Melt In The Middle Meatballs & Our Bank Holiday Weekend - #MorrisonsMum

Armed with my Bank Holiday Slimming World Menu Plan, I headed off to the big Morrisons at Cribs Causeway. I could have gone to my more local one but as its a little on the small side I decided to treat myself & go a bit further so I could take a look at their home range etc.. That ended up backfiring on me, as I was so busy choosing what food to buy I ran out of time to have a good look at the extras!

On arriving at the store The first thing I noticed was lots of 'I'm Cheaper' banners & signs letting me know how much they had reduced over 1000, products by. Many of these are products that i would buy on a weekly basis & it brings Morrisons pricing more in-line with the budget supermarkets, whilst still offering the wide range & great service. I was impressed with their 3 for £1.50 veg & 3 for £10 meat deals. I did however find a couple of products I didn't buy as I know I can get them cheaper elsewhere; these were Pepsi Max & own brand fruit & fibre.

This was after I'd put away the chilled & frozen bits!

I bought lots of superfree foods to see me through the weeked & found some great new Highlights flavours! I also managed to buy everything I needed for my menu plan, except Warburtons Squarish Wraps, which I substituted for Warburtons Pitta Halves (only 75p).

On Saturday he boys had great fun decorating their own mini pizzas (50p each), they used veg & ham to make a face, adding some extra cheese on top. I made one for Daddy (smart price cheese & tom £1), and my own using a Warburtons Pitta (8 syns for both halfs + HEA of cheese on top). They were delicious!

On Sunday I made:

Melt In The Middle Meatballs - Slimming World Friendly

Ingrediants:

400g Extra Lean Minced Beef (3 for £10)
1 Medium Onion
2 Garlic Cloves
1 tbsp Dried Italian Herbs
1 Large Egg White
65g Of Reduced Fat Mozzarella (1/2 a ball)  cut in to cubes
200ml Passata
400g Chopped Tomatoes
3 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 tbsp Sweetener (Granulated)
1 Pepper
100g Mushrooms
2 Beef OXO cubes
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:

Blend or finely chop 1/2 of onion & 1 garlic clove. Add to a bowl with mince, 1 tsp herbs, & beaten egg white. Mix well, I find using my fingers works best & often use latex gloves when doing so. Form in to approximately 12-14 balls each one around a piece of mozzarella. They can be chilled at this stage if you would like to finish cooking them later. Spray a frying pan with frylight & seal 5-6 meatballs at a time on all sides.

For the sauce, chop the onion & garlic. Fry in a pan using frylight, once softened add, sliced mushrooms & pepper for another 2-3 mins. Add remaining ingredients, bring to the boil, & turn down to medium putting the meatballs on top of the sauce. Cook for around 10 minutes, then turn over & cook for a further 10 mins.

Serve with spaghetti or pasta.

This made enough for all 4 of us and cost £7.02p for the meal which works out at £1.75 each, bargain!Its great to prove that eating healthy/dieting doesn't have to cost the earth.

This went down well with everyone after we'd spent the afternoon at Ashton Court Miniature Railway, having lots of fun & fresh air!

On Monday we had a roast chicken (3 for £10), with lots of veg, including roast parsnips (daddy's favourites). All cooked using fry light so my only syns were for gravy & a Yorkshire pudding (Morrisons MSavers 2syns each).

 I also decided to treat myself & make a slimming world cheese cake for dessert, Its the first time I've tried a low syn option  (5.5 syns a slice) it was nice however I want 100% happy with the base so I will tweak it & try it again. Once happy I will share the recipe!

I've loved being a #MorrisonsMum & will be doing my shopping there more often. We had a lovely bank holiday weekend, with thanks to Brit Mums & Morrisons. I was given £80 of shopping vouchers so I could write this post however all opinions are my own.

x Jo x

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Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Couple of weeks ago, before I was having to be 100% on plan with slimming world & possibly (at least part) of the reason I put 4lbs on, I decided it was about time I made the boys a pineapple upside down cake. I last baked this when we were at our old 1 bed house before the boys were born, at least 7 years ago. It an old recipe that I cooked in food technology class at school, so credit goes to my teacher (sorry I cant remember your name) & my mum for keeping the recipe.

Left Over Fried Rice - Slimming World Style

Well I'm still plugging away at loosing those extra pounds I gained at Christmas! I managed to gain 4lbs over the festive period, had a really good 100% on plan week & lost 2.5lbs, then I wasn't very good last week & managed to gain another pound. So this week I need to be on the ball again, so time to share another recipe. We really do love our rice round here, its probably part of our main meal 2-3 times per week, good job its free food on the slimming world plan.

My husbands favourite food from the Chinese is chicken fried rice, so I often make my own version without all the fat for him, or we have egg fried rice along with another dish. So at the weekend we had a gammon joint for dinner, Daniel (3.5) fund it a little tough & didn't eat much of the meat so I was reluctant to serve it cold with slimming world chips on Monday. I decided to turn it in to gammon fried rice, but you could use whatever you have left over, we have used ham, chicken, & turkey in the past, same with the veg use what you have in.

Left Over Fried Rice - Slimming World Style

Ingredients:

Left over meat trimmed of all visible fat diced
1-3 spring onions or 1 medium onion diced
1 pepper diced (or equivalent of frozen pepper)
6 mushrooms sliced or 1 tin of mushrooms drained
100g frozen peas defrosted or cooked & drained
250g (dry weight) of cooked white rice cooked with a veg or chicken stock cube
2 eggs
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil (optional adds 2 syns, but tastes more authentic)

Directions:

Heat the sesame oil in pan or spray with fry light. Cook onion until soft, add pepper, mushrooms, peas & diced meat & stir fry for 2-3mins. Crack the eggs in to a jug, whisk & season. I then scramble them in the microwave, as when I have done it in the same pan it sticks & burns. Add the cooked rice, soy sauce & egg (broken up small), stir fry until heated through & serve.

Everyone loved this meal, especially Daniel who said it was delicious & we needed to eat it everyday! Clean bowls all round....

x Jo x 
 
This post  is an entry into the Tots 100 Co-operative Electrical competition.

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Slimming World - Spanish Rice Recipe

Well I think that nearly everyone's new years resolutions I've read have involved either loosing weight or eating more healthily. I have been at my target weight with slimming world for over a year now, having lost 2.5 stone, well at least I hope I still am as I haven't weighed since before Christmas! I've found it much harder to be 'good' since i got to target & don't seam to be able to have a meal or 2 off plan, the whole week seams to go & then I end up having to have an extra good week to get back down to target again! Slimming World give me a 3lb leeway either side of my target & a weeks grace before I have to start paying class fees again & so far I haven't had to pay since I hit target in October 2012. I'm really glad slimming world encourage target members to weigh regularly as if I didn't I'm sure I'd have easily have gained a stone again!

Anyway to give everyone a kick start (especially me) to a healthy new year here is one of my favourite recipes that I found on pintrest & converted to UK measurements & adapted to slimming world. Both boys love it & even daddy who has 'gone off' bolognese likes it!

Slimming World - Syn Free Spanish Rice

Ingredients:

400-500g extra lean minced beef
1 medium onion diced
1 pepper diced (or equivalent of frozen pepper)
1 tin of chopped tomatos
250ml passata
250g (dry weight) of cooked white rice
1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove of fresh)
1 tbsp granulated sweetener
Salt & pepper to taste.

Directions:

Spray a large saucepan with plenty of fry light, add minced beef, onion & pepper. Cook over a medium heat until beef is browned. Add remaining ingredients, stir until combined & cook until heated throughout. 

Serves 4-5 people, can be re-heated. It can also be frozen however the rice never comes out quite as good as when eaten fresh, but if you have an extra portion it makes a nice easy lunch.

Syn Free on  Extra Easy & a healthy low fat meal if your not following slimming world.

x Jo x

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