Knowing how easy it is to cook up delicious and healthy meals quickly and easily has turned me into a bit of a picky eater when I’m eating out in cafes and restaurants. I have become a little inpatient with places which charge a fortune for food which is bland, oily and unsatisfying to the point where I just don’t see the point in eating it if it isn’t any good.
On New Year’s Eve the OH and I headed up to Scotland with friends for a celebration. Heading out for lunch, we ended up in a lovely cosy little pub with a mouth-watering food menu. Keen to not over indulge before the excess of the evening ahead, I picked out what I thought was the healthiest thing on the menu and hoped for the best. I was thrilled when the dish arrived and had both an abundance of 0sp elements, but was also bursting with flavour.
One of my favourite Sunday chill out programmes is Sunday Brunch and this weekend when Simon cooked up this lovely recipe I knew straight away I was going to have to give it a go. Once I printed off the recipe I made myself a few adjustments to both make it propoint friendly and to up the flavour. Simon’s original recipe can be found here.
This is the first time I have poached salmon and I loved both the flavour and texture. The salad that goes with is so fresh and vibrant too. I added some spices and more vegetable to both bulk up the quantity and flavour of the salad so feel free to add any other salad ingredients you fancy. The fresh herbs are what really make the salad amazing so don’t leave them out if you can help it.
This little beauty is exactly what the title suggests. A salad which consists largely of basil, tomatoes and mozzarella. Whilst it may sound a bit dull or boring it is actually a delicious and fresh salad which is both low in propoints and so, so easy to make. It is also a perfect starter option should you be trying to make a low point three course meal. I’ve included half a tsp of olive oil per person as it just helps to make the whole thing a little more slippery but feel free to leave it out for an even lower point alternative.
I have salad most days for lunch at work so to make sure I don’t get bored, I like to change it up every now and then. As I’ve mentioned before, I often bring in my ingredients on the Monday and make my salads fresh every lunchtime, but there are just some days when I don’t remember to bring everything in from home. This is my go to salad for one of those days.
For some reason this week I’m finding myself rather peckish come around three o’clock so rather than snack I thought it would be better to try a more filling lunch that is still nice and low in points! This is a lunch I haven’t had for quite a while as I thought it might be quite pointy however after further investigation, I found that it is a more than acceptable 4sp!! It’s lovely and filling and so quick and easy to make and it also makes a lovely quick evening meal if you add the suggested additions (see method!).
I went out for lunch with friends on Saturday and had the most amazing Thai Chicken Salad which not only had no nasty carbs in it, but was very filling indeed. As we had a spare chicken breast knocking around the fridge on Monday night I really wanted to try and find a similar recipe which I could make for mine and the OH lunch that was both quick and easy, low in points but really tasty! I found this on the good food website here, adapted it slightly for us Weight Watchers and it was a revelation, absolutely delicious and really low in points!!
We’ve just moved offices at work so, where as I used to head to Eat for lunch on the go, the closet place to my desk these days is the lovely Pret-a-Manger. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the salads and soups in Pret. Even better, they pop all of the nutritional information on their website so you can work out the points too.
One of my favourite salads to pick up is the Chefs Chipotle Chicken Salad. At just 8sp it’s a real bargain points wise however not such a bargain on the old purse strings. Not only that, whilst tasty, its lacking all of the zero heroes which on Weight Watchers keep you full for the rest of the day and stop you snacking.
As a result, after analysing the contents of my salad, I decided to give it a go. The results were a real treat. I essentially had a salad for less points which was twice the size. Because I had made it myself, I even managed to sneak a few extras in too!
The best part of this salad for me is the salsa. After tasting Pret’s version I thought it wouldn’t harm to try and replicate it so I literally took a cheap pot of salad (hot salsa from Aldi) and added half a tsp of chipotle paste and voila! It was amazing, a total revelation and a lovely dressing which can be added to all kind of salads and dishes for 0sp!
Apologies for the awful pictures but I realised half way through munching this that I had forgotten to take one! This was (half) of the lovely lunch I had today which was literally thrown together from the leftovers of last night’s dinner (Minted lamb chops with harissa roasted veg!) I always make extra roasted veg when I make this dinner (it would be rude not to as it’s virtually free of sp!!) just so that I can have this lovely salad the next day but if you are making if just for lunches then following the recipe below will make you a generous four portions! It’s so filling and satisfying and such a bargain at only 1sp, yes 1sp for the whole thing!
In my quest to try out some new lunch ideas I thought I would give bulgur wheat a go. I made this recipe the night before and left it in the fridge overnight and it was absolutely delicious! Really easy to put together and the bulgur wheat makes a nice change to cous cous!
