Lasagne variation

Tonight I did a variation on lasagne, turned out nice too. I fried up some finely chopped chorizo, smoked Turkey rashers, mushrooms, garlic, yellow & orange peppers, onion and a chopped tomato. I added a good pinch of chilli flakes, a couple of gratings of parmesan cheese, a mug of water, large squirt of tomato puree, little pinch of sugar, large pinch each of dried basil and oregano and plenty of seasoning. I let the mixture simmer for around 10mins then transferred it to an small oven dish. I sprinkled over some grated cheese, then a lasagne sheet (or 2 depending on the size of the dish) and more grated cheese.  I had some chives in the fridge on the turn so I snipped up a few and sprinkled on top of the cheese.  The whole lot went into the oven at 180C for 30mins. Makes a nice alternative to the meaty ragu still lasagne and its a dish I'll be doing again.

Prawns and Scallops

Yesterday was a slow day. Spent some of it studying and trying to convince myself I was taking it all in! Arts Past and present is challenging but really interesting. The funny thing is when I first started the course I was sure Art History would become an interest, the chapter on Cezanne soon proved me wrong.  Turns out I just like looking at the pictures and reading biographies of the artists. Oh well, I have loved the history and literature side of things which is where my interests have always been.

My thoughts eventually turned to dinner when I was feeding Doggychops, he got a delicious mixture of carrots, chicken and rice and he hoovered it up with gusto! So what for me? I stood in front of the freezer and hoped for a bit of inspiration. Prawns? Yes. Scallops? Yes. So I put a big handful of each into a bag to defrost in cold water as obviously I hadn't thought to take them out the night before.

I decided to stir fry the shellfish with some asparagus, roasted peppers, shallots, garlic and chopped chilli. 

I roasted the peppers over the gas flame on my hob until the skin was black and fully charred, then popped them into a bag so the steam would loosen the blackened skin. I sliced them finely, as I did with the shallots.

I'd decided to sit this stir fry on top of another of those flatbreads from Aldi:

They are so tasty and all they take is around 40 or 50 seconds in a warm oven to heat through. I wouldn't recommend the microwave for them as this seems to make them a bit rubbery.

So for the cooking. Just heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a wide pan, first add the asparagus give it a couple of mins; you want it cooked but still with a bite to it. Remove from the pan and add the garlic, chilli and shallots.  Give it a good stir around for a minute or so then add the shellfish. The scallops I used were queen scallops and these are quite small and only take around 3mins or so to cook. I remove the coral as I find it's such an overpowering flavour you don't get the sweetness of the scallops at all. After 2mins, return the asparagus to the pan with the sliced pepper and just heat them through.  In the meatime, put the flatbread in the oven to heat through.  Put the warmed flatbread on your plate and then top with the stir-fry with all the juices that are released by the fish.  If you're feeling decadent add a knob of butter to the dish to make the juices even tastier.

This was a very satisfying and tasty dinner. The only thing I would have changed is adding more chilli to it to get more a of kick from it.  I dare you not to lick the plate afterwards!

Sunday Roast

Yesterday Mr. Chops took over the reins again and I was happy to let him as he does a mean roast dinner. Now we didn't opt for a big lump of meat or a tender chicken, we chose pork chops. I like pork and as normal roast dinners can be calorific for a dieter, a pork chop is a decent alternative to a slab of beef! He did the normal accompaniments of roast potatoes, peas and an onion gravy. I had 4 roasters which was the equivalent of 2 potatoes. The chop was seasoned well, though perhaps a little too much pepper for my taste but then Mr. Chops loves peppery chops. The potatoes were probably as good as I've had in a long time. They were crunchy on the outside and soft as butter in the inside. Mr. Chops used a lot less oil than normal as we'd run out of olive oil. All in all it was a delicious Sunday dinner and ticked all the boxes of flavour and yumminess. This one I captured for posterity:

Not the best picture but it sure tasted nice

Mr Chops' Spicy Chicken with Flatbread

Mr. Chops took over the cooking reins last night. The seeds of this dinner began with the find of the month in Aldi - Mediterranean flat breads. These breads make a delicious alternative to pitta breads and all they need is 40 0r 50 seconds in a warm oven. Anyway it was chicken breast for dinner and Mr. Chops decided that a little marination was in order. The following is his recipe:

Spicy Chicken and Veg - serves 2
2 Chicken breasts
Marinade made with some paprika, chilli powder, little bit of cumin, little bit of cayenne pepper, turmeric, chopped garlic and ginger, plenty of salt & pepper and a couple tbsp olive oil.

Mix the chicken with the marinade and give it all a good mix and let it sit in the fridge for around 4 hours.

In the meantime, slice a half each of an orange and yellow pepper and slice a red onion. Chop up a few leaves of iceberg lettuce finely and mix with a finely sliced small shallot as your garnish.

Chilli Mayonnaise
Mix a couple of tablespoons of mayo with crushed garlic, a little salt and a dollop of Sriracha sauce* and a dribble of Frank's Hot sauce. Just mix it all up and there you have it.

Method
Stir fry the chicken for approx 6 mins. Then remove it from the pan and stir fry the veg for a minute or two and add the chicken back in at the end. In the meantime, reheat the flatbread in the oven then assemble. Flatbread on the plate, smear on the chilli mayo, then the lettuce & shallot mix and top with the spicy chicken and veg and eat. No photo was too hungry to take the time.

*Sriracha sauce can be found at any Asian foodstore and is a really hot and spicy chilli sauce so if you like it very hot add more.

Treating Yourself

It's very hard when you're dieting to find things that are treats that don't put on the pounds. I got a tip from a lovely woman during a conversation at WW meeting - butternut squash crisps. Butternut squashes are a completely guilt free vegetable, therefore, you can eat as much of it as you like. It's Saturday night and my treat is some wine and there's nothing nicer with a glass of wine than some 'pickage' food, as I like to call it. I can't have peanuts, I might as well be pouring lard straight back my throat. Conventional crisps - the same. I'd rather keep my points for wine. So to make these crisps all you need do is cut your squash into thin slices, lay on baking parchment that's been sprayed with no cal spray oil on a flat baking sheet. Place the thin slices on top then spray with more oil and season with salt and pepper. Tonight I sprinkled some chilli flakes on top. Bake in a hot oven (approx 180-190C) for around 15mins until they are crispy. They may be soft in the centre but that's ok. I'm eating them while I type and I tells ya they are delicious and satisfying. I'll defintely be making more of them during the week for when I'm feeling nibbly!

ROASTED PEPPER SOUP

Serves 4

• Halve 6 peppers (a combination of red, yellow or orange but not green), remove seeds & stalks, then cut each half into 6.
• Cut a medium sized red onion into 8 wedges.
• Use either 10 cherry tomatoes, left whole, or quarter 4 normal sized tomatoes.
• Use 1 garlic clove but leave it whole, just remove the outer papery skin.
• Throw the whole lot into a roasting tray.
• Drizzle with some olive oil, about 2tbsp. Or if you want to be healthy sprinkle with 1tbsp of water or spray on some Light spray oil.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle on dried or fresh herbs of choice.
• If you like a bit of heat, sprinkle on some chilli flakes or roughly chop up a red chilli and add to the mix.
• Give the whole lot a good stir.
• Roast in a preheated over at 180C/fan 160C for 30-40mins until the peppers are slightly charred and the other veg are soft.
• Remember to give the mix a stir every 10mins or so in order that it doesn't stick or burn. If it looks like its burning cover with tin foil for the remainder of the cooking time.
• In the meantime, make up approx 1 litre of stock with 2 chicken or veg stock cubes. Don't use beef cubes. If you've got it, and even better, use your own homemade stock.
• Bring to a gentle simmer.
• Once the veg are done, add them to the stock and blitz the whole lot in a food processor or with a hand blender.
• Return to the saucepan, check if it needs more salt and pepper. Then serve.
• This is nice with a crusty roll or even garlic bread.
• And better still, if you leave out the olive oil its calorie free so you can eat as much of it as you like!!

A New Start

Well it's been a while since I updated this blog but life took over and laziness became an issue after Christmas. So the realization finally hit me that I had to do something about my weight or more correctly my excess weight. Weightwatchers was a success for me before so I decided to give it a go again. I joined up at the end of January and now 7 weeks later I've lost 11.5lbs. So far so looking forward to going downwards. Needless to say, this endeavour at weight loss has led me to try and find alternatives to the fatty, gorgeous food I've been used to without losing any of the flavour. Soup has been a saviour and is a major tip when it comes to losing weight. It's filling and satisfying and that full feeling lasts a lot longer when you need it. So now my little blogeen has to be become a diary of my journey towards my final goal of approximately 9.5 stone. So that means I've another 45.5lbs to lose. You work out the stones, because I still don't want to say it out loud - its going to take some time.