What I Ate Wednesday - The Slimming World Edition!

Welcome to What I Ate Wednesday!



I've had to cheat a bit this week, as I knew I was going to be super busy this Wednesday and wouldn't have time to photograph and edit. So these are actually my meals from Tuesday! Hope you don't mind!

BREAKFAST 

 Today I chose 3 ingredient pancakes for breakfast. A lot of SW people swear by the yogurt pancakes (muller light, egg and oats) and while I do like those, I prefer to make mine slightly differently. I feel it's a bit of a waste of yogurt as I don't think it really enhances the taste of the pancakes. Instead I prefer using oats (27g), mashed banana and eggs (x2). As I've mentioned before some people like to syn mashed banana but in this recipe I don't. Mainly because I only use one banana and if I hadn't mashed it I would have probably had a whole banana later in the day (without syns) anyway! Anyway, these pancakes are hugely filling and this recipe makes three huge pancakes. I topped my pancakes with a drizzle of Agave Syrup (0.5 syns per level teaspoon). I only managed to eat one and a half pancakes because they were so big. Maybe next time I'll make a half the amount of pancake batter!

LUNCH 

 One of my favourite lunches! I'm a bit obsessed with Warburtons Sandwich Thins. Unfortunately they can't be counted as a Healthy Extra. Luckily they are only 5 syns each though and in my opinion they are well worth it! Today I have ham, 30% less fat cheddar and tomato. 

DINNER

 I was looking forward to this all day long! Pulled pork served with homemade savoury rice and roasted vegetables*. I made my pork yesterday in the slow cooker and the delicious smell has been driving me mad. Pulled Pork is another one of my obsessions at the moment and I could probably eat it every single day if I let myself. If you fancy making this, the recipe is available on the SW website.

*Apologies that I didn't take a pic of the roasted veg - it was in a side dish and I forgot!

SNACKS 

Only carrot crudités today. I've been so full thanks to my huge breakfast and dinner I haven't been feeling too peckish at all. 

SYNS 

Warburtons Sandwich Thin - 5 SYNS 

1 tsp Agave Syrup - 0.5 SYNS



So that's my What I Ate Wednesday. What did you eat today?

What I Ate Wednesday - The Slimming World Edition!

Welcome to What I Ate Wednesday!

BREAKFAST

Slimming World overnight oats. If you've never tried or heard of these they are simple to prepare and really delicious. It's just 28g of oats (HEXB), a Muller Light Yogurt (or I use Lidl low fat instead). Put them together in a sealed container and pop them in the fridge overnight.  I used a strawberry yogurt and added some sliced banana in the morning. You can use any yogurt and fruit you like really!

Quick tip - I like my oats a bit runnier so often add a splash of almond milk if I have it. Almond milk is a great addition on SW. Did you know you can have between 875ml (Blue Diamond) and 950ml (Alpro) unsweetened almond milk as a HEXA choice? That's loads, so you could easily use it to make something tasty like SW rice pudding!

LUNCH

Baked potato with a dollop of Philadelphia extra light and topped with lots of roasted veggies. This used to be my favourite bagel filling so I just switched to using it on a potato instead. The vegetables I used were garlic, peppers, onion (try to use red onion if you have it) and courgette. I would usually have mushrooms too but had none left today. 

DINNER

Couscous Jambalaya. One of my favourite foods is Jambalaya but I make mine with couscous as it's much quicker that way. I can have it ready to eat in under 30 mins. I have had to alter my recipe to make a SW friendly version so have excluded certain ingredients like oil and sausage. I try to pack in as much veg as I can to this dish and it's always delicious. I know a lot of people don't like couscous but I can assure you this is nothing like ordinary couscous. So why not give it a try?

SNACKS

One tangerine (I'm a bit addicted to the ones from M&S, they are so sweet and juicy)

One homemade SW flapjack. Check out my recipe HERE. They're great and you only need 3 ingredients!

SYNS

SW flapjack - 2.5 syns



So that's my What I Ate Wednesday. What did you eat today?

Slimming World Flapjacks

I absolutely love flapjacks. Unfortunately they just happen to be about a million calories each, so I really don't want to waste my SYNS on such a small amount of food! No matter how much I love them! So instead I've come up with my own alternative recipe which I think turned out quite well and is ridiculously simple.  I thought I should share it with you all.


Slimming World Flapjacks

120g oats (about 20 syns)

2-4 tablespoons Agave Nectar (2 tbsps is 3 syns)

56g mashed banana (3 syns)


Simply mix it all together in a bowl then spread in a small baking tray which has been lightly coated with fry light to stop it sticking. I baked it at 150 degrees until it started to brown at the edges. 

Yummy!

And that's it! I sliced mine into 12 pieces which I'd say were fairly large. So depending on how much Agave nectar you use (depends on how sweet you want them) they would be between 2 - 2.5 syns per slice. I don't normally syn mashed banana but I thought I would on this occasion just to give you an idea of the syn values.

Now, I think these slices are yummy. They aren't quite the same texture as a real flapjack but I think they are a good substitute and will be making them again. You could definitely add some more fruit or for a few more syns why not add some chocolate chips or a drizzle of chocolate on top! I hope you like them as much as I do.

What I Ate Wednesday - The Slimming World Edition!

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for another What I Ate Wednesday blog post!

 BREAKFAST

2 Quorn sausages, mushroom and tomato (all grilled) and a few generous spoonfuls of baked beans. Black coffee with Splenda.

Firstly, apologies for the presentation! My tomatoes got a little bit burnt as I was in a rush this morning! Holly and I have Playgroup on Wednesday mornings and we were running late so things didn't quite go to plan!

I do like to have a cooked breakfast every so often so this SW friendly version is great. I would normally have bacon as well but I forgot to defrost it last night so had to do without! You'll also notice I haven't made any eggs either. I'm really not fond of eggs at all. I hate the smell of egg and I find the texture of egg white really unpleasant. I can eat things like quiche and scrambled eggs, but as long as I can't taste the egg if that makes any sense?  As for the coffee, I'm really unable to function until I've had my caffeine! I tend to only have 1-2 cups per day though, and never after 3pm. If I did I would never sleep at night!

LUNCH

Despite not having any bacon, breakfast was very filling and this helped me avoid wasting my Syns on biscuits at playgroup! Even by lunchtime I still wasn't hugely hungry. So I'm afraid today's lunch was a bit boring. I opted to just have a MugShot and a banana! Not very exciting I know, so I decided not to bother with a photo of it! However, I promise you my dinner will be a lot more interesting!

DINNER

Slimming World KFC Chicken! Yes, you heard me right. KFC CHICKEN...and it's SYN FREE*! I found this recipe on the Minimins forums (which are a godsend for interesting recipes if you are on SW) & I have been dying to try it out. I altered the recipe slightly to suit what ingredients I had in the house.  If you want to try the original recipe you can find it HERE. The only things I didn't include were the Bovril & the Maggi. I also used chicken breasts instead of drumsticks. Most people serve this with salad and /or SW chips but I opted for roasted veggies instead. I have to say, it was very tasty and very filling! The coating was beautifully crispy and unlike real KFC it wasn't greasy at all.  I will definitely be having this again, but next time I will try making it with the Bovril and Maggi to see if I can make it even tastier!

SNACKS

Lidl Mint Choc fat free yoghurt

SYNS

2 x Quorn Sausages = 2 syns

Yoghurt = 2.5 syns**




What did you eat this Wednesday ?

 * Some SW people suggest that if you use Smash (instant mash) as a coating for KFC chicken then it should be given a Syn value as you are not using it in the normal way. I don't feel this is necessary. I used less than I would to make a normal portion of Smash (which would be free) so using it as Syns makes no sense to me at all!  Syn it or don't Syn it though, it's your choice!

**Just a quick note about the Lidl yoghurts. They are delicious and cheaper than the Muller yoghurts. I believe the fat free cherry and strawberry varieties are syn free but all other flavours are 2.5 syns.

What I Ate Wednesday - The Slimming World Edition!

Welcome to my very first What I Ate Wednesday! I decided to start doing this because I thought it would be easier than picking my favourite SW meals from the week to share in a post with you. Doing a post on a full day of Slimming World eating will probably give you a better idea of how this way of eating works on a day by day basis. Hopefully it will illustrate how wonderful, filling and easy to follow SW is! So without further ado, here is what I've been tucking into this Wednesday!

  

 BREAKFAST

2 X  Alpen Light bars. 2 of these delicious bars can count as your Healthy Extra B choice. I believe if you don't want to use them as your HEB they would have a Syn value of 3.5 per bar.

Quick tip - I occasionally crumble one into a low fat vanilla yogurt. It's a great treat!

 LUNCH

Slimming World super speed soup and a banana. I really love this soup! I know some people prefer to blend it, but I love the chunky texture. A very filling lunch!

DINNER

Homemade Quorn lasagne.  Normally I would make lasagne with lean beef mince but I didn't have any and I always have a stash of Quorn products in my freezer so I decided to use my Quorn Mince for a change! I made sure to add lots of veg, carrot, celery, mushrooms, peppers, onion and courgette.

Quick tip - I didn't do it on this occasion but sometimes when making Lasagne I will also substitute the pasta layers for vegetables instead. You can use leeks (but you need to boil those to soften them first) or roasted peppers and courgettes. I personally think the latter makes a much tastier lasagne. I was just far too lazy to do it this time!

SNACKS

Lidl low fat strawberry yoghurt

Options hot chocolate (Belgian Chocolate flavour)

SYNS

Not many today. Just  2 for my hot chocolate and another couple for the Philadelphia I used for the Lasagne topping. Although, since I didn't eat the whole lasagne it might be less!

So there you have it! What did you eat this Wednesday?

Slimming World - Sensible Syns!

I've been doing a lot of research online for Slimming World recipes since I started a few weeks ago, and I'm amazed at some of the creative recipes I've come across so far. Especially some of the Syn free alternatives to what would normally be a fairly high Syn meal/food.

Examples of the type of food I mean are:

SMASH pizza
Banana ice cream
Cous Cous cake
Slimming world microwave crisps


I did notice that while most people agreed that these foods are SYN free, other SW dieters argued otherwise. Let me explain.

Most people would not normally make a pizza with instant mashed potato or a cake with cous cous. There is the suggestion that if you process certain ingredients in a way they would not normally be used, you may over eat them.

Say for example, you wouldn't normally eat 3 bananas in a row would you? Or if you did you would probably be full and wouldn't eat any more? However if you freeze then blend banana to make ice cream it is very likely you could potentially eat a lot more.

It's the same with making SW crisps. You would be full after eating a certain amount of whole potatoes, but when you make them into crisps you would probably end up eating a lot more.

So this is why people argue that foods like these should be given a SYN value. However, I disagree. Surely it's all about portion control? I like banana on toast, sometimes sliced and sometimes mashed if the banana is ripe. So effectively I would have to use my Syns for banana on toast if I mashed the banana, but not if I sliced it? Even though I would be using the same amount of banana? I'm sure you see the problem. That's just silly. I say if you want to eat the above foods without using them as SYNS, then do it! As long as you check that the portion size isn't much larger than it should be. Personally I would only SYN these foods if I planned to have a big portion.  Surely it's common sense that if you use more instant mash than a single serving size so you can have a massive pizza, you are going to be having a lot more calories?  Similarly, if you make a Cous Cous cake and then eat the entire cake to yourself it's hardly going to help you lose weight is it? You still have to consider portion size.

I can see why some SW people are cautious when it comes to some of the recipes, but as long as you are sensible, surely it's up the individual how they choose to follow SW? If they can still manage to eat these foods and lose weight without ever using them as SYNS I think that's fine! What do you think?

Stepping into Slimming World!

Hello strangers! It seems I've been a bit neglectful of my blog in recent months. Sorry!

However, I'm back and ready to dust the cobwebs off for 2014!

In case the title didn't make it glaringly obvious, I've started slimming world. After Christmas I was feeling pretty down. I'd crept back up to my heaviest weight and didn't seem to be able to stop myself eating. Even though I was thoroughly miserable about my weight I just kept eating. I was lethargic, grumpy and my weight was starting to make my ever present back pain even worse.

I really didn't know what to do. I didn't want to try any faddy diets, as I've fallen foul of those before. Cutting things out of my diet simply made me obsess about "forbidden" foods and gorge on them whenever I got the chance. That's where Twitter came to my rescue. I noticed a few weeks ago that several of my twitter friends had joined Slimming World. They would post pictures of their meals and I was hugely surprised not only by how delicious they looked, but also the generous portion sizes!

So I started looking into it for myself, to see if the plan was really as easy to follow as it looked. I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised. Unlike Weight Watchers where EVERYTHING has to be pointed and weighed, on SW the majority of the food you can eat can be eaten freely. With the exception of a few foods which are assigned a SYN value. Each day you have a 15 SYN allowance so if you feel like you need a little treat you don't have to worry about it.

My mind was made up. I decided I would try it out...

So here I am about to start my second week, and I can honestly say I have not been hungry once. Which is usually a big issue for me when I try to lose weight. I can still eat reasonably large portions & I really don't feel deprived of anything since no foods are actually forbidden!

Another thing I'm enjoying since starting SW is the variety. The majority of food you eat on SW is homemade and I although I do like to cook I felt that I had gotten into a rut in terms of meal ideas before. I used to eat the same meals week in week out and wasn't really appreciating what I was eating as a result. SW offers lots of different meal ideas. If anything I actually struggle to decide what to make because there are so many new recipes I'm dying to try out!

As I go on with Slimming World I would like to share my favourite recipes, but if you'd like an example of the type of meals I've been able to have since starting SW here you are:


Lasagne
Pulled Pork
Cooked breakfast
Breakfast banana pancakes
Banana Ice Cream
Chicken Saag (curry)
Creamy Carbonara
Chow Mein


So doesn't it sound great? I feel very confident about being able to continue with SW for as long as I need to. I suppose only time will tell though, but I look forward to sharing my journey with you. So if there are any other Slimming World people out there I'd love to hear from you!