I SURVIVED FREE FOOD!

9^th August 2018

The sun will always rise and dogs will always be happy to see you.

I’ve not had a great night and got up and its dark – boo, that really shows the best of summer is gone.  Hot weather, knee pain and a dog that’s not had a great night either have all added up to me being awake more than I’ve slept and now for my longest work day – happy days!  But I’m gonna go make me a cuppa cos moms just woke up too and I’m sure I’ll be right as once I’ve drunk that.

That’s better, nice glass of water and a cup of tea to kick me into action, who needs sleep ay.  Anyway, Day 11 of eating well and I do believe I had a major result last night, little mini success if I do say so myself.  I was treated to a Chinese last night, Chinese casserole and chips, but instead of thinking oh I’ll just have it and start again tomorrow, I weighed the chips which were 30SP and thought nah, I don’t think so, they got left.  Then I weighed the Chinese casserole, which was actually some sort of Chicken sweet and sour kind of dish, it was 500g, now if you look that up on the app it’s 54 points, when I checked out sweet and sour sauce from Supermarkets, they all come in at an average of 6SP per 100g.  So what did I do, well I opened a packet of microwave rice and took half out for 5SP, I fried some mushrooms and peas in spray light, added the rice then an egg at the end for egg fried rice.   I picked out the chicken breast pieces, onions, mushrooms and peas from the Chinese casserole trying to leave behind as much of the sauce as possible, managed to leave 150g of sauce in the tub, saving a good ten points there.  Ended up with a truly delicious if still high pointed tea;

 

I know I could have made sweet and sour myself for less, here’s two versions;

Zero Hero Sweet and Sour Chicken

Total 3sp ~ feeds 4 ~ 0sp per serving

6 skinless chicken breast fillets, very thinly sliced or 6 Quorn Fillets
6 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp light soy sauce (2sp)
Low calorie cooking spray
1 tbsp dark soy sauce (1sp)
2 tbsp sweetener
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
100ml passata
Spring onion slivers and lime wedges, to garnish

Place the chicken in a shallow ceramic dish. Sprinkle over the spring onions and garlic, season well and pour over the light soy sauce. Toss to mix well, cover and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Spray a large non-stick frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and place over a high heat. Add the chicken mixture and cook for 5-6 minutes and then add the dark soy sauce, sweetener, vinegar, paprika, 5-spice powder and passata. Stir to mix well and bring the mixture to the boil.

Reduce the heat and cook gently for 3-4 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Check the seasoning before serving garnished with spring onion sliver and lime wedges to squeeze over.

I'd be tempted to throw in some pineapple chunks too for extra sweet!

Add rice for 6sp per 60g dried weight or cauliflower rice for zero.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Total 6SP 1 Smart Points

Prep time:10 min Cook time:17 min feeds:4 Difficulty: Easy

5 spray(s) Calorie controlled cooking spray

1 medium Onion(s), peeled and sliced

500g Chicken breast, skinless, raw (4 x 125g breasts)

2 medium Carrots, raw, peeled and thinly sliced in sticks

225g Pineapple, can, chunks in natural juice

2 tablespoons Tomato Purèe (1 sp)

3 tablespoons Vinegar, All Types, malt

1 tablespoons Muscovado Sugar (4sp)

2 tablespoons Soy Sauce, dark (1sp)

Spray a frying pan with the low-fat cooking spray, add the onion and cook, stirring for 5 minutes over a medium heat, until softened.

Cut the chicken into bite size chunks and add to the pan.

Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes until golden on all sides.

Add the carrots, pineapple and juice, tomato puree, vinegar, sugar and soy sauce, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until the chicken is tender.

Now what I did like about that one last night was the onions were sliced chunky and there were tomatoes in it cut into quarters, it also had mushrooms and peas, so I’m tempted to use the two above and these ingredients to try and replicate it.  The sauce was thickish which could be achieved with cornflour.  Anyway, enough of the Chinese, I stayed on track and ate well, YAY go me!

The rest of the day I had salmon, spinach and egg for breakfast, nom nom.   

Then I enjoyed an hour in the kitchen dicing carrots and onions and peeling potatoes to make a beef mince hotpot which turned out devine.  500g x 5% beef mince, 500g potatoes sliced thinly, 2 carrots, 4 onions both diced finely and I threw in 4 diced mushrooms that I had lying about in the kitchen.  4 oxos and a spoonful of mustard mixed together with the water from the sliced potatoes, I boiled them for five minutes, at the same time frying the mince, carrots, onions, then added to oxo mixture before topping with the potato and cooking in the oven on medium until the potato slices had cooked through and browned.  Absolutely worth every one of the 6 Smart Points in a quarter of the pan.

Yep I love food I do and with a bit of thinking, a little time and effort you can make delicious food easily and mostly quickly.

Almost wide awake now, a can of diet coke when I get to my meeting and I’ll be good to go, need to ensure I don’t let tiredness get mistaken for hunger, need to be prepared today.  Going to go hard boil some eggs now, got a food shop coming lunchtime, will have a go at this sweet and sour thing and also roast a couple of chicken breasts so I’ve got something in the fridge to pick on.  I will survive day 11 and I’ll catch ya tomorrow having had another good day that will have been tracked in my Journal, oh yes, on week 2 of honest tracking in my lovely Weight Watcher journal (I love a bargain, on offer ain’t they! Here’s to working on a healthy life BeYOUtiful and having a very great day.