Syn Free Syrups!

Bonjourno!

I don't know if many people know about these, but I've discovered something amazing! 
As you all know I love having a Starbucks every now and again. I used my HEXA to have a cheeky latte with a dash of some sugar free syrup, which is syn free. However, the range is very limited to vanilla, hazelnut and caramel.

Until now.

I was looking for some syrup to buy at home as I recently bought a Dolce Gusto (2.5syns for a latte, yes please!) and I came across TRKG Coffee and Oh My Actual God they are amazing!

They have 28 different flavours of zero calorie, zero sugar syrups (all are syn free!) to add to coffee, porridge, cakes, over pancakes, whatever you like! The flavours are so good and they have revolutionised my life!

.. and these are just a few!

The flavours are:

Caramel
Caramel Pecan
Cinnamon Vanilla
English Toffee
Gingerbread
Pumpkin Spice
Red Velvet Cake
Salted Caramel
Agave
Chocolate Caramel Truffle
Coconut
Mango
Peach
Salted Dark Chocolate Espresso
Tiramisu
Vanilla Almod
White Chocolate
Almond
Blueberry
Hazelnut
Irish Cream
Mocha
Peppermint
Peppermint Mocha
Pomegranate
Raspberry
Vanilla

They are only £6.49 for a whole litre so get shopping!

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

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

Low Syn Cookies and Questionable Sausages

Bonjourno!

I'm sorry that I haven't been updating this blog as much as I'd like to, unfortunately life takes over sometimes! However, I'm very pleased to share with you all that in just 8 weigh ins, I've managed to lose an amazing 1 stone and 12lb! My original goal was to lose 2 stone before Easter, which with 4 weeks left and only 2lb to lose seems like a very attainable target.
So this week hasn't been the greatest one for me, as you all know Slimming World very recently brought out some frozen ready meals that you can buy in Iceland - a very amazing idea. However, after trying the sausages, I don't think I'll be having them again. There must be something in them that just disagrees with me, I managed to get food poisoning from them :(
Don't let this put you off trying them! A lot of people have tried them and been absolutely fine, I don't know whether I just didn't cook them enough or there was something in them that I just didn't like, but either way, I won't be having them again just in case! I think I'll stick to Linda McCartney red onion and sage sausages.

On a slightly lighter note, it was taster week once more in the Lancaster class, so I scoured long and hard over recipes that I wanted to take with me, something that I thought everyone would enjoy. I finally decided on Salted Caramel and Vanilla Cookies.

I know what you're thinking... Surely these cookies are high syn, high sugar, high badness??
I kid you not, they are only 1.5 syns each - compared to the Nutella Cookie that Starbucks sell, a staggering 19 syns per portion!

Here is the recipe for these tasty treats.

Makes 6(ish) cookies

1.5 Syns and 1 HEXB

or 2 syns each.

Ingredients:

50g Porridge Oats

4 tbsp Sweetener

1 Sachet Salted Caramel Chocolate Options

Vanilla Muller Light (with Sprinkled Chocolate if you like!)

Butter Flavour Fry Light

1 Egg

1. Preheat the oven at 220° / Gas Mark 7 and prepare a large baking tray lined with foil or non-stick baking paper – Spray with Fry Light.

2. Add the porridge oats, sweetener and 1 tsp of yoghurt to a large mixing bowl and crack the egg into the centre of the bowl and immediately whisk.

3. Add a little more of the yogurt as you’re whisking until the mixture is firm and thick. Literally add a drop at a time, it's easier to add more yoghurt to a thick mix than more oats to a runny one!

4. Empty the Chocolate Options sachet into a mug and add 1 tbsp of water, stirring well into a thick and creamy chocolate sauce.

5. Add the chocolate into the oats.

6. Stir well until the chocolate has blended into the the oats

7. Using a spoon, arrange 6 cookies onto the tray.

8. Transfer the tray to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown, turning them over if you need to.

Definitely worth the syns, I'm not much of a sweet tooth but these definitely did the trick! You can change the flavour of the chocolate options to make any flavour cookie you like. I'll be trying the white chocolate one next! I hope you all enjoy :)

Ciao!

x

An Off Week and Testing Eligible Batchelors

Bonjourno!

First of all, lots of apologies for not updating too often, it's half term and as a teaching assistant, it's the only time off I get! I've had probably the most horrendous week SW wise - not on plan at all. It's all down to being away from home, visiting my family means I can't cook for myself and I didn't think they would appreciate me cooking them a syn free meal. I've also had a lot of meals out - it was Valentine's Day just before half term, meaing a gorgeous romantic meal.. full of hidden syns! I tried to keep it fairly healthy, but then I thought, screw it.

Half term was pretty eventful, driving for 5 hours down to Canterbury to see my sister, niece and nephew. I started out so healthy by taking a pasta and sauce for the drive, but ended the day with a creamy pork pasta in the hotel,, with garlic bread! We also had a cheeky Frankie and Benny's as well as a Toby Carvery, the latter of which was definitely the healthier option.

I've also come to the conclusion this week that it's okay to have a bad week, it's not like I've given up on the plan or anything, but life does happen. People can't expect you to be on a diet for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I know any weight that I will inevitably put on this week will be lost within a couple of weeks of being back on the plan. I won't let a gain put me off track, but I also won't let Slimming World control my life. As of Friday I was straight back on plan, but I have to admit, it was nice to not count syns for a few days.

Anyway, when I checked my cupboard when I came back (not a lot there after 4 days away) I discovered that the only Pasta 'n' Sauce in my cupboard which I thought was syn free, actually wasn't. I thought that ALL pasta n sauce was free if you made them without milk and butter, but apparently not! So, I've put together this little diagram so that none of you get tricked into thinking you're eating syn free when  you're actually not.

I was eating the tomato, onion and herb one religiously as I was convinced that it was free, when it actually has one of the highest syn values. These syn values are when the pastas are made with just water, no added butter or milk.

Please comment below if you would like a Batchelor's Super Rice syn diagram, or any other brand I would be happy to do.

Enjoy!

Ciao 

x

Shots, Shots, Shots...

Well..

Mug Shots.

Bonjourno!
So many people have asked (not me, but in general) what is the best snack to have on EE Slimming World. Apart from your standard "have some fruit and yoghurt" there hasn't really been anything that stands out for those of us that prefer a savoury snack to a sweet one.
There's always the "have some cold meat", which as appealing as it sounds, sometimes just doesn't cut it, especially on a cold day when all I want to do is eat a massive hot pizza. So I did a little digging and discovered Mug Shots, which are dried pasta and noodles in a range of savoury sauces. Seems to good to be true, a tasty pasta snack which is syn free?
Apparently not!

There's been a lot of confusion as to which Mug Shots are syn free, which have 1/2 syn value and which are more. It's fairly simple - the majority of the less than 1% fat ones are completely free on EE. But just to clear up any confusion, here's a simple diagram:

I hope this clears up any confusion for any slimming world-er!

Enjoy!

Ciao 

x