Erm's Photo Diary

[ermintrude]

That was Good Food magazine, August edition. Although I did buy a book based on some of the recipes I've made out of it - 'Vegetarian' by Alice Hart. Its got some lovely recipes in but also lots of posh, faffy stuff that Im really never going to bother with - but there's a few that do look fantastic - carrot, coriander & halloumi fritters look good, or butternut squash & coriander falafels, I'm gonna try those this week Also a great Sambal I want to try but Tesco didn't deliver some of the ingredients so Ive got to go rooting around the grocers next week.

Hopefully this will be the end of salads for a bit Having spicy Spanish kebabs again tonight, one of my faves, yum yum

Yeah Im just about out of recipes now, I go a bit mad each time the new set of food mags come out and make everything in sight, then run out of ideas and resort to my staples (This month all the mags were on salads, so thats all Ive been cooking for the last 10 days ) Most of the new recipes come out OK, they're nice enough but not great enough for me to bother making again, but occasionally I come across the odd gem that I adapt into a new staple

 

[ginlin]

The spicy spanish kebabs sound delicious, what it the recipe?

 

[ermintrude]

Spicy Spanish kebabs:

4 garlic cloves, peeled & roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp each of: cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds
2 tsp Smoked paprika
1/2 tsp mild chilli powder
2 tsp dried oregano
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (4 syns but serves 2)
2 chicken breasts (about 400-500g)
4 skewers

- Cut chicken into square inch pieces and put aside in a bowl
- Put the garlic & salt in a pestle and mortar and crush until form a paste (you could just use a garlic press and mix with salt if you havent got a P&M, but try to get a good paste). Add to chicken bowl with plenty of freshly ground black pepper
- Whizz the seeds in a spice grinder/mini processor (or toast lightly and crush in your P&M. If you haven't got either you could use ready ground spices but it won't be so tasty). Add to the chicken bowl.
- Add paprika, chilli, lemon juice and olive oil to the chicken bowl, mix everything together well and store in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably overnight to marinade.
- When ready to cook, thread onto skewers, place on a baking tray, cover in foil and bake at 200C/180 fan for about 20 min or until done, removing foil for last 5 minutes of cooking time.

I interspersed my meat with peppers and red onion this time, to bulk it out a bit so we got 2 kebabs each and to add a bit of superfree. Served with mango salsa, spicy sweet wedges and green salad:

This is definitely my fave kebab recipe so far! :drool:

 

[ermintrude]

So, here's the diary that that was for:

Saturday 23rd - Extra Easy
Breakfast: Coffee & toast (1 HEXA & 1 HEXB, 2 syns)
Lunch: None Busy busy and didn't get round to eating til 4pm when I snacked on my Graze box I'd been saving for Saturday treats.
Tea: Spanish kebab with mango salsa, spicy sweet wedges and green salad - 2 syns for oil.
Snacks: Apple, Graze box: 20g pistachios = 6 syns;
74g spicy cashews = 20 syns; crispy nuts = 2½ syns; 2g Tom Yum Yum = ½ syn. 5 glasses Saturday wine = 47.5 syns.

Ahem. OK, enjoyed that. Now dust self off, back to Plan

 

[ermintrude]

I was actually really glad I had that Graze box. We all know nuts are hideous, hideous for syns so I just dont eat them, but weighing them and calculating the syns really reinforced it for me! Ridiculously *tiny* box of nuts that you could polish off in seconds without considering it, a mouthful of nuts, TWENTY SYNS!!!! Just insane. I enjoyed it but it reminded me why I dont do it normally.

 

[ginlin]

Thank you for the Spanish Kebab recipe, it looks and sounds delicous!

I was thinking of sending for one of those Graze boxes, don't think I will be now!

 

[ermintrude]

The Graze boxes are extortionate in syns, nothing free in there. Full of nuts, dried fruit and fried corn/rice snacks. I got it as a free trial when I topped up my phone.

They send you a little nutritional info leaflet with it and it's horrifying - some of the stuff is up to *600 kcal* per 100g! One was 55% fat, another was 56% sugar. The front of the leaflet says "I'm a Healthy Star!" It's so misleading. It's not even like McD's where they get away with it by rambling on about how it 'shouldn't be a regular meal' and all that - these guys actively promote it as a snack that it's healthy to 'graze' on every day.

There's four little punnets per Graze box and the calories in each punnet ranged from 78.2 (for a 17g box!) to 240. And the calories *do* matter as nothing here is free food, so it's all 1 syn per 20 calories! Box 1 added up to 512 kcal (26 syns), box 2 was 691kcal (35 syns). And that's supposed to be an everyday snack - 700 calories as a snack? You're better off with chocolate or a McD's for that money!

 

[NikkiP]

Eeek they sound scary. Am feeling very bashful today . Went out for dinner last night and although I did well with black bream and ragu, the night also consisted of chocolate cake (why oh why) and 6 glasses of wine. Feel so guilty now. . Xx

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[Honeyoc]

That was Good Food magazine, August edition. Although I did buy a book based on some of the recipes I've made out of it - 'Vegetarian' by Alice Hart. Its got some lovely recipes in but also lots of posh, faffy stuff that Im really never going to bother with - but there's a few that do look fantastic - carrot, coriander & halloumi fritters look good, or butternut squash & coriander falafels, I'm gonna try those this week Also a great Sambal I want to try but Tesco didn't deliver some of the ingredients so Ive got to go rooting around the grocers next week.

Hopefully this will be the end of salads for a bit Having spicy Spanish kebabs again tonight, one of my faves, yum yum

Yeah Im just about out of recipes now, I go a bit mad each time the new set of food mags come out and make everything in sight, then run out of ideas and resort to my staples (This month all the mags were on salads, so thats all Ive been cooking for the last 10 days ) Most of the new recipes come out OK, they're nice enough but not great enough for me to bother making again, but occasionally I come across the odd gem that I adapt into a new staple

Oh I subscribe to good food, August edition has been sitting on my nightstand in its plastic wrapping for a week! LOL!!

Ooohhh very nice selection of salads! I spotted your chickpea and mackerel salad as well. I have a tin of steamcooked mackerel, maybe I'll use it for that recipe. And will definitely try the red rice salad! I just need to get a pomegranate and feta!

Just out of interest do you ever eat pasta? I haven't seen it on your diary, curious to see what you do with yours lol! Thanks for sharing

 

[ermintrude]

I used to eat pasta all the time but the problem is I only really like it with pesto I *adore* it, I put nearly the whole jar on one bowl of pasta, it's divine... So I don't have it any more :cry: My last Tesco order came with a free sachet of pesto and its soooo tempting to open it but there's 11.5 syns just in that little sachet Still, maybe I will use it cos its not like I can add the rest of the jar this time

I'm not all that keen on tomato-y sauces or cheese-y ones, but I'd try it if I saw one that looked tasty. Probably will when the autumn/winter mags start coming out. eg I quite like lasagne but its a bit of a faff so I dont really bother, plus last time I was on SW there was no EE so having mince AND pasta was a bit of a no-no and I'm not really out of that old habit yet. I'm not a great fan of Quorn mince so never used that in it.

Ah I used to subscribe to Good Food! I didn't renew after the 1st year tho and have only just started buying it again really. I wasn't enthralled with the mackerel or red rice chicken recipes tbh, they were both nice enough, nothing wrong with them, but I wouldn't bother making them again. The kebabs on p. 93 are to die for though! They're what the pic above is of, I've made them twice now (although I used chicken instead of pork, doubled the spice mix: meat ratio, only used 2 tsp olive oil and ditched the bread)

 

[ermintrude]

Eeek they sound scary. Am feeling very bashful today . Went out for dinner last night and although I did well with black bream and ragu, the night also consisted of chocolate cake (why oh why) and 6 glasses of wine. Feel so guilty now. . Xx

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

Ah don't feel guilty! It's good to go off track once in a while, SW shouldn't be a prison! Once I start setting unbreakable-rules I automatically break them! Hope you enjoyed yourself, everyone's allowed a day off

 

[Honeyoc]

I used to eat pasta all the time but the problem is I only really like it with pesto I *adore* it, I put nearly the whole jar on one bowl of pasta, it's divine... So I don't have it any more :cry: My last Tesco order came with a free sachet of pesto and its soooo tempting to open it but there's 11.5 syns just in that little sachet Still, maybe I will use it cos its not like I can add the rest of the jar this time

I'm not all that keen on tomato-y sauces or cheese-y ones, but I'd try it if I saw one that looked tasty. Probably will when the autumn/winter mags start coming out. eg I quite like lasagne but its a bit of a faff so I dont really bother, plus last time I was on SW there was no EE so having mince AND pasta was a bit of a no-no and I'm not really out of that old habit yet. I'm not a great fan of Quorn mince so never used that in it.

Ah I used to subscribe to Good Food! I didn't renew after the 1st year tho and have only just started buying it again really. I wasn't enthralled with the mackerel or red rice chicken recipes tbh, they were both nice enough, nothing wrong with them, but I wouldn't bother making them again. The kebabs on p. 93 are to die for though! They're what the pic above is of, I've made them twice now (although I used chicken instead of pork, doubled the spice mix: meat ratio, only used 2 tsp olive oil and ditched the bread)

Oooh you mean the Rick Stein one? Will definitely try it! The chorizo and soft boiled egg salad on pg 23 looks good too. Chorizo is only 2.5 syns per oz and that's enough per portion I think. I think with the red rice, I'll cook it in stock to give it some taste and maybe instead of lemon juice, use some red wine vinegar and add a shot of wholegrain mustard. From the recipe alone, it seemd like it would be a little two dimensional and flat.

Anyway better go see to my beans. I'm making Nigerian brown beans with plantain! I'll put the recipe and pic in my diary. You might like it as it's very beany

 

[ermintrude]

Yeah the Rick Stein one. Another book I want Yeah the chicken & red rice was a bit 'flat'.

Mm looked at that chorizo one, looks yummy. I made another chorizo one the other day and I was amazed how few syns it was tbh when you saw how much oil came out when you cooked it!

Ooh look forward to seeing the pics, never cooked plantain myself, only takeaway stuff at Notting Hill, Yeah I might try that, happy cooking x

 

[ermintrude]

Sunday 24th - Green
Breakfast: Coffee & toast (1 HEXA & 1 HEXB, 2 syns)
Lunch: No lunch again!
Tea: Buffet salad: lentil hummus, carrot & cumin hummus (1 syn for tahini), 2 types of watermelon salad (1 HEXA for low fat Feta, 1 syn for oil, 1.5 syns for sunflowers seeds. Plus spicy veggie sausages (1.5 syns) and the usual lettuce and stuff. Well that was a bit of a faff, was just having hummus, salad & sausages but got a giant watermelon that's been here for 3 weeks so thought I'd use some of it up. Wish I hadnt bothered cos I wasnt keen on the salad anyway
Snacks: 2 apples

Not really been hungry today, not sure why Is this what 'normal' people feel like?

 

[ermintrude]

Monday 25th - Green
Breakfast: Coffee & toast (1 HEXA & 1 HEXB, 2 syns)
Lunch: Leftovers from last night: lentil hummus, carrot hummus, veggies and green salad.
Tea: Spicy citrus black bean stew. 1 syn for orange juice. OMG This was GORGEOUS!!!
Snacks: 2 apples

 

[silly sausage]

I used to eat pasta all the time but the problem is I only really like it with pesto I *adore* it, I put nearly the whole jar on one bowl of pasta, it's divine... So I don't have it any more :cry:

I think it is the oil, cheese and pine nuts that give pesto syns, but it is the basil that gives it the great taste. I make a lowish syn version of pesto using Gourmet Garden Basil Blend (8 cals per tsp). It is insanely herby. Mix with a bit of garlic and philly and add to pasta. Not quite the same, but not bad....especially with a side of krisprolls rubbed with garlic

http://www.gourmetgarden.com/uk/product/view/Basil

 

[Kia-Ora]

Hi hope u don't mind me looking in, ur food & diary looks fantastic!!! V inspiring

 

[ermintrude]

Well, no diary for a few days as I've been poorly and basically just snacking all day on easy stuff like sandwiches, wraps, salads and Quorn bits. Feeling a bit better today so made an easy one, just chicken & veggies.

Friday 29th - Red
Breakfast: Coffee & toast (1 HEXA & 1 HEXB, 2 syns)
Lunch: Weight Watchers wrap - stuffed with lettuce, carrot, Marmite cheese & jalapenos, with mixed veggies and sweetfire beetroot on the side - 5 syns for wrap, 4 syns for cheese, 1 syn for sweet fire
Tea: Chicken stuffed with Feta, basil and garlic and wrapped in parma Ham, with broccoli sprouts and carrots. 1HEXA for Feta, 5.5 syns for Parma Ham
Snacks: 2 apples, 1 Muller cheesecake (1 syn)

Hopefully make some yummier stuff tomorrow

 

[ginlin]

As always, looks and sounds delicious

 

[craftylucyloo]

How do you make that black bean citrus stew pleasy wease??? xx