Mexican-style Soup

1 large onion, finely sliced

1 large garlic clove, chopped

half a courgette, finely sliced

2 mushrooms, finely sliced

28g chorizo, diced

half a can of butterbeans

1 can of chopped tomatoes

half a can of sweetcorn

chilli, paprika, oregano, cumin, sweetener, chicken stock, lime leaves

1. Fry your onions in Frylight for 5 mins, and then add the garlic and chorizo. Let the chorizo release it's oils.
2. Add the mushrooms and courgettes and let them soften.
3. Add the spices (except oregano) and stir all the veg to spread them evenly.
4. Add the tomatoes, and then put the oregano in. Add a pinch of sugar or sweetener to take away the acidity of the tomatoes.
5. Add your beans and corn, the crumble in a stock cube and add boiling water to cover the soup mix. Put the lid on and simmer for ten minutes.

Serve with some grated cheese, sour cream or natural yoghurt. This would be nice with tortilla chips.

Slimming World friendly on Extra Easy - syn the cheese (if using) accordingly. 28g chorizo is 2.5 syns. This made enough for 2 huge bowls :)

Slimming World Banana Bread

I also made the Slimming World Banana Bread - I got the recipe from minimins.com which is a fantastic site for anyone dieting - it has message boards on lots of different famous diets, calorie counting and exercise. You can get recipes, tips, advice and support.

This was a recipe I found on there, which I've tried before. It still needs to be tweaked as I find the banana sinks to the bottom of the cake, making a kind of 'juicy layer'! I used less eggs than the original recipe as I find sometimes slimming world puddings are VERY eggy as eggs are 'free'.

Slimming World Banana Bread:

56g self raising flour

4 eggs

1 cup of sweetener (I find Splenda the nicest)

1 tsp baking powder or bi-carb

2 mashed bananas

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Separate 2 of the eggs.
3. Put the yolks in one bowl with the other 2 eggs, the sweetener, flour, bakin powder and bananas, and beat to combine.
4. Whisk the 2 egg whites to stiff peaks, and then fold into the mixture.
5. Bake for 40 mins.

This makes 9 slices at 2.5 syns each (according to the recipe I read!!) I added a marmalade glaze which might add 0.5 syns. Next time, I might liquidise the banana to see if that solves the 'sinking' problem. It still tastes good though.

butternut soup

Butternut Soup:

1 veggie stock cube

2 cloves of garlic

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 medium butternut squash, de-seeded, cubed, skin-on

spices of your choice

1. Slice up your onion thinly and fry it in fry-light, but in a large saucepan, for about 10 mins.
2. Add your garlic and butternut squash and fry for a further 5 mins.
3. Add your spices (I used smoked a paprika with sweet red pepper and thyme mix from M&S) and then add your stock cube. Add enough boiling water to cover the veg, pop the lid on and gently boil until the squash is tender.
4. Blend it, add your salt and pepper, and it's done.
5. For added creaminess you could put in natural yoghurt, creme fraiche or some lovely cheese.

We had this with some lovely home-made bread courtesy of my partner's dad.

Butch Banana Bread

I bought some small, cheap bananas last week as part of my Big Shop, as they had run out of FairTrade.

I had about 7 bananas left and they had all started to go brown in the heat, so:

Butch Banana Bread

This is adapted from 2 recipes (I always judge my own quantities according to calories, guesswork and 'the look of things').

Oven at 180 degrees C /Gas 4

225g of wholemeal flour

125g flora light

140g sugar (I am someone who uses whatever sort of sugar they have in, this time it was caster)

2 eggs

28g chopped hazelnuts

100g dried fruit

5 small mashed bananas (about 300g of banana when out of the skin)

The method was pretty simple:

1. Rub the flour and spread together to form crumbs
2. Add your sugar and eggs and combine thoroughly
3. Add all your fruit and nuts
4. Pop it in a greased and floured loaf tin
5. Bake for 50 mins.