Greek Gyros With Tzatziki Sauce

Or...the yummiest chicken kebab you'll ever eat.
I haven't travelled as much as I have wanted to in my 25 years but one of the places I have visited was Greece and the local gyros blows any chicken kebab you've ever had out of the water.

Here is a delightfully syn free and low fat version of gyros. Made with a garlic and herb cauliflower flat bread. This recipe does have a lot of ingredients and take a little bit more time and patience to make but it is immeasurably worth it! So channel your inner Zorba and get funky with this dish...


Ingredients

3 Chicken Breasts
Schwartz Chargrilled Chicken Seasoning
Red Pepper
Red Onion
Lettuce
Feta Cheese

Tzatziki sauce

1/2 Cucumber
1/2 a large pot of fat free Greek Yoghurt
4 cloves of minced garlic
Dill - chopped
1/2 Lemon
Salt and Pepper

Wraps (makes 2)

1/2 Cauliflower
2 Eggs
1 minced garlic clove
3/4 tsp mixed herbs


How it's Done

Ok, so first we need to make our wraps.
Pop your cauliflower florets into a blender and blend until it makes a rice texture.

Boil your cauliflower for 5 minutes then drain through a sieve. Place your cauliflower into the middle of a tea towel and squeeze all the excess water out of it.

Pop all the ingredients into a bowl and mix.

Place some baking paper onto a tray and spread your mixture into two circular wraps. They should be thin but with no holes in.

Bake for 17 minutes and cool on a wire rack to avoid a soggy bottom.

 

Next you want to cut your chicken into strips and lightly sprinkle in the chargrilled seasoning. Put on a tray, Spray in frylight and pop into the oven to cook.

While that's cooking we can move onto our tzatziki sauce, which is super easy.

Add your yoghurt, minced garlic, chopped Dill, salt and a pinch of pepper to season and the juice of half a lemon into your blender. Chop the cucumber into cubes, leaving out the watery seeds in the middle. Add this into the blender too and blend into your sauce. Pop in the fridge to keep cool. Any extra can be frozen and used later.

Once your chicken is ready all that's left is to pile your 'flatbread' with all that yummy salad and chicken. Top with your tzatziki sauce and crumble a bit of Feta cheese over the top. Voila.

One free Greek Gyros, packed with speed foods! Enjoy :)

Sweet Potato Cakes

These yummy potato cakes can be eaten by themselves as a quick lunch or snack, or made into part of a lovely filling meal. They've got lots of speed food packed in and are 100% syn free, low in fat and healthy. What more do you want? The first time I made this recipe, it was quite crumbly so I adjusted the recipe from 1 egg to 2 to help bind the mix together. This recipe will make 4 patties and you can always add different veggies in to mix it up, pepper would be lovely.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes
Sweetcorn
2 or 3 Sprint Onions
2 Eggs
1tsp Cumin
1/4tsp Cayenne Pepper
1tsp Onion Salt
Handful of Fresh Parsley (chopped)
Baby spinach leaves
Fry Light

How It's Done

Pop your sweet potatoes in the microwave for around 10 minutes, turning half way through.
When you squeeze them they should be nice and soft. Cut a slit in the top and pop aside to cool.

Chop your sprint Onions and add all other ingredients to a bowl. Once the potato has cooled, scoop it out the skin with a spoon, this should be really easy to so as the potato just falls away from the skin.

Mix the potato with all the ingredients in a bowl and pop into your fridge for 30 minutes or so to cool and harden.

Heat a pan and spray with your frylight. Shape the mixture into round patties and pop in the pan to fry on both sides until a golden colour.

Now the good bit...EAT! These go lovely with a garlic sauce made of fat free plain yoghurt and a minced garlic clove.

Hawaiian Pizza Cups

 

Ok, so I miss pizza. Sometimes I think about that stringy cheese and tangy tomato sauce and my mouth just starts watering.
Well crave no more, here is a yummy and healthy recipe for Pizza Cups. If you're following Slimming World and are using the cheese as your healthy A choice. Then these are FREE. The words free and pizza is just music to my ears. I don't think I need to say any more about these.

Ingredients

Ham
Grated Mozzarella
Fresh chopped pineapple
Mushrooms
1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Medium Onion
Oregano
Basil
1tsp Sweetener
100ml Chicken Stock
2tbsp Tomato Puree



How It's Done

Ok, here's the good bit. First you need to make your pizza sauce. If you have leftovers, you can always freeze it and then you have some ready made pizza sauce for the next time you make this...and trust me...there will be a next time.

Finely dice an onion and fry using fry light until soft. Add in your minced garlic cloves and fry for another minute.

Add your chopped tomatoes, stock, sweetener, puree, oregano and basil and simmer until the sauce has reduced and thickened. Take the sauce off the heat and leave to cool. When it's cooled you can blend it to make it smooth.

Next line your muffin tin with ham to make your 'cup', you shouldn't have holes or your sauce will leak through! Nobody wants a leaky pizza cup.

Add a good dollop of your sauce into each cup, top with chopped pineapple and mushrooms.

Add your grated mozzarella to top off your cups and put in the oven on Gas Mark 7 til the cheese melts and bubbles.

NOTE - if you're doing slimming world, weigh your cheese and divide this between however many cups you will be eating. This avoids over eating your daily allowance of cheese and running into your syns.

Enjoy! These are just soooooo good and taste just like a Hawaiian pizza, only less calories!

The Best Burger In Town

Before I joined Slimming World, I would always have moments where I would think 'I really need to do something about my weight'. Then along would come a takeaway, a biscuit...or two...or three...
and my resolve would weaken and I'd think 'I'll start next week'.

The great thing about Slimming World is I'm still enjoying all the things I wanted to eat before but in a healthier way. This burger recipe is, quite simply, amazing. There is no way you would feel like you were missing out when you're feasting on one of these bad boys.

Add your own toppings - lettuce, tomato or gurkins...I love caramelised onions and Reduced Sugar Tomato Ketchup (0.5 syns per tbsp). This recipe will make 7 burgers, so it goes a long way. I used 4 and kept the rest to cut up and add to a tomato and basil sauce with pasta, like meatballs. Voila! Two meals from one recipe.

Ingredients

I don't tend to measure my ingredients but this is a good guide. Have a play around with them yourself, add a bit more or if you don't have something don't worry.

750g 5% fat beef mince
2tbsp paprika
3tbsp Worcester sauce
2tbsp dark soy sauce
1tsp onion salt
1tsp ground coriander
2tsp garlic granules
1tsp course ground pepper

How It's Made

Add all your ingredients into a bowl and use a spoon to work the flavours into the meat.

Let the meat sit for 20 minutes or longer if you have time, to really let those flavours mingle. Now is a good time to get your slimming world chips on the go or maybe a nice bit of corn on the cob!

Get a sheet of grease proof paper or a plate to put your burgers onto, grab a handful of meat and roll into a ball. Press it out onto your paper until it is about the thickness of a £1 coin. Do this with the rest of your meat.

Heat a frying pan on a medium to low heat and add your fry light.

Once the fry light starts to bubble add your first few burgers. The trick here is to resist the urge to flip and squeeze the daylights out of your burger. You're going to loose all those yummy flavours and juices that way. Give them about 4 minutes on each size and transfer to a baking tray and sprinkle with cheese (healthy A).

Once you've finished cooking and sprinkling, pop the burgers in the oven until that lovely cheese melts.

Voila! Stick it in that wholemeal bun (healthy B or 6 syns) and pile your burger high with yummy speed food.


TIP - If you want the authentic McDonalds feel, add some limp lettuce and make your burger half the size of the image shown.

KFC Style Chicken

Ok, so I'm just going to jump straight in here. I love love love KFC chicken. Those succulent pieces of chicken coated in a crispy crumb are my calling.
I thought when I started to eat healthy I'd be saying goodbye to them forever but the great thing about Slimming World is that there is always a way to make healthier versions of your favourite foods.
I came across a recipe to make my own, tweaked it a bit and it's more than finger licking' good. It's a firm favourite in my house and 100% satisfies that crispy chicken craving. Best of all - its syn free! YEY!

This recipe serves 2 and the bread is your healthy B allowance. IF you've already used your healthy B then the bread bun counts as 6 syns.


Ingrediants

2 chicken breasts
1tsp onion salt
2tbsp paprika
Dash of coarse ground pepper
1tsp Oregano
1tsp garlic granules
1/2tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
Fry Light
2 wholemeal 60g bread buns.


How It's Done

1. Tear up your bread and add it to your food processor, along with your herbs and spices. Blend into crumbs.

2. Dice your chicken breast or slice into fillets.

3. Beat your eggs and dip your chicken pieces in the egg.

4. Thoroughly coat your chicken pieces in your crumbs.

5. Put on a baking tray and spray throughly with fry light (this is the key to getting the chicken nice and crispy).

6. Cook and enjoy! I don't have an exact temperature for the chicken, I usually cook mine on gas mark 7.