Chicken Tagine

Ingredients:

1/2 onion diced

Small piece of ginger, chopped

Sprig of rosemary, chopped

2 tsp olive oil

Small piece of chilli, chopped

1 stick of cinnamon

1 chicken breast, cubed

1/2 tin tomatoes

70g dried apricots

Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Sauté onion, ginger, chilli and rosemary until soft.

2. Add cinnamon, apricots and chicken, stir until browned.

3. Add tomatoes and water to cover. Bring to boil.

4. Simmer for 30 mins

12PPs

I served this with plain cous cous.

Seafood Pad Thai

I love the Pad Thai from my local takeaway but it would be very point heavy as it's oily! I decided to make my own version and it was delicious.

Ingredients:

* 1 courgette (I made it into noodles using a julienne peeler)

* 1/2 carrot cut into thin batons

* handful of mange tout

* 2 baby corn sliced

* 2 small spring onions, sliced

* 1 clove of garlic, chopped

* 1 small piece of ginger, chopped

* 100g mixed seafood frozen

Sauce:

* 30g peanuts, slightly crushed

* 15g Crunchy peanut butter

* tbsp light soy sauce

* splash of fish sauce

* tsp chilli powder

Method:

1. Mix the sauce ingredients together with a desert spoon of water, set aside.

2. Heat the garlic, ginger and spring onions. Add the other veg and seafood.

3. Stir in the sauce and mix well.

4 after about 5 mins add the courgette noodles and stir well

Serves 1 (huge bowl) 9 points

Could also be served with shredded chicken or pork. 

Portuguese Fish Stew

Oh my goodness, I can't tell you how yummy this filling, healthy and flavoursome stew is!

Ingredients: 

* 1 red onion, finely diced

* 1 large clove of garlic, chopped

* 1/2 red chilli, chopped

* 1/2 red pepper, roughly chopped

* 1/4 fennel bulb, roughly chopped

* 1/2 carrot, chopped (I did little sticks)

* 2 cod loins (or similar)

* 100g of mixed seafood

* 1 tin of chopped tomatoes

* 1 tsp tomato puree

* 1 fish stock cube (optional)

* 1 tsp cayenne pepper

* 2 tsps paprika

* 2 bay leaves

* 2 tbsps olive oil (I used one of basil infused and one chilli infused)

* 1 tbsp chopped coriander

Method:

1. Fry onions in 1 tbsp of olive oil until soft, stir in garlic and chilli.

2. Add in tomato puree, tinned tomatoes and fill the empty can with water. Stir together.

3. Mix in the carrot, fennel and red pepper.

4. Add the herbs and spices (except coriander) and the stock cube.

5. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

6. Cut the fish into bitesized pieces and add to the pan with the other seafood and the rest of the oil.

7. Stir gently and allow to simmer for a further 8-10 minutes.

8. Sprinkle over the coriander and serve.

Serves 2. 

4.5 Propoints per serving.

As with all my recipes, this can easily be adapted to suit your tastes. You can reduce the points by substituting the olive oil for spray oil, but I loved the oily taste and sheen it gives. You can omit the chilli if you prefer things less hot. Other vegetables could be used such as leek, butternut squash, courgette, fresh tomatoes, celery. I used to make a version of this when I was a poor student which only used cheap frozen baby prawns, tin of tomatoes, onion, garlic and paprika, so it's very versatile! 

Roast Tomato Tart

This tart is really, really easy to make and tastes amazing. It could be easily adapted to suit what ingredients you have.

Ingredients:

1 pack of Jus Roll Light Puff Pastry

1 pack of cherry tomatoes

60g pesto (I used Tesco Low Fat Pesto)

2 tablespoons of capers

90g cheese (I used Tesco Lighter Grated Cheese - mature)

Black Pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220/200 for fan oven, apply spray oil to baking sheet.

2. Lay pastry sheet into baking sheet. Mine went slightly over the edges - it really doesn't matter!

3. Spread pesto over the pastry, leaving c1cm of pastry uncovered around the edges.

4. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and lay across whole tart, scatter capers, cheese and black pepper.

5. Cook for 20 mins until the tomatoes begin to blacken and the pastry is golden.

Serves 6 comfortably. I had it with a side salad for lunch.

5 WW Propoints per 1/6 of a tart (9 for 2/6)

Prawn Soup

Some food experiments work, some are a disaster! Luckily, tonight's experiment culminated in a rich, low fat, filling and tasty soup that I will definitely make again.

Ingredients:

* 1 red onion, diced

* 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

* 1 medium carrot, diced

* 1/2 red pepper, chopped

* 1/3 red chilli, deseeded

* 1 mug of passata

* 1 small squeeze of tomato purée

* 1/2 tsp fennel seeds

* 1/2 tsp shrimp paste or 1 fish stock cube

* 150-200g prawns (I used the cheap, tiny ones)

Method:

1) Sweat down the onion and garlic until softened

2) Stir in the carrot, chilli and red pepper with the tomato purée and fennel

3) After about 2 minutes, add in the passata and 2 mugs of water. Combine well and add the stock cube or shrimp paste

4) Leave to gently simmer for 6 minutes

5) Add in the prawns and allow to gently cook for another 6 minutes

6) Remove from heat and blitz with a hand 'gobbler' 

I had it on its own but could serve with croutons, fresh bread, grilled 'posh' prawns, a swirl of creme fraiche or chilli oil or with some fresh coriander.

1 propoint per big batch (enough for 3 big bowls) on Filling and Healthy.

Healthy Stuffed Mushrooms

I get so bored of eating sandwiches and salads for lunch! Here's a really easy recipe that can be adapted to contain whatever takes your fancy.

Ingredients:

2 large mushrooms
2 slices of low cal brown bread
1 spring onion
2 rashers of bacon medallions
Handful of fresh parsley
30g low fat cheese
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. In a food processor, add the mushroom stalks, bread, roughly chopped spring onion, parsley, chopped bacon and salt and pepper. Blitz until the consistency of stuffing.
2. Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and place the cheese, grated, on top.
3. Grill under a medium grill for 10 mins.