Prawn Fried Rice - Procrastinating the Yummy Way

It's Sunday night, which means only one thing in my house. Lesson planning. Oh the joy! I am a massive procrastinator. I know it's a problem, I just can't help myself. So, I'm midway through this week's Literacy (story writing, in case you were wondering), and decided dinner was due. "That's not even procrastinating, that's definitely allowed!" I think to myself. So of course I chose something which needed a bit of prep. But it turned out tasty, so now (before I get on with the Maths), I'm here to share!

Prawn Fried Rice

   with butternut squash chips

Makes 2 servings. 

Syn free on Extra Easy

What you need:

- 1/2 cup of rice

- 200g king prawns

- 1 onion

- 1 red pepper
- 1 cup garden peas

- 1 butternut squash
- Soy sauce

- Frylight

1. Spray a tray with Frylight & put in the oven to heat at 180'C. Peel & cut the squash into chip shapes, place onto the preheated tray & spray with a little more Frylight. These will take about 45 minutes to cook, which will be going on throughout the preparation of the rice.

2. Put the rice in a saucepan of water to boil until fluffy (about 15mins).

3. Meanwhile, dice the onion & red pepper. Keep them separate for now.

4. When the rice is cooked, drain the out the water and place the rice to one side.

5. Spray a frying pan with Frylight. Add the onions and fry until starting to brown.

6. Add the pepper, prawns & peas. Keep moving everything around so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

7. When everything in the frying pan is heated through, add the rice. I added a splash of water at this point, just to stop everything sticking and to help warm the rice back up.

8. Add a glug of soy sauce. Stir everything until all the rice is covered in the sauce. 

9. Serve. Don't forget to take your squash chips out of the oven :)


Lovely. Now - back to work! :(

   - Sam

Fish & Chips

The Slimming World way!

Two posts in a day?! How very unlike me, to be on top of things! I figure it will be simpler to have the soup & dinner as separate posts. Easier to find the recipes and whatnot.

So being the start of a new year, we had the usual 'back-to-basics' talk at group this week. It's the talk that new members get, and it's actually pretty inspiring to hear it again after being on the plan for a while. It reminds you why you joined in the first place! I spent the evening salivating over all the food I'm planning to make in the near future. The talk made me want to just walk out and get cooking! 

So here's the first meal on plan of the new year, that isn't soup.

SW Fish & Chips

Syn free on Extra Easy (if using the bread as HEB)

Fish & chips. Good times all round. I've had some white fish fillets in the freezer for a while now so decided it was finally their time. Plus the recent acquisition of a blender got me considering breadcrumbs, which were so, so easy. 

Chips

I don't even bother to peel or parboil any more. Just chop into chip shapes, spray a tray with Frylight, put the chips on, spray a little more, then bake. I usually add mixed herbs & a liberal sprinkling of garlic powder, because I like herby, garlicky chips.

They take about 45 minutes at 180'C.

Fish

I put 2 slices of Warburton's Wholemeal Bread (400g medium loaf) into the blender, along with a good sprinkling of mixed herbs. The other pot is one beaten egg. All set to go! I dunked the fish into the egg, making sure it was good and covered. And then into the breadcrumbs.

Stick it on the tray. Cook for 20 minutes.

I added a few shreds of cheese in the last 5 minutes of cooking the fish. Nowhere near a dent in my HEA choice, So there's still plenty left for eating chunks of later.

I went with cucumber & raw carrot for my 1/3 superfree, 'cause that's how I roll. Also not pictured, as I didn't even use half of the breadcrumbs, I had a single slice of bread (HEB) with butter (2 & 1/2 syns). 

Tasty :)

     - Sam

The Weekend Before Work Resumes...

It has arrived. The last weekend of the Christmas holiday. Christmas came and went (with a power cut that lasted 6 days!), New Year came and we're now over half a week into the new year. Not that I'm willing it by, of course! I'd happily have another few weeks off work :)

The mother & I have gone a bit soup mad of late, because of the sheer ease of them! And in case you need any more reasons, you can put lots of yummy (& hide lots of not so yummy) veg in them, they freeze, and of course they taste nice too. 

Here's what mum made today (I helped too!). It's very basic, you could jazz it up with onions, garlic, anything really. 

Tomato-y Tomato Soup

That's right. Not just regular tomato soup. 

Makes 4 servings. 

Syn free on Extra Easy (See extras below for bread & butter)

What you need:

- Tin of chopped tomatoes (inc. the juice)
- Jar of passata
- 3 large fresh tomatoes (chopped)
- 1 large potato (chopped)
- 1 pint vegetable stock
- Salt/pepper/herbs (for seasoning)

1. Put the stock into a saucepan. When boiling, add all the tomato (tinned, fresh & passata) & the potato. 

2. Keep everything bubbling for 30 mins or so, until everything is turning mushy.

3. Place contents of saucepan (minus some of the liquid) into a blender. Blend until smooth. 

4. Tip the blended mixture into a sieve and push the liquid through, back into the saucepan. 

5. Reheat in the saucepan for a few minutes, season and serve.

Extras:

- 2 slices of Warburton's Wholemeal bread (400g medium sliced loaf) - HEB

- 2tbsp I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Light - 5 syns 

Really easy.

     - Sam

New Year, New Blog

A fresh start for 2014 is the idea. 

I'm planning to be more active in doing the things I love and sharing them with the Internet for whatever reason people share their stuff on the Internet for. 

1st January 2014! I hope last year was fun for you, and if not, let's go into this new one afresh, not worrying about what has been and the things we can't change. 

One day in and I've already been busy - potato, leek & gammon soup. I've been following the Slimming World plan for a while now, so expect some SW friendly food posts! This one was very easy. I mostly made it up as I went along, so you may need to tweak some of the quantities. 

Here she is for your viewing pleasure:

Potato, Leek & Gammon Soup

Makes 2 servings. 

Syn free on Extra Easy (See extras below for bread & butter)

What you need:

- 5 medium sized potatoes (chopped into chunks)

- half a leek (thoroughly cleaned & chopped up)

- an onion (diced)

- cooked gammon (boiled bacon)/ham

- vegetable stock (I used 2 cubes in 1 pint of water)

- Frylight

1. Spray a saucepan with Frylight & add in onions. 

2. When the onions start to brown, add in 1 pint of stock. 

3. Add potato & leek to the saucepan. Bring to the boil, cover & simmer for 25 minutes. 

4. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetables into a blender. Blend until smooth, adding extra liquid from the saucepan if necessary. 

5. Add in chunks of gammon/ham and blend in for a few seconds to disperse the meat throughout the mixture.

6. Pour into a bowl. Add seasoning to make it look good for photographs (I used chives).

Extras:

- 2 slices of Warburton's Wholemeal bread (400g medium sliced loaf) - HEB

- 2tbsp I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Light - 5 syns 

Obviously you can use any of the B choice breads with this. I had enough syns to 'treat' myself to butter, but it would have been fine without! (Thinking about it now... That's a Freddo I could have eaten instead...)

Mine made enough for 2 meals. I am a party of 1, so no need for huge batches here! Would freeze fine though if you were to make more. 

Enjoy!

     - Sam