There is a whole lotta love for chicken in our household at the moment. It's filling, healthy, a good source of protein and relatively low in ProPoints. I only buy free range chicken and I often buy corn fed free range chicken with its yellowy tinged skin. I get very excited (saddo) to spot a pack of organic or free range chicken in the reduced aisle in the supermarket and I snap it up pronto. When I get it home I carefully portion out the chicken breasts into varying weights to cater for all manner of dishes some of which will include kids dinners. We are also fond of chicken thighs and drumsticks and in every case I remove the skin before cooking.
Having talked about my love affair for chicken, having it 5 days out of 7 can get pretty tedious! Therefore I am always interested in finding new ways and new flavours to pair up with our everyday bird. This concoction is my own mix which has been perfected over the last couple of years. It's really tasty and the flavours penetrate the chicken really well.
You'll need for 2:
- 450g chicken thighs & drumsticks, skin removed, flesh slashed
- 2 tsp runny honey
- 4g fennel seeds, crushed (bizarrely there is 1 PP to 5g tsp of fennel seeds, so use just under a tsp!)
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 heaped tsp paprika
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- seasoning
- 1 tsp white wine or cider vinegar
For the Roasted Vegetables:
- 1 potato 200g once peeled
- 2 small - medium courgettes, roughly chopped
- half a butternut squash, peeled and cubed
- Approx 10 cherry tomatoes
- Half a punnet of chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1 medium aubergine, chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Dried thyme and rosemary
Prepare the chicken by mixing the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish. Add a tiny amount of water if you need to thin it out a little. Toss the chicken ensuring it's fully coated. Cover and marinade for a good few hours
Prepare all the vegetables and throw into the biggest roasting dish you have. Season well and scatter over 1 tsp each of the herbs. Finally add the olive oil and tpss well with your hands to coat all the vegetables.
The vegetables need approx 45-50 minutes in a hot oven (200 fan) and the chicken needs 30 - 40 minutes depending on the size of the pieces. Ensure the chicken is cooked all the way through.
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 12
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
