Chicken Jambalya

 Serves 1

Syns per portion: Extra Easy 1 syn

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, chopped
• 2 Tesco lighter choice cumberland sausages (1 syn), sliced
• 65g long grain rice
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
• 200ml chicken stock
• 100g passata
• 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning
•  Frylight

Method

1. Add a few spray of frylight to a large pan. Add the chicken and sausages and leave to brown for 5 min.
2. Add the peppers, onion, cajun seasoning and garlic and brown for 5 more minutes. Stir often but don't worry if it sticks a little as this will help to add flavour to the dish.
3. Add the passata, stock and rice. Give the ingredients a good stir and scrap of any browned parts from the bottom of the pan. Cover and leave to simmer on a low heat for 20-25 min.
4. Give the pot a good stir and make sure the water has been absorbed and rice is cooked. Serve.

 I have never had Jambalaya before but I always wanted to try it as I love a good one pot dish. It tasted superb and was so filling, it's really hard to believe this is 'diet' food. I used tesco lighter choice sausages but if you have syn free sausages then it would make this whole meal free.  I was a bit worried about using 'easy cook' rice as most basic recipes I seen just had long grain rice stated as an ingredient, but my dish worked out perfectly and the rice was nice and tender and not soggy. Enjoy.

Cajun Pork

Serves 1

Syns per portion: Extra Easy Free

Ingredients

• 1pork loin
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2green bell pepper
• 1/4 of medium onion
• 1 tsp Schwartz 'perfect shake' Cajun spice mix
• 45g rice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Chop all the ingredients into small chunks.
3. Place all the chopped veg and pork into an oven bake bag and add the cajun spices, coating the contents of the bag evenly. (If you don't have an oven bag you can use tinfoil in a high sided baking tray, make sure it covers the top of all the ingredients so they don't dry out when cooking.).
4. Place the bag in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile boil the rice and drain once cooked to desired consistency.
6. Remove the tray from the oven and mix the ingredients well into any juices and spice mix. Serve.

I love this recipes because it so easy and requires very little effort, yet it tastes so good. The 'perfect shake' spice mixes from schwartz are fantastic and great for jazzing up a meal. I love the cajun one and I've also tried the piri piri one, which is also great. I had a lonely little pork loin in the freezer and needed a way to use it up and thought this recipe would be perfect, and it didn't disappoint. Enjoy.

Spicy Rice

Serves 1

Syns per portion*: Extra Easy Free, Red 12 , Green Free

Ingredients

• 50g rice
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/4 red pepper
• 1/4 green  pepper
• 1/4 yellow pepper
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 chicken stock cube
• 200ml water
•  Frylight

Method

1. Chop the peppers into small chunks
2. Place the rice into a pan and  give 3 sprays of frylight. Set at medium heat and stir rice until it begins to brown.
3. Add 100ml of water, stock cube and chilli flakes. Reduce heat to low-medium and stir occasionally until rice absorbs the water, be careful not to let it stick to the pan.
4. Once rice has absorbed water  add the chopped peppers, garam masala, soy sauce and remaining 100ml of water.
5. Set on a low heat and stir occasionally until all water has been absorbed. Serve.

Today my husband returned with some marinated chicken breasts for dinner which were nice and slimming world friendly. I decided I wanted to have rice with the chicken, however I though it would need jazzed up a bit otherwise it would be quite dry. So I whipped up this little dish and it was rather tasty. Just as a word of warning you may want to add the chilli flakes slowly until you reach the desired heat as  I about blew my heat off by adding to much!

Enjoy.

NB. The marinated chicken in the 'The Cook Menu' cajun marinade chicken from Marks and Spencers.