Fennel & Paprika Chicken with Roast Veg

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

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