Tandoori Chicken

BBQ Tandoori Chicken

This recipe is taken from the March/April 2012 Slimming World magazine and uses lamb instead of chicken.

Serves: 4

Ready in about: 40 minutes, plus overnight marinating

Syns: Free on Extra Easy, Free on Original

• 1kg chicken cut into chunks
• 200g fat-free natural yoghurt
• 6tbsp tomato puree
• 4tbsp tandoori curry powder
• 1cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1tsp hot chilli powder
• 3tsp sea salt
• 3tbsp lemon juice

1. Put the lamb chunks in a dish in a single layer. Mix together the yoghurt, tomato puree, curry powder, ginger, chilli powder, 2 tsp of sea salt and lemon juice.
2. Rub the mixture onto the chicken pieces.
3. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for 4 – 5 hours, or overnight if time permits.
4. Preheat your oven (or bbq 😉 to 220c/200c fan/gas mark 7. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Thread the chicken onto skewers and place on a baking tray.
5. Cook for 12-15 minutes, or until the chicken in cooked.

It Sunday and it’s sunny so lets have a BBQ!

The weather has been beautiful today and as such we have had a lovely relaxing morning just sitting in the garden and reading while waiting for a friend to come over to have a BBQ lunch, Slimming World friendly of course. As I had Fruit and Fibre for breakfast as my HEB I didn’t have a cob but to be honest I didn’t feel like missed out. To help me stick to my syns I used a couple of my tried and and tested recipes that I know I love. The first on was Tandoori Chicken Skewers.

They are amazing and my other half thinks they are the best thing ever, in fact whenever we have a BBQ these are always requested. The best thing is that if you do not tell people they are Slimming World friendly they simply don’t know. They are just that good. Even better than that is that they are FREE!!!! I really would recommend that you try them and you can find the recipe HERE.

Another thing that I made is homemade burgers, unfortunately they looked and tasted so good that I completely forgot the take a picture, but you can find the recipe HERE. These are also FREE.

Alongside this I had some very juicy and tasty mushrooms (so juicy in fact that the juice burnt my lip 😦 ) and our friend brought along some Pork and Sweet Chilli Sausages. These I worked out and 5.5 syns and as I had such a good rest of the BBQ I allowed myself 1 without a cob. All in all it was a very good syn friendly BBQ.

In other news I also went to see my very first ice hockey match and I absolutely loved it! I’m really not one for watching sports like football (it annoys me when players roll on the floor for every minor injury) or rugby (I get annoyed by the stop and start play) but ice hockey is so quick! I was also strong and didn’t give into the temptation of burgers and hotdogs and chocolate and sweeties. Instead I just made do with…a diet coke. YAY for me!

So today has been an OK diet day again. I has better get a good weight loss this week.

Breakfast Fruit and fibre (HEB + 1 syn), semi skimmed milk (0.5 HEA), banana and a nectarine

Snack Muller Light Greek Style Yoghurt

Lunch 2x burgers (FREE), Tandoori Chicken (FREE) Pork and Sweet Chilli Sausage (5.5 syns) Mushroom (FREE) Sauce (2 syns)

Snack Mullerlight Banana and Custard

Dinner Mango

Total syns = 9 syns

Tomorrow I will be going to the gym and making sure I have another low syn day to make up for it. In fact I have some of that yummy scrummy pork from yesterday so that will make a lovely low syn meal for tomorrow evening. YUM YUM!

Saturday Antics

Happy Saturday guys and gals,

Well, last night went well and all the preparation I did for it worked like a treat. We went to Tamatanga where as planned I had the Rogan Josh (6.5 syns) and, as they didn’t have boiled rice, I had pilau rice (2.5 syns). A total of  9 syns and best of all I only had 1/2 of the Rogan Josh. I didn’t notice that I was eating a Slimming World friendly meal and am positive that I enjoyed it just as much as everyone else. It just goes to show that you can still eat in your favourite places and (hopefully) lose weight.

My Rogan Josh from Tamatanga

Afterwards we went to see Michael Mcintyre and he was brilliant. He had me crying with laughter. I was determined to be ‘good’ and as planned took my bottle of water and some grapes and happily munched on those whilst all around me Ben and Jerry’s, pop corn and candyfloss was being consumed. There was also temptation around every corner in the form of refreshment sellers. I would say that there was a new one every two minutes and as we were right at the end of the aisle they were being paraded right under my very nose…but I kept strong and now I am very proud of myself. Especially as I spent 40 minutes in the gym and then 20 minutes swimming so hopefully that will help as well.

This morning, being Saturday, meant cooked breakfast…YUM YUM!

My poached eggs and toast brekkie

Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother photographing my breakfast but I was so impressed with the shapes of my eggs that I just had to record the evidence. It was lovely and only 1 syn (I had slightly more bread than my HEB allowed and yes I did weigh it :-p).

I also made the Schezuan Pork from the new magazine as well. I served it with boiled rice. It was absolutely amazing. You can find the recipe HERE.

I would advise anyone with a hankering for chinese to give this a go. There isn’t enough sauce to cover your rice but it makes the pork yummy and sticky and it is a syn bargain at just 1 syn! It tastes like its a lot more than that and it would be lovely with egg noodles.

Todays food diary is as follows:

Breakfast 2 poached eggs (FREE), wholemeal toast (HEB + 1 syn) and a peach (FREE)

Snack Tea with milk (HEA) and sweetener (FREE), Banana (FREE), Grapes (FREE)

Lunch Batchelors Chicken and Mushroom Pasta and Sauce with no marg (FREE + HEA), 2 glasses of orange squash

Dinner Sichuan Pork (1 syn), boiled rice (FREE) and Muller Fat Free Greek Style Lemon Yoghurt (0.5 syns)

Total 2.5 syns

Not bad and should make up for yesterdays curry. I also did a ton of body magic in the form of gardening.

Tomorrow we will be having a BBQ so I will be whipping up my own FREE beef burger and marinading chicken legs without their skin to make sure that I still stick to my syns.

Sichuan Pork

This is a recipe taken from the October 2012 Slimming World magazine.

Serves 4

Ready in about 20 minutes

Syns: 1 on Extra Easy

• 250g tenderstem broccoli, halved lengthways
• Fry light
• 700g thin-cut pork loin chops, all visible fat removed, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 4 celery sticks, sliced diagonally
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, crushed
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 level tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 8 tbsp chicken stock

1. Boil the broccoli for 3 minutes or until just tender. Drain, cover and set aside.
2. Place a wok or a large frying pan sprayed with Fry Light over a high heat. When hot, add the pork and stir fry for 3 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Add the carrots and stir-fry for a further 5 minutes, or just until they are beginning to soften and the pork is golden.
3. Add the red pepper, spring onions, celery and garlic and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the peppercorns, tomato puree, sweet chilli sauce and stock and stir fry for a further minute.
4. Stir in the cooked broccoli, heat for 1-2 minutes, then serve.

Here I Am!

Well here I am! I have been doing Slimming World since February 14th and have lost a total of 1st 2lbs. I started at 10st5.5lb and being only 4ft11 this is rather a lot. It also gave me a BMI of 29.4…the highest I have ever been! Now though I am down to 9st3.5lb and a BMI of 26.2. I feel so much better look so much better because I have gone down a dress size, but I am struggling!

I have had a couple of weeks where I haven’t been losing and have maintained or gained and I really need to get back into control before I go back to my start weight. It isn’t through not understanding what I need to do and how to do it. It is just a sheer lack of motivation. I feel like I am so close and I am terrified of letting myself go and gaining everything I have lost plus more. This would be tragic because I am getting married next year!

So here I am. I have started this blog to help me keep losing weight , allow me to track my eating and show off my meals. Having already scoured the other Slimming World blogs I am also discovering that it is a great way of gaining inspiration. I am looking forward to keeping you guys and gals updated on my progress and gaining the motivation and inspiration that I have seemingly (temporarily) lost.

Tonight is WI! As negative as it sounds I will be happy with a maintain and will be ecstatic with a 0.5lb loss. Fingers crossed. As tonight is WI I will be starting writing down my diet diary tomorrow.

As tomorrow is the start of a new phase in my weight-loss I  am going to plan what I am going to be eating:

Breakfast

• Fruit and Fibre (HEB + 1syn)
• Semi – skimmed milk (1/2 HEA)
• 2 satsumas (FREE)

Snack

• Some sort of fruit

Lunch

• Low fat Supernoodles (FREE)
• Fat Free Muller Greek Style Yoghurt (1/2 syn)
• Fruit

Snack

• Fruit

Dinner

• Homemade salmon fish cakes (FREE)
• Slimming World Chips
• Veggies
• Fruit

I will also be going to the gym and will have to take a wander to the shop to buy some fruit. Lets hope it all goes to plan