ham and egg fried rice

Quick easy and tasty. Not to mention its's made with  ingredients almost exclusively from the store cupboard and freezer. High in veg and protein low in fat.

I made this for tea this evening and my husband was adimant it must be unhealthy as it tasted so good so I got to smugly tell him that it was actually pretty healthy.  For quantities use equal amounts of frozen veg to the cooked rice. The stir fry sauce is actually less calorific than you'd think with a whole one only being 2.5 syns on slimming world.

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
Basmati rice
1 onion sliced
frozen mixed peppers
frozen peas
frozen sweetcorn
eggs beaten
Cooked ham, cubed
soy sauce
Sachet blue dragon black bean stir fry sauce

method:
1. Cook the basmati rice as per packet instructions. I personally use 2 parts water to 1 part rice. Bring to the boil, clamp on a lid and turn the heat down to the lowest possible then leave it to absorb the liquid for 15-20 mins.
2. In the meantime, fry the onion until soft in half the oil, add the frozen veg and cook on high to drive off the excess liquid.
3. remove the veg from the pan and add the remaining oil on a high heat cook the eggs stiring frequently until almost cooked.
4. Add the cooked rice and stir fry on a high heat. Add the veg and ham stiring frequently.
5. Add the soy sauce and sachet of stir fry sauce to your tastes. Stiring in until all the rice Is coated. Once everything is hot through serve.

leftovers soup

So youve overindulged and now got a ton of leftover turkey. Well I found myself inspired by a soup I had from Pret a Manger - peruvian chicken and lime soup. Full of chicken and veggies in a very flavourful, spicy zingy broth.

My version has lots of veg and plenty if hebs and spices to ensure you have a fragrant but vurtuious soup. you will need a big pan for this as it isnt the sort of thing you make in small batches and if my husband is anything to go by, you'll need plenty for guilt free seconds.

There are a lot of ingredients but you get a really deep but fresh flavour and its mostly stuff I have knocking around my fridge and cupboards so no special shopping trips for this.

Ingredients:

Flavour base:
1 tsp olive oil
Couple of carrots halved lengthways and chopped
1 very large white onion finely chopped
2 cellery stalks finely chopped
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 deseeded and finely chopped chilli
1 red pepper chopped
1 yellow pepper chopped
1 tsp ground cummin
1 tsp ground corriander
2 heaped tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
chopped stalks from half a bunch of parsley
chopped stalks from half a bunch of corriander
10-15 drops of tabasco sauce
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree

The bulk:
Lots of broken up chicken or turkey
2 veg stock cubes
1-2 pints of hot water
1/2 carton of passatta
3-5 tsp lime juice from a bottle
half a big bag of chopped curly kale
Half a bunch chopped parsley
half a bunch chopped corriander

method:
1. Gently and slowly fry the carrot, onion and cellery in the oil until softened but uncoloured.
2. Add the remaining flavour base ingredients and cook until the veg has absorbed the flavours and is almost coming together as a paste
3. Add the stock cubes crumbled, tomato puree and cook a little to release tge flavour of the puree.
4. Add the hot water, lime juice and passatta and stir till you have a bubbling broth.
5. Add the kale and chicken/turkey and simmer until the meat is piping hot byt the kale still has its crunch.
6. Finally add the herb leaves, stir through and serve as you want to keep the freshness if the herbs.

I served mine with very lightly salted tortilla chips almost like crutons for extra crunch but feel free to ommit to feel extra virtulous.

I'm back!

Hi folks,

Sorry I've been away so long. Had some technical difficulties. I.e. a seriously knackered laptop. Apologies for my absence. In the new year I'll be posting regularly as my wonderful husband got me a lovely new tablet so I can take pics and post recipes using one handy dandy device. Yay!