Recipe for leftover lamb

If you are wondering how to use up leftover lamb, this SPICY LAMB WRAP recipe proved to be a big hit.
With around 100g of leftover lamb, we wondered what to make. There wasn't enough for the usual shepherd's pie.
I don't know about you, but cold lamb looks very uninspiring. However, it resurrects beautifully because of the fat content.
We opted for a wrap, but wanted something spicy and interesting.
Unlike most TV celebrity chef's we just do not have every ingredient to hand. Using the ingredients we did have transformed leftover lamb into a very tasty budget meal.
You can add a sprinkle of your own favourite spice - harissa, chilli etc - before you reheat the lamb, or season with salt and pepper.
The shredded lamb can be heated through in a hot oven, dry fried or microwaved. If you want crispy lamb, as we did, use the oven or pan.
The SECRET here was the combination of cheese and lamb, which makes it oh so spectacular, and something you would easily pay good money for.
Here's our recipe:

BACON SANDWICH and CALORIES

What an excuse for a BACON, LETTUCE & TOMATO (BLT) sandwich. It's the Bank Holiday!! Who needs an excuse anyway, especially when the bacon is cooked in such a way you get to save around 150 calories. 

This sandwich is around 450 calories, yet it could have been more. We even weighed the fat that didn't go into the sandwich and were surprised at the results: For two bacon sandwiches today, we found there was 35g of bacon fat left in the frying pan - which, at 88 calories for 10g of bacon fat, saved around 150 calories per sandwich. Yet the resulting sandwich didn't suffer - it was as tasty as ever. 

This is our favourite way of cooking bacon and you'll get to enjoy all the flavour while eating less calories. 

First snip off the fat from the bacon slices and put this fat to one side. Most standard bacon is full of water, and the aim is to remove it.
Place the trimmed slices of bacon into an oiled saucepan. Now fry the lean bacon until you see the water escape - it looks like milky liquid. As soon as this starts happening - remove the bacon (which is only half cooked).  Wipe the pan to remove the liquid.
Next, put the fat pieces into the pan and fry these on a very LOW heat. This turns the fat pieces into oil. Once the oil starts to appear in the pan, add your half cooked bacon and fry to your liking.
This will give the bacon ALL the flavour you would want without overloading on calories. Don't forget to toast one side of the bread, which gives the sandwich that all important crunch!

***

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began our blog in June 2011. Here's a link to the first post. (here's the link).

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can lose weight eating the food you love.

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A TIP FOR GREAT BEEF BURGERS

Home made BEEF BURGERS can be so juicy and tender, and you get to control the ingredients that go in.
We decided to make these BEEF SLIDERS after picking up a good tip, which resulted in a pretty amazing burger.
You don't need egg to bind the meat either.
So what's the secret? For these burgers, we started out with good quality minced beef. You can add your favourite spices to the basic mix below. The calories in each burger will change depending on the fat content of the beef.  At around 150 calories per slider, these make a great party snack. They were very filling too.
Here's how we made them:

BEST EVER HARISSA CHICKEN with GIANT COUSCOUS

Harissa Chicken with giant couscous and mediterranean vegetables. This plateful is around 500 calories.
How to turn a few bland ingredients into something quite special, without spending a fortune.
Coat the chicken with harissa paste mixed with full fat greek yoghurt. Marinate for a few hours (overnight if possible) place in the oven at 180ºC for around 45 minutes or until cooked.
Chop your favourite vegetables (we used butternut squash, carrot, red onion, red pepper and courgette), coat lightly with oil and place in the oven at the same time as the chicken. Season with salt and pepper.
For the couscous, we cooked according to the packet, then added some of the juices from the chicken and roasted vegetables.
TIP: How did I make this more economical? I cooked twice as much couscous as required and roasted double the amount of vegetables. The cold couscous and vegetables can be mixed together with the addition of a little olive oil and seasoned as you prefer. It will make a great LUNCHBOX meal to which you can add your favourite cheese - I would crumble feta or goat's cheese on mine.
AND.... we cooked 4 legs of chicken - and we're eating the rest of it tonight. We'll place the chicken legs into an oven proof dish, cover with foil and heat thoroughly. Serving with potatoes and a green salad just to ring the changes.

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Lose weight eating the food you love!
REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

Leek and potato bake with a twist

LEEK AND POTATO BAKE WITH CHORIZO

INGREDIENTS (2-4 servings)

One large leek

1kg of potatoes

20g sliced chorizo - roughly chopped

stock cube

approx 250 ml milk/water (50/50mix)

salt and pepper

butter

I was using leftover ingredients - if you don't have chorizo, then use bacon bits instead (or just use leeks and potatoes). 

Layer the potatoes (I used Estima today) and leek into a shallow oven dish. Season each layer with salt and pepper - and anything else you fancy. Mix the stock cube with the water/milk mixture. I use whole milk, as it makes it creamier and saves buying cream! Pour over the stock until it comes to just below the top layer of potatoes. Then...  scatter with the chorizo (or bacon bits) and dot some butter on the top.

Cover with some foil or a lid, and bake at around 180 degrees C for 40 minutes, remove foil and continue cooking until nicely browned (a further 30 minutes should do the trick). 

We had this as a side dish with some sausages, but if we were going to eat it as a main dish all on it's own, then we would have added a little more chorizo/bacon.

Estimate this dish at around 600 calories if divided by two large appetites. It's quite more-ish though, and if you want to ensure you don't eat all of it between two, then just make less and use a smaller baking dish. I used a 26 x 18 cm dish (8 cm deep) for these ingredients - and think it will serve 3 nicely.
TIP: When we served this immediately, we found there were a lot of 'juices' in the oven dish. Treat this dish like a good steak - let it rest, and the potatoes will soak up all those juices and make it taste even better. If you can wait......

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

Red mullet and pearl barley risotto

We estimated this dish at around 450 calories as there was a lot less fish than last time. It was handy having lots of the red pepper sauce already in the freezer, so we dug some out. We made a good batch of the sauce when the peppers were in season and cheap. Fish is great when it's fresh, i.e. doesn't smell, and cooked gently - that's all you have to do!
TIP: When cooking the pearl barley, it may taste quite strong. The balance of flavours deliver when you taste this together with the red pepper sauce which is quite sweet. Delicous.
If you're starting from scratch, here's how to go about it:
Begin by frying a chopped shallot and some garlic until soft, add one and a half chopped red and yellow peppers to the pan, cook for a little longer. Add small dash of white wine vinegar to the pan, the vermouth and stock/water. Reduce by half, then whizz in a blender - you may need to add just a touch of sugar to taste due to the white wine vinegar. We did this bit early in the afternoon - so it was ready to go. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We used 80g of dried pearl barley between the two of us and cooked it in fish stock - but any stock and/or ordinary water will do - until soft. You can do this early in the afternoon, then when ready to eat, just heat through and add a tablespoon each of mascarpone and grated parmesan. Add a small knob of butter too, as this will give the dish a real richness. TIP: If we were making a risotto with rice, we wouldn't be able to pre-cook like this, so why not give pearl barley a go? You can relax with your friends instead of being slave to stirring a risotto! 

Don't forget to season - salt needs to be added carefully, little by little, not enough and the barley is 'missing' something.

The fish fillets were pan fried in butter/oil. We served with some courgettes last time but forgot to buy some, so added frozen peas to the risotto to give it a bit of colour for the um 'photo shoot'.

If you would like to know more about how we have achieved our fabulous weight loss eating all this wonderful food - see OUR UNIQUE METHOD.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

Scallops, chorizo crisps and... belly of pork

Scallops, chorizo with belly of pork and sweetcorn puree!! We made this up - and the flavours worked fabulously together.
We used a piece of our (frozen) belly pork we made last week. Scallops are very low in calories, and we estimate the starter to be around 250 calories. Very tasty, and not too filling.
Here's what we did for the sweetcorn puree (enough to serve four):

Take a small piece of sweetcorn (we used frozen) and cut off the kernels. Place in a pan with a chopped shallot (half an onion if you don't have one) and a small clove of garlic. Cover with water and boil until soft. Blend. Pass through a sieve and season to taste. TIP: Cook the scallops for less time than you think they need, then you can always cook a little longer according to taste. Overcooked scallops are not very nice, and as they come in all sizes it's difficult to judge. Remember they carry on cooking after you remove them from the pan. Buy one extra so you can cut into it and check ....
We took some chorizo slices and placed them in the oven between two baking sheets to keep them flat. Eight minutes later at 180 degrees in a fan oven and they were very very (more-ishly) crispy! Because of the way they were cooked, a lot of the fat was removed too - leaving all that wonderful flavour. Assemble onto a very hot plate (take care), take photo to impress your friends, then eat.
We estimate the main course of red mullet with pearl barley risotto at around 450 calories. This was because we used much less fish than we did last time. This brings the whole meal to around 700 calories - brilliant. Enough room for a good glass of wine... of course.

If you would like to know more about how we have achieved our fabulous weight loss eating all this wonderful food - see OUR UNIQUE METHOD.

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

Lemon souffle recipe (how to make it rise)

Here is our fab dessert - LEMON SOUFFLÉ -very low in calories but very impressive.
To serve two:
Zest of two lemons, juice of one. 70g castor sugar, 20ml limoncello liqueur. Cook these ingredients to dissolve sugar. Add 7g cornflour (mixed with small amount of cold water). Cook for a few minutes. Let it go cold. Whip two egg whites until it forms stiff peaks. Fold one third into the lemon mix and then fold in the rest. Put into buttered ramekins (which have been sugared). Cook for 10 minutes at 180 degrees (fan oven). Dust with icing sugar. Enjoy the sherbet lemon dessert for around 250 calories!
TIP: Never whisk the egg whites in a bowl that has had OIL in it - as the eggs will most likely collapse and the dish will not work. We did - we had plastic bowls and have learned our mistakes. We use glass bowls now.

EAT the food you love - like we do and ... forget dieting. You'll feel much more satisfied and it may just stop you snacking or craving something you feel you deserve.

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours? 

We like to post our main meals to show you what CAN be eaten. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how you can lose weight eating the food you love.

Copyright © forget dieting forever, all rights reserved.

Lamb leftover HOTPOT

After a few hours socialising, we came back to our cheat's lamb hotpot. It was very very tasty. I believe it's no more than 450 calories each for this. A lot of people wouldn't think to use up leftover lamb like this - good old fashioned cooking! So here's our TIP on how to get the most out of your Sunday roast.
Yes the lamb was pre-cooked, but it worked well with the freshly sliced potatoes and onions. We set the oven to cook it in time for our return later. Most welcoming as we walked through the door to the wonderful aroma.
No takeaway required, as this hot and tasty food was awaiting us - which is much lower in calories and (in our opinion) much preferred. The lamb juices infused the potato slices, and there was nothing quite like it. I used 400g of sliced potatoes (for two portions - that's 280 calories) and one sliced onion, layering with the left over lamb pieces (about 100g). I poured a mixture (50/50) of chicken stock and milk - enough to cover the dish just below the top layer of potatoes. I dotted with a little butter and put in the oven for an hour and a half at 140 degrees (while we were out). It can be cooked on a higher setting for a shorter amount of time.
We had sugar snap peas on the side - a bit of green never hurts - but was not really necessary (although you may want the fibre). Budget - here we come - this dish cost very little, just a few potatoes, onion and leftover meat.  I suppose you could do the same with any leftover meat! Just make sure it's all piping hot.  Good old fashioned values that work - for us.

Why not search our blog for other meals and their calorie count. Just type in the number of calories and the meals will be listed. Or type in an ingredient, and the recipes will come up.

Read how we put 'our idea' to the test  and lost over 6 stone in weight -  Our Experiment

We keep mentioning CALORIES - see why!

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Lamb chops

We finally made it ... and had this double lamb chop for dinner. We estimate the dish to be no more than 600 calories (and that's over-estimating). The actual lean meat from this chop was 120g.
It was juicy and tender, and lovely and pink in the middle.
TIP: We achieved the pinkness without the juices running on the plate, by first frying the chops until almost cooked then removing from the pan and letting them rest. Ours were rested for 6 minutes, while we were dishing up the vegetables, then we put them back into the pan to crisp them up for a minute or so either side.

If you would like to know more about how we have achieved over 6.5 stone weight loss eating all this wonderful food - see OUR IDEA

Read how we put 'our idea' to the test  -  Our Experiment

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Our TIP for a great bacon sandwich

This was lunch - very simple (why do the simple things always taste so good). A quick bacon sandwich at somewhere around 400 calories (if that). As we don't know the exact number of calories we actually need, we usually estimate. It's not an exact science, and we're not scientists. But, we have implemented our system and successfully lost lots weight - so something is working. At least we get to eat the food we love.
TIP: This is how we love to cook our bacon and get to enjoy all the flavour without too much of the fat and calories.
First snip off the fat from the bacon slices and put this fat to one side. Most standard bacon is full of water, and the aim is to get this out. Place the trimmed slices of bacon into an oiled saucepan. Now fry the lean bacon until you see the water escape - it looks like milky liquid. As soon as this starts happening - remove the bacon (which is only half cooked). Next, put the fat pieces into the pan and fry these on a very LOW heat to render out all the fat. Once the fat starts to appear in the pan, replace the bacon into the pan and continue to cook to your liking. I like it nice and crisp. This will give the bacon ALL the flavour you would want without the calories.

If you would like to know more about how we have lost so much weight - see OUR IDEA

Read how we put our idea to the test  -  Our Experiment

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Slow braised lamb in red wine

SLOW BRAISED LAMB IN RED WINE SAUCE
Ingredients to serve 4

1.5 kg lamb shoulder

350 ml (half bottle) of red wine (we used a heavy red - Shiraz)

4 chopped onions

4 cloves garlic

one each - carrot and celery stick finely chopped

large sprig of rosemary

large sprig of thyme

couple of bay leaves

Brown the meat in a frying pan, then add this to the slow cooker together with all the other ingredients. Top up with enough water/stock to cover the meat, and that's it. We slow cooked on high for an hour, reduced it to low while we were out, then returned it back to the high setting for the last couple of hours cooking.
We cooked jacket potatoes, and scooped out the mash. It has so much more flavour than mashing boiled potatoes plus the potato skins can be set aside in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner!

After 6 hours of slow cooking, we removed 132g of pure fat which was spooned off the top of the casserole. 

If we didn't have a slow cooker, we would put this in an oven proof dish and cover tightly with foil, and cook on a low heat. We then checked the seasoning, added a little salt and continued cooking for another couple of hours.  

When the meat was cooked, we continued removing fat from the cooking liquid using our fat separator (or you could skim again). This time we removed a further 40g of fat. It's this unnecessary fat - all 172g of it (a whopping 1500 calories) that lurks unsuspectingly in many dishes, that we don't eat when we cook for ourselves. 

SAUCE

The cooking liquid was boiled so that it was reduced by a third. We then blended until smooth, then adjusted the seasoning again. We added a small teaspoon of honey to ours, as it was slightly bitter, and thickened with a little cornflour. Then whisked in a small piece of butter just before serving to give it a nice sheen.

A nice Shiraz from Australia went well with this dish.... which we estimate to be around 700 calories at the very very most. It could be less due to the removal of all that fat, but as we're not sure, we just make a judgment. As we have continued to lose weight, our estimations can't be too far out.

Enough to feed 4 at least for around £3 per person and about half the cost of cooking lamb shanks for everyone!

Oh, and while we were out, we managed to walk for a few miles. This equated to around 250 calories - now did we use this towards our dessert, wine or chocolate? We know - it's our choice!!

If you would like to know more about how we achieved our fabulous weight loss see OUR IDEA.

Read more about our successful weight loss journey - Our Experiment

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Our favourite salad

We had this favourite tuna, egg and cheese salad with potatoes and additional coleslaw. It never fails to satisfy and we really enjoyed our 500 calorie dinner. Now, as we had a lower calorie intake at lunch time, this gives us plenty of calories left for something we might fancy later - but that's between me and us!! And, more importantly, this will still be a 'good' day!
TIP:  We used a shop bought (very) creamy coleslaw then added some grated onion and white cabbage. That way we can have less calories for more volume, while still enjoying the flavour of the dressing!

If you would like some other recipe ideas then have a look at our MENU PLAN.

If you would like to know more about our 'intermittent eating plan' see OUR IDEA.

Read more about how we began this successful weight loss journey - Our Experiment

If you have any questions - feel free to email me on forgetdietingforever@gmail.com.

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Slow cooked beef and suet dumplings

Slow cooked beef and suet dumplings

Our beef stew was cooked overnight in the SLOW COOKER. If I had to recommend just one piece of equipment for people in a hurry, it would have to be the slow cooker. Just think of all those wonderful tasty dishes awaiting you as you turn the key in the door.
Brown the beef and place in the slow cooker. Add - leek, onion, carrot, garlic, and turnip, which had all been heated through first. Add herbs - I used some thyme and rosemary and a bay leaf plus one tablespoon of tomato puree.
We also decided to use a piece of star anise (as a lot of chefs seem to do this with beef dishes). There was definitely an extra dimension to the final flavour - with the subtle aniseed coming through.
TIP: I chopped one potato very finely so it would break down and thicken the gravy.
I poured enough beer (ale) and stock/water to cover the meat and vegetables, seasoned with salt and pepper, then left it to cook slowly. Timings depend upon the quantities used.

I made the dumplings according to the packet and served the stew with some carrots and cabbage. We would estimate each serving at around 500 calories with the suet dumplings.
Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about OUR UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

HAM HOCK SOUP

DELICIOUS HAM HOCK SOUP

Ingredients

400g tin haricot beans (all I had in the cupboard)

200g chopped tomatoes

200g new potatoes

200g cooked ham (TIP: try one of the ready cooked hot ham hock's from the deli counter)

Large spoonful of tomato paste

2 onions

2 sticks celery

A leek if you have one

A little 'new season' shredded Savoy cabbage (or any green cabbage)

garlic to taste

herbs - thyme, rosemary and bayleaf (I used about tablespoon of these mixed chopped FRESH herbs)

handful of carrots

1 litre of water mixed with chicken stock cubes to taste

60g frozen peas

60g pasta (I used Spatzle)

***

Fry the onions, celery and leek for 10 minutes then add garlic and herbs if you like. Add all the other ingredients except the PEAS, HAM and PASTA.  Cook until vegetables are tender (about 40 minutes). I like to blend about 1/4 of the soup, to make it less runny, and then I add the ham and cook until it's heated through. Finally the peas and the pre-cooked Spatzle* go in. One last sprinkle with some strong grated cheese like cheddar or parmesan... and enjoy.
*NOTE: If you only have dried spaghetti, break this into 2cm pieces and throw it in (uncooked) for the last 5 minutes of cooking. You could use your favourite tinned beans if you don't have haricot.

***

I decided to make this great soup, adapting a few recipes to suit the ingredients I had to hand. I added some leftover cubed ham too.  It was quite easy to put together too.

This makes 4 huge portions - at around 200 calories per portion. A nice chunk of fresh bread and some grated cheese ...was all that was required (don't forget to add on these as extra calories).

The planned salad will have to wait until tonight.
Here's the QR code for the ingredients (text format).

Lose weight eating the food YOU love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - (see our page on calories) and we like to post our main meals to show you what we are eating. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about the UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever, all rights reserved.

Lazy beef curry recipe

OUR LAZY BEEF CURRY
Cooking method: Slow cooker

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 6 - 8 hours in slow cooker (check manufacturers guide)

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INGREDIENTS

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 kg stewing beef - cubed **

3 medium onions - diced 

couple of garlic cloves - crushed

one whole chilli 

1 tsp turmeric powder

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

500ml stock (chicken or vegetable)

 (2cm) chopped ginger

10-20g of honey 

salt

pepper

****

Begin by making the dry spice mix. Dry fry the cumin, fennel, coriander, fenugreek, seeds in an oil free pan until you can hear the seeds popping. Remove from pan and grind into a powder. Add the turmeric powder.

In a separate frying pan add the diced onions and sweat in a little oil on a low heat. Cook until translucent. Add the crushed garlic and chopped chilli and cook for a few minutes. Place this onion mixture into a large saucepan and add the tomatoes, stock, ginger, and the dry spice mix. Simmer for around 15-20 minutes.

BLEND the whole mixture add the honey (to taste) and sweeten with salt and pepper. Depending on what stock you use will depend on how much seasoning you need.

Brown the pieces of beef and add to the slow cooker. (You may also like to add some more chunky onions at this stage to add texture).

The curry can be slow cooked overnight - check your manufacturers instructions. Or cook for 6 to 8 hours on a medium setting until the meat is tender. 

We estimate this will make 8 portions of beef curry at around 360 calories each. 

Serve with rice - and don't forget to add on those calories.

**We often use a cut of meat called 'skirt' as in this recipe, but if you can't find this you could use 'brisket' or stewing/braising beef.

TIP: The dry spice mix can be made ahead of time. As we use it quite often we make a large batch and store in an air tight container.

TAKE A LOOK AT ALL THE FABULOUS FOOD WE'RE EATING WHILE LOSING WEIGHT. HOW CAN WE DO IT?  OUR UNIQUE METHOD.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved