Getting Saucy

One of the first things I learned to cook with my Mum was lasagne. Admittedly, she would make the bolognese and the bechamel sauce...my role in the dish was the assembly job.  The preparation time involved made you appreciate the meaty creamy layers when you finally took it out of the oven. Obviously the flour based sauce, full fat cheese and mince certainly helped me build some layers of my own!

Luckily,on Extra Easy we have quark. It's syn free, so beaten with some eggs and a Healthy A portion of grated reduced fat cheddar you can feel a little more relaxed about the creamy topping on your lasagne. There's no need to worry about the sauce going lumpy in the saucepan....you don't even need to cook quark white sauce just pour it over the top before cooking in the oven as usual. With extra lean meat, plenty of mushrooms, peppers and onions, pasta or potato layers..you can tuck in to a large plateful.

The same principle is used in the featured recipe on the Slimming World site - Moussaka. I am trying that tonight after several friends have recommended it. Essentially its very similar to a lasagne. The key differences are the use of aubergines instead of pasta, quorn or lamb instead of beef mince to which cinnamon is added rather than basil or oregano.  Both of these dishes keep well in the fridge or freezer for ready meals so make a large batch.

Note: I follow Extra Easy and for simplicity don't reference Green and Red days a great deal here!

A filling lunch for work

You'll find that much of the planning I do around food relates to the food I take to work. It's important to get this organised. There are so many potential pitfalls around you..whether you work in an office, factory, school or outdoors. Vending machines, canteens, the bacon rolls ordered on cold mornings, pizzas for overtime, the chip shop just over the road. It can even be events such as birthdays where cakes are brought in to share, or simply watching someone else eat their lunch of white bread sandwiches with crisps and a chocolate biscuit. All very distracting. The challenge of keeping your lunch interesting is the key to making the plan work. Many of us work 9-5 often having breakfast (a vital meal to start the day) and lunch away from home.

The Slimming World website has some great articles under its 'Searchable Features' section about lunches. Simply add the word 'lunches' to the search box. You can find syn values for grab and go lunches from stores as well as recipes for your lunchbox. Here are some of the recipes and combinations I regularly use in sandwiches and on crispbreads:

Cheese and onion sandwich filling (syn free and 1 healthy A):
Mix half a pack of quark with your daily allowance of cheese (grated), seasoning and chopped onions. Leave it overnight in the fridge.

Egg Mayo sandwich filling: (1/2 syn)
Mix half a pack of quark and a tablespoon of extra light Hellman's Mayonnaise. Stir in hard boiled eggs and seasoning. Leave overnight in the fridge.

Create your favourite filling:
You can use the same principle as above to make other fillings such as:
Tuna and Sweetcorn, salmon mayo, prawn mayo - you can be very creative with these.

Store cupboard at work:
You can create an stock at work in your draw of helpful items to make a quick meal on days when you haven't managed to prepare anything. See the Empty Fridge post for ideas on this.

Leftovers:
Had a nice evening meal? Save some for heating up at work. Cook extra so that you can enjoy it again the next day or freeze it for use in the future.

Add your lunch ideas in the comments!

Note: I follow Extra Easy and for simplicity don't reference Green and Red days a great deal here!