dangling

I didn't want to leave this blog hanging as it were, but I have stopped following the Slimming World plan. I wasn't happy with the lack of good fats, and was eating big portions of the wrong sorts of carbs. I have gone back to a low GI/GL way of eating which seems to suit me better.

Good luck to those of you following Slimming World! It's a plan that works for a lot of people; it just wasn't for me.

All the best!

Creamy smoked salmon and spring vegetable pasta

This recipe is a standby favourite; it's quick to make and very, very tasty. It's adapted from the recipe for Creamy smoked salmon bucatini with dill from Slimming World's Everyday Italian cookbook. In the winter you can make it with the rather anaemic stringless beans or runner beans available in the grocery store and it will still be nice.

Creamy smoked salmon and spring vegetable pasta
(free on EE)
(serves 2)

Potato salad

As spring approaches summer, the need for potato salad to go with Quorn burgers etc. grows until finally I must give in. Here's a potato salad that is fairly light on the syns but still provides the required potato salady-ness. It's not vegetarian, but falls into the everything-is-better-with-bacon category. ;-)

Potato Salad 
(1/2 syn per portion on EE)
(serves 2 as a side dish)

Book review: Extra Easy Meals in Minutes (SW)

This is the latest and greatest Slimming World recipe book, available to members only or, at vastly inflated prices, to anyone who cares to buy one on eBay. It professes to keep you on track with your slimming, whilst providing delicious, speedy recipes for brilliant cooks and complete beginners alike. Does it live up to this promise?

I actually really like this book. I've read online that many group members don't like it, but have been unable to find out why exactly. Maybe some of the recipes seem a little strange or fancy to some people? I don't know. It's true that it has veered away from SW-friendly versions of traditional favourites, which many of the previous books seem to focus on, and there's perhaps a bit more emphasis on fresh herbs, spices, etc. which might not be to everyone's taste. I've enjoyed all the recipes I've tried so far, and have still got plenty more marked to try in the future, which to my mind makes it excellent value at £4.95. So, without further ado...

Recipe Review: Creamy Ham & Artichoke Tagliatelle

This recipe got a big thumbs up from both of us. The flavours combined really nicely and nothing was overpowering or overpowered. The only changes we will make in future are to use the whole tin of artichokes for two servings - this dish has room for them and it saves us from having to use them up the next day - and quartering them instead of halving them to spread their flavour more evenly throughout, and saving back a bit of pasta water to add when mixing the sauce with the other ingredients to make sure it retains some creaminess of texture.

(Don't even get me started on the state of tinned artichoke suppliers. We tried Sainsbury's, to be told that they used to do them but no more, we tried Aldi to be met with blank looks. Finally we found them at the biggest Tesco in the area. No, lady in Sainsbury's, the jarred ones in oil will NOT work for a SW recipe but thanks very much for trying.)

Source: Extra Easy Meals in Minutes (SW - PB)

Pork and fennel meatballs

Yummy! I had this with 100g of cooked spinach/ricotta tortellini with 1tbsp of green pesto stirred into it (5 1/2 syns total), and a big pile of Italian-style purple sprouting broccoli (using cooking spray rather than pouring oil). I think the meatballs and sauce would also be nice over plain pasta.

Pork and fennel meatballs (free on red and EE)
(serves 2)

Gadgetwatch: Mouli Julienne

Awhile back I bought a Mouliware Mouli Julienne, despite a niggling feeling that I probably already had enough graters, shredders, food processors and other similar kitchen tools to last a lifetime.

Let me just say that my doubts can just shut the hell up next time. This shredder is brilliant. It's the best way I have found to make very coarsely shredded vegetables for carrot salad, coleslaw, etc. without including part or all of a knuckle in the result. Hurrah.

lovely lunchly quinoa

I used to make this yummy quinoa salad all the time, but fell out of the habit. The carrot salad was a new recipe to me.

Carrot Salad with Lime and Cilantro (Epicurious) (syn-free)

• I used this recipe as a rough quide to quantities and left out the oil entirely. In our household we prefer fat-free zesty carrot salads.

It was nice but I'm not sure whether the flavours were a pleasant compliment to the quinoa salad or too similar in a scary stalkery Single White Female sort of a way.

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa (Epicurious) (3 syns per serving on EE/Green)

• this recipe serves 2 as a main dish
• cook quinoa in a rice cooker; 1 1/2 cups water and a little bit of salt to 1 cup quinoa - don't faff with all the steaming instructions!
• omit vegetable oil and butter; use 1 tbsp olive oil (6 syns)
• omit sugar
• increase quantity of lime juice to your taste; I usually like to squeeze some over the dressed salad when I sit down to eat it
• add ground cumin and a crushed garlic clove to the dressing
• add one small can of Niblets sweetcorn
• consider doubling the tomatoes if you are using puny British ones
• for extra-tasty black beans, combine them with the dressing early on and let them absorb the flavours while the quinoa is cooking

This dish is somehow both light and filling. I like it best when it's really zingy with lime juice but others prefer it a little more mellow. Either way it's awfully healthy, I think.

moooosli

I've just started having this recently - now that spring is here I don't always feel like porridge. It's lovely, fills you up without feeling heavy, and gets in some superfree fruit! It's very loosely based on a muesli recipe from River Cottage Every Day.

Technique tip: if you're not sure how to segment an orange as described below, Waitrose has a handy guide with photos.

Mooooosli (modify number of O's to your own taste) (HEXB + 1 syn)

(serves 1)

a girl's gotta eat

I've been following the Slimming World plan since January and have had slow but steady losses. In addition to my large 'normal' cookbook collection, I use websites and have collected a lot of SW books to keep my meals varied and yummy. Just one problem - it's hard to keep track of where a recipe came from or how I modified it if it wasn't already SW-friendly. So.... here's yet another blog, to hopefully log those things. Let's see how long it lasts!

You'll see that I include syns in a lot of my meals, unless I'm saving up for a donut or something like that, and I don't use a lot of the products that SW seem to recommend. If those products work for you, then feel free to use them. :)