Chicken & Vegetable Souvlaki Kebabs

I love a diversity of cuisines, but especially food from the Med.  So many fantastic ingredients immediately spring to mind; garlic, olive oil, herbs, lemons, tomatoes (need I go on?).  How can anything taste bad when it's prepared with these wonderful ingredients?  There is also something to be said about a Mediterranean diet.  Such low levels of cancer and a higher life expectancy must have something to do with a higher consumption of olive oil and all those lovely fresh vegetables.  At home we try to emulate this sort of diet as much as possible, minimising any excess fat to help with maintaining / losing weight.  With an Italian heritage it really isn't a hardship to eat like this, now all we need to do is emulate the weather!

But, given we have had a few nice sunny days I wanted to bring a little ray of sunshine to my plate.  These chicken & vegetable kebabs are perfect for Summer and require a very small amount of olive oil making it WeightWatcher friendly too...

You'll need for 2:

• 340g chicken breast cut into chunks
• 1 lemon
• 1 large garlic clove, sliced
• Seasoning
• Sprinkling of dried oregano and dried rosemary
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 courgette
• 1 pepper
• Half a red onion

Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and herbs together in a shallow dish.  Add the chicken and toss thoroughly.  Season and leave to marinade for a good few hours.

Slice the courgettes into 1/2 cm rounds, cut the pepper into bite sized pieces and cut the onion into wedges.

Skewer a piece of chicken followed by 1 each of the vegetables and repeat.  You should get 4 long metal skewers out of this.

BBQ or grill under high heat, turning occasionally until the chicken is cooked through. 

This dish goes with so many different things.  Some of my favourite sides would be: rice salad, roast potatoes, salad & pitta bread. Weigh out your choice of side for the correct ProPoints.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 5

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

Harissa chicken with Giant Couscous & Roasted Veg

I have a new love in my life.  No not a new pair of killer hills (yeah right!) or a designer handbag (not that out of the question), but my BBQ!  I have realised how quick, easy, healthy and tasty it is to BBQ food. You may have noticed that I have gone a little skewer crazy this week, but I am truly loving the way you can add so much flavour to meat and it cooks so fast.  Admittedly I have a gas BBQ and that works great for me as you can simply light and go…

If you have never had giant couscous, you are missing out.  It's a treat in the mouth and is a very versatile, filling grain. Merchant Gourmet make a regular and wholewheat version and you can find it in Waitrose or Sainsburys.  You only need 50g per serving once paired with a decent amount of meat and vegetables which made tonight’s supper very WeightWatcher and Simming World friendly indeed.

You’ll need for 2:

For the chicken:

• 2 x 165g chicken breasts whole or cut into chunks
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp white wine or cider vinegar
• 1 tsp harissa paste
• Seasoning

For the Couscous

• 100g giant couscous (or 120g regular couscous)
• Half a butternut squash, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 small aubergine, chopped
• Handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 tbsp tinned chick peas
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Vegetable stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Seasoning

What to do:

Mix the marinade ingredients together and add the chicken.  Leave to marinade in the fridge for a couple of hours. 

Toast the fennel and cumin seeds in a dry, hot frying pan and then pound using a mortar and pestle.

Place the vegetables in a roasting tray and coat in 1 tsp olive oil and seasoning and the ground spices.  Roast in a hot oven (200 fan) for around 30 minutes turning occasionally.  If the tray looks a little dry spoon over a couple of tablespoons of veg stock to moisten.  The tomatoes will also help to add moisture.

Place the couscous in a sauce pan and cover with vegetable stock.  Add the bay leaf and boil for 8 minutes (or follow the packet instructions) then drain in a sieve.  Add the chick peas for the last 2 -3 minutes of cooking to heat through.  Toss the drained couscous and chickpeas into the roasted vegetables and stir thoroughly.

At the same time as cooking the couscous, skewer the chicken and place on the BBQ, turning once.  If you are cooking the breast whole it may need longer and always make sure the chicken is cooked through with no pink showing.  Enjoy!

WeightWatchers Points Per Serving: 12

Honey, Soy & Ginger Chicken with Stir Fried Rice & Veg

I look forward to my evening meal all day.  I was already thinking about tomorrow's meal as soon as this evenings' was over!  The thing is with WeightWatchers or any other 'diet' recipes is that they don't always meet my requirements for healthy but tasty evening meal:

• Fat friendly
• Filling
• Flavoursome

I have a huge collection of cookery books and I constantly browse the web looking for new ideas.  I've learnt to adapt standard and diet recipes to meet my requirements so I thought I would share a few tips on adapting recipes. 

1.  Ditch the low fat, calorie controlled cooking spray.  It tastes disgusting and you get the same low fat effect by using pure olive oil (or whatever your choice of oil may be) via a spray or by using 1 teaspoon oil (1 PP) between 2 people. 
2.  Really consider the carb element of the meal.  Seriously how can anyone be satisfied on 50g of potatoes?  Adapt it to a more sensible amount that will be filling and fat friendly.
3.  Go for fish and white meat where possible  I restrict red meat to once a week and then it has to be very tightly portion controlled and I have to heavily compromise on the carb element to ensure I stay within my ProPoint budget.
4.  Big up on PP free flavours!  Use more garlic, ginger, chilli, herbs & spices, lemon etc etc to your liking making your meal really tasty and flavoursome.

I decided last week to purchase the latest WeightWatchers cookbook 'Simply Enjoy'.  I am pleasantly surprised there are a number of recipes I would like to try, obviously with my own twist. The first of which I tried this evening and I have to admit I really enjoyed it!  The original recipe in the book is for Honey & Ginger Scallops and I used the marinade as a base for my chicken skewers.

You'll need for 2:

• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp lazy ginger, finely chopped
• pinch of chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp groundnut oil (or any other flavourless oil)
• 300g chicken breast cut into chunks
• 125g dried basmati brown rice
• Lots of chopped Asian vegetables. I used: mushrooms, pak choi, baby corn, sugar snap peas
• Light soy sauce

What to do:
Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a shallow dish or a plastic container. Cover the chicken and refridgerate for at least an hour, preferably 2-3 hours. 

Cook and cool the rice according to the packet instructions.  These first 2 steps can be prepared in advance.

Chop all the vegetables and skewer the chicken.  When ready, skewer and BBQ until cooked through.  You can also grill for a few minutes until cooked through. 

Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok or frying pan and when hot stir fry the vegetables on a high heat turning frequently.  Allow to cook through and then add the remaining marinade and allow to bubble away for a few seconds.  Add the cooled, cooked rice and keep stirring.  Add some light soy sauce to season.  Once the rice is fully heated through serve onto plates and top with the chicken skewer.

WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 12

Lamb Skewers, Couscous & Roast Veggies

What a blowout Sunday I had!  I ate 2 portions of my husbands Nonna’s pasta al forno, a cornetto, a third of a cream cake and to top it all off I settled down to Sunday night TV with a slab of Taleggio and half a ciabatta!!!  What was I thinking??!!  I don’t even want to think about the ProPoints in all of that, let alone the wine that accompanied it all.

So time to knuckle down and knock off a few more lbs especially as I am on a 4 week countdown to holiday. 

I was really in the mood for some red meat and my mum had lamb chops marinating when I got to her house. This marinade is a flavour I will never forget.  Year after year and BBQ after BBQ Mum would marinade dozens of little lamb chops in this marinade and as a child I would feast on them.  You don’t get much on the little chops so now I am watching my weight I tend to go for a lean lamb leg steak removing any possible fat.  Portion control is critical so I allow 150g per person.

The longer this marinades the better and I allowed a good 4 hours.  When ready, skewer onto metal or soaked wooden skewers and bbq until cooked through.  You can grill turning occasionally.

You’ll need for 2:

• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried marjoram
• ¼ - ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4-5 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Sprinkling of ground black pepper
• 300g lean lamb leg steaks, trimmed of any fat and cut into chunks

To accompany the lamb you could have 200g new potatoes or 55g dried couscous.  I quickly roasted off some chopped vegetables (see previous blog entry for Couscous & Vegetable recipe) in 1sp olive oil and some seasoning to accompany.  I was lucky enough to get a doggy bag of mum's couscous too so all in all Monday nights supper came together without much effort at all!

WeightWatchers ProPoints Lamb per serving: 8