Spring vegetable orzotto - Slimming world lighter lunches (dairy free, soya free)

I've not done much in the way of Slimming World posts of late, and to be honest my weight loss is all the worse for it. So last week I bit the bullet and returned to my planningy ways, making a big batch of this to keep in the fridge. Eaten while Harry napped it made me realise just how much easier it is to stay on plan when I actually eat a lunch as opposed to grazing and picking.

My problem with Slimming World is still that all treaty, low syn things are chock full of sweeteners that prompt my migraines, or dairy, soya or eggs which are all on our allergy list. Last week I was very honest (and nearly tearful) in group about just how hard I'm finding it and was hugely grateful for the support there.

I found this recipe online, but had to change it up to first off make it dairy free, and secondly to give it a bit more flavour - I've made it twice since the adaptation and am happy with it. According to the app, it works out as 1 syn per 4 portions.

You could use any combination of green veggies - I've used mange tout, brocolli, asparagus, broad beans, spinach and anything else we've had to hand. It's a great fridge bottom dish to use up those odds and ends languishing in the vegetable drawer.

Spring vegetable orzotto - dairy free, egg free, soya free (adapted from the Slimming World website)
Serves 4

Fry light
300g orzo
100g spinach, leaves picked
1 head brocolli, chopped
100g frozen peas
300 ml vegetable stock
500g broad beans
Big handful asparagus/ french beans
1 Red onion, finely chopped
2 tins anchovies in olive oil (entirely optional, I know some people abhor them)
2 chillis, deseeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper

Cook the orzo in a ban of boiling, salted water. Once cooked (about 9 minutes) drain and set aside
At the same time, cook the spinach, brocolli, peas - and if you're using asparagus, the bottom of the stems in 300ml of veg stock (I use Marigold bouillon) for 5 minutes
Allow to cool - don't drain. Once cool pour the lot into a food processor or blender and whizz up. Put this to one side
Drain both tins of anchovies of oil, and chop the anchovies finely - put one tins worth to one side.
Spray a big frying pan liberally with fry light and over a medium heat soften the onion, garlic, chilli and one tin of chopped anchovies for about 10 minutes
Add the orzo to the pan, and then pour in the blended vegetable puree and stir to warm everything through
Stir in the second tin of anchovies, add pepper. Taste, and add salt if necessary - oddly I find it does need salt in addition.

I have this as is, eaten off my knees while Harry naps. It's also lovely at room temperature as a pasta salad, and if you're having it cold it goes really nicely with chopped tomatoes.

I'm linking this up with Pasta Please - hosted this month by Slice Off Me and Tinned Tomatoes  

Have you made anything from the Slimming World website? What are your favourites?

Slimming World lighter lunches - Syn free tabbouleh

My healthy 2015 is going well, I'm losing weight slowly but steadily and am as active as my hips and back will allow. One of the bonuses of baby led weaning is that Harry and I seem to eat very healthily - lots of vegetables and next to no processed food. Despite a wet, cold and rainy morning the baby and I are eating an apple (he is very keen on eating what you eat) and I have a herbal tea.

Lunches however are my downfall - only of the things that happens if we're busy is that I skip lunch and end up trying to eat the entire kitchen before supper. I seem to be someone who needs to know that what I've got to eat is tasty and satisfying, the mugshots etc which can be so popular at Slimming World just don't tend to hit the mark for me, so I typically make a batch of something up for lunch that I can either eat from the fridge or as a pack up. This gets around the difficulty of finding things I can grab and go that are dairy and soya free as well.

This is more of a tabbouleh-esque recipe as it doesn't use bulghur wheat and is more of a guideline. I tend to have it with a piece of fish, or leftover chicken, or ham. The protein is important as I'm discovering that it's that that keeps the munchies away and stabilises my blood sugar (previous attempts at weightloss that have involved *ahem* skipping meals tend to fail when my blood sugar spirals into my ballet flats at about 3pm - see comment above about eating the entire kitchen).

Syn free tabbouleh

1 cup couscous
2 tsp vegetable bouillon powder
1 cup boiling water
1 cucumber
4 big vine tomatoes
Big bunch flat leaf parsley
Big bunch mint
1 lemon
1/2 clove garlic
salt & pepper

Put the couscous in a bowl with the 2 tsp of vegetable boillon and the grated garlic (you could use a stock cube, but I found 1 cube made it too salty) and the boiling water. Leave to absorb for about 15 minutes
Dice the cucumber and tomatoes
Finely chop the parsley, and the mint leaves - I don't worry about the parsley stalks, but pick the mint leaves first. 
Zest the lemon, then juice
Add all the extra ingredients to the couscous, taste then season.
Serve with salmon, ham, chicken - anything really.

 If you aren't being healthy, then add some extra virgin olive oil when you season this - 2 tablespoons should do nicely.

Of course you can use this as a base and add any and all veggies you like, chilli would be a nice addition too. 

Meal Planning Monday - late again!

I swear - first week of January and everyone else is all motivated and organised and I'm there flapping behind, trailing in a sleep deprived, teething baby haze of Calpol, concealer and coffee. But I'm here now. And almost organised. Ish.

Meal planning for the week actually happened at the end of last week as I did our online shop for Friday. It's been quite interesting planning as I've started doing Slimming World (I know it's a bit of a new mum, new year cliche but my default weightloss position of run isn't possible because of my hips) and combining that with being dairy free for Harry is a bit of a challenge. I suspect this first week won't be entirely successful as I'm struggling with balancing being dairy free, not eating artificial sweeteners, breastfeeding, Health Extra A's and also a lot of the things that seasoned slimmers rely on like low fat yoghurts are off the table for me. Overall I've been quite hungry and conscious that I'm probably not quite meeting the mark, but am hoping my food diary and notebook will help with that come Monday.

That said Harry's reflux is so much better and his weight gain (oh the irony) is off the charts with me off dairy (and soya) that even if it means that Slimming World isn't for me it's still worth it.

The weather here is freezing, so I've been having soup each day for lunch - a homemade carrot honey and chilli concoction that I really like. It's not quite syn free as it did have a couple of teaspoons of honey and a tablespoon of olive oil - but that was for the whole batch, which has done 10 portions thus far. Next week I'm doing a yellow split pea and veg soup - a variation on this Nigella one, but without the butter or frankfurters.

Breakfasts: I've been having porridge made with oat milk (but am going to try Almond milk next week) and mixed spices - aiming for a gingerbready flavour to compensate for a lack of sugar  with a chopped apple and banana in the bowl.

Lunches: It's strange that lunch is more important now as I've spent 7 months skipping it and compensating with large quantities of biscuits...  so I'm having either soup and a tuna sandwich, or a baked potato with prawns and a plateful of veggie sticks, or an omlette with mushrooms and ham.

Suppers: 

Sunday: Super slow cooked Brisket with extra veggies

Monday: Leftover roast beef with baked potatoes and veggies

Tuesday: Leftover beef turned into cottage pie with carrot, parsnip and potato mash on top and extra veggies. If I'm short on beef I'll be bulking it out with baked beans as randomly I've run out of lentils. 

Wednesday: Leftover cottage pie with frozen peas

Thursday: I've gone back to Brownies this term so will make a veggie pasta bake and leave it in the oven on low for M

Friday: Breakfast for tea

Saturday: I made a chilli con carne this week that I've frozen some portions of, so I think that would be a lovely warming supper

Sunday: Roast chicken (mainly to ensure an easy week next week!)

That's our week. Any of you out there doing slimming world with any suggestions for Slimming world friendly weeknight dinners that M would like and don't rely on heaps of dairy, please do leave your links below... I'd be super grateful for some inspiration.

Now, if someone could just poke me to remind me to link up with At home with Mrs M I'd be very grateful.