Weightwatchers Chicken in a Creamy Tarragon Sauce

This is another WeightWatchers recipe and is low fat but tastes really indulgent with a creamy sauce that even uses white wine. Leeks are in season in autumn and winter so it's a great recipe to make at this time of year.

According to WeightWatchers this has 6 points per serving.

To serve 4, you need:
2 leeks, washed and sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 a chicken stock cube
150ml WeightWatchers Fruity white wine (you can use any white wine but that will change the WW Points if you are counting them)
400g skinless boneless chicken breasts
100g very low fat fromage frais
100g half-fat crème fraiche
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1/2 bunch fresh tarragon
800g floury potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 tsp low fat spread
4 tbsp. skimmed milk

Bring a pan of water to the boil then summer the potatoes.

Meanwhile put the sliced leeks and garlic in a deep frying pan with a lid. Mix the chicken stock cube with a splash of boiling water and pour into the pan. Cover and steam over a low to medium heat for 10-15 mins until the leeks are tender. Add the wine, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.

Cut the chicken breasts into 12 pieces and add to the pan. Turn down the heat, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Drain the potatoes and mash with the low fat spread and milk.

Stir in the fromage frais, crème fraiche, mustard and tarragon and heat through. Season to taste. Serve with the mashed potatoes and green veg.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish but taste is more important than looks anyway!

 

I'm sharing this with Simply Seasonal, hosted by Hijacked by Twins.

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Lahmacun - Weightwatchers Turkish Pizza

This Turkish pizza is topped with minced lamb and spices - and has no cheese, so it isn't what some people would consider a pizza, but trust me, it's delicious!

 

I found the recipe in an old WeightWatchers magazine - I can't remember how they work out the Points system but they say this has 5 points per serving. It uses a packet pizza base mix and lamb is quite a fatty meat so is not what I would call super-healthy but it obviously does fit into the WeightWatchers plan if you are following that.

To serve 4, you need:
Low fat cooking spray eg Fry Light
145g sachet pizza base mix
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
225g lean lamb mince
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large ripe vine tomato, chopped (I left this out as we don't like tomatoes)
4 tsp sun dried tomato puree (I used regular tomato puree)
4 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
lemon wedges to serve (optional)

Preheat oven to 200 C. Spray a large baking tray with low fat spray or Fry Light.

Make up the pizza dough according to pack instructions then divide into four and shape into ovals. Or if you want a larger meal make two - but if you are counting WeightWatchers points you will have to double them per person. Place the pizza bases on the baking tray and leave in a warm place for ten minutes.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and fry the onion until softened. Add the mince, garlic and cumin and fry for 5 minutes. Add the tomato and fry over a medium heat for another 5 minutes. Season.

Spread the pizza bases with the tomato puree and spread the mince mixture on top.

 Bake in the oven for ten minutes then sprinkle with parsley to serve, and squeeze over a wedge of lemon if desired.

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Spitalfields Street Food - 5 meals reviewed

My company recently moved to a new office near Spitalfields market. We weren't very far away before but for some reason I never made the effort to go there - now I have no excuse! I usually bring my own lunch to work but there were a few times in December when I wasn't able to (as I was out too late the night before, or sleeping out for Centrepoint), and rather than go to Tesco like I often would, I wandered into Spitalfields.

There are chain restaurants, independent boutiques, market stalls and food stalls galore. The food stalls are quite busy at lunchtime but it doesn't take more than a few minutes to queue, and the choice is fantastic - everything from vegan to Caribbean to burgers and fish and chips. I've tried a few over the past six weeks and thought I'd share my recommendations with you here.

The first place I tried was a chicken shack called Coop, with the wonderfully named 'fat cock roll'. For just £5.50 you could have a chicken portion and two sides, or a chicken burger with various trimmings - I had a pulled chicken burger with roast potatoes actually in the burger, which was so good! It was very filling and something I would definitely have again.

Even so, next time I went into Spitalfields for lunch I tried something different, this time a 'dirty bagel' (£4.50) from the Pulled Pork House.

This consisted of a large amount of pulled pork, some lettuce and I think barbecue sauce in a roll, topped with cheese; the cheese was then melted by the stallholder with a cook's blowtorch.

It was really good and extremely filling - a nice tangy zing from the BBQ sauce as well. It was very messy to eat though so grab plenty of napkins, you will need them!

Next time a couple of weeks later I fancied something different (i.e. not in a bun) and noticed a takeaway stand just outside the Real Greek restaurant. For £5.50 you could have two mains and two (I think) sides from a selection of five or six in each case, which were boxed up in front of you. I chose a halloumi kebab and a chicken kebab along with potato salad and a bulgur wheat salad. It was a pretty substantial meal and drew envious glances from my colleagues; definitely something a bit different to the usual sandwich!

Bleecker Street Burgers was a name I was familiar with but had never tried - they claim to bring New York style burgers to London. There's a small, unassuming stand in Spitalfields which always has a decent queue at lunchtimes, and a few times I've been tempted but decided a burger was a bit much for lunch. Eventually I gave in, deciding to only order the burger and not the fries, which was a wise move as the burger was very filling.

I've eaten at Shake Shack and Five Guys (the latter several times) and can confirm this is a proper American-style burger from the fairly thin but tasty patty (chunky burgers are too meaty sometimes) and the oozing cheese.

 

It's not cheap - a simple cheeseburger is £6 with fries at £3 which is more than I would normally spend on lunch but as I said you don't really need the fries. A double cheeseburger and 'angry' fries (I assume spicy) would set you back £13 though which is quite a lot for a street food stand, even a good one. They are open til 9pm and serve beer as well as milkshakes so I expect this place does quite well in the evenings too. It was certainly a good burger but I have to say I prefer Five Guys (which is similarly priced but a sit-down restaurant).

 

This last one isn't technically a food stall - there's a Carluccio's restaurant just next to Spitalfields market, which has a takeout counter serving hot food. There's a choice of pastas and salads and things like chicken escalopes in breadcrumbs; for about a fiver, I had a mixture of lasagne and pasta arrabiata. The lasagne was delicious but the arrabiata a bit too spicy for me! It was probably the least interesting of the five meals I had from Spitalfields, which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it, but what I particularly like about the food market is that you can try dishes that are quite unusual.

If you are in the area check out the food stalls and let me know which ones you like!

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Christmas Candy Cane Chocolate Brownies

I've hardly done any baking for months and very little this Christmas, other than my first ever I've
hardly done any baking for months and very little this Christmas, other than my first ever Christmas cake (which turned out really well) and a batch of gingerbread-flavour cupcakes for work. Before Christmas I was crazy-busy with work and just exhausted at the end of the day and then over Christmas we were backwards and forwards visiting family. On Friday 30 I had a rare day at home - between visiting my sister in Southampton the couple of days previous, followed by going to friends in Cheltenham for new year's eve. In between tidying the house which was strewn with Christmas presents and sale shopping, and studying for a professional qualification I decided I would do some baking after all.

I didn't have time to go out and buy ingredients and didn't have the time or energy for anything fancy (which is a shame as there are lots of festive recipes I'd like to try!) so decided to stick with something I know - chocolate brownies. I had bought a packet of candy canes just in case I did any baking - though I don't even like candy canes as they taste of peppermint, which I hate! But in this case I decided to make some of my brownies a bit more festive with some candy cane frosting and leave some of them plain.

To make about 20, you need:
1 cup butter, softened
150g plain chocolate
4 eggs
2 cups caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

for the frosting:
200g cream cheese
400g icing sugar
1 box candy canes, crushed

The brownie recipe is based on this one for brownie buttons on Canadian Living.

Melt the chocolate and the butter in a pan over a low heat then set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 180C.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar until frothy then beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the vanilla, flour, cocoa powder and salt.

I used a brownie pan like this Master Class Non-Stick 12-Hole Brownie Tin with Dividers, 34 x 26 cm (13.5 x 10 inch) but you can use a simple square pan then cut the brownie into pieces. I like this one because the brownies are a good size - a few bites - but the sides make it easier to eat them when they have frosting on.

Spray the brownie pan with cake release and fill the pan - if you are using the brownie pan you will need to do this in two batches. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes and allow to cool.

Meanwhile place the candy canes (cellophane removed) in a plastic food bag and bash with the end of a rolling pin until they are smashed into pieces.

To make the frosting, sift the icing sugar and beat with the cream cheese and spread on top of the cooled brownies. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes.

  

I'm sharing these with We Should Cocoa, a chocolate blogging challenge hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

 

 

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Candy Cane Frosted Brownies

I've hardly done any baking for months and very little this Christmas, other than my first ever Christmas cake (which turned out really well) and a batch of gingerbread-flavour cupcakes for work. Before Christmas I was crazy-busy with work and just exhausted at the end of the day and then over Christmas we were backwards and forwards visiting family. On Friday 30 I had a rare day at home - between visiting my sister in Southampton the couple of days previous, followed by going to friends in Cheltenham for new year's eve. In between tidying the house which was strewn with Christmas presents and sale shopping, and studying for a professional qualification I decided I would do some baking after all.

I didn't have time to go out and buy ingredients and didn't have the time or energy for anything fancy (which is a shame as there are lots of festive recipes I'd like to try!) so decided to stick with something I know - chocolate brownies. I had bought a packet of candy canes just in case I did any baking - though I don't even like candy canes as they taste of peppermint, which I hate! But in this case I decided to make some of my brownies a bit more festive with some candy cane frosting and leave some of them plain.

 

To make about 20, you need:
1 cup butter, softened
150g plain chocolate
4 eggs
2 cups caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

for the frosting:
200g cream cheese
400g icing sugar
1 box candy canes, crushed

The brownie recipe is based on this one for brownie buttons on Canadian Living.

Melt the chocolate and the butter in a pan over a low heat then set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 180C.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar until frothy then beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the vanilla, flour, cocoa powder and salt.

I used a brownie pan like this Master Class Non-Stick 12-Hole Brownie Tin with Dividers, 34 x 26 cm (13.5 x 10 inch)but you can use a simple square pan then cut the brownie into pieces. I like this one because the brownies are a good size - a few bites - but the sides make it easier to eat them when they have frosting on.

Spray the brownie pan with cake release and fill the pan - if you are using the brownie pan you will need to do this in two batches. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes and allow to cool.

Meanwhile place the candy canes (cellophane removed) in a plastic food bag and bash with the end of a rolling pin until they are smashed into pieces.

To make the frosting, sift the icing sugar and beat with the cream cheese and spread on top of the cooled brownies. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes.

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Meal Planning 2017 - Week 1

Happy new year! I'm going to be planning some healthier meals this year, or at least trying to - I tend to fall off the wagon very easily! I always say I need to lose weight, go on a diet or change the way I eat (eg sugar-free or more protein) and lose a couple of pounds, then stop losing any weight at all, and then go back to eating whatever I want. The endless delays and cancellations on Southern Trains don't help as I generally get home so late that I'm too tired and it's too late to cook dinner from scratch! So for the month of January I'm going to do two things - cut out sugar as much as I can (certainly on weekdays), eat fewer carbs and more protein, and generally try to eat healthily without following any faddy diets. I will be using Slimming World and Weight Watchers recipes as I've got a lot of their cookery books, but I won't be counting Points or Syns or treating any foods as 'free' as I don't like some of the fundamentals of their programmes. I really hope I do manage to shift some weight this time!

Monday 2 January - bank holiday
I'm going to make some soups today to last me the week - Weight Watchers Soothing Chicken Soup (from the Autumn cookery book from a few years back) and I will try the rosemary and bean soup, even though I don't normally like cannellini beans, as they will be blended!
Lunch - bacon sandwich for him, warm broccoli and bacon salad for me
Dinner - steak and chips as a final treat before we go back to work

Tuesday
Lunch- soup
Dinner - spaghetti and meatballs with fresh tagliatelle

Wednesday
Lunch- rest of tagliatelle
Dinner- filo fish bake from Weight Watchers Autumn p38 with chicken for him

Thursday
Lunch- soup
Dinner - soy roast carrots with quinoa from same book p.46 for me, chicken curry with korma sauce for him

Friday
Lunch- soup or leftovers from yesterday's dinner
Dinner - fish fingers and chips for me, chicken goujons for him

Saturday
Lunch - scrambled eggs on toast for him, eggs benedict for me
Dinner - roast gammon joint

Sunday
Lunch - full English for him, prawns and smoked salmon and brown bread for me
Dinner - butternut squash enchiladas for me, chicken for him

This is a blog hop, join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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2016: Year in Review and Top 10 Posts

Well, it's been quite a year for me - how about you?

2016 had some major highlights - I got married in June, went on honeymoon to the Galapagos Islands and I gained a niece - my sister had a baby in November. On a sadder note we lost my grandfather this year.

From a blogging perspective, I really enjoyed sharing the details of my wedding with my readers - you can see photos from the day here.

 

My sister and I made my wedding cake between us (we didn't know she was pregnant when she offered to do it originally!) and I loved the way it turned out.

 

Mrs Cowe and her cow cake

This mascarpone orange streusel slice from the movie Burnt was probably the most complicated thing I made all year; I won't be doing that again in a hurry!

 

 

I was very proud of these Halloween pumpkins I carved in October:

 

 

I was even more proud that I managed to do sugar-free September!

 

So are you curious to see what my top ten most popular posts were in 2016? I certainly was, so looked back through the stats and these are the ones that had the most hits. Check them out if you didn't see them - and let me know if you had any particular favourites on my blog in 2016!

 

In reverse order:

 

10: Slimming World Cauliflower Rosti Pie. View the post.

I've found that recipes labelled with Slimming World do quite well, even though I am not actually counting Syns or following Slimming World any more.

 



 

9: Eton Mess Cupcakes. View the post.

I made these for a summer barbecue and they were very popular.

 

 

8: Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Traybake. View the post.

Mary Berry is always popular these days thanks to the Great British Bake Off, and if memory serves I made these right before the episode of GBBO where the contestants were asked to make a drizzle cake, which I think led to people searching for this recipe.

 

 

7: Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes. View the post.

These mimic the flavour of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and contain a whole Ferrero Rocher baked inside the cupcake!

 

 

6: A review of Provena Gluten-Free products and a giveaway. View the post.

The popularity of this post surprises me a bit but it was retweeted by Provena and everyone likes a giveaway!

 

 

5: Chocolate Easter Cupcakes. View the post.

These were very simple but tasted great and decorated with Mini Eggs which are always popular.

 

 

4: Floating Anti-Gravity Mini Egg White Chocolate and Lemon Cake. View the post.

I used Lakeland's anti-gravity cake kit to make this cake, which was amazing. The cake itself was delicious too.

 

3: Slimming World Creamy Coriander and Minted Chicken. View the post.

As I said before, Slimming World posts are popular. This is a great dinner recipe that's really easy to make.

 

2: The Alphabakes Challenge, April 2016. View the post.

Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and I ran the Alphabakes challenge for over 4 years, and are currently taking a break. This was one of the final times we ran the challenge and the letter this time was T. It didn't attract that many entries but a lot of people have obviously visited the post and looked at the recipes!

 

And at number one, the most popular post on Caroline Makes in 2016 was....

 

1: my amazing Jaffa cake cupcakes. View the post.

These cupcakes taste just like eating a Jaffa cake - they have a real Jaffa cake at the bottom, then a sponge cake the texture of a Jaffa cake base, an orange marmalade filling, chocolate frosting and a mini Jaffa cake on top. They were so good!

 

 

 

So that in a nutshell was the year for Caroline Makes - I hope 2017 is another good one!

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Meal Planning Monday - Week 52

Merry Christmas to all my readers! I hope you had a great day yesterday and have some time to relax and enjoy spending time with loved ones this week. We were able to visit both my family and my husband's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - including seeing his nephews and my one-month-old niece - and I've been thoroughly spoilt in terms of presents (my husband did good: Mulberry, Lulu Guinness and Ted Baker boxes were all under the tree - not handbags but a wallet, a vanity case and shoes). My sister gave me something cool - a Blog Planner book which I'm looking forward to using, and seeing if it will help me improve my blog this year!

I've been so busy over the last few weeks and months I haven't been posting as much as normal and just realised this morning that it's Monday and I've no idea what we are eating this week, and while the freezer is pretty full, there's very little fresh food in the house, so I'd better do some shopping when the supermarkets re-open (Dec 26 is a public holiday in the UK though I know it isn't elsewhere).

Having said that, this week will be pretty easy as I'm away a bit!
Monday - Boxing Day
My mother-in-law always hosts a big family gathering with an amazing buffet so that's breakfast and dinner covered. I'm going over there shortly to help prepare the food!

Tuesday - bank holiday
Probably leftovers from yesterday!

Wednesday
My husband is back at work unfortunately. I'm heading back down to Southampton to see my sister, her partner and their baby, as we only saw them briefly on Christmas day and I'm now going for an overnight visit. My husband will have dinner with his mum so I don't need to worry about food.

Thursday
I'm expecting to be home in time for dinner; as I don't know if I will have been able to do any shopping, I'll cook something from the freezer. I had this on the meal plan before Christmas but didn't do it: lasagne (from the freezer) for me, chicken chargrills for him

Friday
A whole day off at home for me though my husband is at work. Definitely going to the supermarket today if I haven't already by now!
Lunch: soup with fresh bread - tomato for him, leek and potato for me
Dinner: curry with leftover turkey if there is any

Saturday - New Year's Eve
Lunch: bacon sandwich
Dinner:  With friends

Sunday - New Year's Day
Brunch: with friends
Dinner: steak and chips. I'll use the steak rub that a friend gave me for Christmas on it.

This is a blog hop, join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Gingerbread Cupcakes and My Cupcake Toppers

As I mentioned when I posted about my Christmas cake, I was sent a selection of cupcake toppers from My Cupcake Toppers for review. You can order icing or rice paper toppers with pictures of anything from Christmas to Eid to baby shower, Disney princesses or football teams or even Breaking Bad, the TV show. Prices start at £1.20 for 12 standard rice paper cupcake toppers up to £6 for ones made of icing. As well as that, you can design your own for a bargain price of £2.70 for the smallest size - that's actually a very appealing idea! They even have an in-house design service if you are short of inspiration.

I decided to order a selection to try out the different rice papers and icing they are printed on. As you might have seen, I ordered a large 7.5 inch circular cake topper printed onto a thin sheet of edible icing, to go on top of my Christmas cake. I cut it out, removed the plastic backing and simply placed it on top of the cake - perfect!

I then ordered a set of 12 Christmas designs for cupcakes made of icing, plus some Family Guy toppers (I love that show) on premium rice paper, and some Lego Star Wars on regular rice paper. In both cases the rice paper was pre-cut which only costs a fraction more, but gives a much more professional finish than taking a pair of scissors to a sheet of rice paper yourself.

Did you know the reason why rice paper toppers sometimes curl up when you put them on cupcakes? It's to do with the moisture in the icing, so you are better off waiting until the icing has hardened but is still ever so slightly soft, so you can press on the topper.

What's interesting though that is when I (*accidentally* - ahem) put the rice paper toppers on while the icing was still too wet, the standard rice paper topper did curl at the edges while the premium topper - which is noticeably thicker - didn't.

 

I was then able to flatten the Lego Star Wars topper when the icing had set a bit. Both toppers were larger than I was expecting and worked really nicely, and didn't taste of a lot but I wasn't expecting them to!

 

The Lego Star Wars cupcake is just the thing to eat when you are opening the next window on your Lego Star Wars advent calendar!

Finally I had some trouble when it came to the icing toppers. The icing discs were printed on a plastic sheet but unlike with the large cake topper I couldn't peel off the backing plastic. I spent ages picking at the edges wondering why they weren't coming off, then decided to contact the company. The My Cupcake Toppers website advises contacting them via Facebook which I did and I was pleasantly surprised - given it was in the evening - to have a reply just a couple of minutes later.

They told me what to do and also informed me that the instructions were on their website and on the back of the delivery note. I had already looked at the FAQ on their website and went to the 'cutting' section but this is about buying the topper discs cut out already; I totally missed the 'instructions' section further down, and I would never have thought to take the address label off the front of the envelope and check for something printed on the back!

The instructions, once I had them, were easy to follow even if they did surprise me, as I've never done this before. You need to dry them out in a cool oven (50-60 degrees C) for 5-10 minutes and they will peel off.

I really liked these because they stay stiff and flat and look really professional. They are quite big, taste nicer than the rice paper and I really liked the set of Christmas designs that I chose.

So here is the recipe for the gingerbread cupcakes themselves, which comes from a book called Celebration Cupcakes, byTamara Jane.

To make about 18-20 large cupcakes, you need:
300g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
150g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g finely chopped crystallised ginger
160ml sour cream

For the buttercream:
250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence


Preheat oven to 170C, place cupcake cases in two muffin tins.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger and mixed spice.

In another bowl cream the butter and the sugar and mix in the sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, beating the mixture after you add each one, then fold in half the dry ingredient, half the chopped ginger and sour cream, and mix well. Then fold in the rest of the flour, ginger and cream.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter and the icing sugar. Add the vanilla essence and mix in. Using a piping bag and a star nozzle, pipe swirls onto the top of the cupcakes. Top with cupcake toppers as shown if desired.

 



 

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat, the Baking Explorer, and Cakeyboi Stuart.

 

 

Thanks to My Cupcake Toppers for the products to review.

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