Recipe - Syn Free One Pot Chilli Beef Bake

This recipe was a revelation to me. Who doesn't love a one pot recipe, yummy comforting food with only one pan to wash up after? Call me lazy but why use two pots when one will do? And I am seriously crappy at cooking rice, so bunging it all in the pot to cook together is a perfect option for me. If you don't have a pan that will go from hob to oven, get one. It's worth it, think of all the fairy liquid you'll save only washing one pot! This is the one I have, and it's big enough for stews and casseroles, boiling a chicken carcass to make stock and batch cooking huge vats of soup and bolognese for freezing.

To make Syn Free One Pot Chilli Beef Bake for 4 people you will need:

• 400g lean beef mince
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 100g mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 200ml beef stock
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp hot chilli powder (or to taste)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 80g reduced fat cheddar (1/2 HEA per portion)
• frylight

Frylight your pan and brown the mince and onion. Add all of the other ingredients apart from the cheese and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20-30 minutes until the rice is tender. Don't be tempted to stir too much as the rice will go stodgy but do check the liquid - it should all absorb but if it goes before the rice is cooked add a splash more water from a recently boiled kettle. Sprinkle the cheese on top and pop into the oven at 200/gas mark 6 until the cheese is melted and bubbly. 

Warning, this was volcanically hot so you might wish to let it cool for a few before serving. It made a huge pot and was really comforting. I mixed some yogurt in to cool it down for the kids, but it really wasn't overly spicy either. It was a bit of an experiment, but sometimes the chuck it all in and see what happens method pays off. Who says being lazy is bad for you?

Hx

Recipe- Syn Free Beef Kheema and Bombay Veg

This recipe is adapted from a Slimming World recipe book. I'm a sucker for a recipe book, I have to admit, although this time around I've managed to avoid temptation. The problem with Slimming World recipes I find is that if you made each thing to the letter you'll end up spending a fortune. Everything seems to need the most expensive cut of meat and lots of it. When using mince you need to choose one that has 5% fat or less for it to be syn free, which of course is so much more expensive than normal mince. You'd think that since they were taking something out it would cost less, surely? Ok, I know that's not how it works, but it's a nice thought. Maybe we wouldn't be such a nation of fatties if it were true. Anyway, I like to try and keep costs down by bulking it out with veg and adding flavour with spice. I would have never thought of using mince in a curry before, but this has become a family favourite.

To make Syn Free Beef Kheema and Bombay Veg for four you will need:

• 500g lean mince (5% fat or less)
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp mild curry powder
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 300ml hot beef or veg stock
• 300g frozen peas or finely chopped carrots
• half a white cabbage
• 1 head broccoli
• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp mild chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• frylight

Spray a large pan with frylight and cook your mince until browned. Add the sliced onion and cook for a few more minutes before adding the curry powder, tomatoes, garlic and stock. Stir in the peas or carrots and simmer for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the shredded cabbage and broccoli florets in boiling water for about 5 minutes and then drain well. Spray another pan and add the mustard seeds, chilli powder and turmeric, and toast for a minute. Add the drained veg and stir to coat in the spices. Cook for a few more minutes and serve with the kheema mince.

I adapted this to fit with SP, but you could serve with rice or even add boiled potato to the cabbage and broccoli if you're not an SP fan. Adjust the spices to your taste too (this is not hot at all), just don't add too much turmeric or it will taste like a commuters armpit after an hour's journey on the Northern Line in August. I once did this to couscous and was not impressed. Mix up the veg too, cauliflower, spinach or mushrooms would all work well.

Will this make it onto your next curry night menu?

Hx

Recipe- Syn Free Cheesy Bolognese and Potato Bake

I quite often have leftover bolognese, which usually gets whacked in the freezer until it's so freezer burned that it's unidentifiable, and then chucked away when I need the space. Well this week, my friends, I took control of that bolognese and created this cheesy masterpiece! It uses your HEA of cheese, and the rest is syn free on an ordinary EE day. If you're punishing yourself on SP you could swap your potatoes for cauliflower, butternut squash or any other firm speed veg that you can roast.

To make Syn Free Cheesy Bolognese and Potato Bake for two people you will need:

• two portions of leftover bolognese - use your favourite recipe or try my turkey bolognese
• 40g reduced fat cheddar (1xHEA)
• 50g mozzarella (1xHEA)
• 2 baking potatoes
• Frylight
• Salt and pepper

Dice your potatoes nice and small, stick them on a frylighted baking tray, season, spray with more frylight and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes or so, turning once. When the potatoes are nearly done re-heat the bolognese either on the hob or in the microwave until it's nice and hot. Tip the potatoes into a roasting dish and top with the bolognese and cheese, and bake for 10 minutes until melted and bubbly. Dish it up and get stuck in!

You may notice there's no speed food on my plate here, and that's because I got my salad out of the fridge to find it had turned to mush. There were plenty of veg in the bolognese, and I had snacked on fruit all day, so I wont beat myself up over it. Slimming World do say to make up a third of your plate with speed food where possible, and this time it just wasn't possible. Slap my wrist and move on!

What are your favourite ways to use up leftovers? Or do you leave it languishing in the fridge like me?

Hx

Recipe- Syn Free Lasagne

Usually whenever I come across a recipe for a favourite meal that says syn-free I scroll right past that mofo faster than a rat up a drain pipe. They're not usually any good, most of them contain the dreaded quark or mullerlight in place of the good stuff and I'd rather use my syns and have the real thing. Maybe it's just me, but trying to fake something with eggs and sweetener just exacerbates my craving for the real thing. But there are some notable exceptions and this lasagne is one of them. It uses cottage cheese in place of the white sauce and half a HEA of cheese per portion (or if you don't want to use your HEA it's 3 syns) and is so yummy you won't even know you're dieting. Until the rest of the family have giant chunks of garlic bread with it and you don't. Bitter, moi?

To make Syn Free Lasagne for four people you will need:

• 500g extra lean beef mince
• 6 lasagne sheets
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large carrot, finely diced
• 1 stick celery, finely diced
• 1 500g carton passata
• 1 beef stock cube
• 8-10 mushrooms, sliced
• Mixed Italian herbs
• Garlic powder
• A shake of Worcestershire sauce
• A small 300g tub of fat free plain cottage cheese
• 80g reduced fat mature cheddar (2 x HEA - so 1/2 a HEA per portion)
• Pepper
• F-f-f-frylight

In a large pan saute the onion, garlic, carrot and celery in some frylight until softened (5ish minutes). Add the mince and break up with your spoon, continuing to cook until browned. Add your passata, then half fill the tub with water from a recently boiled kettle and add that too along with the stock cube. Stir in the mushrooms, herbs, garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce and simmer it all together for as long as you can - 45 minutes is ideal but if you've only got 30, or forget about it for an hour, it wont hurt. Now it's time to layer it up! Start with a layer of mince - I only do 2 layers so use half but that will depend on your dish (I use one like this). After the mince add half the lasagne sheets then spread half of the cottage cheese on that and season with pepper. Add the rest of the mince, lasagne and cottage cheese for your second layer, then top with the grated cheddar. Pop in the oven for 30-40 minutes and serve with a big salad to get the speed foods in. Proper lasagne, no syns. What's even better is that my fussy family ate celery without complaint. #mumwin

I snapchatted the making of this, which was a lot of fun, so if you'd like to see more of my messy kitchen via the power of snap follow me @hellyboobear!

Any other syn-free version recipe haters? Or syn free recipes that you simply love? Let me know :)

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