Tuesday 31 May 2016

KFC Style Syn Free Chicken

I’ve been on a bit of a mission to come up with some different party/picnic/finger food ideas for the summer.  Over the winter I tended to make chilli, stews, that type of thing but now the weather’s started to get better I wanted to think about slightly lighter foods that can go on my salads but also be in the fridge for when I get a bit peckish.


These KFC style chicken nuggets are perfect really.  They’re slightly spicy and really good hot but you can have them cold just as easily and they don’t taste any different really.  I’d suggest a SW BBQ sauce as a dip or some passata and put some chilli flakes and mixed herbs in before warming through. 

KFC style chicken nuggets - syn free!!
I had veggies and a few actifry chips with mine as I didn’t have the dips to hand, it wasn’t as dry as maybe it looks.  Oh, and let me be super honest, I had wayyy more chicken than this photo shows, I just had to make room on my plate first!!!!

Syn free KFC Style chicken with veg

Give them a try, the recipie is here - I think these syn free chicken nuggets are really great for a quick, fakeaway meal and the extras don’t hang around for long!

Kathy xx

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Syn free Weetabix cookies

Today it’s all about the cookies.  As anyone that knows me can attest to, I pretty much always eat Weetabix muffins for breakfast (unless I’m at my parents when only my Mum’s bacon butty is happening) so it was a big deal for me to decide to try using my Weetabix for something else - but I could be tempted for cookies!!  

Weetabix cookies
 These Weetabix cookies are syn free if you use as your heb, bear in mind that if you’ve already had it they’re 6 syns per batch and if you add anything not syn free you need to syn that too but a portion makes 6-8 cookies and they’re still low enough to have more than one!!!


So they couldn’t really be more simple, Weetabix, sweetener, milk and an egg with whatever flavourings you like.  I made a few different types to try; the orange and ginger are really good and syn free but for two syns the chocolate are yummy.  I added coconut essence to one batch and salted caramel to another but orange would’ve worked too.  If you want to give them a go the recipe is here

There wasn’t one cookie flavor I made that I didn’t like (yup, I ate them all!!!).  If I had to pick I’d say the chocolate were the best but there’s not a lot in it and as with these things it depends on your personal taste.  I’ll see what other combinations come to mind and add them as I try them out.

Two portions, four flavours...perfect to go with a coffee!
Enjoy!
Kathy xx

Thursday 19 May 2016

Smoked ham wrapped crustless quiches

I have to own up, I absolutely did not want to try the crustless quiche, all I could think when it was mentioned in class was that it was a nasty, eggy bomb and missing pastry which was the best bit of the quiche anyway.  That was until one of the ladies at work, who is also on slimming world, brought one in for me to try.  
 
Yes, I waited until she left my office to eat it in case it was nasty and I had to throw it away and fake enjoying it…but after all that whining I really, really enjoyed it.  Helped massively by the fact she wrapped it in smoked ham which made them like little yummy omelet pockets.

Smoked ham wrapped crustless quiches
I’ve made them a couple of times now and everyone likes them, they’re great for a quick lunch as pretty much any leftover meat or veggies can be thrown in and you can make them to cater for different tastes, personally I add ham, cheese, onion and pepper but it’s whatever you want.
My recipe is here – let me know if there’s any really great flavor combinations I should try!

Enjoy
Kathy xx

Tuesday 17 May 2016

It's tapas time!

Recently I was chatting to a friend about afternoon tea and how I’ve never done that and wasn’t really sure I’d want to, they’re not very Slimming World friendly and I don’t like mayo so I’m kinda in trouble really but we decided there was a gap in the market for savory afternoon teas.  This lead into a more in depth discussion as to what we could have and to cut a long story short I wanted to make some savory bites that would work for afternoon nibbles, parties and that type of thing.  

Obviously I wanted these treats to be little flavor bombs so they’re going to need marinating in some cases – I’ve found that removing the fat can remove flavor so it’s got to be replaced with herbs and spices.  Yes, this is more faffing about than opening a box of starters from Tesco but that’s ok, sticking to the diet whilst having tasty food that non diet friends can enjoy is very, very worth it.

So I have a few to share with you to try, I’ve yet to have anyone say they’re disgusting but that could be my friends are too polite!  Anyway, give them a try and see what you think, I’ll keep adding to them and combine them all on a tapas/party nibbles page to make it easier.  So far we have:

Enjoy!

Kathy xx