Meat Free Monday Singapore Noodles

So last Monday I made Singapore Noodles, a recipe in my Quorn Kitchen recipe book, you can find it here on the Quorn website too. It's a really simple recipe with basic ingredients that are so easy to obtain and cheap too, so perfect for a family meal on a budget. 

I found the recipe really easy to follow and it's quick to make too so ideal for midweek or when you're busy. I prepared all the vegetables first before I started cooking as the cooking part doesn't take long at all. The only changes I made were to replace the cooking wine with more soy sauce so that Small Boy could try some and to cook the Quorn mince from frozen and add the sauces to the wok as cooking rather than to defrost and marinade. I cooked the mince from frozen in my large wok, I use a low calorie spray rather than oil. Once the mince had browned I added ingredients in the order from the cooking instructions. I boiled the noodles as per the instructions on the packet, although I did add a few cheeky splashes of soy sauce to perk them up a little, then once they we're cooked and drained I mixed them into the wok with everything else to give them a little crisp. 

Served immediately, this is what it looked like...

The Singapore Noodles were a hit around the table, we had my mum over for dinner and she absolutely loved this, as did Hubster and myself. Small boy enjoyed the mince, but he's not keen on noodles, or pasta for that matter. It surprised me just how tasty this dish was, I've made a lot of stir fry's with a bag of mixed veg and a packet of ready made sauce and I'll never go back to that now, this recipe was so quick and easy to make yet tasted wonderful.

My family have always being big meat eaters, my Grandad was a master butcher. My family and Hubster have this idea that Quorn is tasteless so they don't eat it, but they have agreed to try Meat Free Mondays and I am pleased to say they have found the recipes that I have tried so far using Quorn to be very tasty and said they would definitely have them again, this is a huge achievement!

Oh, for the record one tablespoon of hoisin sauce works out to be one syn for Slimming World, the rest of the ingredients were free, but please bare in mind that I follow the green plan with being a vegetarian. So it's healthy and low fat too! 

I'd love to hear from you if you try out this recipe yourself so please do let me know.

Tonight we'll be trying Lemon Linguine using a recipe from my new cook book, Lorraine Pascale, Fast, Fresh and Easy Food. Obviously I'll be switching the chicken in the recipe for a meat free alternative. I'll update you all on how it goes next Monday.

Happy Meat Free Monday!

Disclaimer: Quorn have provided the voucher for use on their products for our participation in this week's Meat Free Monday, however the choice in Quorn products purchased is my own, the recipes that I make will also be my own choice. Any opinions expressed in my blog will be my own and unbiased.

Back To Basics

So I started the Slimming world (SW) diet in the summer, this is the first time I've ever done a SW diet and it's safe to say I love it! I was doing pretty well until the winter weather kicked in, tins of chocolates have started stacking up in the pantry with various other naughty treats. The problem with this cold weather is that I crave my comfort foods even more, I'm sure I'm not alone there though....Anyone??

 

After two weeks of feeling horrendous with the flu, days of not eating and days of eating what Hubster was able to prepare or cook, I was very nervous to be weighed at my SW meeting this morning. Much to my surprise I had actually lost 1/2 lb! I was really expecting to have gained weight. I'm glad I lost, even though it's only 1/2 lb it has given me a much needed boost. After the meeting I felt much more motivated, our coordinator is lovely, as are all the members there and I always feel very motivated after the meetings. It's towards the end of the week that I struggle, the temptation kicks in as Hubster and Small Boy are eating chocolate in front of me.

 

Yes chocolate, this is my weakness. I also love crisps, but have actually found it quite easy to give them up. I used to eat one or two packets of crisps a day, but now I only have two or three packets a week. But chocolate, now this is one thing I cannot sacrifice, I've tried but I can't do it, I think it's safe to say I have a chocolate addiction, but I personally feel that cutting something you love out of your diet will simply make you miserable, and life is too short to be miserable so the chocolate stays. Yay!

 

I've decided this week to go back to basics, just like the first week of my diet, simple meals, writing everything down, counting syns meticulously. I will not slip up this week, despite the fact it is my birthday on Sunday because when I sit down and think about it, losing weight this week will make me feel much better about myself than stuffing my face and feeling fat would, and who really wants to feel bad about themselves on their birthday? My plan is to follow the green plan as I normally do, but two days this week I will be trying the Success Express plan, wish me luck..!

 

Right, so now it's winter I'm getting back into soups, but I find the tins and cartons are full of syns, even the low fat ones. I've never ever in my life made a soup before, but I'm going to try this week, the syns on these soups are wasted for me personally and could be put to much better use in chocolate. The soup has to go! I have the laptop at the ready and I'm going to search the SW website for amazing syn free soup recipes this afternoon, I will let you know how it goes later in the week....