Slimming World and Christmas Markets

Bonjourno!

Seems like forever ago I was starting this blog and telling you all of the delights that were at Manchester Christmas Markets last year. How much can a year change everything?! This time last year I was so unhappy with myself, depressed because I couldn't fit into the clothes that I liked, and wondering if I even had the motivation to do anything about it. 

Fast forward to 12 months later and here I am, an amazing six stone lighter and a definite spring in my step. Last year I struggled around the markets, having to sit down every few minutes because I just couldn't hack the walking around. This year we walked for 2 hours around the Trafford Centre before coming back and spending another 3 hours in the markets! I have to admit my feet hurt after that, but there would be no way I could have managed that last year!

The picture on the right was taken in January and the one on the left is from a couple of weeks ago! Can't believe how much my face as changed!

Anyway, onto food and the markets. It's surprising how much there is on offer to eat for someone doing Slimming World - it's all about asking for what you want, rather than just accepting the whole lot, syns and all.

Because we stayed in a hotel we were offered a free breakfast, which I was sure would have nothing but very bad (but very tasty) things to eat. So I was really surprised when I saw weetabix (HEXB for 2) and fresh fruit! I also filled up on a big bowl full of beans.

In the Trafford Centre, there are so many lovely places to eat, and very tempting too. I opted for a Spudulike jacket potato with beans and low fat cottage cheese, which came to 1.5 syns for the whole thing. Much better than a burger or pizza!

If you are venturing to the markets, make sure you check the ingredients before asking for something. Always ask if anything has been cooked in oil or butter to make sure you can count syns correctly. Guessing for me always leads to gaining!

Look out for:

• Carvery stands - they offer lean roasted meats in a giant yorkshire or a bun, ask for the meats by themselves and they will give you more, more protein will fill you for longer.
• Hog Roast - the pork is very lean and again they will serve you a massive bowl of lean pork without any sneaky sides!
• European food stands - offer roasted garlic potatoes and mushrooms in a garlic sauce. When  I asked, they said the mushrooms are griddled and served with creme fraise, but the amount isn't huge so count a few syns for that. They also serve boiled rice with all of their foods.
• Bratwurst Stands - I would avoid the actual Bratwurst sausage, but most of the stands had a grilled pork or grilled steak to offer, which was just cooked over an open fire on a grill, no oil whatsoever!

You could always use your flexible syns and save up for an amazing food experience - my partner had chocolate strudel, cheese, crepes, pancakes and waffles. Crepes are not very high in syns (4 syns per crepe) but watch out for the toppings they offer!

I hope this helps anyone who is travelling to a Christmas Market between now and Christmas, I would highly recommend it!

Ciao!

x

Slow Cooked Goodness

Bonjourno!

It's been so crazy round here lately, I've barely had time to breathe let alone create wonderful Slimming World recipes! A little update for you, I've managed to bag myself a brand new job! It's my absolute dream job, and I couldn't believe that they offered me it! So I'm super excited to start, but with me getting the job so close to my birthday, I've had at least 5 days off plan. You only have a birthday once a year, right?

I've had my slow cooker for a long time, but it's only been recently that I've discovered what amazing things you can make in it! It's literally a life saver for me when I have to work late, and I know that there'll be a lovely meal all ready for me at home and I don't have to make something from scratch. Normally I leave out the ingredients for my other half so that he can sort it all out (last time I actually left out a pot of measured spices so that he didn't get too confused) and then when I come home I just whack some veggies on or pasta and boom, tasty meal in minutes.

So I thought I would share a few ideas with you, as to what I have made in the slow cooker and just how delicious they are!


Beef in a Creamy Tomato Sauce (from SlimmingEats)
Throw some beef and whatever veg you like, paprika, garlic, mixed herbs and chilli into the slow cooker, add 120ml of stock, a can of chopped tomatoes and some tomato puree into the slow cooker and cook for around 6 hours. When it's cooked, spoon out the meat and veg and add 60g of quark to the sauce and stir till smooth.

 Breakfast Lasagne (from the Slimming World website)

• 300g tomatoes, chopped
• 4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced
• 6 rashers lean bacon, cooked and chopped
• 200g quark
• 6 medium eggs
• 200g mushrooms
• Herbs

Beat the eggs and Quark together. Spray inside of slow-cooker with low calorie cooking spray. Layer potatoes, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms in the slow-cooker in two or three layers. Pour over the egg mixture and sprinkle with herbs. Cook on 'low' for ten to twelve hours or until eggs are set and thoroughly cooked.

Crispy Potato topped Casserole

Use your meat of choice and cut it up into small chunks. Add as much veg as you choose into the slow cooker then cover with stock until around 3/4 full. Add herbs and a touch of tomato puree to thicken the stock. Cook on high for around 4 hours then low for a further 2. For the topping, slice 2 medium potatoes and place on a fry light sprayed oven tray. Spray the potatoes then cook at 180°c for around 20 minutes or until crisp.

Pulled Pork

This one couldn't be simpler, cut the fat off a joint of pork and place in the slow cooker. Cover with stock and cook for around 8-10 hours on high. Serve with whichever sauce you like - we like to put ours in tacos and hexb wraps!

There you go, have fun using your slow cookers!

Ciao!

x

When The Moon Hits Your Eye...

... Like a big pizza pie, that's... so low syn it should be a crime!

Bonjourno!

Life has been ca-razayy as of late, what with moving house, new jobs and whatnot, but I've decided to share something amazing with you. So, my current weight loss stands at an amazing 5 stone and 4.5lbs! I can't believe how far I've come in such a short amount of time, it just proves how much Slimming World does work, especially when you stay to group and get the support. 

I've seen a lot of posts on Instagram recently about changing the bases of pizzas for things such as smash and grated cauliflour (something I'm a little reluctant to try since smash seems to play havoc with my stomach). The one I found does have a syn value, but compared to the syns in actual pizza - I read somewhere that Domino's can get up to 600 syns! - it's really tasty!



For Slimming World Pizza Pies, you will need:
2 Old El Paso Stand 'n' Stuff Tortillas (4.5 syns each)
Tomato Passata or Puree
Any of your chosen pizza toppings
40g cheese (HEXA)

Preheat the oven to 200°c, then fill your tortillas about 3/4 of the way full with your chosen toppings. My favourites are chicken, ham, mushrooms and sweetcorn. Little tip, if you cut everything up small, you can get lots more toppings inside! Fill the remainder of the tortilla with passata (add some garlic and herbs to give it more flavour if you like) and divide the cheese between the two. Cook in the oven until the tortilla is crispy on top and the cheese has melted (around 10-15mins).

These are so amazing, I have them all the time and feel like I'm eating something really bad for me, when they're so low in syns its amazing! Enjoy!
Ciao!
x

Weekly Shopping Recipes

Bonjourno!

How is it already October? I feel like I've only just perfected my summer wardrobe and now I have to roll out the jumpers and scarves. It's a great excuse to eat some fabulously heart warming food now that the weather is a little bit colder, I'm finding that salad for lunch just isn't cutting it anymore, I need something that will warm my soul!

This week I've decided to show you all my shopping list, and what kind of Slimming World food I would make with it. I'm a self-confessed bargain hunter, and I won't spend any more than I have to on food that I know I can find cheap. I also like to buy in bulk and make meals that I can freeze if I need to, which is really useful for lunches the next day - especially when they're hot and filling in weather like this!

So here is my current shopping list (I'm actually heading out this evening to get it!)

As you can see, myself and my partner like to plan what we are eating throughout the week, and work out which days we're working so that we can plan who is going to cook. My partner likes to cook on his days off, because he feels bad that I tend to cook 5 days out of 7 (which I am definitely supportive of!). The 'fend 4 self' just means that I won't cook for both of us, we will just forrage from what we have in the fridge. Days like that are great for me to have more speed, because he really doesn't like vegetables, so on those days I tend to have some kind of meat with lots of veggies.

Monday

Salad is a must on a monday for me because I have weigh day on a Tuesday, so I like to get in as much last minute speed as I can. This week I'm making quiche, which I can have with veggies and my partner can have with onion rings or chips. He likes the Slimming World food that I make, but occasionally he likes to have something a little more synful. I'll put chicken and mushrooms in my syn-free quiche, and have it with broccoli, cauliflour and carrots.

Tuesday

Like I said, Tuesdays are weigh day for me, so I try not to eat much throughout the day. Once I've been weighed I have something for a cheat meal, so that I won't crave any junk food throughout the week. This week we'll buy some frozen pizzas and have them with added toppings.

Wednesday

Although it says spaghetti and meatballs, when I went to Iceland they didn't have any of the Slimming World meatballs left :( so we changed the idea and decided to have some chicken with the spaghetti instead. I'll make a tomato sauce with passata, herbs, mushrooms and peppers.

Thursday

It's around this time of the week when I try and be a little bit more creative, and maybe try a recipe that I haven't tried before. I saw this recipe on the BBC programme "Eat Well For Less" and adapted it so that it would be Slimming World friendly. It's basically cous cous with tinned salmon, mushrooms, peppers and sweetcorn with some added flavour from herbs. I can't wait to try it!

Friday

Thankfully my partner is off work today so decided he wanted to cook. He's a dab-hand at cooking meat and loves to sizzle us some steaks on his days off. This week we're going to have lamb steaks with syn free chips, veg for me and onion rings for him.

Saturday

Again, we changed our minds after I'd taken this picture! We're going out for lunch on Saturday, so changed the meal from slow cooked pulled pork to syn free steak bakes, because lunch will be quite big so we didn't want something huge for tea. I love these, and the recipe is on my blog :)

I hope you enjoyed my shopping list, and maybe it's inspired you to have some meals that you haven't tried! 

Ciao!

x

Shocking Revelations

Bonjourno!

I seem to start every blog by apologising for the lack of posts, but I have actually been super busy with work and other things - trying to sort out moving house makes me want to eat cake! However, I did have the chance to try out a few new things recipe wise, as I felt as though I was getting into a rut where I was eating the same things over and over and not really enjoying anything that I was eating because it was all so samey.

Saying that, I'm open to suggestions, so please comment below if you've tried anything exciting this week, I'm running out of ideas of things to do with pasta and rice, so please let me know if you've had something tasty!

This week was a tad up and down. Normally, my slimming world consultant is just lovely, supportive and enthusiastic about slimming world, but this week things have just turned on their head. Basically, I was perusing Instagram one day and came across a post about new hifi bars. Just to stress, this person was NOT a consultant, nor had she mentioned anything about when the bars were out. Being a supportive person as I am, I screenshotted the pictures and posted it to my local group's Facebook page, thinking that everyone would be as excited as I was, because the flavour sounded really good. About an hour later, I got a message from my consultant asking "where on earth I had found this" and "the consultant that is feeding me this info should be fired" because i am "always in the know and it makes her look stupid". 

The message really upset me, and at that point I was ready to not go back to that group, find another one and tell her to eff off. It wasn't until the next day that she messaged me saying that she'd just had an awful group that night and my post "tipped her over the edge".

Am I in the wrong here? No one ever said that these hifi bars were a secret, and since they were shared on Instagram, surely most people know about them by now? I feel degraded and like this whole Slimming World thing isn't about support anymore.

Still, the support from this blog is just amazing and I couldn't do it without you guys <3

Ciao!
x

Half Syn Three Course Meal

Bonjourno!

I've decided that I'm actually going to take the time to write more of these blog posts, since I recently hit 3000 views (which I could not be more grateful for!). I have a lot of blog post ideas for recipes and snacks to help inspire and motivate people just like me, who are losing weight the slimming world way.
It was nice over the summer to actually spend some time with my partner, we work opposite shifts so as I'm coming home from work he tends to be heading off.. it's a bit of an annoyance! So when he managed to squeeze a day off in the summer he decided to treat me to a slap up slimming world three course meal - which he only ended up cooking the main course! It was so tasty, and only ended up being half a syn for the whole thing, which was amazing! So here are the recipes for everything we made, the syn values, and some pictures to get your mouths watering.

Starter - Stuffed Cheesy Garlic Mushrooms

You will need:
2 Portobello Mushrooms
1/2 tub Quark
Garlic Powder
40g Mozzarella

This one is so simple, just mix the garlic powder and the quark until it's a smooth paste, fill the mushrooms with it and add the cheese on top. Put them in a preheated 180° C oven for 10 minutes until the cheese on top has gone a lovely brown colour. 

Main Course - Steak and chips

You will need:
2 pieces of rump steak (all fat removed)
2 large potatoes
Any veg/salad to accompany 

First, preheat the oven to 200° C. Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into chip shapes, spray an oven tray with fry light, place the potatoes on then spray again with the fry light. These take around 20-30 minutes to cook. In the mean time, heat a griddle pan to a medium/high heat and spray with fry light. Cook the steak however you like it, I personally prefer it medium/rare. Serve the steak with any veggies or salad that you like.

Pudding - Jelly and Cream

This one is definitely the easiest, take the remaining quark and add sweetener until it's at your preference, it tastes so good! Then serve it with a Hartley's 10cal jelly of any flavour, which is only 1/2 syn! 

I haven't had such a good meal in a long time, and I only had to make a little part of it. Maybe he should cook for me more often ;)

Ciao!
x

A Syn Free Pasty?!

Bonjourno!

I do apologise, these blog posts are getting further and further apart! My life has just been so crazy busy since I started my new job, and although I've had the entire summer off (perks of working in a school) I still had loads and loads of things to do. 
After coming back from Alton Towers, we went to see my family up in Newcastle, and spent a long week with lots of small children! It was really nice to see my family again -  I only really get to see my sister once or twice a year because she lives so far away. 

Anyway, I was browing the interwebs looking for some new ideas for Slimming World recipes, as I'd been totally off plan for a while and not really lost that much weight since I got my 4 stone award. I thought about just giving up completely since it was so nice to eat whatever I wanted, but when I had the shock of the scales, it pushed me right back to knowing that I needed Slimming World. So browing around and I came across this recipe for a syn free Steak Bake.

I know exactly what you're thinking, syn free and steak bake are not words that you would normally associate with each other. But when I made the recipe, I can honestly say that it was amazing - even my partner enjoyed it!

You Will Need:

Asda Chosen By You Stewed Steak (400g tin) (This is the only one in Asda that is syn free, but there are a few other options around other shops)
Kingsmill Wholemeal Sandwich Thin (HEXB)
Egg

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, then put around half of the tin into the sandwich thin. In a bowl, beat the egg, then use it seal the edges of the pasty, and brush over the top to make sure it crisps up. Put it in the oven for around 10-15 mins, or until the top is nice and browned.

This recipe is so simple, you can rustle these up in a matter of seconds and have a tasty snack!

Ciao!
x

Fun Times At Alton Towers

Bonjourno!

I know it's been a REALLY long time since I've written a blog post, but honestly my life has gotten super busy over the last few weeks and I've barely had any time to myself to write anything. I can't apologise more, and I'll try harder now that the schools have broken up and I have six whole weeks to myself (woo!). 

So, I don't know if I've mentioned it on this blog before, but myself and my partner had decided that we were going to celebrate the start of the holidays with a sneaky trip down to Alton Towers while the kids were still at school (side note, we actually planned this before the tragic crash on the Smiler..), so that the queues weren't so bad. I took to Twitter to talk about some of the issues I had with going - was I too fat? Was I too wide? Were my thighs too big? The list went on and on. I did some serious - and I mean serious, like hours of internet trawling and searches - research to find out exactly what the heigh/weight/fatness restrictions were around Alton Towers.

People online were really kind - I was hoping to get my 4 stone award before I went (which I did, eeeeee!) just to give me that extra confidence I needed. And after literally changing my mind about six times about whether I wanted to go, we just packed a bag and went, though I was a little apprehensive about it.

So day 1 started off pretty great, standing in the queue for Rita (0-60mph in 2 seconds, insane!) I was actually shaking, I really didn't want to hear the oh so famous "sorry, could you just get off?" and have to make the walk of shame. To my ultimate surprise, the restraint came down over me and fit me fine, I even had room to spare! This boosted my confidence completely and I was ready to take on the world. I even managed to get on Th13teen, which I was sure was going to be too small.
So then we reached Air. Infamous Air. Having done a lot of research about it, lots of people had mentioned that there were bigger seats on row 4, so that was my plan. I even took the courage to ask the really kind woman at the entrance to the ride if she thought that I would fit. She was really nice and suggested the bigger seats, saying that she had seen massive blokes go on it and have no issue. 

Right, I thought, I'll go for this, made a bee line for the 4th row and sat down, pulled the restraint down. Shit, it won't go down. Cue the attendant. "Can you move up a bit and try it again?" Nope, nothing, still won't come down. Fuck this, I'll just get off before I embarrass myself even more. Doing the walk of shame has never been so humiliating. Cue floods of tears, general swears and a fuck this, we're going home attitude. 

After a while of talking and calming down, we decided to try Nemesis. Another pull down restraint. The queue was minimal, so we got on straight away. Again, couldn't pull the thing down, so I got off and went to speak to a man. This part is amazing, because this man that I spoke to deserves a raise for what he did for me. I was still in so much of a tizz from what had happened on Air that I burst into tears right in front of him. He was so kind and took us to a quiet place to talk about it, where I explained what had happened. He gave us free priority passes to come back when I had calmed down, where he would let me try a seat at the back to avoid embarrassment, if not he said I could try a bigger seat, which he even said was probably too big anyway.

So later that day we went back, and he was so kind once more, and to my actual amazement, I got on! And not in the bigger seats, in the normal ones! He said the restraints were half locked when people get on, so it's really hard to get them to where they need to be. 

I really can't get over the kindness of the staff there, really boosted my confidence, especially after what had happened earlier! To those planning a visit in the future, if you're not a size 10, then avoid Air, you have be a skinny minny to get on that asshat!

Hope you all have a wonderful summer,
Ciao!
Ps. Here's a cheeky photo to make you all laugh ;)
x

A Day In The Life...

Bonjourno!

I feel like it's been ages since I've written anything on here, and I'l be honest with you, I just haven't felt in the zone recently. I feel like no matter what I do, how many syns I have, if I have just one bad meal then my weight loss goes way down or I have a gain. For example, last week I went out and had a Nandos (not too bad on syns, around 20 for the whole meal) and stayed relatively low syn for the rest of the week to compensate, and still I only managed a half pound weight loss. I know I should be happier, after all it's better off than on, but I'm a really, really impatient person and feel like half a pound is nothing in the long run.

*sigh*

I will get over this down-in-the-dumps thing that I've got going on, I'm hoping to have a good loss this week and finally get my 3 and a half stone award!

So anyway, I've decided to let you into a little bit of my daily life, and show you what I eat during a normal extra easy day on Slimming World. Enjoy!


Breakfast

I normally can't be bothered to get out of bed early enough to make myself a decent breakfast, so I tend to just grab a cup of tea and start the day with two HiFi Lite bars (the chocolate ones are just amazing!)

Lunch

I try to stay as syn free as I can for lunch so that I can use my syns on snacks later. Lately I've been really getting into having salads, as they're really quick and easy to take to work with me. And you can always pop to Subway and have a fabulous syn free salad with all those lovely cuts of meat! The salad I had today had warm chicken and beetroot.

Snack

I don't know about you, but when I get home from work I literally want to eat everything in the cupboard. I have no idea why but I'm just so hungry! So when I came in I decided to spend some syns and have a bag of crisps, these bag of lovelies are only 3.5 syns!

Tea

Like lunch, I try to make low syn or syn free meals for tea so that I can snack later on. I love having lean meat with veg or a chicken pasta bake, or my own personal favoourite, spag bol! Tonight my boyfriend was kind enough to do some steaks in fry light on the griddle pan, and I roasted some potatoes in butter fry light, then added some fried mushrooms on the side. 

After tea I usually enjoy a cup of tea or coffe (green tea or fruit tea if I've had my healthy A that day) with some fruit and a muller light yoghurt.

I hope you've enjoyed a little insight to what I eat in a day!

Ciao
x

Me and Myself, We Got Issues..

Bonjourno!

I've come to realise that on this blog I hardly ever talk about just things that are going on in life, I tend to just stick to recipes. So today I thought, fuck it, here's a real life, straight from the horse's (or pig's, the way I'm feeling today...) mouth.

We've booked a trip to Alton Towers at the end of July, (when the kids are all on holiday and probably heading there too, big yipee for screaming children..) and I'm actually terrified. Not because of heights or fastness or roller coasters. Oh no. It's because of the chance that I won't fit on them,
Yes, that's right, my big ma-hoosive fear is that I'll be asked to do the bloody 'walk of shame' off the coaster followed by the words 'sorry, but we just can't get the bar down over your huge ginormous body'.

Cue tears and hiding in a bush for the rest of my life.

It's sad that I've actually done a shit-tonne of research in preparation for this trip, googling 'am I too fat for Alton Towers' so many times that my search bar knows that's what I'm going to search for now. I've had quite a lot of reassurance from people (big shout out to the lovely folk on MiniMins) who said that they are the same size as me and had no issues, so that's put my mind at ease.

Still tempted to attach myself to an IV until then, just to see the weight come off.

In total I've lost 3 stone 3lbs so far, and I'm hoping to make it to 4 stone before I go. I'm also planning the lightest, skin-tight outfit for when I do go, just to make it that little bit easier.

Please let me know if you share my fears or have any advice, we can talk about it whilst we hide in the bush together.

Ciao!
x

Kanga-What?!

Bonjourno!

I'm feeling a little down in the dumps this week - I had a teeny tiny (and it really is) gain this week, which sprang out of nowhere and really shocked me at the scales. I can't say I've had any more or less syns this week, or done any more exercise that might make me retain water. All I can think of is that somehow, somewhere along the line I've had something I shouldn't and it's catching up to me now. Anyway, I've drawn a line under it and started anew this week with a food diary in hand to make sure that I definitely have a good loss next week. Although it has been very tempting to attach myself to a lettuce IV for the rest of the week just to make sure!

As you all know by now, Iceland recently released some lovely Slimming World meals, and I have to say they are very tasty (however the sausages gave me food poisoning..) and very reasonably priced for the amount of food you get. I was in Iceland the other day and spotted something very weird that caught my attention. There is a new range in Iceland of Ostrich and Kangaroo meats, all in various forms. Honestly, my first thought was.. wait, what?

After talking with a few people in class - one of which was the district manager - they told me that the ostrich fillets and the ostrich burgers are both completely syn free, which is amazing because they taste amazing! Literally no fat came off the burgers when they were cooked and they were so lean to eat that they were just awesome. The kangaroo fillets are also free - but make sure you don't cook them for more than 5 minutes each side otherwise the meat becomes too tough. The burgers are only 1 syn each, which isn't bad when you compare them to a McDonalds!

I hope you all enjoy some new and interesting meat!

Ciao!
x

Breakfast Healthy B's

Bonjourno!

I don't know about you, but I always seem to be confused when it comes to what fibre products I can have as a healthy B. Healthy A's seem so easy - pretty much anything diary such as cheese and milk can be classed, and it's always measured. But with B's, it seems as though some things need measuring, whereas some things are in slice or bar form. So, I've decided to write a list of things that I know are acceptable Healthy B's, and give some tips on how to stretch that all important daily fibre allowance. 
Because cereal is the general use for Healthy B's as well as bread, it's something that I normally have in the morning. So I've listed all of the bread, cereals and cereal bars that you can have for a tasty and quick breakfast, without using any syns.
Remember you can only have one Healthy B a day, so only choose one thing from the list to have each day.

Bread/Pittas/Wraps

In general, the rules for bread are as follows: bread must be either 2 slices from a 400g loaf, or a 60g bun. From a bigger loaf, only 1 slice can be used.

2 slices Wholemeal bread, any brand (small 400g loaf)
1 slice Allinson Wholemeal Batch Bread (800g sliced loaf)
2 slices Hovis Nimble Malted Wholegrain bread
2 slices Hovis Wholemeal bread (small 400g loaf)
1 slice Wholemeal bread, any brand (800g sliced loaf)
2 slices Warburton's Wholemeal bread (400g medium sliced loaf)
1 50g Weight Watchers Petit Pain roll
2 Marks & Spencer Mini Wholemeal Submarine Rolls
1 slice Hovis Wholemeal Bread (800g thick sliced loaf)
1 slice Warburtons Wholemeal Rye Bread (800g thick sliced loaf)
1 slice Hovis Seed Sensations Wholemeal Bread (800g sliced loaf)
1 slice Allinson High Fibre White Bread, 800g sliced loaf
1 Weight Watchers Wholemeal Pitta Bread, 6 Pack
1 slice Waitrose Love Life, Wholemeal Rye & Toasted Grain Bread, 400g sliced loaf
1 BFree Foods Multigrain Wrap Wheat & Gluten Free, 6 pack

Cereal Bars

Lighter bars, such as Alpen Light bars and Hi-Fi Lights are lower in syns so you can have two, but most of the time only one bar is allowed.

1 Weetabix Oaty Bar - Toffee Dazzler, Rainbow Smash'em and The Milk Chocolate
1 Hi-Fi bar, any variety
2 Aldi Harvest Morn Benefit 70 Cal Cereal Bars
2 Hi-Fi light bars, any variety
2 Alpen Light bars, any variety
1 Waitrose Love Life The Nut Bar, 26g bar
1 Waitrose Love Life The Squashed Fruit Bar, 35g bar
1 Kellogg's Special K Chewy Delight Bar, Dark/Milk Chocolate

Cereal

Make sure you weigh all of your cereal, guessing leads to high syns!

40g Weetabix Crunchy Bran
40g Kellogg's All-Bran
35g Kellogg's/any brand Bran Flakes
35g Kellogg's/any brand Fruit n Fibre
35g Kellogg's/any brand Frosted/Raisin Wheats
35g Kellogg's/any brand Sultana Bran
35g Nestle/any brand Bitesize Shredded Wheat
30g Nestle/any brand Honey Nut Shredded Wheat
35g porridge oats, any brand
35g Weetabix Fruit & Nut/Strawberry Crispy Minis
35g Quaker Oat Crisp Cereal
35g Kellogg's Optivita Berry Oat Crisp
35g Nestle Shreddies, Coco or Original
30g Kellogg's All-Bran Golden Crunch
35g Kellogg's Luxury Muesli
2 Weetabix
30g Weetabix Chocolate Spoonsize
40g Co-op High Fibre Bran Cereal
35g Asda Chosen by You Cranberry Wheats
35g Weetabix Bitesize
30g Kellogg's All-Bran Chocolate Crunch
35g Kellogg's All-Bran Yogurty Flakes
35g Morrisons/Sainsbury's Puffed Wheat Cereal
35g Marks & Spencer Fruit & Fibre Muesli
35g Sainsbury's Fruit & Nut/Orchard Fruit Muesli
35g Morrisons Crispy Apple Bran Cereal
35g sachet Weight Watchers Original Breakfast Oats
35g Sainsburys Wholegrain Apricot Wheats
35g Aldi Harvest Morn Fruit &amp; Fibre Cereal
35g Tesco Super Berry Muesli
35g Nestle Shredded Wheat, Orchard Fruits
35g Nestle Shredded Wheat, Summer Fruits
35g Tesco Finest Super Berry Muesli
30g Weetabix Crispy Minis Caramel & Nut
30g Weetabix Crispy Minis Chocolate Chip (350g pack)
30g Kellogg's All-Bran Red Berry Crunch
34g sachet Quaker Oats So Simple Multigrain, Fruit Muesli
32g sachet Quaker Oats So Simple Multigrain, Honey
27g sachet Quaker Oats So Simple Multigrain, Original
30g Kellogg's Special K Granola, with Cranberries, Pumpkin Seeds & Almonds
30g Kellogg's Special K Granola, with Raisins & Red Apples
35g Tesco Raspberry Malt Wheats
30g Kellogg's Chocolate Wheats

I hope this has helped some of you to have more choice in the morning, personally I love to mix up cereal with loads of fruit, or grab a couple of Alpen bars if I'm in a hurry. The cereal bars also add a quick sweet fix if you're craving something sugary,

Ciao!
x

Let's Taco Bout It

Bonjourno!

I know my posts have been sparse over the past few weeks, but it's really because I've been so busy with work and vaious other things. I work with children so my immune system is so rubbish, and I pick up every disease going. I've been wanting some really bad food to make myself feel better, but I have an amazing partner who makes sure that I stay on track (normally by hiding any chocolate I've bought!). 
I've been really wanting tacos since I started Slimming World, but I could never find something that was syn free so I could cook it. I prefer to make all of my meals syn free so that I can use my syns on snacks, because I love a good bag of crisps or biscuit in the evening with a cup of tea! I know that tacos are not that bad in syns, so I looked for a mince recipe that was free to fill them with, along with swapping other things with syn free things:

Sour Cream - Fromage Frais
Spice Mix - Ground Spices
Fatty Mince - Fat Free Mince
Measured Cheese and Lettuce for some extra taste!

With all of these things togther, I decided to make a syn free chilli to put in my tacos, and the whole meal only comes to 9 syns, which are from the tacos themselves, which are 3 syns each,

You Will Need:
500g Less than 5% fat Mince
Tin Chopped Tomatos
Tin Baked Beans
2 Tsps Cumin
1 Tsp Corriander
1 Tsp Paprika
Garlic Powder
Mixed Herbs
Mushrooms
Peppers
Fry Light

1. Brown the mince in the fry light and add the mushrooms and peppers until everything is cooked.
2. Add the garlic, spices and herbs and mix together for around 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the tins of chopped tomatoes and baked beans and bring to the boil, then simmer for around 15 minutes until the mixture is reduced a little.
4. Season to taste.

As you can see, I added baked beans because I really, really hate kidney beans! Plus the added sauce makes the chilli really saucy and tasty rather than adding extra stock to make up for it.

Serve it with tacos, mixed salad, fromage frais and cheese for a really tasty mexican meal!

Ciao!
x

Spice, Spice, Baby...

Bonjourno!

Wow, I can't believe how much positive support and comments that I get from this blog - I honestly thought that no one would ever read it, let alone talk about it! It's amazing how awesome you guys are, and I love that you guys love this blog as much as I love writing it. I have to admit, yesterday (Saturday 18th April) was a complete write off - it was my brother-in-law's birthday and we all went out for pub grub and cocktails.. too many syns to even keep track of! Either way, I've drawn a massive line under yesterday and started fresh today, and plan to keep VERY low syns from now until weigh day on Tuesday. 
I admit I'm expecting a gain because of Saturday alone, but I hope that I can maintain because of the low syn days that I've had all throughout the week. We shall see!

I thought that I would share with you a Syn Free Chicken Korma recipe with the spice mix that I found in Asda (when I checked the ingredients they were all syn free), along with two of the Muller Light coconut and lime yoghurts. The spice mix alone would be a little too much on it's own I think, and the yoghurts just make it so much more creamy and tasty.

This is the spice mix I found in Asda, you get two sachets in a packet which is so much cheaper than buying the spices separately.

You Will Need:
2 chicken breasts, skinned and diced (I used diced beef a few times, really tasty!)
200ml Passata
100ml Chicken Stock
Asda Spice Mix
2 Muller Light Coconut and Lime Yoghurts
Mushrooms
Peppers
Fry Light

1. First cook the chicken in a pan with fry light, adding the mushrooms and peppers until everything is browned and cooked through,
2. Sprinkle the spice mix over the chicken and veg for around one minute, until the spices have been absorbed into the meat.
3. Add the chicken stock and the passata to the mix and simmer until it has reduced a little (around 10-15 mins).
4. Turn down the heat and add the yoghurts, stirring until they are mixed in thoroughly.

Serve with rice or vegetables - it's not suitable for SP because of the yoghurt, but if you chose to not add it then it would be :)

Ciao!
x

Triple Whammy and Last Minute Tomato Soup

Bonjourno!

I can't believe how much I've achieved since the New Year! My original plan was to lose two stone before Easter, and I managed to achieve that and even more! As it stands, I have currently lost two stone and nine and a half pounds, meaning that I only have four and a half more pounds to reach an incredible three stone. 
At the Tuesday weigh in group, I knew that I had half a pound to lose to get into new numbers, one pound to lose to get my two and a half stone award, and two pounds to lose to get my club 10 award. I smashed all three of those targets and lost an amazing three and a half pounds this week, taking me way beyond my original goal. I know that I have a long way to go to my target, but this has been such the incentive that I need, it just shows what Slimming World can do for anyone, not just me. 
However, I completely forgot that the first weigh in of every month is taster night, and I wasn't reminded of it until monday afternoon. After a panic look around the cupboards (luckily I'd just been to Asda or I would have made a tin of baked beans..) I managed to create this simple but really tasty soup - which tasted so nice that I wanted to share the recipe with all of you.

Ingredients:

Fry Light
Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
Tin of Baked Beans
Peppers (Mixed)
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Mixed Herbs
2 Tbsp Fromage Frais

1. In a big pan, fry the peppers until they are soft.
2. Add the tins of chopped tomatoes and baked beans, and stir until cooked.
3. Add the garlic powder, as much paprika as you like and some mixed herbs to taste. Simmer for a few minutes until the spices have blended with the tomatoes.
4. Take off the heat and blend the mixture to your desired thickness. I blended it until it was smooth, but that's just the way that I like it.
5. When the soup is blended, add the fromage frais and stir until the soup is creamy. Feel free to add salt and pepper to tast, and some parsley on the top to garnish.

It literally takes less than 10 minutes to cook, and everyone at the group agreed that it was extremely tasty!

I hope you enjoy.

Ciao!
x

Synful Pub Grub

Bonjourno!

I've had a very weird week this week, at the very last moment my partner and I decided to have a trip up north to Newcastle to see my family, so at the weekend I have to say I was very much off plan. It's helpful that my mum is also doing Slimming World up there, so in the evenings we were eating pretty syn free meals. However, it didn't help that it was my step-dad's birthday so he wanted to have a meal out. I tried my hardest to have something relatively syn free, but the menu was just so amazing to not have something bad! I ended up having a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) mixed grill, complete wit steak, chicken breast, gammon, sausage, chips, mushroom, tomato and a fried egg. It was so huge that I couldn't finish it, but I can imagine that the meat was fairly healthy so I left the chips and the egg. 

This inspired me to write a post about some of the more healthy food from pubs, JD Wetherspoon being the prime example. I haven't been to a city where there hasn't been at least one Wetherpsoons available, and I can imagine that most people have eaten there. The menu is pretty diverse, from chicken to steak, to burritos and burgers. All of which sound amazing on the menu but are really hefty in the syns department!

So here's a low down on the basic syns from Wetherspoons, you might be surprised!

Low Syn Options:

Peri Peri Chicken and Pepper Skewers
These are my go-to food as the SW website confirmed that they are free. Have them with a salad, and the sauce comes in a little pot, so you can choose how much to have. The sauce is 1 1/2 syns per tbsp.

Skinny Steak
Add 1 or 2 syns for the oil, a totally free salad and a syn free jacket potato for a really delicious and filling meal.

Freedom Salad
As the name suggests, this salad is full of speed foods and a free balsamic dressing. Adding chicken or salmon adds 1 or 2 syns, but makes it really tasty!

Jacket Potato with Beans and Cheese
We all know jackets and beans are free, and the butter for the potato comes on the side so you can choose to have it. Save your healthy A for the cheese and you're all set!

Sweet Chilli Noodles
At just 1 syn for the whole dish, you can't go wrong! It's a little spicy for my taste, and adding chicken makes the dish quite high syn, but overall a good eat.

Mini Corn on the Cob
An awesome free food choice, as it doesn't come with butter!

Side Salad
With no dressing, completely syn free!

Five Bean Chilli
On a jacket potato or with rice, it's only 1 1/2 syns per serving. Beware that the chilli con carne is 7 1/2 syns, so make sure you order the beans!

*

Beware of the really high syn foods that you may mistake for being healthy, burgers and sandwiches can vary from 20 syns to a shocking 42 syns! That's not even with chips or sides!

I hope this helps :)

Ciao!

x