about 25 mins or till fully cooked and enjoy it with Slimming World chips and a side salad

Have you ever tried it?

Send me pics if you make it.  I would love to hear if you enjoyed it xoxo

Fakeaway Friday: Mushy pea curry

Hi all. Thank crunchy it's Friday! 

It has been a long week!! We survived our first week back to school but finding really hard to settle back into the routine. I really don't know where the time goes sometimes...my 13-year-old daughter has started 2nd year in Secondary school and my 10 year old son is now in 5th class!

Before I started Slimming World we used to get take away meals on Friday nights and eat it in front of the TV watching a nice movie. I used to look forward to a night off cooking after a full week of doing cleaning, washing, school runs and helping with homework.

Since I joined Slimming World in September 2013 however, I have been very conscious of what we eat and try to prepare healthy meals all the time (although I admit I do cheat once in a while...oops!) The main thing is I get back on track straight away; whenever I am tempted to have a bad meal I say to myself: "NO FOOD TASTES AS GOOD AS SKINNY FEELS"...

I love cooking and trying new recipes.  I sometimes get inspired by a recipe I have seen on a magazine or website, and sometimes I like to make my own recipe Slimming World friendly.

Tonight we were so tempted to order a Chinese dinner as a Friday night/back to school treat. It would have been so easy. Instead I decided to get into the kitchen and make a curry! Well done me!! (Round of applause).

Soon after I joined Slimming World last year, I heard talking about mushy pea curry. Well... I must admit it took me about 8 months before I found the courage to try it! Don't get me wrong, I love curries, but I can't stand mushy peas. I don't like their taste, texture and I am also put off by the smell. Yuck!

Surprisingly enough, not only I loved the mushy peas curry but even the kids seem to really enjoy it! It tastes as good as any takeaway and syn free on Extra Easy.

How things change in a year...we still have family nights and we all watch a movie together but we also enjoy a beautiful healthy meal!

Here is the recipe:

MUSHY PEAS CURRY

INGREDIENTS: (syn-free on Extra Easy)
Serves 4

For the sauce:

2 tins of mushy peas
1 tin of baked beans
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp curry powder (I like using the hot curry powder, but you can use the mild one if you prefer)

Add:

4 medium sized chicken breasts
2 medium sized green peppers
1 onion
2 garlic cloves


METHOD:

1. Blend the mushy peas, baked beans, chopped tomatoes and curry powder and set aside.
2. Dice up the chicken and vegetables, spray a pan with Frylight and cook till softened.
3. Add the sauce and simmer till chicken is fully cooked.
4. Serve with boiled rice or Slimming World chips.  

We can never agree whether to have it with chips or rice so I usually make a bit of both and everybody is happy!

After this lovely dinner it's time to put my feet up and enjoy a lovely glass of red wine.(175ml 6 syns)

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

TALK SOON,

 XOXO

Balsamic Vinegar Chicken

This is an old favourite family recipe that I decided to make Slimming world friendly.  Still love it and it can be adapted to most meats.  Also a good idea to use it to marinate chicken or steak for a summer BBQ.  So tasty!


INGREDIENTS: (syn free on Extra Easy)
Serves 4

chicken legs or thighs (appox. 700/800 gr) with no skin
5 tbsp balsamic vinegar  
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste



METHOD:

1. Mix the vinegar and herbs in a bowl. Coat the chicken in it and marinate in the fridge for a few hours.  I usually get it ready in the morning and cook it in the evening.
2. After a few hours place it in an oven-proof dish and cook in the oven at 180 degrees for about an hour or until the chicken is fully cooked.
3. Serve with Slimming World chips and a crispy salad. 

Sticky Chicken and Egg Fried Rice

Definitely recommend to try out these recipes! The chicken is so sweet and tender and the egg fried rice is always a big hit with my family and it's also so easy to prepare.

STICKY CHICKEN (2 syns on Extra Easy)

Ingredients:
serves 4

700gr chicken breasts
3 tbsp honey (2 1/2 syns each tbsp)
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce

Method:

1. Marinate the chicken in the honey, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce for at least an hour. Make sure that all the chicken is coated. I usually prepare it in the morning and put it in the fridge till it's time to cook it.
2. Heat a frying pan and coat it with Frylight.  Cook the chicken for about 20 mins or until the marinade has been absorbed.
3. Enjoy it!

I served it with Egg Fried Rice and mixed salad

Egg fried rice is also a fairly quick recipe and makes a nice change from chips. I use jasmine rice that I find cooks faster and absorbs much better all the flavours.

EGG FRIED RICE (syn free on Extra Easy)

serves 4 

Ingredients:

250 gr rice

1 large onion

100 gr peas

100 gr sweetcorn

1 splash of Worcestershire sauce

4 tbsp soy sauce

2 eggs

Method:

1. Cook the rice, and cool it down under cold water. Set aside.
2. Dice the onion and fry it in a pan coated with Frylight. Add peas and sweetcorn.
3. When the vegetable are cooked add the rice, the soy sauce, the Worcestershire sauce and the eggs that have been previously beaten.
4. Keep stirring till the eggs are fully cooked and serve. Soo yummy!