KUMPULAN MASTER BLOG

Aubergine and Potato Curry- a spicy, tomato-based, vegan curry with aubergine, peppers and potato, very low in calories and syn free on Slimming World. It's my mission to find as many different ways to use aubergine as possible. Pretty much anything tastes better with aubergine in it, in my opinion! My other Aubergine recipes Warm Mediterranean Couscous salad with Roasted Aubergine and Feta Mediterranean Pasta Bake We are still going strong with our attempt to do a full year of Meat Free Mondays and aubergine has been a key ingredient for getting us as far as September successfully. This recipe for Aubergine and Potato Curry, is up there with my favourite spicy meals. It's absolutely packed with flavour and deliciously spicy. Of course, if you're more of a mild spice fan, just adjust the heat of the chilli powder and/or reduce the amount of fresh chilli that you use.

Creamy Leek Pasta- a quick creamy vegetarian pasta dish with leeks, courgettes and peas. Can be syn-free on Slimming World if you use Quark. Dinner ready in 20 minutes. It's been a while since we had anything new for our Meat Free Monday dinner, so this Vegetarian Creamy Leek Pasta was a real treat. Creamy Leek Pasta is not only creamy and deliciously tasty, but also bright and colourful with green veg amongst the pasta. Pan-fried leeks, and courgettes, plus some peas, give the creamy leek pasta its colour and fresh flavours. If you're fan of other green veg, like spring greens, you could throw that in too. The trick to making sure that the vegetables don't end up as green mush, is to fry the veg for just enough time and to cook the peas briefly so they all have enough bite to them to add interest to the pasta. I like to use spirali pasta because the leeks wind around it and it just looks pretty! You can use whatever you have in the cupboard though. For the creamy sauce to...

I spent quite a while coming up with a name for the recipe I'm sharing today- Slow Cooker Bolognese and Potato Hash. In the end my friend came up with the name, when she was visiting last weekend. What do you call something that's essentially a traditional beef bolognese made in the slow cooker with potato? We toyed with Bake, but it's not baked. She suggested hash, which resulted in some pondering about what hash means in the foodie sense. Corned Beef Hash has potato in, and is sort of thrown together, so that must work, right? Let's hope so, because that's what I've gone for! I decided to do a spin on spaghetti bolognese, because it has so much flavour. All that rich sauce- it must surely be a good idea to put potato in it? Excellent comfort food! Beef Bolognese works beautifully in the slow cooker. It allows the sauce to really develop a deep, rich flavour. What you do need to be careful of however, is how much liquid you add. It's tempting to put in as m...

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff- a slow cooker version of the classic, creamy Hungarian stew. Perfect with rice or jacket potatoes. Jump to recipe Last week I made beef stroganoff, something I haven't eaten for years. I had mushrooms leftover in the fridge and was looking for inspiration on what to use them for, when I remembered stroganoff. The first time I ever had it was at a friend's house when I was a teenager and I remember being very worried when they told me that's what we were having. It sounded strange and unfamiliar! I needn't have worried- it was creamy and delicious. Beef Stroganoff is a rich, creamy stew, originally from Russia. The main thing that most people associate with stroganoff is mushrooms, but they weren't in the traditional Russian recipe. It was all about the beef! My slow cooker version of beef stroganoff uses beef stewing steak, onions and mushrooms with beef stock, paprika, thyme and sour cream. I also use a little onion powder but if you d...

Slow Cooker Vegan Chilli- a vegan, gluten free slow cooker chilli with chickpeas, kidney beans, peppers and more. Healthy and full of flavour. Syn free on Slimming World and under 300 calories. Jump to recipe We are still in New Year's Resolutions territory, as it's early January, and our household has decided to reduce our meat consumption a little and see if we can make Meat Free Mondays work for us. I'm happy to eat vegetarian food; there are lots of delicious options and once a week seems achievable, especially as I will need to come up with some new recipes. My first Meat Free Monday vegetarian recipe is Slow Cooker Vegan Chilli. Mondays are often very full on, so quite a few of these recipes might end up being slow cooker ones! This Vegan Chilli is almost identical to a traditional chilli but with chickpeas to replace the beef mince and smoked paprika to really give it a smokey flavour. It's packed full of kidney beans, red pepper, onion and butternut squash, alo...

8 Syn Free Slimming World Recipes- winter comfort food recipes that are either syn free or can be adapted to be syn free. Each recipe is also under 400 calories. We're several steps into the new year now, the kids are back at school, and inevitably a lot of us are thinking about how to get back on track with a healthy diet. New year, new you and all that. The trouble that I have with this, is simple. It's winter and it's dark and it's cold! I want to eat warming, filling, comforting food. Luckily, there are loads of amazingly creative, healthy recipes out there which are exactly that. No need to be eating sad-looking out-of-season lettuce leaves- there's plenty of yummy to go around. I have rounded up eight delicious, filling dinner recipes from fellow food bloggers that are perfect for anyone looking to balance out the Christmas indulgence with some healthy meals. All the meals in this healthy recipe round-up are syn-free on Slimming World, if that's the method...

Happy New Year! Hope 2017 has treated you well.   I have been rootling through my blog statistics for the year, to see what 2017's top ten most popular recipes are. Much like last year, slow cooker recipes feature heavily. Read on to see which recipes made the list, along with some 2017 blog stats. 1. Slow Cooker Leek and Potato Soup Also last year's most popular recipe, it's easy to make and very comforting in winter. My slow cooker leek and potato soup recipe is also the most-visited recipe on the blog ever. 2. Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon This one was also very popular in 2016, but has maintained its popularity consistently over this year. Another winter warmer for your collection. 3. Mini Cheese and Onion Quiches This was a new recipe for 2017 and was popular right from the start. Perfect for buffets and parties, they are little parcels of cheesy deliciousness. 4. Slow Cooker Spanish Chicken This was one of my first recipes and is a bit of a personal favourite. As a bon...

I'm continuing my love affair with butternut squash with this recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon risotto; a very comforting dish. It's perfect for an autumnal risotto as it provides a lovely, smooth, creamy texture without using any indulgent ingredients (like actual cream, for instance!). The sweetness makes a nice contrast to the salty bacon too. As there is a lot of salt from the bacon, I don't recommend cook the risotto in stock, as you normally would, or the salt levels will become overwhelming and you won't taste anything else. When the risotto is served up, it doesn't look like a very large portion but it's incredibly filling. I was tempted to serve it with a salad, but I don't think I could have fitted it in, to be honest! This recipe for roasted butternut squash and bacon risotto is syn-free on Slimming World if you use bacon medallions and spray oil. It's around 520 calories if you are managing your calories.

Creamy Salmon Pasta- penne pasta in a warm pasta salad with salmon, peppers and peas, mixed with fat free yogurt to keep the calories down. Syn free on Slimming World if you use spray oil. Jump to recipe So the summer holidays are nearly over, it's not long until we are back to school, and it's definitely time for me to get back on the MyFitnessPal wagon! To try and get things started with a bang, I wanted to make something new. I served up this Creamy Salmon Pasta dish, which is also syn free on Slimming World, and comes in at around 600 calories (less if you're not as big of a pasta monster as I am!) The creamy sauce is achieved with fat-free Greek yoghurt, which gives it a really nice tang. I personally like the Liberte brand because I find it thicker and creamier than others, but any plain, fat-free yoghurt would work. Mixed together with stock, veg, salmon and your favourite type of pasta, it makes a quick and delicious dinner. I could easily have eaten a second bowl,...

Bolognese Bake- a warm and comforting pasta bake, perfect for family meals, pasta mixed with bolognese and topped with cheese. Syn-free on Slimming World if you make the cheese your Hex A with reduced fat cheddar. Jump to recipe You'd think that now we're in the summer holidays, I would have all this spare time for making fancy, elaborate dinners. Doesn't seem to quite work out that way somehow! This bolognese bake fitted the bill of a comforting pasta meal on a rather cool summer evening last week, with plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. Pasta, mixed together with a rich, meaty bolognese sauce and topped with grated mature cheese, makes a very tasty dinner. I find that mature cheese is essential to really complement the flavour of the bolognese. It makes a delicious meal, especially when served with a salad and some garlic bread. Just look at the cheese when it's all melted and crispy around the edges! I tend to keep my bolognese sauce fairly simple and reas...

Crusted Cod Bites with Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes- chunks of cod crusted with garlic breadcrumbs and a slight hit of chilli, served with roasted garlic and rosemary new potatoes. A delicious dinner for the kids and healthier than shop-bought versions. The recipe I am going to tempt you with today is Crusted Cod Bites with Garlic and Rosemary New Potatoes. A lovely summer meal that requires only a small amount of prep. I love fish, really love it. I will happily eat any fish put in front of me. I even still love fish fingers. I have fond memories of sitting in my nana's back garden in Cumbria, in a den she had made out of sun loungers and a picnic blanket, eating fish finger sandwiches with my sister. Happy times! I usually buy cod and salmon when I fancy some fish, but I am happy with the much cheaper cobbler or pollock as well. Cod is a lovely meaty fish, but it can be a little bland. For this recipe, I added flavour to the cod bites through the chunky breadcrumb crust with gar...

Mediterranean Summer Salad with lemon and garlic dressing- a bulgar wheat and lentil based salad with beetroot, roasted red peppers and home-made lemon and garlic dressing. I am SO excited about this Summer Mediterranean Salad recipe! It's fresh and so full of summery flavours, I could eat it all day and not get bored. The inspiration for this salad came from a recent visit to a brasserie ( The March Hare, Guildford ) with my parents. It was a really hot day, and their 'Summer Salad' was the only thing that appealed as a starter in that sort of heat. When it came, I couldn't believe what I was eating because it was so delicious. How excited can you really get about a salad? Pretty excited as it turns out! I left determined to create my own twist on the idea. After a week of tossing ideas around in my head, I came up with the Mediterranean Salad recipe I wanted to use. It uses the base idea from The March Hare salad of starting with bulgar wheat and lentils and topping t...

Slow Cooker Vegan Curry- a low calorie,vegan and gluten free curry packed with veg for a filling meal- butternut squash, potato, peppers and chickpeas. It makes a really healthy meal. Low syn on Slimming World and 217 calories. Jump to recipe This week I have been making vegetable curry in my slow cooker. I love everything about having a curry- all the trimmings that are involved. Naan bread in particular is a hot favourite for me. I would rather have curry and Naan than have curry and rice. If you like a really fiery curry, often a vegetable curry is the way to go. The veg absorbs a lot of the heat from the spices and really packs a punch! The advantage of using the slow cooker (apart from the usual bonus of leaving it to do its thing) is that it keeps the curry lower in calories because no curry paste or oil is needed. Add that to the fact that veg and pulses in themselves are packed full of nutrients and protein, and you're on to a winner all round. It's also accidentally...

Slow Cooker Lamb Shoulder- lamb, slow cooked with rosemary, thyme, garlic, potatoes and carrots until it's juicy and falling apart. A delicious alternative to your normal Sunday roast, and a lot less effort for the cook! Jump to recipe Last week, I spotted that Lamb Shoulder was on offer when I was doing my online shopping. I don't cook a lot of lamb but whenever I do eat it, I love it, so I ordered some. When it arrived, I laughed because it was such a tiny, wee cut of lamb shoulder. I had made the classic online food shopping error of not checking the weight- 400g! Oh well, it was the perfect size for two. Lamb shoulder is best slow cooked, until it's soft and juicy and can be pulled apart easily you find will talk about slow cooking it in the oven, but I always prefer the slow cooker. It's more economical and it means I can use my oven for other things at the same time as cooking the meat, if I want to. I tend not to move away from the classic complimentary flavours...

Slow Cooker Beef and Butternut Squash Stew- a lovely autumn stew of beef and butternut squash and flavoured with rosemary and thyme, all cooked in the slow cooker for an easy, no-effort dinner. Syn-free on Slimming World. Jump to recipe Our freezer was looking a bit bare this week and the butternut squash was staring up at me from the potato cupboard, so I started with that and added everything else around it to make this Beef and Butternut Squash Stew. It makes a nice big batch, so you could serve it up to the whole family or freeze some, or use some as a meat pie filling. So many options! You could serve it with potatoes, which is what I do, or throw some pearl barley in with it to add bulk and then serve it as it is. Butternut squash goes with almost everything, and this beef stew is no exception. The butternut squash adds a lovely sweetness to the meatiness of the beef. Definitely one to add to your winter warmers list. Y ou can never have too many 'chuck it all in and leave ...

Slow Cooker Lamb Madras- a spicy slow cooked lamb curry, less than 200 calories. A great alternative to a takeaway and syn-free on Slimming World. Jump to recipe You just can't have enough curry recipes in my opinion, especially slow cooker ones. They help to get the absolute best out of those cheap cuts of meat which absorb all the delicious spices. So with that in mind, I was inspired by a pack of diced lamb that I got on special offer, to do a slow cooked lamb madras. Madras comes in many styles and originates from South India. The name madras for the curry however, is a British invention, like most of the curry names that we know and love. Madras is a red curry with plenty of chilli used to make it hot. It usually has a sour element included such as lime juice or vinegar, and sometimes will have yoghurt added to cool the heat. I used both fresh chillies and chilli powder to make this slow cooker lamb madras and add lime juice for the sour flavour. It thickens up beautifully ...