Cauliflower Crust Pizza

I've done this before and decided to have another go this week. As usual I have slimmed down the recipe a little to suit my taste. I have deliberately kept it low so that I can change up the toppings at a later date.....going to try it with some salami on next week. The original recipes are here and here.

This served 1 and was 6sp.

Ingredients

For the base
1 large portion of cauliflower rice (it needs more than you think)
2 Tablespoons Two Chicks Egg White (or more depending on how much cauli rice you use)
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Basil
salt and pepper to taste

For the Tomato Sauce
Spray Oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tin tomatoes, chopped
2 teaspoons tomato puree
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Basil
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 deg/ 180 fan/ gas 6

Make the Pizza Base

Place the cauliflower in an microwaveable dish and add a splash of water. Cover with cling film and stab a couple of holes in to allow the steam to escape. Microwave on full for 2 or 3 minutes. Allow to cool before tackling the next step......

Put the cauliflower rice in a clean tea towel and then scrunch it up and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Tip the rice into a clean bowl and add all the other ingredients. Add the egg white gradually as you mix to ensure that the mixture doesn't get too wet, you may need a little extra egg white if you have used a large portion of cauliflower rice. The amount of cauliflower is a bit arbitrary.....what I found was that when I "riced" the cauliflower it looked like a huge amount, however when I got to the stage of squeezing the water out it shrank quite substantially so don't be shy about the use of your cauli. Next time I make it I'm going to rice a whole cauliflower and then see how many pizza bases I can make and then freeze what I don't use.

Before                                   After

Spray a piece of baking parchment with spray oil and tip the cauli rice into the middle. Shape into a circle about 1/2 inch thick. Place in the oven and bake until golden brown about 35 - 40 minutes (this will depend on the size and thickness of your base). I turned mine 15 minutes before the end to ansure that boh sides of the base got browned.

Remove from  the oven.


Make the tomato sauce

Spray a frying pan with spray oil and add the shallot, fry over a medium heat until the soft (add a bit of water if needed to stop sticking).

Add the rest of the ingredients ensuring that the tomatoes are in small bits. Reduce the heat to low and cook until most of the liquid is driven off (mine took about 50minutes).

Before                                   After

Spread the pizza base with some of the tomato sauce and top with your chosen toppings (adding the appropriate sp) I used 40g Mozzerella (4sp) and a tablespoon of Parmesan (2sp)

Return back to the oven until cooked (depends on your chosen toppings (mine took 10 minutes to melt the cheese)

Zesty Lemon Chicken

I was gutted to hear that WW had stopped producing their Zesty Chicken Marinade.....it was lovely.....so I decided to google and see if I could find another recipe. I found this one   


I did 2 portions and it came out of the WW recipe builder at 1sp per portion....and that includes the chicken!!

I've altered the recipe a bit (left out the olive oil and used a roasting bag)

Lets stay strong guys
Sue

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Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 medium onion, cut into large chunks
1 teaspoon of garlic puree

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon thyme
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method 

Place the chicken chunks in a roasting bag, all the other ingredients and tip and tumble the chicken pieces in the mix until they are all covered with the mix. 

Marinade overnight (or a minimum of 12 hours)

Take the chicken from the fridge about half an hour before you are ready to cook to allow the chicken to come to room temperature before cooking (this ensures that the chicken cooks evenly)

When ready to cook preheat the oven to 180/ 160 fan/ gas 5.

Place the roasting bag on a baking sheet in the bottom of the oven making sure that the roasting bag has room to expand without touching the sides or any other shelves in the oven.

Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes (thought the chicken was a bit dry but hubby liked it....I'm going to reduce the time next tme ....he won't notice!!)

Serve with your desired side dish adding appropriate points.

Weight Watchers Aubergine Parmegiana

So this recipe appeared in our WW magazine and we all went crazy for it.....LOADS of people posted their dishes.....an obvious winner.....so with my new found love of Aubergine (Thank you Ally Pally) I had to make it......It was one serving (because my hubby won't eat Aubergine!!) and came out at 3sp......I served salad with it but you could add anything you like (don't forget to add the sp though)

Can't give any links to the original recipe like I normally do because it was in the magazine but credit goes to Weight Watchers for it

Lets stay strong guys
Sue

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Ingredients

1 medium Aubergine, sliced into 1 cm rounds 

Stir-Fry Spray Oil

¹⁄₄ large Onion, diced

¹⁄₂ can Tinned Tomatoes

¹⁄₂ large Tomato, chopped

¹⁄₄ tablespoon, Tomato Purèe

¹⁄₂ teaspoon, Oregano, Dried

1 Bay leaf, dry

¹⁄₄ teaspoon Balsamic vinegar 

30g Light Mozzarella

A few Basil leaves

10g Parmesan

 Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 220deg/ 200deg fan/ gas 7

Put the aubergine rounds on a large baking sheet, season and mist with cooking spray. Roast for 15-20 mins until slightly browned and softened

Meanwhile mist a medium pan with the cooking spray and add the onion, Cook for 5 mins until slightly softened then add the tinned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, the tomato puree, oregano, bay leaf and balsamic vinegar. Season and simmer for 20 minutes until thickened.

Cover the bottom of an ovenproof dish with one third of the mixture, layer over with half of the aubergines, then top with a third of the mozzarella and a third of the basil leaves. Repeat to create a second layer.

Top with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle over the remaining mozzarella and all of the parmesan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted.

Baked Seabass

This meal was inspired by Chubbycubs Baked Cod with Samphire but I fancied Seabass instead. This was one portion and came in at 6sp for everything. If you upscale it for more portions or change your accompanying side dishes please make sure you recalculate your sp for accuracy.

I served mine with a small jacket potato with a half tablespoon of Philadelphia lightest on each half.

I had never had samphire before and am always on the lookout for new things to change up my meals.....samphire has been on my list for a while. It has a very salty flavour and is lovely and crunchy.....it can also be eaten raw in a salad which I intend to use it for sometime. When I googled how to serve samphire the advice was to smother it in butter.....now I've got nothing against butter.....however it doesn't feature very much in my WW life.....but I found a substitute..... Butterbuds......

.......little sachets of dried fat free butter extract. Now if you are looking for a substitute to slather on your crumpet....I wouldn't necessarily recommend this....but for certain things they are a great substitute.....I dissolved 2 sachets in 2 teaspoons of hot water (0 sp) and then coated the samphire with it.....check them out here I often put them in egg white omelettes to substitute the creaminess of the missing egg yolk.

Lets stay strong guys
Sue

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Ingredients

50g Cherry Tomatoes, halved
¹⁄₂ tablespoon Capers, in Brine
¹⁄₂ teaspoon Thyme, Dried
¹⁄₂ teaspoon, Dill, Dried
¹⁄₂ teaspoon, Oregano, Dried
1 fillet, medium Seabass
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
2 teaspoons Balsamic vinegar
Pinch Salt
Pinch Black pepper
1 serving Samphire

Method

Preheat the oven to 200/ fan 180

Place the tomatoes, capers, and fish in an ovenproof dish.

Mix the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and herbs and drizzle over the top. Add salt and pepper.

Put into the oven for about 15 minute. Seabass is very delicat and doeesn't really need any longer than this. If you use anothr fish check its cooked through enough.

Put the samphire in a microwaveable dish with a little water (about a tablespoon) and cook on full power for three minutes. Drain it and serve, add the fish, capers and tomatoes. Drizzle over some of the liquid that was released when the ingredients cooked. Serve with any other additional side adding appropriate points. I'm not going to insult anyone with instructions on how to serve up a jacket potato!!!

Quick Pickled Vegetables

So you all know I like looking for and trying out different things to enhance my meals etc.....I recently saw these whilst I was watching Masterchef so I googled and found this ....

It can work with any vegetable (just about)....so I used what I had in....cucumber, carrot and red cabbage (I had the red cabbage in because I made Slice of Slim Sweet and Savoury Red Cabbage)......I'll post that soon

The notes say that you can use any number of combinations of vinegars, spices and herbs. I decided to start very simply....I used Cider Vinegar, mustard seeds and Black peppercorns......I'll experiment as I go along....




So its really easy to do although the smell of the pickling liquid hangs about for a little while afterwards!!!

I used it here

The recipe and notes  are here

Lets stay strong guys
Sue

X

Red lentil falafels

I've been thinking about red lentils for quite some time.....I've heard people in my WW meeting saying how they had eaten such and such delicious meal made with them for very low sp ....I've tried REALLY hard to get into them....I've had them in my hand in the shop several times in the last couple of years ready to go in my trolley....but they were never able to make it to the check out, let alone my pantry.

But recently I've managed to get them in the trolley, through the checkout and into my kitchen....yay!!! So...what to do with them......my lovely WW friend Kelly advised Red Lentil Dahl by the Chubbycubs (will be doing that soon)....but also I googled red lentils and found this recipe.....I've also been thinking about falafels for some time too....so it seemed like karma that brought them together....so I did it......this recipe makes 20 falafel at 1sp each and apparently they make great cold leftover lunches.......Original recipe here

Making these would be easy in a food processor (as described in the recipe) but mine died recently so I used my mini chopper to chop everything and then mixed it all together by hand.

Also I wanted to make these on a particular day and didn't have the fresh herbs in so modified it a bit....I left out the fresh herbs and added the second pepper, this made the mix a bit wet and therefore I was unable to form them into balls so they ended up as patties....next time I make them I will definitely use the fresh herbs and just 1 pepper.

Lets stay strong guys
Sue

X

Ingredients

200g Split Red Lentils, cooked, rinsed
Handful of fresh flat leaf Parsley, remove stalks (I left this out)
Handful of fresh Coriander, remove stalks (I left this out too)
1 large Onion
1 or 2 medium Red pepper, use from a jar
1¹⁄₂ tablespoons Tahini paste (Sesame paste)
1¹⁄₂ tablespoons Olive Oil
Pinch Salt
Pinch of Black Pepper
1 teaspoon, level Ground Cumin
1 teaspoon, level Coriander, Dried
¹⁄₂ teaspoon, level Baking powder
1 tablespoon, level Plain White Flour
Few sprays Spray Oil

Method

Soak the lentils in fresh water overnight. When ready to make the falafels, strain and rinse the soaked lentils. Make sure to pick through the batch and discard any stones or debris.

This is what they looked like before and after!!!

In a food processor, pulse the lentils until they are coarsely ground, 3 to 5 times. Add the parsley, coriander, onion, and red pepper to the bowl, and pulse another few times.

Drizzle in the tahini paste, olive oil, spices, salt and pepper, and blend until almost smooth. Make sure not to over blend the mixture; you still want some crumb. Taste the mixture, and adjust the seasoning according to your liking.

Add the baking powder and the flour. Start by adding 1 tablespoon of flour at a time. If the mixture is still too liquidy add another. The mixture should be fairly moist, and if you add too much flour, the falafels will become too dry and hard when baked.

Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375° F.

Generously coat the falafels with oil spray and bake until golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Make sure not to over cook these — you don't want them to dry out.


I had them with salad and tzatziki and some of my fridge pickles (recipe coming soon!!)....next day I had them again for lunch on a salad.....

Balsamic Chicken

I'm trying to free up some space in our freezer and I recently came across this lurking in there.....I'd forgotten I had it (I often do that because I do so much browsing for new recipes!!). Anyway I pulled it out because I remembered that I really liked it when I made it.....I've dug around in my WW recipes and found the details for it.....so here they are....hope you like it....it serves 6 and is 2sp per serving

Ingredients

600g Chicken breast, skinless, raw, cubed
a few sprays of Frylight Stir-Fry Spray Oil
200g Mushrooms, sliced
1 clove Garlic,minced
1 cube Chicken stock cube, made up to 125ml with hot water
2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
Small sprig Thyme, Fresh
1 tablespoon Parsley, fresh, chopped
salt and black pepper

Method
 

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Spray a frying pan with the frylight and heat over medium high heat.

Add the chicken and sear on both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Add the garlic and mushrooms to the skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes until mushrooms begin to soften.

Add the chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and thyme to the skillet. Stir and scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

Add the chicken and let simmer for 10-15 minutes on low heat or until chicken is fully cooked.