Recipe - Fajita Chicken Lettuce Wraps, with home made low syn fajita spice mix

Well hi there, it's been a while. I am so sick. Like, almost dead. I even skipped weigh in today so I didn't infect the whole of my group with the lurgy. It's not even the good kind of lurgy where you go off your food, all I want is creamy soup and bread and cheese and chocolate and bad stuff. Urgh. Kids and their germs, why can't they keep it to themselves? The baby had it last week and has been using me as a human hanky so it was inevitable that I would come down with it sooner or later. URGH! Don't have kids. Oh how I wish that had been my mantra 10 years ago...the eldest turned 9 yesterday so now I'm ill and old. How did that happen? How am I old enough to have a 9 year old kid? Not possible. It's going to be even worse when he's 10 next year...

Anyway, did you know that the average tortilla wrap is 9 syns? For ONE measly wrap! There are some gluten free ones you can have as a Healthy B choice, but you only get one (or two on an SP day) and they're not the same. When I made this meal Mr MGAMT had his wraps and I can honestly say I didn't miss them one bit. Using big iceberg lettuce leaves gives you crunch and flavour, and they were no less filling than using a flour tortilla would have been. I was utterly stuffed after three wraps and completely satisfied. Seriously, I am not twisting your melons here, I tell it how it is and these were good. Messy to eat but good. I even made my own fajita mix as a packet of that is usually about 4 syns, but this one contains just 1 for the spoon of sugar. 3 juicy, tasty, crunchy chicken fajitas, packed with LOADS of speed food, for just half a syn? I'll take it.

To make Fajita Chicken Lettuce Wraps for two people you will need:

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 red onion, sliced
• half each of a red, yellow/orange and green pepper, sliced
• 6 iceberg lettuce leaves (or use little gem and eat them more like the tortilla boats you can get)
• 1/2 tub quark
• 1 tsp lemon or lime juice
• frylight

For the fajita mix:

• 2 tsps chilli powder (I used hot, which was a little too hot for me, so adjust to taste. I will either use mild or use less next time!)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sugar (1 syn)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin

Frylight a wok and stir fry your chicken until browned and then add the veg. Cook for a minute or two before combining all the seasoning ingredients and adding to the pan. Continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked. In a bowl mix the quark and lemon juice to make a sour cream. Serve with the lettuce leaves and quark and plenty of napkins because it's a juicy one!

When I told Mr MGAMT that I was making my own Slimming World fajita mix he pulled a face, like he does whenever I do a Slimming World "version" of something, but he said if anything it was better than the usual packet I use. You could even make more and save it for next time, if you're that way inclined. I really think the sugar makes a difference here, and sweetener wouldn't do in this instance. Feel free to try it and let me know though, but really it's only half a syn per portion and that's what your syns are there for! Well, there's wine of course, but you don't get much of that for half a syn...

Let me know if you try this, I promise it was delicious!

Hx

Recipe- 5-a-day Turkey Bolognese

Now while this recipe alone wont give you your five a day in one meal, it contains 6 different veg so it'll get you on your way. It's healthy, tasty, something the whole family can eat, and it's cheap. I quite often think that Slimming World think we're made of money - if you were to follow one of their weekly eating plans from the mag or website you'd either need to remortgage or sell a kidney. And I'm quite fond of my kidneys. It makes a big old pan of hearty bolognese for around a fiver, can't say fairer than that. Ok, so it doesn't contain the 3 tins of caviar, 17 lobsters and half a lamb that you may be accustomed to if you like a SW recipe, but I guarantee it's a lot more tasty. And I couldn't get my kids to eat lobster anyway...

To make Recipe- 5-a-day Turkey Bolognese for 6-8 people (depending on how much you eat yourself while it's cooking...) you will need (count the veggies with me! Can you tell I'm a mum?!):

• 500g turkey mince (less than 5% fat)
• 1 large onion (1)
• 2 gloves garlic
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 courgette (2)
• a big pepper, or couple of handfulls of frozen peppers (3)
• 1 big carrot or a couple of small ones (4)
• around 8 mushrooms (5)
• 500g carton of passata (6)
• 1 beef stock cube
• dash of worcestershire sauce
• dash of balsamic vinegar
• dried Italian herbs - I used basil and oregano
• salt and pepper

Throw your mince into a large pan and break up with a wooden spoon. While the mince is browning chop your onion, garlic, peppers and mushrooms. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and soften, before adding the tomato puree and cooking a few minutes more. Grate your courgette and carrot straight into the pan and combine it all together. At this point chuck everything else in - and fill the passata carton half full with water, swill it around to get every last bit, and add that too. Season with plenty of pepper, but check the salt - you might not need it as the stock cube and worcestershire sauce are quite salty. Let it all simmer for around half an hour and serve with your choice of pasta or, if you must, courgetti *shudders*

This makes a huge pan - plenty to feed my brood plus enough for 2 adult lunches the next day. It's a good job too because I came downstairs after settling the baby for the twelfth time this evening to find the cat helping herself to my plate. I'm not fussy usually, but she licks her arse and I've seen what comes out of it. Anyway, you can use the bolognese for lasagne too - use fat free cottage cheese for the white sauce and your healthy a of what ever cheese you like on top. Yum!

Hx

Recipe- Go-with-anything Roasted Veg

Hello!

Roasted veg may be a bit of a no brainer but it's something I often over look in favour of yet another salad. I know Slimming World say you should have 1/3 of your plate with speed food, but sometimes you just want to chuck something in the oven and forget about it until the smoke alarm goes off (just me?) and not faff about with ricing a cauliflower or spiralising the contents of your veg rack. This is perfect for that. You can use pretty much any veg you like, cook a massive tray of it and save what you don't eat in the fridge, reheat or eat it cold and even use it in other dishes. Easy.

To make Go-with-anything Roasted Veg you will need:

• Vegetables - I would suggest onion and peppers as a minimum but then you can add anything you like. I used a red onion, a big courgette, couple of handfuls of frozen peppers, half a butternut squash, and a few baby leeks because that was what I had sat wilting miserably in the bottom of the fridge but you could add aubergine, cherry tomatoes, sweet potato, carrot, cauliflower, parsnip, asparagus, baby corn, celeriac, fennel, marrow, mushrooms - if it's a vegetable throw it in and see what happens. 
• Fry light or spray oil, or syn some olive oil.
• Balsamic vinegar.
• Dried oregano, basil, rosemary or thyme - or any other hard herb you like.
• Salt and pepper

You can also chuck a few cloves of garlic in, but I find it makes it bitter. Not sure why, but I just can't get garlic right so I leave it out. 

Just chop all your veg so they're roughly all the same size. It's going to be impossible to get a cauliflower floret the same size as an asparagus spear so don't go whittling them down, just get them roughly similar. Chuck it all into an oven dish and add a splash of balsamic, a sprinkle of your herb of choice and salt and pepper. Then spray it all with fry light until your finger hurts. Give it a mix around and bung it in the oven for about half an hour-45 minutes, giving it a wiggle around halfway through.

I chucked a frozen fish filet on top about 10 minutes before the end for a light lunch (perfect for SP if you've not used sweet potato or parsnip), but you can serve it with whatever you like - chicken, pork chops, sausages, or mix it into some cous cous, chuck it in a crustless quiche or add some passata for a quick speed-packed pasta sauce.

Hx