Aubergines are a vegetable that until quite recently I could take or leave. They were never top of my fav list until I started making aubergine parmigiana for my little boy and he couldn’t get enough of it. I tasted it and knew I had been missing out! After this little revelation, I’ve set out to use it in more dishes where I can, and in place of meat if possible and that’s where this dish was born.
Come a Sunday afternoon I often roast a nice big whole chicken that I can pull apart and use throughout the week for lunches and evening meals. It’s a great way to make sure you have fresh ingredients at hand and keep the cost down at the same time. As a result, I’m always looking for new ways to use up said chicken (as you will see by my last Lebanese Salad recipe).
Being a huge fun of pulled pork, I decided that I would give the whole pulled chicken a whirl but by speeding up the process a little. As a result I made a lovely and tasty chipotle BBQ sauce, poured it over the cooked chicken and voila!! The BBQ chicken in this form could be used in so many different ways (in a burger, a thin, with rice, with sweet potato or BNS fries…..) but I decided to try something new.
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!
I love a good omelette. Not only is it a great way to use up left overs but its also a really quick and easy lunch to put together, especially if you are trying to avoid bread! Omelettes are so versatile, you can add virtually anything you can think of, but this combination is one of my favourites. It’s nice and low in points but has so much flavour that it feels like a real treat!
Usually I would class a stew as a winter recipe but this one is so easy and tasty that I often make a big batch at the start of the week and take it for my lunch Monday- Thursday. As its still quite chunky its really satisfying and the sour cream adds a lovely fresh taste. If you have it in the evening, any left overs can be frozen for another day (just freeze it before you add the sour cream). I had it as it is but often, when the OH was ravenous so I threw a few new potatoes into his.
After months of searching for it, I finally managed to get my hands on some Ras El Hanout. Albeit it was the paste rather than the spice which apparently no supermarket in Manchester or Newcastle likes to stock! Once I got my hands on it I started to think of what kind of recipe I could put together to make the best possible use of it. I’ve also wanted to experiment with chickpeas for a while now so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine the two.
This was another recipe that had been scribbled onto a piece of scrap paper and given to me! Herbs and spices are one of the best 0pp treats to fill your cupboard with. If you have herbs and spices, even with a pretty empty fridge, you can usually manage to knock up something delicious. This recipe is the perfect example of that as you don’t need too many fresh ingredients.
So what is this blog about about I hear you ask! Back in September 2012 I decided it was time for a change in my life. It was time to lose the weight that I had steadily been gaining for the previous four years and keep it off for good. I signed up for Weight Watchers and realised that, through the plan, I could combine my love and passion for good food and cooking with my new diet to produce the most wonderful tasting and filling meals whilst still losing weight.
Through creating and consuming these recipes, I realised very quickly that by making a few small substitutions and eating the right amount of certain foods, I could have a fabulous diet without feeling like I was missing out on anything. In this way I found you could eradicate the ‘guilt factor’ from many meals which I once thought would be off limits.
Now 52lb’s down, and having maintained my weight for over a decade, I am still trying out new ideas, tips and recipes to keep food tasty and exciting.
As a result, this blog is filled with the low points recipes and ideas for you to try out yourself at home. The one thing all my recipes have in common is that they are all portioned out and pointed up to make it as easy as possible for you to follow the plan yourself and get to your goal weight!
**DISCLAIMER**All the recipes on my blog have been pointed using the Weight Watchers Points System (which I do not own and belongs to Weight Watchers) and the points stated are for your guidance only. The point calculations are my own, are subject to change and have been worked out using the wonderful online ‘Recipe Builder’ on the Weight Watchers website. In this way, by specifically stating weights and amounts to use in each recipe, I have tried to be as accurate as possible in producing the end points value and leaving you with as easy a life as possible. Sometimes however, something may go wrong. If you adjust any of the weights or measures, it might be worth running the recipe back through the recipe builder to find out how your own adjustments have changed the total point value. The plan has changed so much over the years so often you will find the points stated reflect the system in use at the time (I’ve been through ProPoints, Smart Points and more). You might need to recalculate the recipe to the new system where the old is stated.
While my blog is aimed at helping all you fellow Weight Watchers out there, the recipes are generally low in fat and packed full of veg and so are good for those of you just seeking out a healthier version of a recipe so they are compatible with most weight loss programmes.
I hope you enjoy my blog and if you have any questions or comments, I’m always grateful for feedback!
Laura
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