Summer Berries Juice

I made this gorgeous juice this morning to have with my breakfast. My new fruit & veg for the week is pear and berries/cherries. Fruits and smoothies are a great way to incorporate fruit and veg into your diet if you are not normally a big fan of them. This fruit juice is zero points and is a great start to your morning.

Serves: 2
ProPoints: 0

Ingredients:
2 pears, cored
2 apples, cored
2 handful of mixed summer berries, fresh or frozen

Method:
Place all the ingredients into a blender or juicer and blend until well mixed.
If you are not a fan of bits, strain the juice.
Add some water or orange juice to the mixture if it is a bit thick.

Green Smoothie

As promised here is the quick and easy recipe for the green smoothie I have been drinking this week. As part of my May challenge I am trying at least one new fruit and veg each week. This week it is bananas and spinach. My mum used to try and get me to eat bananas when I was younger but I refused to. I think it was more the texture than the taste, that I had a problem with. Spinach I always associated with Popeye! Smoothies and juices are great for increasing your veg and fruit intake. If you are not a veg eater, then I would recommend trying this recipe. The great thing is you can put in as much or as little as you want. You can also try using kale instead of spinach or different fruit if you would prefer.

ProPoints: 3
Serves: 1

Ingredients:
300ml skimmed milk
2 handfuls of spinach
1 banana

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until you get your desired consistency. I found when blending, it tends to get quite foamy, so leave it to settle for a few minutes after blending.

Chicken Stroganoff

Following on from my Hearty Meals post, this recipe is one of my favourites. It has a great taste to it and you do not feel like you are on a diet eating it. Bon appetit!

Propoints: 8 pps

Discover Points: 6 points

Serves: 2

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

60g rice
200g lean chicken fillet
1 tsp low fat butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can low-fat condensed chicken soup
30ml half-fat creme de fraiche
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

Method:
Cook rice according to package instructions; drain and return to pan to keep warm.
Cut meat into thin strips. In a large frying pan, heat the butter. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft.
Add chicken and cook until no longer pink. Stir in chicken soup, mushrooms, Worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
Simmer until chicken and mushrooms are cooked. Add creme de fraiche; stir until well blended.
Remove from heat and serve with rice.

* Can be made with beef instead of chicken for the exact same propoints. 100g lean beef is 3 propoints.
** For the low fat chicken soup, the only brand I have been able to source so far is Erin. I have found it in all the main supermarkets.
*** I use Tesco's own brand half-fat creme de fraiche which can be found alongside the other creams.

Recipe Time

I have not really posted many recipes since I started the blog. I have not really made any meals, more wanting quick and easy dinners. Kind of sums up my attitude to WW in recent months. I made a big effort at the weekend to try some new recipes. The BBC Recipe website is great for recipes and meal ideas. All you have to do is switch the ingredients to more WW friendly items. I have a good few recipes to share with over the coming weeks. I will start with my new favourite, gammon steaks with colcannon mash and white sauce. I also have a great lunch recipe, smoked salmon pate. It is really versatile as can be served with brown bread or crackerbread or whatever takes your liking.

Gammon Steak with Colcannon Mash and White Sauce
Serves: 4

I unfortunately could not get the smooth white sauce.
First time making it so not too bad!

ProPoints per Serving: 10pps

Ingredients:
4 gammon steaks

For the Colcannon
1.5kg floury potatoes
100g low fat butter
500g green cabbage (I used kale), sliced
250ml hot, skimmed milk
salt and pepper

For the White Sauce
25g low fat butter
25g plain flour
600ml skimmed milk
salt and pepper

Method:
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft.
Drain the water and mash with half the butter.
Heat a pan until hot and add the remaining butter, two tbsp of water and the sliced cabbage. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, until just cooked through.

Add the cabbage mixture to the potatoes, then add most of the hot milk. Do not pour in all the milk as you may not need it all. Season to taste, with salt and pepper, and beat until creamy and smooth. Add more milk if necessary to achieve your preferred consistency.
Meanwhile, for the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and gradually stir in the milk to get a smooth sauce. Return to the heat, and stirring all the time, bring to boil.

Simmer gently for 8-10 minutes and season with salt and pepper.
Finally, grill the gammon steak for 8-10 minutes, until cooked.

Smoked Salmon Pate
Serves: 6
ProPoints per Serving: 3

Ingredients:
255g smoked salmon
110g extra light Philadelphia cream cheese
2 tbsp half fat creme de fraiche
2 tbsp chopped chives
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper

Method:
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until it has the consistency you desire. Season to taste but remember that smoked salmon is quite salty by itself.

Good Hearty Meals

Every meeting my leader mentions 'Mammy dinners'. When people join WW, we tend to forgo the 'Mammy dinners' in favour of seemingly healthier, low pointed foods. I was one of these people. I was also eating the same types of food day in day out. My meals were based around my 'treats'. I put treats in inverted commas because the word treat implies a single, one-off item. For me, treats meant three or four low point items consumed throughout the day. This could easily add up to 12/15 points alone. If you are one of these people, a little trick I learned was to write all treats in red pen on your tracker. This was you can clearly see how many points you are using on treats.

It has finally clicked that with me that weight loss is not a quick fix thing. It does not matter what plan you follow, you have to take it a week at a time. Some weeks you will be perfect and see a loss, others you may see a gain. In January I was panicking because I was running out of time to lose the weight before X, Y or Z. The truth is I want to lose the weight for me, for life. The reason I am saying all this is because this time around I have decided to listen to my new leader and focus on eating delicious, filling and healthy meals.

Since deciding to do this I am eating more red meat. Before I would have stuck religiously to plain chicken fillets. Beef is delicious and the juices add so much flavour to your meal. I had this gorgeous steak dinner for only 11 propoints. It consists of 150g lean sirlion steak fried in low fat butter (5 pps for beef, 1pp for butter),  100g potatoes, mashed with salt and drop of slimline milk (2 pps for potatoes, 1 pp for milk), roasted veg dripped in balsamic vinegar and sea salt (2 pps for parsnip). It was so filling and I did not feel bloated after it either. The gravy is made from the juices of the meat and a tbsp of Bistro granules which are zero propoints.

Slimbos with smoked salmon,
poached eggs and caeser mayo.

The new craze at the moment are Slimbos. They are thinner versions of ciabattas. They are great for open sandwich recipes. One is 3 pps and two are 5 pps. I have used them for Steak Sandwich, Smoked Salmon and Poached Egg Sandwich and Breakfast Butties. You can load up with side salads or roasted veg to make yourself a gorgeous meal.

The Hairy Dieters Recipe book has some fantastic recipes in it. Their recipes are low calorie versions of every day meals. I have made their Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie, Lamb Hoptpot, Italian Meatballs and many more. I will post some of the recipes along with the propoints over the next few weeks.

Chicken Stroganoff

My mum makes a gorgeous beef stroganoff which I love. However it is a very creamy dish. I have altered the recipe to make it more WW friendly. It is only 8 propoints and makes a great change from the typical spuds and meat dinners. I have posted the recipe in a separate post.

When new members join Weight Watchers, they believe they will be eating carrot sticks and lettuce for their meals. As I have shown, this does not have to be the case. You can have lovely home cooked meals if you so choose. It is about using your points wisely. If you eliminate the junk from your diet, you will have plenty of points for good hearty meals. You will probably find you will crave junk food less as you are more satisfied and less hungry.