Weigh-Less recipes

Hi all

If anyone is on weigh-less, here are three ideas for suppers and lunch.

SUPPERS
Spaghetti bolognaise
200g onions
240g mince
300g tomato & onion mix
soya sauce
garlic
whatever spices you normally use
560g cooked spaghetti (140g per serving)

Makes 4 servings
Each serving =
1½ Veg
1 MF protein
2 Complex carbs

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Chicken lentil curry and rice
200g onion
360g chicken breast, cubed
300g tomato & onion mix
140g lentils
560g cooked basmati/ brown rice (140g per serving)

Makes 4 servings
Each serving =
1½ Veg
1 MF protein
1 LF protein
2 Complex carbs

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Stirfry
50g onion, baby corn,
100g mushrooms, swiss chard/ spinach, broccoli, carrots, cabbage (in whichever proportion you like)
90g chicken breast, sliced OR lean beef
140g cooked basmati/ brown rice OR 160g sweet potato (delicious) – I find sometimes I only need 1 complex carbs because of all the veg, but if I’ve gone to gym that day, I use both because I’m starving!

Each serving =
½ veg
1 free veg
1 MF protein
2 Complex carbs

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LUNCHES
Tuna mix
100g onion
100g tomato
200g tuna
25g low fat mayo

Makes 2 servings
Each serving =
1 Veg
1 LF protein
¼ fat plus any fat you put on bread (I don’t have any)

Have with 2 Complex carbs (4 crackerbread, 60 g any other wholewheat type bread)

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Pilchards mix
100g onion
100g tomato
300g pilchards in tomato
50g low fat mayo

Makes 3 servings
Each serving =
2/3 Veg
2/3 Fat plus any fat you put on bread (I don’t have any)
1 LF protein

Have with 2 Complex carbs (4 crackerbread, 60 g any other wholewheat type bread)

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Baked beans
1 can baked beans in tomato sauce (makes 3 servings)
1 cup a soup Lite
Bread/ baked potato

Each serving of baked beans
Whatever fat you put on bread or baked potato
1 LF protein
2 Complex carbs (have with 60 g any wholewheat type bread or over a 90g baked potato)
1 Veg

Hope you enjoy my meals – they are working for me. Just remember that you should build your diet around things you enjoy eating – all of this I normally eat anyway. It’s just making sure that you stay balanced and have enough protein and veg.

Regards
Marcia

Weekend cooking - pizza potatoes

This year, I'll be posting some of the things I cook and bake. Hope you enjoy it.

This one is something I found in a weigh-less cookbook. As with anything in the kitchen, you can make it healthy or not so healthy. Since one of my health goals is to get to my goal weight of 52 as fast as possible, I'm going for healthy.

Ingredients
180g potato
200g diced mushrooms, onions and tomatoes
salt, pepper to taste
30g low-fat cheese

First, zap the potato in the microwave until done (in my microwave, that's about 7 minutes).
Cut the potato in half and scoop out the potato.
Mash and mix with the mushrooms, onions and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. Should look like this:

Then, scoop the mixture back into the potato halves. Of course, there's such a lot of mixture that it does all spill everywhere. That's fine.

Put back in the microwave for about 2 minutes.

Then sprinkle cheese on top and zap again for about 30 - 60 seconds.

Then it looks like this (there should be more cheese but I was hungry so I started on the cheese)

Voila - enjoy!

Why complicate things?

Look at these gorgeous muffins I made the other day.

They tasted even better than they look and you know what? They're from a pre-mix with just a dash of creativity*** added.

So I got to thinking about how we like to complicate things and why. Is it because we want to be "perfect" or do we just over-analyse things?

Especially us women! We want to be Superwoman, doing everything from scratch, cooking a "perfect" meal every night, taking two hours to make an authentic dessert, (fill in the blanks) ________________________ and so on.

It's okay to use cake, muffin and cookie mixes. It's okay to ask your guests to bring a dish instead of stressing and trying to do it all yourself. It's okay to say no if you don't want to go to a function. You get the picture...

So now, especially as we go into the Christmas season, try and simplify your life.

Make a To Not Do list for this period and stick it up on your fridge so you are constantly reminded.

P.S. These are the Golden Cloud muffin mix and I thoroughly recommend it.

I've used the Vanilla, Chocolate and Savoury mixes and they are all good. The other day when I stocked up with some more I practically raved to a mother and daughter in the baking aisle.

***This recipe is Vanilla Muffins and I added a 100g Cadbury Caramel Chocolate slab which I roughly grated into the mix. It gets messy in preparation(with all the chunks) but the end product is oh so yum when all that chocolate melts during the baking process. Enjoy!

Weekend cooking - Easy Focaccia

I saw this focaccia recipe in a Weigh-Less recipe book.

Pizza base
280 g cake flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
50 ml oil
½ tsp salt
150 ml low fat milk

Topping
5 ml olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary, chopped
½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and spray the baking tray with Spray and Cook.
Sift dry ingredients together.
Add the oil, milk and mix.
Roll out the dough until 35cm in diameter and press into pan.
Brush with oil, sprinkle with garlic, rosemary and salt.
Bake until golden brown.

I found that the mixture was a bit dry so I had to add some more milk. I could have even added more oil.

before it went into the oven

As you can see, I didn’t have a round pan that was suitable so I just used my normal biscuit pan.

And here's the end result!

I plan to take this with me when people invite us out to supper. Of course, I'll make a nice neat one - trim edges and so forth.

Weekend cooking - Pizza sandwiches

If you didn't know by now, I don't like spending a lot of time in the kitchen. After all, there are more important things in life like....reading and organising!

Anyway, so this is one of my favourite things to make on the weekend and it takes all of 2 minutes to prepare.


Ingredients
Any bread - I use Slim Slice bread
30g lowfat cheese
Tomatoes
Mushrooms


Toast bread. I usually toast them a little harder than I'd normally do. You'll see why later.
Slice tomatoes and place on bread.
Divide cheese between slices.
Place sliced mushrooms on top
Sprinkle with spices - I put Italian pasta seasoning but plain old salt and pepper will do nicely



Zap in microwave for 30 seconds. This is when the bread softens and why I said toast more than usual.



Enjoy!

Weekend cooking - chicken lentil curry

Be warned - this is a low-fat, healthy version.


Ingredients
200g onions, diced
400g chicken, cubed
400g cooked lentils (you can use sugar beans/ kidney beans/ in fact, any legumes will do)
1 can tomato, chilli & onion mix
Curry powder, tumeric & breyani masala (I buy this, readymade, at the Indian shops)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Garlic & ginger
Salt & pepper



Method
Brown onion in oil.
Add chicken pieces, curry powders and cook until the chicken is done.




(I would normally add a potato, cubed, if I wasn’t on weigh-less but that is now a thing of the past)
Add can of tomato mix and let cook through
Add lentils last otherwise they get mushier (is this a word?).
Enjoy!



Since we're only having this for supper tomorrow, my apologies that it is not nicely presented on a plate!


Serves 4
On weigh-less, 1 serve equals
1 medium fat protein
1 low fat protein
2 vegetable portions
1/3rd fat

Weekend cooking - Beef mince & vegetable pie

Ingredients
400g puff pastry
360g beef mince
200g red kidney beans
garlic & ginger, salt & pepper to taste
1 can tomato & onion mix
300g onion, carrots and mushroom

Method
Cook the above as you normally would cook a stew.
Roll out the pastry, lay half in baking pan and scoop mixture inside.
Lay other half on the top and trim edges with a knife.
Push the ends together, brush the top with milk and bake at 200 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes.



It is ready when golden brown. After I took the picture, I decided that I wanted it a bit browner so I put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Enjoy!