Struggling to find easy to cook meals!

[claire_h]

Hi everyone!

After saying im going to start SW for ages, i have finally done it.... But its only day 1 and im finding it really hard! The main issue is evening meals for the family. My hubby does most of the cooking, and although he knows how to cook, he can only do it if there is tonnes of olive oil involved and loads of fat. We have just been sat deciding what to have for tea tomorrow night and he cant think of anything to cook! the other issue is that my tea is reheated, he cooks then leaves the house for work, then i reheat when i come in. I cant find any recepies simple enough for him to understand (hes not english- hes only been here a year and although his reading is gettng better, its still not as good as ours!) All the recepies i have found with low syn values have been really difficult to make or all chicken not that i mind chicken, just gets boring after a while. can any one point me in the right direction for some easy to cook and prepare (and cheap!) meals that i can eat and then reheat.

Also, do i get extra syns for excercise? used up 14 syns today and i feel like ive hardly eaten anything! Because its day 1 i havent done a shop yet so its just been finding what i can in the cupboards.

Thanks!
xxx

 

[amythyst5961]

Hey hun - Why dont you ley us know the types of meals he cooks for you and we can see if we can fidnd any Sw versions of them ?? If chicken isnt for you - what kind of stuff so you and the family like ?

Lisa x

 

[claire_h]

Hi Lisa,

thanks for replying. Just to give you an example, sitting in front of me now (uneaten!) is 2 chicken breasts cooked so they are so dry i cant possibly eat them. baby sweetcorn, carrots, maunge tous and green beans, and mash potato (made just with milk from allowence. I just added some gravy (2 syns- i loaded it on!) to try to counter balance the dryness of the chicken and no joy. so im left with just fruit for tea again (same as last night because he thought that cooking the chicken with the skin on was ok) im starving hungry. lunches are not working eather. i love bread, so sandwhiches and salad would be perfect- but i also like ceriel in the morning for b/fast, so i use that as my b choice. so i cant have bread for lunch. salad is ok, but just leaves me hungry and i have a fruit corner yoghurt at lunch. heres what ive had for the past 24 hours:

tues breakfast:
crunchynut cornflakes: 5 syns
milk from hex a.

lunch:
tuna pasta salad (didnt eat it- didnt like the tuna with no mayo.)
asda fruit corner yoghurt, low fat- 6 syns.

Dinner:
Chicken legs cooked in one of those bags with herbs (you know the one i mean!) but the skin was left on the chicken when cooking i ate 1 because i really needed something to eat.
mixed veg
rice.
salad with 1tbsp olive oil
fruit.

wed breakfast:
shreddies hex b
250ml milk hex a

lunch:
baked potatoes with beans (ate half, just didnt fancy it)
asda yoghurt same as yesterday 6syns
fruit.

dinner: well you know that from earlier.

im really hungry now, and im just thinking sod it- i need to eat, i know i havent had all my syns for today, but 11 just doesnt seem to go very far at all.

Im not a big veg eater- i eat them because i have to, i love all things carb! bread, potatoes, pasta. Like meat, beef, chicken, lamb (no pork) lunches need to be taken to work, and reheated in the microwave and dinners need to be able to be made in advance then reheated.

thanks for you help and sorry for the really long post!

Cxx

 

[MrsCupcake]

Hi Claire, try buying the Slimming World magazine, the recipes are really inspiring. Also, could you do some batch cooking and freeze things like casseroles and stews so neither of you have to cook in the evening sometimes?

I think Lisa means what sort of meals would you normally eat, before SW and hopefully there will be low syn versions. x

 

[ermintrude]

You dont have to take the skin off the chicken Its fine to cook it *in* the skin as long as you dont actually eat the skin - take it off before you eat it.
Also no reason not to have mayo with your tuna, just use a low fat version and not too much of it - thats what your syns are for.
Like Lisa said, tell us the sort of stuff you would normally *like* to eat and we can tell you how you can cook it so it fits SW. Most things are pretty adaptable if you reduce fat/sugar in them and add plenty of superfree

 

[BritMumInCanada]

There is actually a huge amount of possibilities and variety for meals. The list is actually endless because the free food list is so huge. Okay so some things are not free, but like others said, that is what your syns are there for. Olive oil can still be used, just use it more sparingly and then divided up between a meal that serves say 4 people, the syns arent actually too bad.

I have a recipe blog which might give you some ideas - Slimming World Recipes - Slimming Eats. Also check out the recipes on here.

Plus I really recommend checking out the food diaries section, so you can see what others are eating to give you some more ideas too.

Once you focus more on what you can have and not what you can't, the plan becomes a way of life and is as easy as the new plans name - Extra Easy