Mini Mince Pies

I think I have resigned myself to the fact I will only be putting weight on between now and January. If I am very lucky, I may maintain my weight, but let's face it, it's Christmas and that ain't gonna happen. It's times like this in the year along with our summer holiday, that I will indulge, guilt free.  But that's ok, because following a plan like WeightWatchers or Slimming World means you can get back on track when the time is right. These sort of plans are a way of living and I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

I personally I am not a fan of all these quick fix diets. Yes of course you can drop a stone in a month, but who wants to live off microwave pouches 3 times a day. I've seen them. A cat gets fed more than that! And don't get me started on the fact that alcohol is completely banned. I understand these diets have their place but for me losing and maintaining weight has to be a way of life. It's the reason why I started food blogging in the first place. If you can Eat Healthy But Tasty most of the year, you are perfectly entitled to complete over-indulgence at certain times, and most especially, at Christmas...

I've been dabbling with homemade mince pies for the last couple of years trying out different recipes, including Nigella's ones from her Christmas book (which is one of my favourite books by the way). They were nice, however I never really 'got' what was so special about mince pies. But, my goodness, I never, ever thought I could love this Christmas speciality so much! I am absolutely delighted I have found a combination of winning recipes, that for me have produced the perfect mini mince pie. 

If you want to stick to your WeightWatchers plan during this period, these mere morsels are just 3 ProPoints, so one is definitely not out of the question. The 4 that I have eaten today though should not be recommended if you want to lose weight!

For the pastry, I used a recipe from BBC Good Food. If you read the reviews on this 'Unbelievably Easy Mince Pie', (and I always do, which is why I rave about this website so much) people have said it's amazing, but: it's too dry, they needed to add egg or found the pastry sticks to the tin. I followed the recipe to the T and it worked perfectly!. To make mini ones use a tart tin and not a muffin tin. I dug out my Pampered Chef mini muffin tin & tart shaper and took great joy in using this fabulous piece of kitchen kit.

The pastry works well rolled out too. Just choose an appropriate size cutter that will roughly make 30-36 mince pies. I made 34 from the pastry batch recipe.  I weighed out each ball of pastry to 18g each and used the tart shaper to produce a perfect shape tart. I then rolled out the remaining pastry and cut stars to go on top.

You can use any shop bought mincemeat of your choice, but I followed a recipe from the wonderful Kate at Turquoise Lemons. I particularly like this Mincemeat recipe as it is 'fat free' (no suet) and packed full of flavour. You just need to drop a teaspoon into the case and top with the star. I did do as the recipe said which was to lightly brushed with a beaten egg.

Into the oven they went (160c fan) for about 10 minutes. They were just starting to brown so I guessed they were probably ready. I let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes and the removed them using a teaspoon onto a wire rack.

They are seriously good. Especially with a dollop of thick brandy cream. Nom nom...

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Mince Pie: 3

Cherry & Macadamia Chocolate Fudge

My last entry in the Lets Make Christmas event is this wonderful fudge which is full on flavour with unique textures. I used cherries soaked in Kirsch and macadamia nuts which marry perfectly together with the richness of the dark chocolate fudge.  As far as giving this as a homemade Christmas gift goes, it far out ways any old plain vanilla fudge!  So if you plan on making fudge this year, give this combination a go.

The basic fudge recipe I started with was from BBC Good Food. I found an old pot of liquid glucose in my cupboard so managed to cook the first batch using this, but after that locating this pot of sugary stuff was pretty challenging. Waitrose didn't have it, neither my local chemists and I did not have time to get to Tescos, so my 2nd batch used golden syrup instead.  I can't say I noticed a difference so my advice is to use whatever you have, which, let's face it, is more likely to be golden syrup.

I also really like this basic fudge recipe as it doesn't require so much effort like other methods where you must continuously stir for 20 minutes. I chucked everything in my good, solid based saucepan and let it heat up till it reached the soft ball stage, 116 degree c. I decided last week to invest in a sugar thermometer from Amazon and it was a fiver very well spent .  It meant I could get on with other things without worrying too much about when the fudge was ready. You know how us mums are always trying to juggling a million things at the same time!

I also found that you don't need to melt the chocolate in advance as the fudge mixture is so blinkin hot (well it is 116 degree c!) that as soon as you stir the chocolate in it just melts immediately.

So although I started with BBC GoodFood, my recipe and method is here...

Ingredients:

• 300g caster sugar
• 300ml double cream
• 40g liquid glucose or golden syrup
• 100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 125g dark cherries soaked in Kirsch, drained and halved
• 100g macadamia nuts

You will need a 20cm square tin or one of equivalent dimensions

Method:

In a heavy based saucepan add the sugar, syrup or glucose & cream. Stir on a medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Get the thermometer in place so it can adjust as the mixture heats up.

On medium to high heat, give the mix a good stir every couple of minutes. Meanwhile prepare your tin by lightly greasing and base lining with baking parchment.

Break the dark chocolate into pieces, drain the cherries and halve and halve the macademia nuts if not already halved.  I also patted dry the cherries with kitchen towel so as not to make the fudge too 'wet'.

The fudge mixture should take 10 - 15 minutes to reach the right temperature. Turn the heat up if need be. If you do not have a sugar thermometer you can do the 'soft ball test'. Simply drop a tiny amount of mixture into a glass of iced water. The mix should form a soft ball immediately. It really is so much easier with a thermometer though!

Once ready, remove from the heat and quickly drop in the chocolate pieces and beat with a wooden spoon  for a few minutes until the mixture is grainy and comes away from the sides.  Quickly stir in the nuts and cherries and pour into the tin. Smooth out and allow to cool slightly.  Score with a sharp knife and allow to cool completely transferring to a fridge when cool.  Cut into squares and store in the fridge.

I'll be packaging these up in pretty cellophane bags tied with ribbon when they go into my homemade Christmas hampers this year and hoping they will go down a storm! (The trial batch were very popular at the mum's coffee morning anyway!)

Italian Sausage & Bean Casserole

DH's family are from Sicily.  We spend ALOT of time eating or thinking about Italian food.  Although I give it a good shot apparently no-one comes close to his Nonna's pasta dishes.   Probably because I'm always looking for ways to reduce the fat or cut the calories to make it less sinful. 

In Sicily we eat Italian sausage with crusty bread and salad dressed in olive oil & lemon juice.  The sausage is usually just pure pork, salt & pepper, sometimes flavoured with chilli or fennel.  But that is pretty much it.  You can pick up good Italian sausages in your local Italian deli and they are really worth trying as the flavour is unique.  Sadly pork sausages are just something I cannot indulge in mid-week when trying to stick to my WeightWatchers plan.

Until now I have yet to find a decent Italian sausage in a supermarket.  I am absolutely delighted to have recently found a gem at my local Waitrose deli counter.  It is not only deliciously tasty with it's fennel flavouring, but is made with 43% veal so is much lower in fat!  Hurrah!  A sausage I can finally enjoy (ahem).  Unfortunately I have yet to lay my hands on any nutritional info, so I have approximated the ProPoint values based on the % of pork and veal that make up the sausage. 

Onto the recipe.  This is one that I have taken from the fabulous BBC Good Food Mag. I usually can't resit meddling with a recipe, but I've got to say I pretty much followed this one.  After reading the reviews, I upped the sausage content to 300g (x3 of the Waitrose Italian sausage) and increased the stock (I used chicken stock) to 500ml.  Instead of serving with crusty bread or mash potato, I added 60g of orzo pasta to cook through with the meatballs to really fill out the meal, negating the need, or the temptation to demolish a whole ciabatta as a side. Ok so maybe I did meddle more than I thought!

You can get the original BBC Good Food recipe by clicking here but my version is also detailed below.

You'll need for 2:

• Half a large red onion, finely diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• Pinch of chilli flakes
• Salt & Pepper
• 3 Waitrose Italian sausages (300g)
• 1 tin of borlotti beans, drained
• 1 tin of cherry tomatoes in juice
• 500ml chicken or veg stock
• 100g green beans, halved
• 60g orzo pasta
• Parmesan to serve

What to do:

Heat a non-stick frying pan or stir frying pan.  Remove the casing from the sausages and break them up into small meatballs.  I got 6 out of each sausage.  Spray with oil and fry on a high heat to brown all over.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion, garlic, fennel seeds and chilli to the pan.  Turn the heat down to slowly cook the onions.  Add some salt to help bring out some of the moisture.  When soft add the tinned cherry tomatoes and stock.  Allow to bubble away for a few minutes.

Add the borlotti beans and the green beans.  I prepared everything in advance to this stage and when the meatballs were cool I put them in the fridge until needed.  If you do this just cover up the sauce and bring it back up to a boil when required.

Next add the orzo and a little more stock if need be, but 500ml should be about right.  Add the meatballs and reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes on a low heat so you do not reduce the sauce down to nothing.  When the orzo is cooked through, taste and season accordingly, then serve up with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 13 including parmesan, 12 without parmesan

BBQ Chicken, Oven Chips & Roasted Carrots

I'm on a mission to change the eating habits of my very fussy 4 year old.  He starts school in September and will be having school dinners plus with our Sicilian holiday (with the family) round the corner, the boy needs to improve his table manners and start eating what we eat.  Mealtimes are just so stressful so I was nervous about having a 'family meal'.  

I decided it was time to relinquish some control.  This evening, he had a big boy plate (the same as Mummy and Daddy's) and a knife and fork.  I refrained from putting the food on his plate and allowed him to serve himself. I am terribly proud of the results.  He made good attempts at cutting his food for the first time and he behaved really well eating his meal almost entirely without fussing.  We all ate together and even my 1 year old wolfed down the homemade oven chips and chicken, not that I thought for 1 second my little one would have any issue!

I had to carefully consider what to cook for our family meal.  Until now, family meals only happen occasionally on Sundays when I've cooked a roast, so I needed an easy mid-week meal that was tasty for the kids but didn't bust our healthy eating.  Funnily enough my 4 yr old did ask where the 'orksheer' (Yorkshire) pudding was!!

I decided on BBQ chicken. I've used this recipe before (from the wonderful BBC Good Food website) for BBQ marinade and once you have thrown these storecupboard ingredients together you will never buy a bottle of BBQ marinade/sauce again!  The only change I made was to reduce the oil (chicken will omit enough fat during cooking) and to use dark soy instead of light soy as it gives a lovely depth of flavour and taste.

For the Potatoes & Carrots:

• Allow 250g potato before peeling and cutting into wedges per person.
• Allow 1 carrot per person, peeled and cut into wedges.

What to do:

In a shallow dish, mix all the ingredients for the marinade together reducing the oil to 1tsp and use dark soy instead of light.  Skin the chicken and make a couple of slashes.  Leave to marinade for a few hours or at least 1 hour.  You can BBQ or cook in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes until cooked through.

Place the prepared carrots and potatoes in a saucepan with cold salted water and bring to the boil.  Boil for 5 minutes then drain and allow to steam dry for a couple of minutes.  Meanwhile heat a roasting tray in a hot oven (210 fan).  Tip the potatoes and carrots back into the pan and drizzle over 2tsp olive oil and carefully toss to coat.  Tip the vegetables into the hot tray and roast, turning occasionally until golden brown. (approx 30 minutes)

Serve with some greens of your choice.  We enjoyed some steamed tenderstem broccoli and did not push my luck in attempting to get my 4 yr old to try some!

WeightWatchers Points per serving: 12

Baked Smoked Haddock & Leek Risotto

Every now and then you cook something for the first time that just works.  Tonight’s dinner was sublime!  So easy to do and so satisfying. 

I’ve had a big fillet of un-dyed smoked haddock in the freezer  for a few weeks and was looking for an interesting, low fat, recipe to use it up.  Again I referred to my trusty BBC Good Food website and found this recipe.  I made a few minor changes to reduce the fat count and what a winner! 

I used asparagus in replacement of spinach and added a squeeze of lemon at the end.  Green beans or peas would also work well.  I delightfully tucked into my dinner, burning my mouth on the piping hot risotto!  The only thing I absolutely must remember to do tonight before I hit the sack, is to empty the bin as while I love the fresh smell of this dish, I cannot bear to wake up to a house ponging of fish tomorrow morning!

You’ll need for 2:

·         1 large or 2 medium leeks, sliced

·         1 tsp butter

·         150g Arborio risotto rice

·         350ml veg stock.  I use the Knorr liquid stock concentrate

·         125ml skimmed milk

·         Bunch of asparagus, woody ends snapped off and cut into pieces

·         250-300g un-dyed smoked haddock, cut into 2 – 3 pieces

·         Squeeze of lemon

·         Black pepper

·         2 tbsp low fat crème fraiche, I used the WeightWatchers one

·         Handful chopped parsely

What to do:

Preheat your fan oven to 180 c.  In an oven proof saucepan melt the butter gently.  Add the leeks and soften for a few minutes.  Add the rice and stir to allow the rice to toast for a minute or two.

Add the milk and the stock and bring to the boil.  Boil for 4-5 minutes.  Throw in the asparagus and stir.  Remove from the heat and put the haddock in the pan.  Cover with a lid or with foil and bake for 18-20 minutes.  (DS1 begged for 1 more story, so mine had 25 minutes and this was still fine!)

Remove from the oven and stir in the crème fraiche, parsley, black pepper and squeeze of lemon.  The haddock will break up into chunks as you stir.  Serve up and watch the roof of your mouth as it’s hot!!

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 12