Curried Sweet Potato and Prawns

So I know this is another curry dish but this one is a super quick, hearty, nutritious meal that takes less than half an hour to make from start to finish, with 26g of protein per portion and only 9g of fat!

Ingredients:

Serves 2.

1 tbsp of Flora Cuisine/Olive oil if you haven't got any.

1 medium red onion, finely chopped.

1 clove of garlic, crushed

250g of sweet potato peeled and cut into 1cm cubes

Pinch of salt

200ml of water

1 TSP of curry paste

Pinch of ground cardamon seeds.

Spinach

250g of cooked peeled prawns

Juice of 1 lime

Serve with 50g of basmati/long grain rice. (25g per portion)

Nutritional Information:

Curry only:

Calories - 305 (401 with the rice)

Protein - 26g

Fat - 9g

Carbohydrates - 31.7g

Of which are sugars - 10.7g

Fibre - 5.3g

Method:

Heat the Flora Cuisine in a non stick pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until starting to soften.

Put your rice on to steam or boil at this stage and it should all be ready at the same time.

Next add the sweet potato, lightly salted and curry paste. 

Then add the water and cardamon and mix everything together.

Let this come to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the sweet potato has softened.

Next add the prawns and lime juice and stir through.

Then pack as much spinach as you want on top and cover with the lid again. By the time the spinach has wilted enough the prawns will have heated through. 

While the spinach is wilting, drain your rice. 

I serve this in a bowl with the rice on the bottom, so all the liquid from the curry soaks into it. Delicious!!

Noble Noodles

There are some nights when I just can't stop thinking about a great big dirty take away...one that's gonna leave me feeling so full it's going to take a crack-team of  Oompa Loompas to manouvre me from the sofa!

When ordering chinese takeaway there are three things I crave... Chicken Curry, which we have covered with the Chicken Katsu Curry, Sweet and Sour Chicken which I hope to tackle in a few weeks and Chow Mein, which, as far as I was concerend was the low fat option! How wrong I was! Granted it is probably one of the lowest fat chinese dishes available on our western menus but the average portion still contains 1316 cals per 250g!!
While this recipe isn't an exact substitution for chow mein, because of the added spice it will leave you feeling very full on much less food and feeling like you've had a real treat! I am an evening grazer and after eating this around 7pm I didn't want to eat anything else for the rest of the night...so it really does work. it's also super tasty and fun to eat with chopsticks. It's also great for ehhh.... "clearing you out" if ya know what I mean...which is something dieters can have problems with from time to time.

This recipe is for Singapore Curried Noodles. It's a very cheap dish to prepare if you plan on doing it more than once. The most expensive things in the recipe are prawns, but you can buy a big bag of frozen king prawns and just take what you need from it each time...

Nutritional Facts:

Calories: 435
Fat: 5g
WWPP: 10.5
I don't have info in carbs and protein yet but will add this at a later time
Serves: 4 (If you are making this for two people it's best to just halve your ingredients as it won't keep)

Ingredients:

• 340g/12oz packet of rice flour noodles (very important to get these and not wheat flour noodles as they are much lower in calories - You can get these pre-soaked in Tesco where the bean sprouts usually are)
• 1 tbsp vegtable oil
• 16 king prawns cut in half
• 1 x 150g chicken breast, cut into thin slices (and I mean thin - you just want the slices thick enough to stay together)
• 2 bacon medallions, cut into match sticks
• 2 small onions, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tbsp medium curry powder (if you don't like a bit of burn just add half this amount)
• 5 tbsp of chicken stock (I like to add more than this to the pan and reduce it down to get a richer flavour but if you're short on time just stick to the 5 tbsp)
• 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 spring onions, sliced lengthways into little matchsticks
• 2 big handfuls of beansprouts (when it's safe to eat beansprouts again that is)
• 1 red pepper cored and thinly sliced
• A pinch of sesame seeds to serve

This cooks really fast so it's best to have everything prepped before hand so you can just fling it all in the pan when you need to.

 Method:

1. Heat the oil in the wok until it is very hot and shimmering, throw in the chicken and cook until it is starting to turn golden brown then remove from the wok with a slotted spoon or spatula.
2. Next let the pan reheat a bit again before throwing in the chopped onion, garlic and bacon and stir fry for about 2 minutes on the highest heat possible then add 2 tbsp of curry powder and stir fry again for a further minute.
3. Add the stock and soy (which I have premixed beforehand for ease) and stir until it forms a bubbling sauce...give it a few minutes till you are happy with the consistency...you want it to be saucy but not too thick.
4. Chuck in your noodles and stir to coat them in the sauce then add the beansprouts, peppers and spring onions and stir fry for another minute before adding the prawns and stir frying for another minute and then finally add the chicken back in and...yup...you've guessed it....stir fry all of this together for another minute then serve straight away.
5. sprinkle a few sesame seeds over the top and voilá! Get you chop sticks out!

One of the quickets and cheapest recipes on the Low Fat Foodie so far and one of my favourites!

Saintly Seafood and Saffron Risotto

Risottos are creamy, gooey affairs full to bursting with cheeses and cream and butter and take hours of standing over to keep them topped up with stock and wine so hardly anyone ever cooks a risotto at home. I'm pretty sure no one cooks a risotto mid week at the very least! Well not only is this risotto completely dairy free it is super easy and super quick! This is a regular on our mid-week menu. We love authentic paella and this is as close as you can get without a paella pan, a big enough burner and a Spanish Mama.

Nutritional Facts: 
Calories: 350
Fat: 10.5g
WW PP: 8.5
Carbs: 46g
Sugar: 3.8g
Fibre: 3.1g
Protein:14.7g
Serves: 4 

Prep time: 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 38 minutes.


Ingredients:
1 tbsp Flora Cuisine
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
8 slices chorizo roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves peeled and grated
225g risotto rice
225ml white wine (Lidl do a 255ml bottle of South African Chenin Blanc for €1.79. It's not the best for quaffing but cheap and perfect for cooking of course if you want to get a big bottle make sure it's something you're gonna drink)
600ml chicken stock
Pinch of saffron (expensive for the tiny amout you get but it's essential to the flavour)
Large pinch of smoked paprika
2 garlic cloves whole (seperate from above for frying the seafood with)
100g king prawns (fresh or frozen - Fresh is always best but if you're on a budget this is still delicous with frozen prawns)
100g mussels (fresh or frozen as above)
1 medium squid or a handful of squid rings(clean squid and cut into pieces)
small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsely


Method


1. Preheat the oven to 180C (160 for fan assisted). Warm 1 tsp of flora cuisine in casserole dish  or pyrex dish. ( I just used a 9 inch square baking tray and it was fine) Chuck in the onions and chorizo. sauté them over a lowish heat for  8 minutes or until the onions have softened and the chorizo has released all of it's oill and coloured a bit.  ( I bet you will want to eat it at this stage) Add the garlic and fry for a further minute. 


2. Stir through the rice (Don't worry you don't have to do anything to it before hand) and fry for a minute, then pour over the wine and stock. I like to maybe just add 400ml of stock at this point and reserve 200ml to add about 10 minutes into baking as you may not need the entire 200ml. It all depends on how gloopy you like your risotto. Sprinkle in the saffron and a good bit of smoked paprika. Then pop the lid on your casserole dish or just tin foil over the top of whatever you are using amd pop it in the oven for 25 minutes. Like I said at 10 minutes add some more stock and stir through.


3. The rice should have absorbed most of the liquid but will still be a bit gloopy. Toss the seafood in the remaining olive oil and add these with the two cloves of garlic to a hot frying pan. It will only take a couple of minutes to cook or heat these through (depending on if you bought raw or cooked seafood) just make sure they are hot all the way through. You will probably get some water coming out of these so drain them before stirring them into the risotto. Finally add the parsely and stir before serving with a flourish of parsely. 


Note:


Rice expands in your stomach, so it may not look like much in the bowl but give it 15 minutes and you will be feeling full.



I didn't add any salt to this dish as there is plenty in the stock but it can be added as this stage if you feel the need. try to opt for low sodium if you can. If you are more of a paella than risotto person just add 300-400ml of stock for a dryer consistency.


If you're not into seafood try this will chicken instead.


A 125ml glass of the white wine you may have left over will go beautifully with this meal and will add only 85 cals to your total...sure go on...treat yourself...you deserve it.