Master piece or Messy piece - it all tasted good!

17^th September 2012

A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure.

Well I had a lovely time in my kitchen yesterday morning after taking Alfie for his walk.  I decided I wanted to make a Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni recipe so I went through every Weight Watcher cook book I had and found one in the last book = typical!  Then I laughed when I took the lid off the ricotta to find another recipe under that, I read both and decided not to follow either, I wanted to make up my own recipe and get creative, it would either be a messy piece or a master piece!  The following makes two dishes one with tuna and one with chorizo, if you’re vegetarian you could just leave them out and reduce the ProPoints value.

2 batches of white sauce -complete kitchen (16pp for 2/3rds) (you could buy and use a jar I suppose)	£0.52
250g ricotta (10pp)	£1.00
can olives (5pp)	£1.00
200g sweet chilli philadelphia light (8pp)	£1.75
200g defrosted frozen spinach	£0.30
160g bag spinach	£1.00
diced pepper	£0.60
250g box cannelloni (24pp)	£0.65
jar pasta sauce (whatever's on offer) (7pp)	£1.00
400g passata (0pp)	£1.00
cathedral city light (120g) (10pp)	£1.50
	£10.32
tuna x 2 basic (6pp)	£1.50
chorizo x 50g (6pp)	£0.75
tuna one cost £6.66 served 6 at 8pp each £1.11 per portion
chorizo one cost £5.91 served 4 at 11pp each £1.45 per portion

 

Mix together, olives (halved), spinach, ricotta, phili light, both spinach, & pepper.

Split between two bowls.

Add 2 tins of tuna to the one bowl.

In two oven dishes, split the tubes, in one fill the cannelloni tubes with the tuna mixture, in the other dish use the other mixture bowl and do the same.

Next combine pasta sauce and passata in a jug then pour over the two dishes, ½ in each.

Slice chorizo onto the top of the none tuna dish.

Next make double quantity of the white sauce recipe as in Complete Kitchen cook book (24pp total) split it three ways, (put 1/3^rd in a jar for use in the week as a pasta sauce or for cauliflower cheese) and pour the rest between the two dishes.

Top with cathedral light cheese and cook in oven for 40mins on gas mark 6.

Delicious, tuna dish serves 6 easily, and the chorizo one serves 4. Both are freezable.

This could be made as a lasagne rather than cannelloni, I used the veggies I had to hand, and you can leave out anything you don’t like.

One on left is tuna, the one below is the chorizo, both were very tasty.

I also made my favourite chicken hotpot and chicken curry which is so easy, 2 packs of chicken thighs for £7 from asda, 8 used in the hotpot, 6 in curry, 2 for Alfie!

 

Chicken hot pot

8 chicken oxo’s in 1 litre boiling water, 8 thighs (skin removed & obvious fat cut off), 3-4 medium onions, 4-6 medium carrots, 600g potato

Place chicken, carrots & onions in roasting tray, thinly slice potatoes to top casserole, then pour chicken oxo stock over the top, get all the potatoes wet.  Cover in foil and cook on low for a few hours, remove foil and turn ove up higher, leave to brown. Serve and enjoy. (12pp if you have 2 thighs & serving 4 or 6pp if serving 8) Cost = £1.58 per portion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken curry & riceAdd 6 skinned & trimmed chicken thighs (24pp) to a jar of Sainsbury’s basic curry sauce (8pp) and cook in oven until ready, I cooked it with the casserole.

Optional

- add 1 diced carrot & 1 onion diced (helps with 5 a day)

- I add sultanas (1 tablespoon = 2pp) because I like them, it sweetens the curry.

 

Serves 3 (11pp) or 6 (5pp) depending on your appetite, then 60g of rice per person for an additional 6pp or 200g frozen chips for 7pp.

 

The hotpot is £1.58 per portion, the curry £1.07, all good cheap meals, the cannelloni shows you don’t have to leave out anything that adds flavour, it’s all about portion sizes.  Both dishes were delicious, mom ate the tuna, I had the chorizo, I also had hot pot for my tea and it was my best yet, I have to say that’s up there with my favourite meals ever, so simple to make, so delicious to eat.

My fridge and freezer is now full and I have plenty of food for the week, made over 20 individual dishes in a couple of hours.

I’ve worked out how much my eating has cost me over the last three days and it averages at £3.39 a day for three meals, I think that proves you can afford to lose weight and use what you save to come to Weight Watchers ;-)  I’ll continue to do it for the foreseeable as I put together a month of meal plans for the future. 

I caught my mom at the ice cream van yesterday buying crisps, she spent a fiver!  That shows where money gets wasted, it’s not the good wholesome food, it’s the unnecessary junk we eat. 

YAY it’s Monday, try to remember every days a bonus x