Matzo meal, be gone...

We always have a version of this dish on Erev Pesach for lunch - very low in propoints so great for filling you up before the seder. As it's made with no matzo meal it's also a brilliant chol hamoed meal for those who don't have gebrokts.

INGREDIENTS

4 tins of tuna in brine
2 egg whites
20g low fat mayonnaise
40g potato flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tblspn oregano
Paprika

Drain the tuna and squeeze out in a sieve or a colander to ensure it's as dry as possible. Mix in all remaining ingredients except paprika. Roll into small balls and spray the tops with spray oil. Sprinkle with paprika. Bale on greaseproof paper for 30 minutes on 180'. 1pp each or 5 patties for 4pp.

How low can you go? 2pp lunch!

I've been seeing recipes for risotto everywhere I look recently; I even made a super declicious one from last month's Weight Watchers magazine - but it was 9pp a portion and I don't often like spending that much on a meal during the week.

Yesterday in a moment of inspiration I did some googling and found a method of making risotto with miracle rice. The resulting dish was only 2pp and it was incredibly filling and really tasted like proper risotto. The broccoli soup is 0pp a portion (2pp for the whole thing) and the broad beans gave it a creamy consistency that I really enjoyed.

BROCCOLI AND BROAD BEAN SOUP

650g frozen broccoli
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced
1 sachet 10 calorie Knorr 'chicken' soup
Salt, pepper to taste
2 garlic cloves, chopped
80g broad beans

Add all the ingredients to a large saucepan. Cover with boiling water but stop just before you reach the surface of the broccoli - as it is frozen it will start to shrink very quickly and if you add too much water at this point the soup will be watery. Simmer until all the veggies are cooked and softened, then blitz with a handblender. Makes 5 portions.

LEEK, MUSHROOM and 'CHICKEN' RISOTTO

1 leek, finely sliced
Half a punnet of mushrooms, sliced
1 bag miracle rice
1/3 tsp onion soup powder
90g firm silken tofu
15g light grated cheese
 Fry light

Rinse the miracle rice well and dry fry in a saucepan for 3 to 5 minutes. Add half a cup of  boiling water and the onion soup powder, and leave to cook until the liquid has reduced by at least a half.

Meanwhile fry the leek and mushrooms in frylight. Just before they are completely ready, add in the tofu and crumble into small pieces as you stirfry. Pour the contents of the pan into the reduced miracle rice and stir in the cheese. Serves 1 - large portion, as a side dish this could stretch to 2 people.

Just add hot water...

This lunch recipe is my take on a healthy pot noodle - it required a bit of advance preparation but the final steps of heating it up at work were easy peasy. And it's so low in propoints!

INGREDIENTS

A few slices of mushroom
2 spring onions sliced
5 pieces of baby corn, halved (tinned or fresh)
A handful of frozen, cut green beans
1 sachet 10 cal parev chicken soup
1 packet miracle rice
1 sachet (or tablespoon) soy sauce
100g firm silken tofu, roughly chopped

Cook the mushrooms and the green beans in the microwave till almost dehydrated. If using fresh baby corns cook them too. Drain the packet of miracle rice and dry fry until all the water on the surface of the non-stick pan has been absorbed (about 4 minutes on a full flame, stirring continuously). Place the cooked veggies and the miracle rice in the bottom of a lidded soup cup or a tupperware container and stir in the spring onion. Pack the chopped tofu separately, and take along the soy sauce sachet and the soup sachet. At lunchtime, add the contents of both sachets and the tofu to the cup, and add boiling water to cover. Leave to sit for a few seconds so the rice and the dried out veggies reabsorb the water. Stir and enjoy! (NOTE: the water will cool quite quickly because of the volume of other ingredients in the cup, so you may wish to give it a quick blast in the microwave before eating).

The only propointed ingredient here is the tofu, which is 1pp. Great for a day when you need to keep your pp values low for a meal out - or add some crackers or a tortilla wrap to bulk out the meal. So much nicer than a shop bought instant soup pot could ever be!

A serial challenge

A few days ago I decided to challenge myself to create a cereal bar recipe from scratch, that would be both healthy and slightly luxurious, and of course - low in propoints. It's taken me a while to blog my results, because I wasn't 100% sure I was happy with my creation. It didn't set as well as I would have liked, but as I have a feeling that would require either more chocolate or more fat or both, it wasn't an option either.

Fortunately the freezer came to the rescue, as I discovered that not only do these develop just the right consistency when frozen, but they are really delicious like that as well. So here comes the recipe...

INGREDIENTS

50g jumbo oats
50g branflakes
30g cornflakes
40g low fat spread, melted
40g chocolate chips
1 tblspn peanut butter, reduced fat
50g honey

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and crush slightly with the end of a rolling pin. Stir in the melted spread, honey and peanut butter until well coated and finally stir in the chocolate chips. Chill for 20 minutes in the fridge and then divide into 12 equal balls. Wrap each ball loosely in clingfilm and using your hands, shape them inside the wrap into a cereal bar shape. Then tighten the clingfilm so they are properly enclosed. Freeze until hard, and enjoy. 2pp per bar, or 5pp for two. Nice for a snack, a dessert or even a breakfast on the go!

Challah-la-la-la!

This week's Weight Watchers meeting talk is all about taking control of leftovers. Because most of the tips and recipes provided by WW are focused on turkey and other Christmassy fare, I wanted something to give out to my Jewish ladies that might be more appropriate for the dangerous leftovers lurking in our kitchens. This is what I came up with - a delicious recipe for low fat french toast using leftover challah; I'll be handing out copies in my Hendon meeting tomorrow, and having just trialed the recipe for my melave malka, I can confirm that it's delicious - real comfort food!

INGREDIENTS

2 slices slightly stale challah (approximately 80g)
1 egg white
4fld oz skimmed milk
Splenda, nutmeg, cinnamon to taste
Frylite
10g honey

Mix the egg white and milk in a shallow dish and soak the challah pieces for about one minute. Grease a baking dish with spray oil and place the slices inside, spraying the tops of the bread too. Sprinkle with a mix of splenda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake in an oven preheated to 160' for 45 minutes. Drizzle with the honey and enjoy!

This serves 1 person and is 8pp.

Latkele, latkele hop on the .... baking tray

This Shabbos I will be serving my Grandma's famous potato latkes for lunch. They are super-yummy and melt in the mouth but she certainly doesn't cut corners when it comes to her ingredients, so I dread to think how many propoints they would each contain.

Weight Watchers is all about making it easy for yourself to stick to your guns, so I knew that if I was serving latkes I better have a darned good alternative waiting for myself! These baked courgette latkes fit the bill, and even better they are 0pp for 1, 1pp for 5 and 2pp for 9!!

INGREDIENTS
1 medium onion
2 medium courgettes (zucchini)
2 egg whites
40g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Grate the onion and courgette in a food processor and mix with the remaining ingredients. Drop by tablespoons onto a baking tray lined with silicone paper and bake for 15 minutes on 200'c. Then carefully turn with a spatula and bake for a further 12 to 15 minutes.

Makes 15 small latkes.

Say it with a snicker (or a smirk...)

OK this is not one for the squeamish and may not appeal to all! And as a disclaimer it looked fairly gross so I didn't bother with a picture...

BUT! If you're in the mood for something sweet, warm and filling with a little hint of savoury, and you're a fan of chocolate-peanut butter confectionery, this is one for you. I got the original idea on the WW online forums, but there was no way I was wasting all the propoints necessary to make it the proper way with peanut butter and nutella... So thanks to the boards for inspiring me to lighten it up a bit... And a big thank you to my friend Yael for leaving me the peanut butter powder on her last trip to London!

INGREDIENTS

30g porridge oats
1 banana
180ml boiling water
1 x 15g sachet instant diet-friendly hot chocolate (I used Ko-sure - available in Kosher Kingdom and elsewhere in the UK; for those who do not need Chalav Yisrael, Options or Highlights will do too)
12g powdered peanut butter - I used PB2

Put the porridge oats, hot choc powder and peanut butter powder in a large bowl. Mash a banana and mix in. Add 180ml boiling water (straight from the kettle) and microwave on high for 2.5 minutes. Stir well and leave to sit for 1 minute. Enjoy!! 5pp in total and you will feel incredibly full afterwards.

Not hairy, just yummy

The other day I decided I was bored of my usual workday lunch fare of scrambled eggs on toast or wrap melts in the sandwich toaster. I decided I would do something new and different, and I also decided that the something would involve quorn mince.

Lately, everyone on the WW forums has been raving about the recipes of a duo who call themselves the 'Hairy dieters'. Not having a TV I have never seen them in action, but I've read enough to know that one of their most popular recipes is their lasagne, which uses leek instead of pasta between the layers. That was my starting point - this was the result (apologies for the picture, it isn't overly attractive - you'll have to take my word for it that the end result was utterly delicious.)

INGREDIENTS

1packet quorn mince
1 large tomato, diced
Some sliced mushroom
1 onion chopped
1 small courgette chopped
1 stick of celery chopped
1 carton passata
Mixed dried herbs, salt and pepper to taste
2 large leeks
20g low fat spread
20g flour
8fld oz skimmed milk
15g light grated cheese

To make the sauce, fry the quorn with the vegetables until it has defrosted and the veggies begin to soften. Then pour over the passata, herbs and spices and mix well. Bring to the boil and simmer till fully cooked. Meanwhile peel away the large outer leaves of the leek and boil till completely cooked in salted water. Drain and cool.Take a 9x9" pan and layer as a lasagne, using the leek slices instead of pasta. Now pour the milk into a small pan and add the spread and the flour. Stir continuously until well mixed and then continue to stir until it comes to the boil and thickens. Remove from the heat and pour over the lasagne , sprinkling the grated cheese on too. Bake covered in an oven preheated to 180'c for 40 minutes. Serves 4, 4pp per serving.

Make mine a spicy fries...

I just ate my dream 'melave malka' for 6pp so I am eager to blog and share it with you all!

A couple of years ago I used to have a regular motsei shabbos (Saturday night) date for coffee with a friend where I would invariably order hot chocolate and chips. Indeed, as I've recently learnt in my Weight Watchers training, food associations are a very real and strong phenomenon, so it's hardly surprising that I get definite cravings for them on Saturday nights in the winter!

But I'm pleased to say that thanks to my actifry, I have now come up with the perfect solution...

Judy's Lightly Spiced Fries with Parev (dairy-free) hot chocolate' (because as regular readers of my blog will know, my actifry is most definitely 'meaty'...)

INGREDIENTS

FRIES
600g potatoes
1 teaspoon soy sauce
0.5tsp hot paprika
0.25 tsp garlic powder
0.25 tsp cumin
Olive oil fry light

Peel and cut the potatoes into chips, then parboil in the microwave for 5 minutes. Dry thoroughly with kitchen paper and spray with frylight. Mix the soy sauce and spices together to form a thin paste, then coat the chips well. Add into the actifry and spray again. Cook for 25 minutes till crisp on the outside and soft on the inside! A third of the portion (200g raw potato) is 4pp.

DIP
30g Hellmans extra light mayo (can be purchased OU parev from Kosher Kingdom, labelled 'low fat mayonnaise dressing)
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp mixed dried herbs
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp water

Mix ingredients together - as long as you only have half of the quantity, it's 0pp.

PAREV HOT CHOCOLATE (serves 1)
12g drinking chocolate
3 sachets non-dairy creamer powder

Mix the drinking chocolate and creamer well, then add a little boiling water and mix to a paste. Fill the cup with the rest of the hot water, stirring continuously to ensure it's well mixed. 2pp in total.

Bon appetit! And a shavua tov to all :-)

The Muffin Woman of Golders Green...

As the weather has turned colder, I've been getting cravings for toasty things - and have not stopped thinking about crumpets and muffins and other delicious carbs. To the point that I've even ordered a Tesco Value toaster for the office so I can have toast and jam for breakfast...

Last night when Shabbos went out I put my breadmaker onto the dough cycle and decided to try my hand at making 'English Muffins' - the kind that look like a roll, and go with savoury or sweet toppings, as opposed to a cupcake.

The dough turned out beautifully but when I tried frying them as per the recipe, with frylight rather than oil for propoints purposes, they just burnt. Thanks to Google I soon came up with an alternative method though, and the resulting muffins were magnificent, if I do say so myself. They range between 2 and 3pp each depending on size and weight; I had two small ones with sugar-free jam last night for melave malka, and a larger one for lunch today with a poached egg - beyond yummy!

INGREDIENTS

450g strong white bread flour
1.5 tsps salt
12 fld oz water
1 tsp splenda
15g low fat spread
1 sachet dried yeast

Add the ingredients to your breadmaker in the following order; water first, flour sprinkled on top, then splenda, salt and low fat spread in one corner of the pan each. Make a small well in the centre of the flour and add in the yeast, then turn the machine to the dough cycle.

When the dough is ready, knock it back and roll it out, then cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter (or in my case, a plastic drinking cup). Place the rounds on a baking tray dusted with rice or potato flour (excellent for those pesach leftovers) and sprinkle some more rice or potato flour over the top. Leave in a warm place to rise for half an hour.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200'c. Prepare some oven-proof ramekins or aluminium foil muffin tins and grease them with frylight. When the muffins have risen sufficiently, place them on the baking try and invert a ramekin or muffin case over each one. This helps them keep their shape as they bake and cook at a slower pace. Bake for 10 mins, then remove the tray, turn each muffin over and replace the ramekin. Bake for a further 5 minutes. Finally, remove the ramekins and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes until the muffins are golden brown.

To serve:
Split them and toast lightly.

Serving suggestion: Top with a lightly poached egg and some steamed spinach and grilled tomato slices.

Makes between 15 and 22 muffins. The muffins should be treated like bread for the purposes of washing for hamotzi (and taking challah if you make a larger batch than this).

Sometimes only soup will do...

The inspiration for the soup I made today came initially from a recipe I saw in Binah magazine for caramelised onion soup - I'd mentally filed it away as an idea for a later date. But then my friend Tanya told me about the ginormous flask she'd bought to take BNS soup to a chol hamoed outing and I thought - brilliant idea! It hadn't even occurred to me - as the granddaughter of Hungarian Jews when you say thermos to me, I think coffee (and a nice slice of kokosh cake....)

But today we took our two youngest daughters cycling to Grafham Water - a ten-mile round cycle - and soup was the perfect way to warm ourselves up when we took a break. I don't have a cool new thermos - mine is more of the retro variety - and  I didn't have all the ingredients I'd need for the exact Binah soup, so I took it as a starting point and this is what I came up with!

INGREDIENTS

3 large onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1 leek, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Half a packet of frozen cauliflower
3 cubes of frozen cilantro
A few mushrooms
3 stick of celery, sliced
1 tablespoon parev chicken soup powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
Good shake of white pepper

Put a kettle of water on to boil and meanwhile brown the onions in some frylight. As they begin to soften, add the rest of the vegetables and top up the pan with boiling water so they are well covered. Then add the cilantro, soup powder and other herbs and spices. Bring back to the boil and leave to simmer for at least an hour. Blitz and serve - or reheat and store in a nice big thermos flask! (By the way, this soup is 0pp - the best kind! I drank 4 cups...!)

Toasty and warm in the succah...

When I planned out my succos menu several weeks ago, tonight's chol hamoed dinner was intended to be 'wrap pizzas' (that Weight Watchers staple!) and oven-baked potato wedges. But as today wore on and I thought about chopping the veggies for the pizza topping, I realised that I was never going to manage to get everyone sitting down to eat at the same time if I needed to make 5 pizzas and a tray of wedges in my little oven at once...

After mulling over a few different possibilities I came up with the idea of calzones, which take up far less space than a pizza. And then it occured to me that if I made them in my sandwich toaster, they would seal much better as well.

I'm pleased to say it was a big success! After making each calzone I slid it into the oven to stay warm as the wedges baked, and we all sat down to eat at once.

INGREDIENTS

1 pack of (3pp) tortilla wraps
1 bag fresh or frozen spinach leaves
1 punnet closed cup mushrooms
2 tomatoes
2 peppers (I used red and yellow for the colour)
2 onions
Frylight
Grated cheese (I used chevington light - the blue bag)

Chop and fry two onions in a little frylight, and while they are softening, wilt the spinach in the microwave. Remove half the onions from the pan and set aside, and then add in the spinach, finishing it off with the onions. Once the spinach mixture is done, remove and set aside. Then add back in the remaining onion and fry with the mushrooms, sliced thinly, until a rich, brown colour. Again, set aside. Finally, fry the chopped peppers until they begin to soften, at which point add in the tomatoes cut into sixths, and fry until they get very soft and fall apart.

You now have 3 different calzone fillings.

Take each wrap and spray with a little frylight. Add a heaped tablespoon of the filling of your choice and sprinkle with 30g light cheese. Fold in half and toast in the sandwich toaster until the cheese begins to sizzle.

And that's it! Each calzone toastie is 5pp if you use 3pp wraps and my suggested amount of light grated cheese. You can also sprinkle some mixed herbs and garlic powder onto the different vegetable fillings as they fry.

Moadim l'simcha!

Fishing for Compliments

Sometimes I just get bored of making gefilte fish every Shabbos. Not least because my dear husband won't touch the stuff that comes in the freezer ready rolled, and there is a dearth of fishmongers in the area with sensible opening hours.

At times like these, I have a great standby - vegetable fishcakes. Just as low in points as gefilte fish, and actually much less of a palaver to make - no standing over a smelly pot for ages! These are equally nice served hot or cold, and would make an excellent light meal as well as a Friday night starter. They work out at between 1 and 2pp each, depending on how large you make them.

INGREDIENTS

200g potatoes, peeled
150g butternut squash, peeled and chopped
450g frozen plaice fillets - defrosted
1 onion
Salt and pepper to taste
4fld oz matzo meal or fine dried breadcrumbs
0.5 tsp paprika
2 medium eggs
0.5tsp baking powder

Boil the potatoes, onion and butternut squash in a pan of water for about 15 minutes. Add the plaice fillets and continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Drain and cool slightly. Blend the potatoes, vegetables and fish in a food processor and add the remaining ingredients. Roll into balls with damp hands and place on a greased baking tray. Spray the tops with frylight. Bake for 30 minutes on 160'c.

Makes approximately 20 - 24 fishcakes. Can be frozen.

A Lesson in Leftovers - it's a wrap!

Like many people, I'm struggling to finish up the yom tov leftovers in my fridge before it's too late! One of the really successful dishes I turned out over Rosh Hashanah was my smoked salmon salad with avocado salsa - unfortunately I can't show you a picture of my beautiful plating efforts (masterchef eat your heart out) but I can give you the recipe for the salsa and show you what I did with it this evening...

TANGY AVOCADO SALSA

2 medium avocados
Half a cucumber
1 large tomato
2 limes
1 tsp dried dill
2/3 tsp dried mint
1 tsp splenda or other granular sweetener

Peel and chop the avocados and the cucumbers. Place in a bowl and squeeze the limes over them quickly, before the avocado has a chance to turn brown. Stir in the dill, mint and splenda. Add the chopped tomato and mix well. Serve on a bed of smoked salmon as an elegant starter!

Alternatively - spread a tortilla wrap with a teaspoon of low fat mayonnaise and sprinkle some chilli flakes on top. Lay 40g of salmon and 2 tablespoons of the salsa in the centre of the wrap and fold up takeaway-style.

The only thing you need to point in the entire salsa recipe is the avocado itself  - my wrap this evening cost me 6pp in total.

Budgets, binges and butternut squash

If there's one thing I've learnt over the last 16 months of my 'Weight Watchers journey' it's the concept of balancing a food budget.

So yes - today is Friday and I fully intend to eat my fluffy homemade challah with mayonnaise later, along with the requisite gefilte fish, chicken soup and kneidlach, roast chicken with 'all the trimmings' (and those chocolate madeleines to finish!). But if I don't want to end up going overboard, I have to compensate elsewhere - at lunchtime to be precise.

Today's blog offering can't really be called a 'recipe' as such, but rather an indication of how it's possible to eat light at lunchtime, while still starting off with an EXTREMELY full bowl of appetising and very filling food.

To give credit where it's due, the salad dressing below was created by my friend Gina and it has literally reinvented my lunchtime menu - no longer do I need to scrounge around for a propoint to cover a mayonnaise dressing, Gina's dressing is 0pp and it is the perfect complement to practically every salad in existence!

Chef's Salad with Sesame Dressing and Butternut Squash Chips

Ingredients: mixed salad leaves, red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, pickled cucumber spears, pickled beetroot slices, sliced baby carrots and 2 pieces Tivall 'roast chicken' style deli slices.

Dressing: Good squeeze of lemon juice, tablespoon of soy sauce, 3 drops of sesame oil, shake of garlic powder. Optional: up to 5g of honey.

Butternut squash chips: Arrange cubed butternut squash on a baking tray and spray with frylight. Sprinkle with hot paprika if you like your chips spicy. Bake for 40 minutes on 200'c and serve with Heinz reduced salt and sugar ketchup

As you can see from the pictures, this meal is enormous - but in WW terms it only 'eats' 2 of your propoints allowance and will keep you full till Shabbos!