family food Archives - CURLY AND CANDID

Anyone who knows me knows that I love my food; not just eating (!) but playing with recipes, experimenting and creating new meals for my family.

The inspiration for tonight’s meal came from an old BBC Good Food magazine that a friend gave me which I tweaked slightly so that it would also be suitable for me to eat on the Slimming World plan too. This was a meal that went down brilliantly with everyone, even the husband who gave it 10/10 (a score that has only once been given before and that was for my slow cooked lasagne).

Chicken, Ginger and Green Bean Hotpot served with rice, cabbage and leeks.
(Delicious and syn-free).

For the hot pot (Served 4 – two being children)

Ingredients
6 Skinless chicken thigh fillets, all fat trimmed
Vegetable Oil (SW Frylight)
2cm piece of ginger, finely grated, or the equivalent of ground ginger
1/2 tbsp brown sugar (SW a little sweetener)
1 minced garlic clove
1.5 tbsp fish sauce
100g green beans
150g chicken stock
200g mushrooms

Method
1. Heat a pan (medium heat), add or oil or Frylight as preferred and then gently stir-fry the garlic, onion and ginger for five minutes or until golden.
2. Add the fish sauce, stock, sugar (or alternative) and the chicken thighs and then cook on medium with the lid on for 15 minutes. * I pre-cooked the thighs in my Philips Air Fryer to cook through and get rid of any excess fat, making this recipe more SW friendly however this is not essential.
3. 3-4 minutes before the end of cooking stir, coating the chicken with sauce and add the green beans and sliced mushrooms.
4. Serve!

“You won’t get me eating that no-meat stuff, it’s just not the same!”.

Hands up if your husband / partner / kids have said similar? This was the attitude in our house once over too. I’m a long-term slimmer at Slimming World. This works for me because it is a healthy eating plan that works with a family rather than around it. There is no reason why we can’t all eat the same meals anymore.

As part of my Slimming World plan I like to incorporate Quorn products into my meals a couple of times a week, they are low fat and delicious. Our current favourites are the Cumberland sausages and the Swedish meatballs (which my sister has fallen in love with after eating them here last week).

One thing I will not do if I can help it is cook more than one meal, I don’t see why we should all need to eat different foods. Sometime I eat Quorn in place of something like a pie or similar which is too high in the Syn value to enjoy on my Slimming World plan but as we usually eat more meat/ basic foods rather than any processed foods or pastries, we find that we, as a family, are choosing Quorn not as a replacement but because we like it.

Roy, who in his youth was thrown out of an all-you-can eat buffet after eating too many burgers, loves the Quorn burgers and enjoys them with piles of onions and salad in a bun. Kieran, my eldest who is 5yrs old adores the Swedish meatballs and I have to say my current favourites are the basic fillets. I love to try them with different seasonings, to chop them up and throw them in a stir-fry or just eat them on their own with some salt and black pepper with a big salad and beetroot.

Clearly we are a family who enjoys our food and despite our initial Meat vs Quorn debate we’ve now recognised that we don’t have to choose between them as the Quorn products are delicious and filling foods in their own right. We aren’t vegetarians and love our meat but include Quorn in our diets as we enjoy it.

*This is a sponsored post however the content is based entirely around the experiences and opinions of my family.

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Chicken, Ginger and Green Bean Hotpot

Quorn – Our firm family favourite!