I have been rather useless of late. Instead of trying to shift a few more lbs I have been gorging on cake (well it was my son's 2nd birthday) and all sorts of naughties. It's not surprising then, I have steadily put on a few lbs. Anyway it's time to get serious, especially as it's less than 4 weeks to our school ball and I'd love to squeeze into a little red dress I bought before Christmas.
To kickstart this new period of 'being good' (can't stand the word 'diet'), I've been experimenting with a few new recipes. This one I tried for the first time last night and hubby and I were really pleased at how satisfying it was for a 12 ProPoint meal, not to mention completely scrummy! I use my favourite sausages, Porky Whites which are a Surrey Sausage and they have a real depth of flavour. You don't need many sausages, which is a good job seeing how ProPoint laden they are. By using lots of spinach you can fill out the dish. If you didn't like spinach you could easily substitute this with broccoli or your other favourite green vegetable. It's also a very economical dish and whilst I've not worked out the exact cost, you could feed 4 for around a fiver.
You'll need for 4: (easily halved)
- 1 small onion or half a large onion, finely diced
- 1-2 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
- 2 tins chopped tomatoes or a large jar of passata
- 2 tablespoons lighter mascarpone
- 1 large bag of spinach or a few frozen portions of spinach
- 4 tbsp grated parmesan,
- 2 tsp olive oil
- Small handful of fresh basil, chopped
- 6 chipolata sausages. I use Porky white sausages which are just delicious!
What to do:
Heat the oil in a non stick pan and saute the onion. Add the garlic and gently fry for 8-10 minutes until soft and golden. Chop the sausages into nugget size pieces, add to the pan and turn up the heat to brown. Add the spinach and season with salt & pepper.
Next add the tinned tomatoes, the basil, and the mascarpone. Let the sauce bubble away for 10 mins or so. It should be quite a runny sauce.
Add the gnocchi to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes. Then tip into a roasting dish and allow to cool a little. Sprinkle with some parmesan. You can prepare the dish up to this stage in advance
When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 190 (fan) and place in oven for 10-15 minutes until golden on top and piping hot.
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 12
I've been experimenting with some new recipes this week, in particular pasta recipes as I tend to stick to my old favs. Pasta is cheap and filling so it makes a good basis for a family meal. However if you are trying to lose weight, pasta needs pairing with something light if you are to keep to a 12 or 13 ProPoint dinner and this makes its use is slightly more challenging. Seafood is ideal and this dish uses crab meat as it's protein element.
It is that time of year where everyone tightens their belts a bit after the spending spree of Christmas so I've also been looking at budget friendly recipes this week. This dish for 2 people totalled £3.85 or £1.92 per serving. You can't buy a decent ready meal for that (and I use these words together in the loose sense).
As we all know there are health benefits to home cooking a meal from scratch, far less 'processing' going on, yada yada. Plus you can adjust ingredients to suit personal taste e.g. salt, garlic, chilli. I know I am preaching to the converted, but if you are new to eating healthily and trying to lose weight on WeightWatchers or any other plan, it doesn't have to be all ready meals. And, and this is a big AND, this meal takes less than 15 minutes to prepare! Perfect mid-week supper!
You'll need for 2:
- 4 vine medium to large vine tomatoes, seeds and insides removed, diced
- 1 170g tin crab meat in brine
- 1 lime
- Half a back of wild rocket
- 200g linguine
- 1tbsp oil (I used chilli & garlic oil)
- or pinch chilli flakes & 1 garlic clove
Get a large pan of salted boiling water on the go and stick the pasta
in to cook according to the packet instructions.
In a large frying pan, gently heat the oil. I was given a lovely set of flavoured oils from Italy for Christmas so this was a perfect opportunity to start using them! If you don't have a flavoured oil, then just bash the garlic clove and add this with a pinch of chilli flakes to the oil.
Add the diced tomatoes (seeds and inner bits removed) and saute for a few minutes.
Add the crab and a squeeze of half a lime. Season to taste.
Once the pasta is ready, drain reserving some of the cooking liquor. Add the pasta along with a couple of ladles of the liquor to the crab mix and toss through on a very low heat. Add the rocket and stir through so the rocket just wilts with the heat from the pan.
Serve up (with extra chilli and garlic oil if you are not weightwatching!)
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 13
