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19 May 2013

Chinese feast!

I had the urge this weekend to try and recreate a Marcus style Chinese feast. Started with ultra low in pp spring rolls and pp free mock spring rolls, followed by chicken chow mein for 2, mine served with zero (miracle) noodles. 6pp for my Chinese feast - beat that!!



Spring roll filling: 0pp

Half a bag of bean shoots
Handful of mushrooms, cut into strips
1 large carrot, grated
Fry lite
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 drops sesame oil

Spray a pan or wok with fry lite and stir fry the veggies till the desired texture, adding soy sauce, oil and vinegar when the mixture begins to look dry.

To make low in pp mini spring rolls;

Take a wonton wrapper and lay a teaspoon of filling in the centre. Roll on the diagonal till the filling is covered, tuck in the ends and complete the roll. Spray with fry lite and bake for 15 minutes at 200'. 1pp for 2.

To make 0pp mock spring rolls;
Blanche the outer wide layers of a leek in boiling water and wrap and bake as above.

Sweet & sour dipping sauce:
60g reduced salt and sugar ketchup
6 teaspoons malt vinegar
2 teaspoons sweetener 
Splash of lemon juice.

Mix well. Serves 3, 0pp per serving.




Chicken chow mein - serves 2, large portions of 5pp each

400g chicken breast cut into strips
Half a bag of bean shoots
1 tin bamboo shoots, drained
4 spring onions, sliced
2 cubes frozen crushed garlic
1 cube each frozen chopped ginger and frozen chopped red chilli pepper
2 tblspns soy sauce
2 tblspns rice vinegar
Fry lite

Stir fry the chicken pieces until they begin to whiten, along with the frozen cubes. Add the veg and the reminding ingredients and stir fry till cooked through.

Mix with miracle noodles to retain the 5pp per portion total, or add rice noodles with a pp value to your desired portion size. 


8 May 2013

Cheesecake mark 2

This is an adaption of a traditional no bake triangle cheesecake - my absolute favourite. The change in ingredients means it won't hold a triangular shape and has to be formed in layers - a small price to pay considering that one piece is just 3pp!

INGREDIENTS

30g low fat spread
7g Splenda or stevia
100g light whipped cream cheese
200g fat free fromage frais
1 egg white
1 tblspn lemon juice
1tsp vanilla essence


1 packet rich tea biscuits
4fld oz skimmed milk

For the icing:
3 tblspn cocoa powder
3 tblspn Splenda or stevia
4 tblspn water
1 tsp coffee
25g low fat spread

Mix the low fat spread with the sweetener, lemon juice, vanilla and egg white. Add the cheese and the fromage frais and best until smooth.

Prepare a 9x9" cake tin and lay out 12 tea biscuits on the base, after dipping them briefly in the milk to soften. Smooth a thick layer of cheese on top and repeat twice (the final layer of cheese should be much thinner).

To make the icing, mix the cocoa, sweetener and coffee with the water and heat very briefly in a microwave to both warm and thicken. Stir in the low fat spread until melted. Smooth the icing over the top layer of cheese. Decorate with the fruit of your choice and refrigerate or freeze. Serves 16.

2 May 2013

Everybody say CHEESE!!

So - Shavuos is fast approaching!! Are you worried? There is possibly nothing more tempting and equally more dangerous for your pro points allowance than a luscious piece of fresh cheesecake... until now! Last year I made a delicious and low in pp no-bake Israeli style cheesecake and I'll be blogging that as soon as I make it. In the meantime, this year I decided to have a go at skinnying up my cheesecake brownies recipe. The small corner I nibbled on this morning as it came out of the oven attests to the fact that it was a worthwhile experiment. The recipe makes 16 good size squares of cake for 4pp each (total PP value for the whole recipe is 59pp).

INGREDIENTS

One batch raw brownie batter using my recipe here

200g J&J light whipped cream cheese
20g silverspoon half and half sugar (or splenda, pp value stays the same)
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla essence

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg white and vanilla until smooth.

Pour the brownie batter into a greased  9x9# cake tin. Smooth the cream cheese mix in a layer over the surface. Then, using a knife, carefully swirl it into a marbled pattern.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180'c for approximately 30-35 minutes (but check after 25). Cool for 5 minutes, then turn out and cut into 16 squares and cool completely before eating - or to stay safer, freezing!

14 April 2013

Some like it hot...

I've wanted to come up with a pro points friendly, dairy free and very easy version of chicken tikka masala for some time - but with a reluctance to use coconut milk because it is quite pointy (even the light version) and soya allergies in the family, my options were limited. I eventually decided to give it a go using rice milk, and came up with this recipe after a fair amount of Internet research. This makes two portions of 5pp each - I served it with miracle rice and tortilla wraps that I'd cut into rounds and dry fried to make them a little bit puffed up and toasty. Be warned that it is VERY hot - cut down on the chilli powder if that's not your thing.

INGREDIENTS

360g chicken breast pieces
2 opinions, chopped
2 peppers, cut into chunks
125ml rice milk
2 tblspns mango sauce (sugar free)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato purée
5 cubes of frozen crushed garlic
1 cube frozen chopped ginger
2 tspns hot chilli powder
2 tspns dried coriander
2 tspns cumin
1 tspn turmeric
1 tspn paprika
1 tsp garam masala
0.5tsp black pepper
Seeds of 4 cardamom pods
Pinch cinnamon
100ml water
Fresh coriander


Combine all the spices, garlic, and ginger and add a little water until a paste forms. Marinate the chicken in the paste for about an hour. In an actifry or a wok, fry the onions and pepper in frylight until they begin to soften, then add the chicken and continue to fry until it cooks through. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, water and mango sauce and cook until the liquid begins to evaporate. Finally add the rice milk and chopped coriander and cook until the mixture has thickened to the desired consistency,


4 April 2013

April stodge...

Well this recipe was partly inspired by the fact that I accidentally purchased an extra 4 bags of cooking apples for Pesach, and partly by the fact that this unseasonal, freezing weather is making me crave classic, wintery dishes. I decided to try my hand at lightening up traditional apple kugel - I baked these in muffin tins; the recipe makes 10 at 2pp each.

INGREDIENTS

3 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
50g flour
5oz low fat spread, melted
8g Splenda
1 tsp baking powder

Mix together the flour, eggs, Splenda and spread to make the batter. Stir in the chopped apples and spoon into the muffin cases. Bake at 180' for approximately 25 minutes (but check after 15).

22 March 2013

Baked breakfast chremslach

Chremslach are matzo meal fritters that are normally fried and oozing with oil. I've developed a baked version that is 1pp per fritter and lovely for breakfast on chol hamoed. These can be made in advance and reheated, loosely covered, in the oven.

3oz fine matzo meal
Warm water
1 tablespoon sweetener or caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 oz raisins
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Beat the eggs with the salt, sugar and 2 tablespoons of warm water. Slowly add in the matzo meal interspersed with tablespoons of water until you get a thick batter. Finally add in the raisins and cinnamon, and a little more water if necessary. Drop by tablespoons onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Spray the tops of the chremslach with spray oil. Bake for 12 minutes on 180', then turn and bake for a further 5 minutes.

All kinds of cupcakes!

INGREDIENTS

These are the ingredients for the basic vanilla cupcake

150g soft margarine
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
140g potato flour
40g cake or fine matzo meal
1.5tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all the ingredients until you have a smooth batter. Bake in cupcake cases for 15 to 20 minutes on 200'c until golden brown. Makes 20

TO MAKE DIFFERENT FLAVOURS!

1. Coffee: mix 1 tsp coffee granules with 3tsp cold water. Mix half of this amount into 1/3 of the cookie batter. When baked, drizzle the remaining coffee mix over the surface of the cupcakes. Makes 6

2. Marble: mix 1tblspn cocoa powder with 1/6 of the batter. Swirl into 1/6 of the vanilla batter. Makes 6

3. Chocolate pear: if you have any remaining chocolate batter, grate in half a pear and bake. I made enough for 2 of these.

4. Pistachio-coconut - I mixed the remaining crumble topping from my baked apple recipe into 1/3 of the batter. Makes 6

The world is your oyster! Experiment with your own flavours!

These cupcakes are 4pp each.