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

******************************************************************

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

******************************************************************

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

******************************************************************

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)

******************************************************************

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)

******************************************************************

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 pasta casserole

Ingredients
500g mince (I only had 280g so I added 220g lentils)
1 Onion, diced
Carrots (I buy Pick & Pay’s prepared julienned carrots and then roughly chop them)
Bottle bolognaise sauce (I used the low-fat Royco one at Pick & Pay – about R15)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt, garlic, pepper to taste
500g spaghetti (I didn’t have spaghetti so I used the twisty pasta)
Cheese


Method
Heat pot and then add oil and onion.
Add mince, spices and brown.
Add carrots and then bolognaise sauce.
Cook for about 10 minutes.


Add pasta and mix thoroughly.
Pour into a casserole dish.
Add cheese to the top and top with your favourite pizza toppings.

I use mushrooms because I don’t like mixing meats but you can top with salami, bacon, sausage, etc.

Serve with a side salad and some bread.

About the picture
I forgot to take a picture of the completed one before I started serving and I couldn’t blog an ugly one, now could I?

Sauce for pasta and baked potatoes

I like to make this sauce and freeze it in individual servings for the nights when I have coaching appointments.

I then quickly cook some pasta or bake some potatoes, top with this sauce and grate some cheese on top.

I will post a picture after we have it this week...

Ingredients
160g onion (1 medium onion)
120g spinach
635g tomato, chili & onion mix (about 1 1/2 cans)
70g mushrooms
200g cooked chickpeas/ lentils/ kidney beans
salt, pepper, 1 tsp curry powder (for a bit of kick)

You can use any amount of vegetables - this is what I had on hand so that's why the quantities are a bit odd.

Fry the onions, add spinach and mushrooms and add the tomato last.
Then add the cooked legumes of your choice (I used chickpeas) and cook together.

This amount of vegetables made 6 servings.

1 serving = 0.5 low fat protein + 2 veg portions on Weigh-Less.

Serve on a 180g baked potato with 20g grated cheese and you have 2 complex carbs and 1 medium fat protein serving.

Serve on 140g pasta with 20g grated cheese and you also have 2 complex carbs and 1 medium fat protein serving.

Healthy pumpkin pasta sauce

You'll know of my love affair with red kidney beans if you scroll through the recipes in the In the kitchen category :)

I wanted to make a quick pasta sauce to use up with some red kidney beans I had in the freezer.

I intended to make a cheesy white sauce with a couple tablespoons All Joy hot & spicy pasta sauce (they're about R12,99 each at Pick & Pay - they all taste great) to give it a bit of zing.

My white pasta sauces always have onion and mushrooms to start because I'm always looking for ways to add some extra veggies.

Then I had a bright idea to add some pumpkin (I love pumpkin with that hot pasta sauce - that combo just works) to the sauce. Judging from this picture, I think I added a tablespoon already because it's quite yellow.


Okay, and here's the rest of the mashed pumpkin added. I probably added about 150 - 200g - sorry I can't be more precise; that's how I cook! Nice and bright orange! You can also see the kidney beans are in. I only had 100g.

And then I added the cooked spaghetti and heated it through. It was so delicious. You don't even know there's so much vegetables in there.

So that's how I make (what could be) fattening pasta, healthy!

If you want, you could grate some cheese and zap in the microwave for about 30 seconds until it melts. For me, that defeats the whole purpose of cooking healthy but sometimes I'm a nice wife and I'll do it like that for Dion :)

Mexican Pasta Casserole

Ingredients (this is exactly as I made it this afternoon)

140g onion

100g spinach

100g mushrooms

750ml bottle of tomato sauce (for pasta)

250g cooked red kidney beans

500g spaghetti (uncooked)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp garlic

Method

1. Cook spaghetti according to instructions.
2. Chop all vegetables
3. Fry onion in olive oil. Add spinach, mushrooms and garlic.
4. Add tomato sauce.
5. Season to taste. I like Italian herbs, pepper, salt.
6. Add kidney beans and finally spaghetti.
7. All the spaghetti didn't fit in my casserole dish so add as much as will fit :)
8. Mix it all up and pour into a greased casserole dish (so it's easy to wash afterwards).
9. Top with cheese and bake for about 15 minutes at about 180 degrees until the cheese melts and that gorgeous smell wafts through your whole house!

YUMMY!