Slimming World Fakeaway Chinese New Year Meal

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of the goat or sheep, which means it should be an important year for people born in 1979 such as myself!

 

I wasn’t specifically planning to celebrate Chinese new year but we were having some people over to dinner and it seemed a good opportunity to make Chinese food. At least, if you ignore the fact that one person doesn’t really like Chinese food (though he’s so fussy there isn’t much he likes, which makes dinner parties hard!), one was vegetarian, two don’t really eat vegetarian food (being big meat eaters and quite picky about vegetables) and the other two eat pretty much anything.

 

Despite all that I thought I could make a few variations on the same dish to keep everyone happy. I’ve got a great Slimming World recipe book called ‘Fakeaway’ – i.e. how to fake your favourite takeaways and make them much healthier. Chinese food isn’t as unhealthy as some anyway – there are a few dishes like duck which are fatty, and if you go to a takeaway that does deep-fried sweet and sour balls (yum!) that will rack up the calories, but a lot of Chinese restaurants do a more upmarket sweet-and-sour dish which doesn’t involve batter and the deep fat fryer. At the same time, you need to watch the oil and the fattening sauces when you are stir-frying (not to mention the prawn crackers!).

 

I picked a few recipes from the book and spent a good half hour chopping, preparing, mixing sauces and marinating meat. I lined everything up in rows so I knew which ingredients were for which dish – you can see here them all ready to go!

 

First of all I made chicken chow mein. Mix soy sauce, Chinese rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and five spice powder in a bowl and coat 1 chopped chicken breast per person. Leave to marinade for 20 minutes.

Stir-fry with Fry Light until the chicken is cooked, then add the vegetables to the pan: julienned carrot, sliced mangetout, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots (unfortunately I couldn't get hold of either of those so had to leave them out), sliced red pepper, baby sweetcorn (though the supermarket had sold out of that too), sliced spring onions, beansprouts and finally I added a whole bag of straight-to-wok noodles.

 

 

Pour over 1 tbsp. oyster sauce mixed with 2 tbsp. soy sauce and 1/2 tsp oil and stir-fry until the vegetables have softened to your liking.

 

At the same time I made a dish called speedy vegetable noodles with tofu. Again make the sauce first, mixing soy sauce, garlic, ginger and five spice powder. Spray a wok or large frying pan with Fry Light and stir-fry mangetout, mushrooms (which I forgot to buy - not doing well here!), red pepper, spring onions, pak choi (left out as the vegetarian doesn't like it so I added courgette instead) and cubes of tofu. Add noodles, 1 tbsp. sweet chilli sauce and 2 tbsp. soy sauce and stir fry until cooked.

 

 

I cooked extra noodles and also decided to do egg fried rice, though this was less of a success. I used microwave rice to make my life easier so cooked that, then placed it in a saucepan with peas and spring onions, soy sauce and a beaten egg. But I got sidetracked speaking to my guests and the rice started to stick a bit on the bottom of the pan! It wasn't too bad when it came to serving at least.

 

 

 

Finally for my boyfriend who doesn't like stir fry I made chicken satay, from a recipe on the Slimming World website. Marinade one diced chicken breast per person in a mixture of soy sauce, sweetener, garlic and ground cumin and when you are ready to cook, just fry the chicken in Fry Light.

 

 

Make the sauce in another pan: you need peanut butter, water, garlic, sweetener, soy sauce and fromage frais. Simmer until the mixture thickens and serve with the chicken - I thought this tasted really good and luckily so did my fussy boyfriend!

 

I had some lovely sets of chopsticks I bought in Kuala Lumpur and some fan-shaped paper napkins; the prawn crackers were put out in bowls for the guests to nibble on while I finished cooking and we had quite a feast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As this is a really healthy meal I'm sharing this with the Spice Trail challenge, which has as its theme this month 'temple food'. The challenge is hosted by Vanesther at Bangers & Mash.

 

As I used courgette in the vegetarian dish I can send this to Anyone Can Cook, this month hosted by Catherine at Cates Cates as the theme is zucchini and marrows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Lasagne

 

 

 

 Most vegetarian lasagnes that I have come across before use mushrooms or aubergine, neither of which I like. My boyfriend's mum came over for dinner last night and she's vegetarian, (and doesn't like aubergine either) so I decided to find a vegetarian lasagne recipe that we would both like. I also made a simple meat lasagne for my boyfriend, and made dessert, so I was busy!

 

I found a recipe on BBC Food for a butternut squash and sweet potato lasagne, that looked lovely. I decided to leave out the spinach as I don't like it. I also added more liquid to the cheese sauce but even then found the final dish a little dry - it had a lovely flavour but I would have liked more sauce, so that is something to bear in mind if you are going to make it. I also left out the pine nuts as I didn't really have time to go hunting for them in my cupboard (I'm sure I had some somewhere) as I was making two other dishes at the same time and I wasn't sure whether I wanted the crunch of nuts in the lasagne in any case. It was fine to use parmesan as my boyfriend's mum does eat it (not all parmesan is actually vegetarian as it uses rennet but some people don't eat meat because they don't like it, not for ethical reasons).

 

For the version that I made, you need:

50g parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)

50g breadcrumbs (I used dried)

2 x 350g packets prepared sweet potato and butternut squash

pinch of salt

12 lasagne sheets

for the sauce:

100g parmesan

squeeze of ginger puree or 2cm piece fresh ginger, grated

400g ricotta cheese

100ml milk

2 egg yolks

pinch of grated nutmeg

pinch of salt

 

I bought these packets of butternut squash and sweet potato from Tesco; they were 2 for £2 and saved me a lot of time. Bring to the boil in a pan of salted water and simmer until tender.

 

Meanwhile make the white sauce. Finely grate the parmesan and mix in a bowl with the ricotta, ginger, egg yolks, nutmeg and salt. I then stirred in the milk to make a thick white sauce.

When the butternut squash and sweet potato is cooked, drain and mash. Season to taste. I also recommend pre cooking your lasagne sheets for a few minutes in a pan of water even if the packet says no precooking is necessary, as there isn't much liquid in this dish.

I used a small square roasting tin with high sides; four lasagne sheets were enough to cover the base (which I had sprayed with Fry Light). Spread 1/3 of the butternut squash and sweet potato mixture over the top, cover with 1/3 of the cheese mixture and another layer of lasagne sheets until you have used all the vegetables and the sauce.

Not a great photo but trust me this tastes really good.

Mix the 50g grated parmesan and the breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Serve with green vegetables, or salad, or garlic bread.

You can see how the cheese sauce has thickened; I think having the egg in it makes it cook whereas I would have preferred a more runny sauce. This was very tasty though and definitely a good idea for a vegetarian lasagne.

 I'd already decided to make this when I saw that the theme for this month's Pasta Please was vegetarian lasagne, which is good timing! So I am sending this to Lisa at Food and Spice who is hosting the challenge this month on behalf of Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

Afternoon Tea - Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter's Tea at the Sanderson Hotel

A Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea for my very own Alice

Two years ago - which was around the time that Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film came out - the Sanderson Hotel in London started doing a Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea. I was looking for something to do with my friend Alice for her birthday and decided this would be the perfect treat.

The Sanderson hotel is quite quirky - it has a giant sofa shaped like a pair of red lips in the lobby and a sort of hanging bauble you can sit in as well (take it from me, it's not easy to get out again!). Afternoon tea is taken either in the courtyard garden or in the bar/restaurant alongside; we sat inside on high stools at a long bar-style table with a nice view of the garden outside (it was February after all).

Looking at the Sanderson's website I see that the menu has changed somewhat since I was there; they do say that the menu continues to evolve and I think over time the hotel has perhaps come up with some better ideas and become a bit more daring - for instance it says "Guests will be invited to ‘Jelly Wonderland’, where the most delicious fruit jellies made in Victorian jelly moulds are presented on a lavish Phillipe Starck cake trolley" - which I don't recall being there in 2011.

We started with a selection of finger sandwiches with traditional fillings - cucumber, ham and mustard, salmon and cream cheese and egg mayonnaise. However, they were served on different colour bread, which had been coloured with beetroot, spinach and saffron - the colourings didn't give the sandwiches a strong flavour and it was an unusual touch.

There were also scones, which I don't think I took a photo of. It was the other elements of our afternoon tea that were really worth talking about. For instance this "drink me" potion - a little bottle with a straw in, that tasted of apple pie, lemon curd and English toffee - one flavour after another. It was more Willie Wonka than Alice in Wonderland!

We also had a little round chocolate cake decorated to look like a clock ("I'm late! I'm late!") and a blueberry lollipop that somehow turned from hot to cold in your mouth. I've no idea how they did this! Then there was a strawberry and cream mousse encased in a strawberry shell, with "eat me" piped on it:

Finally there was an ice-cream lollipop, which the menu promised would "explode with a single bite" - unfortunately it exploded on the tablecloth when the ball (it looked a bit like a cake pop, but was ice cream inside a chocolate shell) fell of the stick on its way from the cake stand to my plate!

Afternoon tea is £35 per person which is no more expensive than anyone else - though I don't recall being told the food would be replenished if we wanted more, as was the case at the Ritz - and it's definitely worth paying for the unusual experience. Children would love it and adults with a quirky side   would certainly too - though it's not the sort of place I would have taken my grandmother. But then, afternoon tea isn't just for a day out with your grannie - we were two 30-something working women and it was a great way to celebrate a birthday. 

I loved how unusual and quirky it was and I definitely recommend it.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Last year I held a housewarming party with an Alice in Wonderland theme. This is me, as the Queen of Hearts - who made some tarts, and quite a lot of other cakes as well!

I just fancied putting a few pictures on this blog to reminisce... I can't even remember what half the cakes I made were!

I made some cupcakes in little cup and saucer cases - they come in a pack of four and the cup part is made of silicon, so you actually bake the cake in it, then it comes with a little saucer to serve it on. I bought rice paper cake toppers with Alice in Wonderland pictures from Ebay. I think the cakes were chocolate!

I put up loads of 'Alice' themed decorations, including various playing card designs. I also bought some plastic roses (they are actually buttons), again from Ebay, and painted them red... like in the story!

You can't have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party without strawberries....

I also put a doormouse in the tea pot :-) Though this was a 'vintage' (i.e. second-hand) tea pot from a car boot sale, and not the pot I was actually using to make tea in!

Another strawberry-topped cake... I took a day off work before my party and spent most of it baking!

I thought it would be fun to put a 'drink me' note and a shot glass (which was empty to be on the safe side) outside my cat flap, so people could shrink down and enter the house that way!

I can't remember exactly what I made as the party was about a year and a half ago, but I think these are tiramisu cupcakes. They have cocktail stick toppers in them with playing card designs. The strawberry tart next to it is one I bought, not made - in case I didn't have time to bake enough! I did have loads of cake but everything got eaten :-)

We played croquet with inflatable flamingos...

... and decorated biscuits that I had baked.

Lovely!

Not sure what this one is supposed to be!

It was a really fun party!