As In Biscuit: March 2017

I joined Slimming World on 20th February 2017. I managed to get to 35 years of age without eating fruit (well I dabbled in Clementines and bananas when I was about 2) and I couldn't cook and had never had any interest in learning. Well I'm amazed and proud to say that since I joined Slimming World I have made vegetable soup, Spaghetti Bolognese, Chilli Con Carne and Lasagne. All from scratch! I've also fried burgers for the first time ever and cooked chicken for the first time ever. I'm going to add some photos of my cooking efforts so I can keep track of what I'm doing. Hopefully one day I'll be able to look back at the beginning of my Slimming World journey and see how far I've come, albeit by then with a smaller waist and a larger repetoire of dishes under my belt!

First attempt at vegetable soup - not enough stock!

Second attempt at vegetable soup - success!

My first attempt at an omelette - how had I not discovered omelettes before now???

The first time I boiled an egg so my Mam could have "dippy" egg and soldiers (well toast) for breakfast.

My first attempt at Spaghetti Bolognese - big disappointment! I used stock which made the sauce too runny and there was no flavour to the sauce. Lessons were definitely learnt!

My second attempt at Spaghetti Bolognese - a delicious success!

My first attempt at Chilli Con Carne - absolutely gorgeous! So happy to have nailed it first time. That's not to say it will be as good next time of course!

My first attempt at "chip-shop style" curry sauce - not a bad effort but too tomatoey for my taste. Needs more curry powder next time.

My first attempt at SW syn-free chips - not bad but a bit overdone* *read that as burnt.

First time I ever cooked chicken. I did learn how to boil chicken to give to Emmy when he went off his dried food and would only eat chicken and rice but this was the first time I had cooked chicken in the oven for non-furry folk to eat.

First attempt at making American style hash browns using grated potato. I need to work on this as I hadn't dried the potato out prior to cooking and it needed to be fried for longer but I'll be trying again soon. Watch this space!

A typical breakfast for me now - I know I can't believe it either!

First attempt at Lasagne - very yummy! I think Garfield would be proud although I doubt he'd approve of the reduced fat cheese I used.

First attempt at Sticky Chicken and stir fry!

First attempt at Butternut Squash soup - very tasty!

First attempt at Cottage Pie - needs tweaking!

First attempt at lentil and vegetable soup

First attempt at minestrone soup

First attempt at the Slimming World Ham and Egg muffins. I have made them once more and they still didn't turn as I'd hoped but I will try them again soon. The over spill looked like Yorkshire Pudding mix and it tasted like it too. The middle of the muffins were disappointing as the mixture hadn't settled to create fully formed muffins.

First attempt at Slimming World pizza using a Weight Watchers wrap for the base with tomato purée and cheese then ham, mushrooms, red onions, red peppers and yellow peppers as toppings.

First attempt at Brussels Sprout soup and it was delicious.

First attempt at Slimming World crustless red onion and courgette quiche - total and utter disaster!

I kept trying with different combinations of ingredients and methods and I finally cracked the crustless quiche.....or as I prefer to call it.....a crustless pizza.

And then I had a go at making the SW version of corned beef and potato pasties using Weight Watchers wraps instead of pastry. My first attempt was either skill or luck because they were delicious.

My next foray in the world of Slimming World recipes was to try making the katsu chicken curry. It was a bit of a faff hand blending the wholemeal bread to make breadcrumbs to coat the chicken breasts with and the actual curry sauce wasn't as spicy as I like it but it wasn't a bad effort.

To carry on with the curry theme I then tried making the curry loaf. Although it wasn't as plumptious as I was hoping for it was moreish and an instant favourite of mine.

I wanted to crack a cottage pie so I decided to experiment with and tweak the previous recipes I had tried and I finally perfected it. Nice and firm and meaty and just yummy!

After finally nailing the cottage pie I had a long hiatus from cooking new recipes but then in February 2020 I came across a recipe I really wanted to try. Corned beef and potato pie has long since been one of my absolute favourite meals as my Aunty Joyce makes an amazing one but then I discovered a Slimming World friendly version. It did not include traditional pastry to save on calories and syns so I was dubious but I still wanted to give it a shot. Oh. My. God!!! Pease pudding pastry is a total game changer!!! My first attempt tasted lovely but I had clearly not put in enough filling so it looked a bit flat.

So a few weeks later I had another go at the corned beef pie and totally smashed it!

After my success with the pie I wanted to revisit quiches. I had got sick of ham and mushroom and had stopped making quiches but they're handy to have in the fridge for lunches and for snacking on so I had another look at the Slimming World website for recipe inspiration. I decided on an asparagus one. I'd never eaten asparagus before so I have no idea why I opted for that but you live and learn. It actually looks like the picture on the website but it tasted of nothing and did not cook properly so when I cut in to it I was met with a sloppy, eggy mess.

Fortunately my asparagus quiche failure led to one of my best discoveries to date! Not disheartened by the less than successful experiment I took another leaf out of my Aunty Joyce's book. In addition to making fabulous corned beef pies she also makes gorgeous smoked salmon quiches. So I tinkered with her recipe and invented my own Slimming World friendly one using low fat cheese and no cream. It is now one of my favourite meals!

Epic fail! I tried to make home made burgers and potato wedges and they ended up in the bin. The burgers fell to bits and didn’t cook properly and the wedges didn’t cook properly either and tasted naff despite being seasoned with smoked paprika and having a drizzle of light mayo on them. So my Mam ended up with a tin of soup for her tea and I had pasta out of a packet.

In February 2021 I tried my first new recipe in quite a while. A chickpea curry. A bit fruity for my liking but tasty enough.

At the end of March 2021 I tried another new recipe. Diet Coke Chicken. Hard to describe the flavour but a bit like a Chinese sweet and sour sauce only more savoury. Very tasty!