My Weight Waters journey started almost 20 years ago now. Diets when you don’t eat salad and fruit are not the easiest, so I have never thought they would work for me. Then when you see your brother at your wedding looking a lot thinner, and finding out he was going to Weight Watchers, made me wonder perhaps it might work.

After our honeymoon, Jane convinced me to give it a try. I agreed to sign up for a week and if it didn’t work that was it. Well luckily it did work, and I went back, and kept going back. I have mentioned before in a different blog, that the first Weight Watchers cookbook I bought was the 35 years favourites recipes. Now, 20 year later a number of these recipes make up our go to meals.

Back then, I was a lot more fussy about what I would eat, some might say I still am, but I’m nowhere near as bad now as I was. When I use to hear Paella back then, I though mussels and monkfish in my rice no thanks you, but then I see a picture in this book which look pretty good. I was surprised to read Quick and Easy Chicken and Bacon Paella, I thought, I could try that, and the rest is history.

I now always have Aborrio rice in my cupboard, and paprika and turmeric never last long in my spice rack. I made this tonight for dinner, and after watching my son almost remove the paint from the bowl and the daughter just stop short of licking it clean, I think it’s one of their favourites as well.

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15min
Cook Time: 25min

Ingredients:
1 Tsp Vegetable Oil
4 Bacon medalians
350g Chicken Breasts diced
1 Onion chopped
1 Clove Garlic crushed
1 Whole Red Pepper
1 Whole Green Pepper
200g Aborrio rice
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tsp Turmeric
2 Tsp Dried Marjoram
850ml of Chicken Stock
125g Frozen Peas
Salt & Pepper

Steps:

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pan and stir fry the bacon and the chicken for 2 minutes, then add the onion, garlic and chopped peppers.
2. Continue to cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in the paprika, turmeric, marjoram and the rice and cook for 1 minute till the chicken is coated in the spices.
3. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil stirring well. It will look very wet, don’t worry the rice will soak it up. Season to taste, turn the heat down to a simmer and clover with a lid,
4. Cook for 15 minutes stirring after 8 minutes, if there is still stock left, cook a little longer. Only remove the lid once when you stir.
5. Add the peas and cook for another 3 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat, cover with the lid again and let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.

As with all my stuff feel free to add and remove whatever you like, I think I use a lot more paprika and turmeric these days as well as extra peppers.

Let me know in the comments if you like it and make it, I would to know what you think.

As my first week back on track with WW (weight watchers to those that don’t know) I reflect on good choices made and I’m focusing on the week ahead.

One thing I have to do is plan our meals so I know what I’m cooking in the evenings around family life where it is a evening meeting, Jane at Brownies or the daughter out babysitter, planning the diner is key to being in control. Therefore, my planning starts the week before, firstly writing down what is happening each evening, then secondly choosing which meals we would like that week, then lastly working out which days it would be best to have them, not cooking risotto on an evening where I’m back home till late.

The next key tool for being in control for me was learning how to program my oven. Sounds stupid, but being able to get a cottage pie, roast chicken or sausage in onion gravy, automatically turn on, and be ready on time when you have been sat outside a ballet lesson for the last hour is priceless.

This brings me on to the recipe for this blog, which is my version of my Mother In Law’s family favourite, Sausage in yoghurt gravy. I don’t as a rule have plain yoghurt in the fridge, so I went for something different and I love onion gravy. I have developed this gravy receipt over the last couple of years and it is so simple it’s crazy not to have it whenever you cook something in the oven. I use it for sausages, chops or even meatballs, and I think it tastes great.

Sausage In Onion Gravy

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 5min
Cook Time: 40min

Ingredients:
12 Sausages
1 Onion thinly sliced
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
2 Beef OXO cubes
500 ml Boiling Water
3 Tbsp Plain Flour
150 ml Cold water

Steps:

1. Crumble the oxo cubes in to oven proof dish you’re going to cook the sausages in and mix with the boiling water.
2. Sprinkle the smoked paprika into the stock.
3. Slice the onion very thinly and lay in the stock.
4. Put the sausages on top of the onion in the stock.
5. Cover in foil and cook in the over for 30 minutes on 200c.
6. With 10 minutes left of the cooking time, mix the flour and cold water together into a watery paste.
7. Take the sausages from the over, remove the foil and add the flour water and mix with the stock, stir quickly to avoid lumps.
8. Put it back in the over uncovered for the remaining 10 minutes.

Notes:
To serve, plate the sausages first add vegetables of your choice and then spoon over onion gravy.

I didn’t do the New Years resolution thing this year, as starting up my diet again and getting the right focus could not be a flash in the pan for the first 2 weeks of the crappiest month of the year! Instead my desire to get my mojo back had to just wait until my mojo showed up, which it did last week.

Since the closure of our WW group last year, accurately tracking my weight has been difficult. I remembered that there were some pretty industrial scales in Boots and at the pool, but guess what? They have been removed since covid, and the ones I asked to use at the Doc’s need to be calibrated! So, my only real option was finding a new meeting, which I have done and plan to attend for a few weeks to get well and truly back on the wagon.

But before then, I needed a know that all important starting number. Yesterday I found another meeting, that I could pop into last night and get that. I have never been to AA, but if I had, and fell off the wagon, and then went back to a meeting, I suspect it would have fell very much like it did for me walking in there and getting on that square box on the floor yesterday.

Anyway that’s now done, I know where I’m starting, does the number matter? No, not really, the number which matters is how many lbs I can take off it in the coming weeks and months.

So to the recipe, why beans? Well lunch today involved beans for me, and anyone on WW will know that Heinz will set you back many points, full of salt and sugar and don’t really taste good enough, so I have been making my own (when I have been focused) for a few years following this simple recipe, and that is what I made today.

As always with my recipes, this is just a starting place, I would encourage you to change it and make it your own. Today I added curry power and a little smoked paprika to mine to make them a little more tasty.

Serves: 2
Prep Time: 5min
Cook Time: 10min

Ingredients:
400g Cannellini Beans
200g Chopped Tomatoes
200 ml Passata
1 Beef Oxo Cube
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 packet WW BBQ Sauce

Steps:

1. Drain and rinse the Cannellini Beans.
2. Add them to a pan with the chopped tomatoes, passata, oxo, Worcester sauce and BBQ sauce. If you don’t have WW BBQ sauce normal BBQ sauce works but check the points.
3. Bring the boil and simmer very low for 7-10 mins to soften the beans. If you have longer, then that makes them softer, and I find leaving them covered for a hour makes them better.

Thanks for coming back!

In the time since the last post, I have been thinking about what things I can write about and whether I have enough content to keep writing about cooking. So I decided to start a Mindmap (If you don’t do these you should, it gets your thoughts out). The upshot was I think I have a few posts in me to start with.

One thing I thought was, what is my credibility to write about cooking and food! So I thought I would do a step back in history and talk about my history with cooking.

In the last post I mentioned my Mum was the cook in our residential care home and that big old cooker she used, well that is what I was taught to cook on. I mean I don’t remember her saying “Right today I’m going to teach you to cook ….” but I was always in the kitchen with her helping out and obviously learning.

As I got older the reply to can I have something to eat was “If you want it, make it yourself!” so that is what I did, learning to cook eggs in every format possible. I also loved cooking at school, and quiche became a favourite, but there was nothing like my Mum’s which looking back might have just been cheese!

When I ended up moving in Jane, we were two weeks before she told me to cook. I like to plan my food for the day, but apparently asking her what was for dinner at 7:15 when she was dropping me to the station was too much, getting the reply “I have no idea, I have only just had breakfast, why don’t you cook!”, and for the last almost 21 years that is what has happened. I took over cooking day to day, so that I could plan what I was having for lunch. You don’t want a chicken sandwich if you’re having chicken for tea do you!

But it was 2002 after we got married that cooking really started to become important, we started Weight Watchers in the September, and that was a whole new ball game, changing the type of food and not using Jars and packets, but making sauces and food from scratch. The first cook book I got was the 35 Year of Weight Watchers Favourite Recipes, and to this day it remains one of the best.

Now, 19 years later, two kids later, cooking is just part of everyday life. One thing I’m proud of is that my kids eat almost everything, they are not fussy (unlike me) and this comes down to cooking fresh food each day.

So the recipe that comes along with this blog post really has to be one that comes from the above book I think. This is a great winter warmer, but I like to tinker with my recipes to suit what we want. I have replace the mince with sausages, I have replaced the beans with just Cannellini beans to reduce the points, but remember to make it your own.

Boston Beef & Baked Bean Hotpot

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10min
Cook Time: 25min

Ingredients:

• 350g Extra-lean minced beef
• 2 tsp Vegetable oil
• 1 Whole onion (chopped)
• 500 ml Beef stock
• 225g Chopped tomatoes
• 415g Can of baked beans
• 200g Pasta shapes
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp Tomato puree
• 2 tsp Bbq sauce
• 1 pinch Mixed herbs
• Salt and pepper

Steps:

1. Saute the minced beef in a large non-stick frying pan for 4-5 minutes, until browned. Drain off the fat.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan then gently the onions, until soft. Stir in the mince along with all the remaining ingredient, except the parsley. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, until the meat and pasta are cooked and tender.
3. If the mixture is still wet, leave the dish covered to allow it to soak up the fluid.