Slimming World inspired Minestrone

Well, I have been keeping up with cooking healthy for the family since I am inspired by Slimming World which my daughters are doing for diet! In fact in the matter of one week my husband already lost almost 1.5kg (apps. 3 pounds) and since we are not eating ready meals, our weekly food shopping bill has gone down too! What a bonus.

Anyway, I have just made minestrone soup for the first time in my life and I think I have done a very good job of it - it's really tasty and I did not realise how easy it is to make this.  So, I got to share this recipe with you.

Slimming World inspired home made Minestrone Soup

I have used:
2 x small onions, finely chopped
2 x cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1.2 x carrots, diced
3 x celery sticks, diced
1 x 400g can of chopped tomato
1 x Knorr vegetable stock pod (dissolved in 800 ml hot water)
1 x can of cannelloni beans, drained
50g x small pasta (any shape)
1 x bay leaf
1 tsp x dried oregano
Handful of flat parsley, chopped
4 - 5 basil leaves
salt and pepper
low calorie cooking spray

1. Spray the bottom of a large saucepan with low calorie cooking spray and put the pan on a hob with a medium heat.
2. Once the spray oil turns translucent, fry garlic and onions for a few minutes but be careful not to burn them.
3. Add chopped carrots and celery into the pan to fry further few minutes.
4. Add tomato, vegetable stock, bay leaf and dried oregano, bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Check and skim the surface of the soup every now and again with ladle during simmering.
5. Add cannelloni beans and pasta and cook further 10 minutes.
6. Chop flat parsley and basil leaves and add to the soup with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Up to this process it is Syn-free.  (Syn is, according to Slimming World, food that would jeopardise weight loss if not controlled.).

I then had the soup with a wholemeal bread and little bit of grated parmesan cheese. It was really yummy!  I am going to take some to work for lunch tomorrow too!

Happy dieting and that's all forks!

Tamie's 5 minutes meal

If you are looking for Jamie Oliver's Jamie's 15 Minutes Meal, you are mistaken. This is Tamie's 5 Minutes Meal, ha ha ha. This really means minimum effort required and no measuring cups and spoons, perfect for a lazy cook like me!

My daughters Emily and Maria are on Slimming World (http://www.slimmingworld.com) diet. Personally I don't think they need to be on diet at all but that's what they want to do so I shall support them by cooking healthier at home.  I am not strictly following the rules but I am kind of intrieged and interested so I have been using low calorie frying oil spray to cook and trying to make sauces from scratch instead of emptying jars of sauces.  Never know I may also lose some weight ???

Anyway this recipe is quick, easy and very healthy salmon recipe and also our family favourite!

Salmon and vegetables cooked in a bag

You need:
1 x a fillet of salmon
1 x potato
1/2 x courgette
Some broccoli
some cherry tomatoes
chilli
slice of lemon
parchment paper

1. Cut parchment paper big enough to be able to hold salmon and vegetables and place on a microwavable dinner dish.
2. Wash all vegetables.
3. Slice potato very thinly and place slices on the paper, spreading out as if you are making beds of sliced potatoes. Repeat the same with courgette.
4. Put salmon fillet on top of the bed of potato and courgette slices.
5. Put the broccoli and cherry tomatoes around the salmon fillet.
6. Sprinkle some chopped chilli
7. Place a slice of lemon on top of the salmon
8. Fold the parchment paper to create a bag
9. Put the dish into microwave and cook for 3 - 4 minutes, depending on wattage. (Our microwave is 900W so it cooks in 3 to 3.5 minutes.)  Stand for 1 minute and Voila! 
10. You can squeeze lemon juice over the salmon or soy sauce to taste if you like.

Hope you try this and find out how easy it is. Let's get healthy and slimming!

That's all forks!

Nippon Kitchen in Glasgow

Last November, we went to Nippon Kitchen (91 West George Street, Glasgow G2 1PB), fairly new Japanese restaurant in Glasgow, for Emily's birthday lunch. It's a bit pricey but there are good selections in menu. In fact there are so many to choose and we wanted to try from the menu that we took ages to decide what to order!

Emily, my husband and I ordered Bento box sets, which came with miso soup and rolled up sushi.

Seafood maki (roll-up) sushi as part of seafood Bento Box set.
Accompanied with pickled (pink) ginger and wasabi (green).

My Ebi-katsu (fried king prawns) Bento Box.
With grilled teriyaki salmon, vegetable gyoza, rice and radish pickles.

This is Emily's Vegetable Tempura Bento Box.
With edamame beans, vegetable gyoza and rice.

Maria ordered Chicken-katsu Japanese-style Curry with Rice that smelt really yummy.

Oh, for starters we also ordered potato croquettes, agedashi-dofu (Fried Tofu with sauce) and Inari sushi (sushi rice wrapped with tasty fried tofu bags), which are all our favourite.

Potato croquettes and agedashi-dofu

From top to clock-wise: Inari-sushi (brown sushi) in the back,
miso soup and maki sushi.

Miso soup had tofu, spring onion and lots of wakame seaweeds.

I know, I know, I should be able to make all these at home (because of my background) but I just don't as they are time consuming to make and also we don't deep fry foods at home so I can't make agedashi-dofu (fried tofu in tasty Japanese soy based sauce).

Anyway, although they are not cheap, overall we really enjoyed our meals. We went there over the weekend so there was no set lunch deal available, in fact I don't know if they do any lunch deals during the week. I hope they do and we would definitely go back there again.
Oh, I did the toilet check and it was a nice modern toilet facility with Dyson hand-dryer and was in pristine condition so they passed!

I have been watching some Japanese TV cooking programmes on NHK World and am now contemplating to make more Japanese dishes at home as they are heathy but also all chefs are so slim!  I am also thinking of doing Nabemono - cooking lots of vegetables and whatever meat or fish/seafood you wish in a big pot with boiling dashi stock, then dip cooked ingredients into a soy sauce and eat them. Think fondue but Japanese style without cheese to get a picture!

I have noticed that there are now quite a few Japanese restaurants in Glasgow. Well that's a great progress! What I need now is a proper Japanese supermarket so that I can buy everything I need to make Japanese food more often. Till then, I just need to make some regular trips to Chinese supermarkets to stock up some Japanese stuff or order on-line from London, or we just nip into Nippon Kitchen for another doze of Japanese!

Gochiso-sama!

That's all forks!