Maple Syrup Roasted Butternut Squash

 

I like to use butternut squash in place of potato and have done it in a variety of ways but this is a game changer. It is based on an Ina Garten recipe that I found while browsing through my (extensive) collection of recipe books. Ina's recipe calls for 2tblsp olive oil and the use of maple syrup, not a waist friendly recipe but I recently found some zero calorie maple syrup from the Skinny Food co....its gorgeous.

 

Ina includes garlic with her recipe but I left it out of my adaptation. The recipe was for four portions so I have made up the full recipe, portioned it into 4 and put three portions in the freezer.

I would normally add a link to the original recipe but I can't find a link to Ina Gartens recipe but there are lots of versions of this on the internet.

Ingredients

1 large Butternut Squash cut into 1inch chunks

Tesco Olive Oil Spray

2 tablepoons The Skinny Food Co Maple Syrup Flavour

Pinch of Salt

1/2 tsp Black pepper

8 Bacon medallions, raw chopped

16 Sage leaves roughly chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 200deg / 180deg fan / Gas 6.

Place the squash into a bowl and spray with the oil, toss and spray some more until all the butternut is coated, add the maple syrup, salt and pepper and toss everything together.

Tip onto a baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes until the squash begins to brown , turning once half way through.

At this point I have portioned the dish into 4 and put three in the freezer - my intention is that when I want to use one I will defrost it and go on to the next step.

Sprinkle the bacon and sage leaves evenly over the mix and continue roasting for another 20 - 30 minutes until the squash is tender and caramelised. So I followed the recipe and sprinkled the sage over before I put it back in the oven for the second roasting but I felt that it was overcooked...next time I make it I will add it chopped at the end.

Butter Bean Crumble

                                     

 

One of the things I've tried to do through my WW journey is to try new foods.....for example I used to hate aubergines and made myself buy one and then find a recipe....I came up with Aubergine Rolls (Recipe here) and now I frequently have a meat free Monday using this recipe...also people kept telling me about lentils and how they were low in sp and very versatile....so I bought some and made falafel (Recipe here)...so that brings me to butter beans....I've always said I LOATHE them....but thats because my mum used to open the tin, warm them up and put them on my plate....hated them. So I decided that I would try and change my mind on these too....good old Google brought me to this recipe (Original Recipe Here) which I tweaked slightly and I really like it....going to try it with different flavours. Hope you try it and like it as much as I did (oh....and hubby loved it too....result!!!)

Lets stay strong guys

Sue
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Ingredients

1 small tin of butterbeans
2 tablespoons of Philadelphia soft cheese with Chives
1 slice WW Malted Danish bread
Spray oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 deg C fan.

Take about 1/3 of the butterbeans out of the tin into a bowl and mash them down until creamy.
Add the Philadelphia cream cheese and the rest of the beans and mix to combine. Blitz the bread in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. Put the butterbean mix in a small ovenproof dish and top with the breadcrumb mix. Spray the top of the breadcrumb layer with the spray and put into the oven for about 15-20mins until the breadcrumbs have formed a crust and the mix is heated through.

Celeriac and Spinach Bake

I can't believe I haven't posted this before....but looking through the blog I can't find it!!!!

It's pretty good....which is why I can't believe I haven't told you all before......!!!!

The recipe for the bake comes in at 6sp....I sometimes leave out the cheese and it comes out at 3sp....its a really lovely and filling side dish......I did it as a side to my steak done in the slow cooker with a bit of red wine and some shallot and mushrooms


Lets stay strong guys.

Sue
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Ingredients 






100gSpinach, wilted and rough chopped
¹⁄₄ teaspoons, level Ground Nutmeg 
120g Celeriac, raw, sliced 
30g Tesco Natural Fat Free Greek Style Yogurt 
1 slice Weight Watchers Malted Danish Bread, grated into breadcrumbs 
1 pinch Salt 
1 pinch Black pepper 
30g Philadelphia Light Medium Fat Soft Cheese 
20g Cheddar cheese 
6 individual Cherry Tomatoes, peeled and halved

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C

Place the spinach in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with nutmeg

Place the celeriac in a microwave dish and zap on full power for 2 minutes, place on top of the spinach. 

Sprinkle the tomatoes on top. Season with the salt.

Mix the yogurt, philadelphia and cheese. Place on top of the celeriac and sprinkle with black pepper.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top and bake in the oven for 30 minutes

Celeriac Fritters

Well I was playing about in the kitchen this week....with that Slow Cooker Celeriac I did last week. I wanted to make some Celeriac Fritters.....these are something I saw on Janey's blog at Slice of Slim and I love them.....check it out here.......but Janey is obviously more skilled than I am because I can't get mine to flip in the pan without me breaking them up!!! Although I don't know if using the equivalent amount of just egg whites instead of the whole eggs that Janey advises might have something to do with it......



Anyway........ to make the fritters I cooked my celeriac in the slow cooker (doing it this way had no effect on the consistency of the finished mixture to I'll be going back to cooking it in the microwave I think) and mashed it with a potato masher, I added a tin of sweetcorn, 8 tablespoons of Two Chicks Egg White and a scraping of nutmeg. I tried again to do them in my small frying pan......

 
........but turning them was a nightmare so I decided that I would try cooking them in the oven....they turned out fine actually.....I had three with my dinner that night and have put the rest in the freezer to use this week. I sprayed the foil with spray Oil and put tablepoons of the mix on, flattened it out and baked them in the oven on 160deg fan for 20 mins....when I checked them I decided I wanted them a little more browned off around the edges so I turned the oven up to 200 deg for the last 10 minutes.

I served mine with my Turkey mince burger (which was turkey mince mixed with lemon zest and juice, onion and a tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce) and I whizzed up a portion of "Cauliflower cheese".....its in quotes because its not a traditional Cauli cheese recipe!! I browned off a couple of tablespoons of shallot and added a tablespoon of water to stop it sticking, then I added 2 tablespoons of Philadelphia Lightest and let that melt into a sauce, I then added 20g of finely grated My Protein cheese and a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard. I zapped my cauli in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then poured the cheese mix over, and browned off two turkey rashers which I had cut into strips, topped it with a slice of WW malted danish bread whizzed into breadcrumbs and finished the whole lot with 20g of Cheddar. ........15 mins in a hot oven and bobs your uncle....


Lets stay strong guys
Sue
x

"Creamed" Leeks

I LOVE creamy sauces........since I started my WW journey one of the things I have tried to do is re-create creamy sauces without the sp....not an easy task but I think I've cracked it. I've discovered these.......

....Philadelphia Light Cream Cheese.....these little beauties live in my fridge permanently....I use them for all sorts of things, I put them in sauces, risottos, toppings on bakes....they are so versatile and the flavours are fab.
I had some leeks that needed to be used up so I decided that I would try to recreate creamed leeks.....minus the oil, cream and cheese.....hmmm.....you might wonder how it can be creamed leeks then.....I'll tell you how..... read on.....this single portion works out at 2sp (don't forget, if you increase the recipe for more portions please recalculate the points accordingly)

Ingredients (for 1 portion)

Spray Oil
1 medium sized leek sliced
100 ml Vegetable Stock
2 tablespoons Philadelphia Light with Chives
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Spray a frying pan with spray oil and bring to a medium heat. Tip in your sliced leeks and turn them around in the pan to coat them with the oil. Pour in the veg stock and allow it to come up to heat. Allow it to simmer for a few minutes to cook and soften the leeks and reduce the liquid in the pan, add the Philadelphia cheese and season to your taste, allow it to melt down and meld with the small amount of liquid you still have in the pan. Serve and enjoy.

Sue
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Slow Cooker Butternut Squash

OMG!!!

At my recent WW meeting our leader told us about this way of cooking a butternut squash...... I was pretty excited to try this because I use a LOT of it in different ways....but..... when I've tried mashing it (I boil it first to cook it) it makes for a VERY watery mash....I was planning on microwaving it and then mashing it (I want to top a Cottage Pie with it)....but when Leslie (our leader) told us about this I dashed straight out and bought one so I could try it......!!!

I was told to pierce the skin of the squash all over and then put it in the slow cooker and cook for 3 hours....job done!!! I was considering buying  a small squash to ensure that it went into the pot but I found a large one that was squat and wide so took a chance on that. I pierced it all over and then put it into the pot, turned it to high and left it (I did actually turn it half way through but I don't think there is any real need for this)

While the squash was in the slow cooker I decided to see if I could find this method on the internet so I googled and there were actually only a couple of posts about it.......basically they were just "...chuck it in, turn it on and go back in 4-5 hours..." no mention of piercing the skin....so I'll try it that way next time.....because there will definitely be a next time....because this is what I found when I went back four hours later....

.......so I cut the top off then cut it in half....

 .......scooped out the seeds....

 ....you can see how much liquid is leaking out of the squash.....as I was holding the squash and scooping the seeds out the liquid was pooling on top of the squash as well.....you can see here how much there was after I had scooped the flesh into a bowl...

 ....so I decided to try and squeeze out some liquid. I put the flesh into a sieve, I then placed a small plate on top and put my granite trivet on top (its very heavy)....

 .....I then left it to sit for 20 minutes....this is how much liquid came out...
 

......I've always used a hand mixer to do my potato mash....ever since Delia showed us how to ....YEARS ago....and I've always had lovely smooth mash....so thats what I did with my squash....it was a bit more fibrous than potato but thats ok....it worked just fine.
I had some Cottage Pie bases that I had made up last week in readiness for my search for a good Butternut Squash mash, so I dug one out and defrosted it, placed my squash mash on top and popped it in the oven on 180 deg for 20 minutes, I finished it off under a hot grill for ten minutes too.
The squash is still wetter than a potato mash would be but significantly better than if I had boiled it.....a keeper of a method I think. I served it with "Creamed" Leeks

Sue
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