Becca Jane St Clair

My mom and I had a Christmas tradition that we would always make a breakfast casserole in the crock pot since the oven usually had the turkey in it at breakfast time (my family always ate around 1PM). Tim and I don’t have our Christmas dinner until later in the day, so that leaves my oven free. Last year, I made a crustless quiche that was lovely and low-carb….but also full of fat. And it made tons. So this year, I decided to make individual quiches and to make sure I got in my Healthy Extra A for the day, I added 40G of low-fat cheese.

[Please note: Syn values are based on my exact ingredients using the online calculator. Your Syn value may vary based on your ingredients and the size of your baking containers and portions, so use this number as a guide only.]

This recipe is PER PERSON. If you are making this for more than 3 people, my suggestion would be to just make it in a regular full-size quiche dish.

You will need (PER PERSON)

3 Eggs
4 TBS fat free Fromage Frais
A handful of fresh spinach
2 bacon medallions (or rashers of bacon with all the fat trimmed off), grilled and chopped (optional. or use grilled and chopped Quorn sausages*! Or both!)
3-4 button mushrooms, quartered
5 cherry tomatoes, quartered (or half of a regular tomato diced)
40g reduced fat Cheddar cheese**
Pepper

individual pie/quiche/flan dishes (I got ours at IKEA for £2 each. Or you could use individual casserole dishes)
Fry light

1 – Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2 – Spray the bottom and sides of your dish with Fry Light. Beat the eggs and Fromage Frais and a sprinkle of pepper. Stir in half the cheese.
3 – Scatter the spinach leaves on the bottom of the dish and sprinkle on the mushrooms, tomatoes, and bacon.
4 – Pour on the egg mixture and top with remaining cheese.
5 – Repeat steps 2-4 for each person.
6 – Bake on a baking tray (in case of spillage) for 20-30 minutes, or until eggs have risen and are cooked through. If you are making this in a full-sized dish, it might take up to 45 minutes.

This is quite tasty on its own, or with some wholegrain toast (as your Healthy Extra B!). A teaspoon of Reduced Sugar and Salt Heinz Ketchup will only add 1/2 Syn and gives it a little extra kick.

The beauty of this recipe is that you also can add whatever vegetables you want. Some chopped up green, red, yellow, or orange pepper would add some flavour, too. Or try experimenting and eliminate the Cheddar Cheese and use fat free cottage cheese instead of the fromage frais! Or add some diced potato and turn it into a Frittata!

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*Quorn sausages are 1 Syn each. If you use any other brand, you will need to calculate the syns.
**Assuming you use the cheese as your Healthy Extra A. If you are not, you will need to calculate the syn value of your cheese. You can use any other cheese at the Healthy Extra A amount in this if you don’t have Cheddar.

The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

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A week before Christmas, our Slimming World group had a tasting night where we all got to bring in Slimming World friendly snacks for a party, and I decided to figure out how to make Devilled Eggs completly free. They were such a hit, I made them again for our family’s Boxing Day Buffet!

[Please note: Syn values are based on my exact ingredients using the online calculator. Your Syn value may vary based on your ingredients and the size of your baking containers and portions, so use this number as a guide only.]

You will Need:
1 Dozen eggs, hard boiled and peeled
4-6 TBS Fat Free Fromage Frais
1 tsp Mustard Powder
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Tumeric* (optional)
Fresh Ground Pepper

Pastry/icing Bag (optional)
Big Cake Decorating Tip (optional)

1 – Carefully slice each egg in half lengthway and scoop out the yolk (a teaspoon works great!).
2 – Combine all yolks with 4 TBS Fromage Frais, Mustard Powder, Tumeric, and Paprika. If your mixture seems a little dry, add some more Fromage Frais. Give it a tiny taste and if it’s not tangy enough for your tastes, add a little more mustard powder. I found that using my stick blender gave a smoother texture.
3 – if you want to be fancy, place the yolk mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large decorating tip and carefully pipe the filling into the empty holes in the whites. If you don’t have a cake decorating set, you can still easily pipe your filling by cutting off the corner of a plastic bag, or just use a teaspoon and spoon it in.
4 – Sprinkle the tops of the eggs with more paprika and a few twists of a pepper grinder.

The beauty of this recipe is it can be scaled up or down based on how many eggs you want. There is no wrong amount, just mix until you are happy with the consistency and flavour of your filling.

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*Tumeric is an optional ingredient and is only used to add that bright yellow colour you would usually get from using American mustard.

The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

Ah, the Christmas Pudding. Probably one of the most iconic puddings of Christmastime in the UK. Last year, I was brave and tried making my own. It was really good, but the number of Syns in that recipe would have done my head in. Slimming World’s Christmas Made Extra Easy cookbook contains a recipe for “The Pud” coming in at 7 1/2 Syns. I felt that this was a lot of syns just for my pudding (half my daily syns in one go? No thank you), so I sat down with the online Syn calculator and my ingredients and I worked out a pudding that comes in slightly lower at 6 Syns per serving. That meant I could add on a level tablespoon of Brandy sauce (1 Syn!) and still enjoy the rest of Christmas. In fact, my Christmas Day syns only came to 16! So, on to my recipe!

[Please note: Syn values are based on my exact ingredients using the online calculator. Your Syn value may vary based on your ingredients and the size of your baking containers and portions, so use this number as a guide only.]

This pudding takes multiple days to prepare, so start it at least three days before you plan on serving it.

You Will Need:

225g Dried Mixed Fruit (I used a Waitrose mix that had sultanas, raisins, and peel)
1 TBSP Brandy
50g Self-raising wholemeal flour (I used Allinson’s)
85g fresh brown bread crumbs (I used Walburton’s bread. 3-4 slices blitzed in my blender)
25g Splenda Brown Sugar OR Tate and Lyle Light at Heart Brown Sugar
170g Grated Carrots
200g Grated Bramley Apple
1 tsp Mixed Spice
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2 Eggs, beaten
150ml Old Speckled Hen* (adjust your Syns if using another type of Ale. Old Speckled Hen has 11.5 Syns per 500ml)
25ml Brandy

You also will need:
2 Pudding basins
Baking Parchment
Aluminium Foil
String
Small bowl or saucer
Crock Pot
Fry Light

1 – Put your dried fruit in a bowl with the brandy and leave to soak overnight.
2 – The next day, mix together the brandied fruit, flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, carrot, apple, and spices.
3 – Add the eggs and Old Speckled Hen. Let your mixture rest for about a half an hour
4 – Trace the top and bottom of your pudding basins onto parchment paper and cut out the circles. Spray the bottom of the basin with fry light, place the bottom sized piece of parchment paper on top, and spray again. Spray the sides of your basin with Fry light, too.
5 – Divide the mixture between the two basins. I filled mine to about an inch or two from the top. Place the top sized piece of parchment paper on the top of your pudding.
6 – Make a Z fold in a piece of parchment paper and place over the pudding, using the string to hold it in place (tie the string around the top of the basin). Trim off the excess paper. Place the parchment covered basin on top of a piece of foil and wrap the bottom and sides. Leave a gap over the top near the Z fold (for steam to escape!)
7 – Find a saucer or bowl that will fit the bottom of your crock pot. Make sure you can balance the pudding on top of the bowl with the lid of your crock on. I found that a cheapie cereal bowl from Asda does the trick in mine. Place the saucer in the crock pot and put one of your puddings on top of the bowl. Fill the crock pot with water (I pre-boil mine in the kettle) until the water comes up within an inch or two of the top of your crock pot OR 2/3 of the way up your pudding basin. Do not cover the top of the pudding with water.
8 – Turn the crock pot on high and steam away. Your steam time may vary. I steamed our puddings on high for about 5 hours, then low overnight, and then back to high in the morning for another 5 hours. Check the water level before you go to bed and add more if you need to, and then check again in the morning. If your bowl starts to “dance”, crack the lid of the crock pot open with a wooden spoon to let some of the steam escape.
9 – Carefully remove your pudding from the crock pot and allow to slightly cool before unwrapping (you don’t want to get burned!)
10 – You will need to repeat steps 7-9 for the second pudding.
11 – On Christmas Day (or whenever you are serving your pudding), put your pudding back in the basin and steam again for about an hour, just to heat it through.
12 – Just before serving, poke a few holes in the top and pour on the 35ml of Brandy and light it on fire!

Syn Value: 6 Syns** per serving if you divide each pudding into 5 pieces. Add a tablespoon of Brandy sauce for another 1 Syn.

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*I used Old Speckled Hen because my husband had a mini keg of it already opened and I felt it was silly to open a bottle of a different ale to only use 150ml.
**Technically, it calculated out at 5.7 Syns per serving. My husband thought I should have rounded it down to 5.5, but I chose to round it up to 6 to err on the side of caution.

The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

I’ve created this recipe quite by accident today….I first wanted to make my own mince filling and had been looking up the Syn values for the ingredients so I could properly calculate Syn values and I was going to make the mince pies that are in the Slimming World Christmas cookbook….but I had this mini tartlet dish and a hankering to get creative, so Mince Tarlets were born. [Please note: Syn values are based on my exact ingredients using the online calculator. Your Syn value may vary based on your ingredients and the size of your tartlets, so use this number as a guide only.]

You Will need:
1 jar mincemeat (I used one from Waitrose suitable for Vegetarians)
225g wholegrain flour (if you use white flour, you will need to adjust your Syns)
50g Stork or other butter substitute (my Syns were calculated using Stork)
60g Quark (you could use 110g Stork instead, but you will need to recalculate your Syn value)
pinch of salt
Frylight (again, if you use any other spray you will need to recalculate the Syns!)

Tartlet pan
Rolling Pin
Biscuit cutter
UK teaspoon

1)Pre-heat oven to 180C
2) add salt to flour, and rub in Quark and Stork until combined. knead your dough and add a little water until you can form a ball with no dough touching the sides of the bowl (about 1-2TBS water). Put dough in fridge for 30 minutes.
3)Spray a tartlet pan with Frylight. (my pan is about an inch across the bottom, if that helps for size!)
4)When dough is chilled, roll out onto a smooth surface and use a small biscuit cutter to make rounds of dough. Press dough circles into the bottom and up sides of tartlet pan. I was able to make 38 rounds with my dough* (If you have more than 38, your Syns per tart will be lower, less than 38 and your Syns will be slightly higher).
5) Fill each tartlet with one teaspoon** mince pie filling (again, if you use more, your Syns will be higher)
6) Bake for 20 minutes, or until shells are golden
7) Carefully remove tartlets to a cooling rack. I made the mistake of tipping my first tray full out and two of them spilled. I found using the bamboo tongs from the toaster seemed to work the best for getting them out.

Makes 36 Tartlets. Well, technically 38, but I didn’t feel like baking two tartlets on their own and my pan makes 12 at a time!

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*Based on the online calculator, each shell is approximately 1.5 Syns
**Based on the online calculator, 1 Tablespoon*** of Waitrose mincemeat filling is 2 Syns, 1 teaspoon*** is approximately half a syn
***Using UK Tablespoons and teaspoons. If you are using American teaspoons, your Syn value will vary, as it is 3 US teaspoons in a US Tablespoon, but 4 UK teaspoons in a UK Tablespoon.

The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/