Venison Meatballs in a Red Wine Ragu Sauce – 6sp

I noticed that Aldi had started selling some lovely venison meatballs a while ago and for only 40kal a meatball, I knew I had to give them a go! The venison is a lovely different flavour, and the ragu sauce, which usually would take hours to simmer and reduce, is both quick, easy and packed with veg! I added a little cream (1 tbsp) but this is optional, I find it takes a little of the tang of the tomatoes away, but it’s lovely without it too. It’s a great way to use up lots of veg and get a nice portion of sauce for not many points at all!

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Mince Beef Taco’s – 6sp

Mexican food is one of my favourite cuisines. There are so many different textures and flavours and more often than not, the ingredients are uber healthy too. I often cook with mince, usually closer to payday when it’s all I have left in the freezer, and this week I fancied a brand new new use for it (over and above chilli, bolognaise and lasagne) and so I decided to combine Mexican and mince and voila, it gave me tacos. These really were delicious and a real ‘sharing’ meal. I just whacked everything including the pan of mince in the middle of the table and let everyone dig in. The OH had his with Uncle Ben’s Spicy Mexican Rice (5sp for half a packet) but I just had mine with the taco shells and lots of salad and it was nice and filling enough without.

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Harissa Roasted Vegetable Salad – Only 1sp

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!

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Spaghetti Bolognese – 5sp

I love a nice, quick and easy spaghetti bolognese and I’ve been making this one for a good while now. It’s a recipe which, I think, is unaffected by the fact I am on a diet as I’ve never used anything too bad in there. I think it’s worth making sure you are using extra lean mince as that is such an easy way to grab a few sp back and put them towards some extra pasta or a little cheese. I use this exact recipe when I’m making lasagne too but I usually add around half a box of tomato passata (at the same time as the tomatoes) to make it slightly more saucy and rich, perfect for baking in the oven!

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Onion Bhaji’s – 0sp

My lovely auntie informed me of this amazing recipe from the Facebook page recipe binder yesterday and whilst I usually like to create or adapt recipes (as you will see from all my other posts haha) this one was rather delicious as it was. I only made a few of my own amendments and this was mostly during the cooking and portioning process.

It was so quick to make, so tasty and for so little points! My OH really didn’t believe that they were WW friendly. Make sure your oven is hot when you pop your bhajis in as you don’t want them to go soggy. To store pop into a box on top of some strong kitchen roll (to soak up any excess liquid created when cooling). According to the recipe builder 1 bjahi is 1sp, 2 bhajis is 1sp, 4 is 2sp and 8 is 4sp.

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Chorizo, Halloumi and Chickpea Salad with Roasted Vine Tomatoes – 7sp

This weekend I made a three course meal and, as we were having pasta for the main course (my lovely Venetian Duck Ragu recipe), I thought to avoid that overfull feeling, starting off with a light but tasty salad would be the way to go. When I started to think about salad combos, I thought that this salad, being a combination of some of my favourite foods, would be a real treat and, as luck would have it, I had most of the ingredients in my cupboards already. It’s a delicious salad which my OH (who claimed previously to dislike halloumi and chickpeas) wolfed down in about thirty seconds. The roasted vine tomatoes are amazing and add a different element to the salad which everyone loved. I served the salad in bowls as it keeps all the ingredients together nicely.

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Piquant Prawns – 7sp

This is a great recipe for those evening where you find yourself with limited amounts in your cupboards (just before payday for me usually!!) I always have a bag of frozen prawns in the freezer as they are both low in pro points and very tasty indeed. This is a recipe I got off my lovely mam a loooong time ago. She often makes it as a starter to a meal so just does a small portion for everyone but I like it so much I beef it up into a nice and filling mid-week tea!

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Smoky Bacon, Tomato and Chilli Pasta – 12sp

The OH loves a nice bacon sandwich at the weekend and there always seems to be a few rashers left over after so this weekend I thought I would whip up something with the left overs. A hearty pasta dish on a Sunday evening always goes down well so I thought I would put together a new recipe with the left over bacon and other bits left over from the weekend. Its amazing how luxurious just 2 tbsps of single cream make a dish taste for barely any points and the end result really does not seem like something that you would equate with a low sp dish, but it really is!

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Harissa Lamb Burgers with Feta – just 4sp

Harissa paste is something I always have in the house as its great for adding extra flavour to dishes for virtually no points. This weekend I thought I would try something different so I decided to put together my own version of a Moroccan burger. The burger was really easy to make and considering its simplicity it was delicious! The feta really adds something to the burger and you don’t need to much of it to get a good taste.  You could make these burgers and serve them on a bed of salad, or even cous cous, rather than the Warburton’s thins but I really like the thins as they fool you into thinking you are having a real burger. If you can’t get your hands on lean lamb mince, or you want to reduce the points even further, you can substitute the lamb mince for extra lean beef mince or even chicken mince and this reduces the sp per burger to 3.

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Chilli Con Carne – 4sp

Chilli is one of my all-time favourite meals. It is so quick and easy but so incredibly tasty and I look forward to it every time we have it! I often assumed chilli would be quite pointy but I think 6sp is more reasonable considering the giant portion you get. Because it is so low in points this also means that you have more points left over for rice, and cheese or even sour cream on top if you fancy!

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