Saturday, January 28, 2017

WeightWatchers Chicken Basque


This a great one-pot meal which can feed a whole family. It's actually a WeightWatchers recipe as it's fairly low in fat if you use skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs - I used thighs for this recipe so it's good value as well. If you left the chorizo out it would be lower in fat but wouldn't taste as good!

According to the recipe which I found in an old WeightWatchers magazine, this has 9 and a half points per person. It involved scattering olives and orange slices over the top at the end which I didn't do, so I have left these out of the recipe.

To serve 4, you need:
8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
low fat cooking spray
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, cut into thin wedges
2 red peppers, de-seeded and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
75g chorizo sausage, skinned and sliced
50g semi-dried tomatoes (I used sun-dried, drained of oil on kitchen paper)
175g brown basmati rice
1 chicken stock cube, mixed with 225ml water
125ml dry white wine
1 tbsp. tomato puree
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
 
Season the chicken. Use an oven proof dish that can also go on the hob if you have one, and spray with low fat cooking spray. Brown the chicken on both sides - alternatively you can do this in a frying pan. Heat the olive oil in the casserole dish or frying pan and brown the onion and peppers, then after about 5 minutes add the garlic, chorizo and tomatoes.


Preheat the oven to 180C. If you're using a frying pan, at this point transfer the ingredients into the casserole dish. Stir in the rice until it's coated in oil then add the stock, wine, tomato puree and paprika. Put the chicken on top, making sure the rice is still covered by liquid, and put the lid on top.


Bake in the oven for about an hour until the rice has cooked and the liquid absorbed and the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken

It's Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rooster is about to begin so what better meal to cook for your family or friends than sweet and sour chicken? The great thing about this recipe is that because you make it in a slow cooker, it's really easy. Put it on and forget about it until you are ready to eat - at least if you use microwave pouches of rice like I do, you really don't need to do a lot!

The recipe comes from the Betty Crocker website - which I associate more with cakes than savoury dishes. I don't think it needs the cornstarch you add at the end though as I found most of the liquid had evaporated in the slow cooker by the time it had finished cooking.

To serve 2, you need:
200g tin pineapple, chopped (juice from the tin reserved)
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
half an onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, diced
3 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 red pepper, seeds removed and chopped
1/2 green pepper, seeds removed and chopped
1/4 cup water
rice or noodles to serve    

Put the pineapple, carrots, onion, garlic and ginger in the slow cooker. Top with the chicken.
Mix the pineapple juice, soy sauce and sugar and pour over the chicken.
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hours. For the last 30 minutes add the pineapple and peppers. Serve with rice or noodles.
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 4

This week's train strikes have been called off and apparently normal service will resume on Tuesday - which would be the first time in about four months that my normal train to work is running! So it means I won't be working from home as much this week, though I have still agreed one day working from home while I have coursework to do for a professional qualification, so I can use the time when I would normally be commuting to study.

Monday
Lunch: going to try an Itsu chicken noodle cup from Ocado with extra chicken added
Dinner: working late as I'm at a work event so will grab something quick when I get in

Tuesday - I'm working from home
Lunch: toasted ham and cheese sandwich
Dinner: my husband is out at work drinks so I will have sweet and sour chicken which he doesn't like

Wednesday
Lunch: leftover sweet and sour chicken
Dinner: Slimming World sausage casserole with mashed potato for him and a baked sweet potato for me

Thursday
Lunch: slow cooker Thai coconut chicken soup
Dinner: chicken lattice with mashed potato for him, lamb grillsteak with veg for me

Friday
Lunch: slow cooker Thai coconut chicken soup
Dinner: something from the freezer with chips

Saturday
Lunch: bacon sandwich
Dinner: TBA - ran out of time to plan anything

Sunday
Brunch: I'm going to try making this hash brown casserole
Mid-afternoon: going for a pub lunch with the in-laws at 3pm, hence having brunch as it is a weird time for me to eat, so I don't think we will want anything else in the evening but I'm not sure!

This is a blog hop, join in!





Sunday, January 22, 2017

Traditional Poinsettia Decoupage Christmas Card


Poinsettia is a winter-flowering plant, associated with Christmas perhaps because of its red petals. Apparently the star-shaped leaves are thought to be a symbol of the star of Bethlehem that the three wise men followed, with their colour symbolising the blood of Christ.

The plant is commonly seen on Christmas cards, like this one that I made. The kit came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, with die cuts in different designs including the ones I used to make this card.

I covered a square white card blank with red backing paper then stuck on a square die cut with scalloped edges that filled almost the entire card. It had a circular hole in the middle, into which I stuck the round topper, raising it off the card with adhesive pads. And that's it - really quick and easy to make but a nice looking card for someone who is more of a traditionalist about Christmas.

I'm sharing this with the Crafty Catz weekly cardmaking challenge and Trimmies craft challenge.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

WeightWatchers Curried Fish Pie


Fish pie is a comforting family staple and is usually topped with mashed potato or puff pastry. The former is carb-heavy and the latter high in fat, so using filo pastry is a much lighter option.

I adapted a recipe in an old WeightWatchers magazine to make this, which tasted really good and made a nice change from the usual kind of fish pie. The WeightWatchers recipe had 6.5 syns per serving and I don't think my changes will have affected that.

To serve 2 you need:

175g white fish like cod or haddock, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
75ml double cream (the WeightWatchers recipe calls for less than 55% fat double cream)
100g cooked and peeled prawns
1/2 tbsp. mild curry powder
zest of 1/2 a lime
4 x 15g sheets filo pastry
low fat cooking spray (I use Fry Light)

Preheat oven to 180C. Place the cubed fish and prawns in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and mix with the cream, curry powder and lime zest.

Cut each sheet of filo pastry in half to make 8 squares. Spray one side of the pastry with cooking spray and crumble up each piece of pastry and sit it on top of the pie dish until it is covered. Once you have used all the pastry, spray over them all with cooking spray.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.





 

Friday, January 20, 2017

Restaurant review: Grapeshots, Artillery Passage, London

My work Christmas meal for the past two years has been a curry so this year I lobbied hard for a proper Christmas dinner- and luckily enough of my colleagues agreed. We'd left it relatively last minute to book - at least, we were booking several weeks in advance, for a weekday in mid-December, but places still get booked up really fast!

Not that Grapeshots wasn't my first choice, but.... well, it wasn't my first choice. I wasn't actually familiar with the pub even though it is only a few minutes from my office. But after I rung around a couple of other places I had in mind and found they were fully booked, a colleague suggested Grapeshots, and as they had a festive menu and enough space, that was good enough!

The Christmas menu offered two courses for £24.95 or three for £29.95 and we pre-ordered at the pub's request; I had  a nice starter of crayfish, prawn and smoked salmon cocktail, which was served on a plate with a thick slice of tomato as its base.

 
The main course had a generous portion of meat, a lot of gravy, but only a couple of small-ish roast potatoes, and we were brought two small dishes of vegetables to share between 7. There was barely enough for everyone and one of my colleagues asked if there was more coming, only to be told no.
 
 
My dessert of sticky toffee Christmas pudding was nice - the Christmas pudding was a stronger flavour than the toffee in the cake, but the toffee sauce tipped the balance deliciously the other way.


The pub seemed nice - the ladies is tiny with barely enough room to get through the door - and the food was pretty good, if a little expensive.
 

Monday, January 16, 2017

Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 3

Another week where I am not in the office very much! This time I have taken three days annual leave to do some coursework then will be in Edinburgh for a day with a very early start, and flying back early the next day and going straight into work that day.

Join in the blog hop below.

Monday - I'm off, my husband is at work
Lunch: jacket potato
Dinner: Stir-fried cauliflower and cashews for me, chicken lattice and mash for him

Tuesday - I'm off, my husband is at work
Lunch: tuna risotto
Dinner: slow cooker macaroni cheese with sausages from this recipe or maybe hidden veg from this recipe

Wednesday - I'm off, my husband is at work
Lunch: leftover macaroni cheese
Dinner: maple mustard chicken thighs from this recipe with mashed potato

Thursday
I'm in Edinburgh for work with a very early start, out for both lunch and dinner

Friday -
Lunch: back at work so straight from the airport so will have to buy lunch
Dinner: peppered beef steaks and chips

Saturday
Lunch: quesadillas
Dinner: chicken wings in old bay seasoning (from this site) with chicken breast for him, with potato croquettes

Sunday
Lunch: hotdogs
Dinner: Tex Mex chicken tacos from this recipe

Join in the blog hop!