I’m on a mission right now to use up all the items that are lurking in my kitchen cupboards, taking up space, and being pushed from side-to-side, day after day.

Somehow, I’ve accumulated 11 packets of sugar-free jelly… in all kinds of flavours. It’s time to use them up!

My kids don’t actually like jelly on its own and a creamy trifle won’t help my waistline, so I’ve made a yoghurt and jelly pudding concoction that tastes great and is diet-friendly, too.

And since I don’t have a ‘stir-it-all-together-and-chuck-in-fridge’ category, I’m filing this under Recipes.

Yoghurt and Jelly Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 sachet of sugar-free jelly (I used strawberry)
• 2 tubs of Muller Light fat free yoghurt (I used strawberry)
• 1/2 pt boiling water
• handful of frozen berries

Method

(Note: Most jelly sachets require 1 pt of water. For this recipe, I am using HALF the amount of water, so disregard the information on the packaging)

• Begin by pouring the boiling water over your jelly crystals and stir until dissolved
• To speed up the process, you can use just enough hot water to dissolve, and top up the rest with cold water to the 1/2 pt mark
• Leave to cool until almost room temperature, but not set
• Stir in both pots of Muller Light yoghurt
• Pour into jelly moulds
• Refrigerate until set
• Serve with frozen berries or fruit of your choice

So quick. So easy. And tasty, too!

If you’ve got any diet-friendly ways to use up the other 10 packets of jelly I have left, I’m all ears! Leave me a note in the comments below and share your jelly recipes with me

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I do love the Slimming World ‘Extra Easy’ weight loss plan.

It’s, er, extra easy!

The clever clogs at SW HQ have done all the thinking – so I don’t have to – and so long as I stick to the plan, my weight loss is guaranteed.

And I get to enjoy dishes like this for breakfast. Or dessert. Ooh, dessert for breakfast – now that’s my kinda meal!

Baked Apples and Mincemeat

• 225g apple
• 1 tablespoon of mincemeat
• Sprinkle of cinnamon

I’m not sure what apples Slimming World were weighing, but they must have been HUGE! I grabbed these two from my fruit bowl and together they weighed only 231g.

Method

• Using an apple corer to remove the core from each apple.
• (I then sliced a little of the bottom of each core and used to ‘plug’ the bottom of the apple).
• Measure (don’t guess!) a tablespoon of mincemeat and fill your apple(s).
• Sprinkle with cinnamon
• Using a sharp knife, score around the apple middle to prevent any baked apple explosions (!) and bake at 180c for 20-25 minutes.

Oh these taste so good.

The mincemeat oozes out of the deliciously soft and squishy apple leaving a rich sticky caramel to scrape off your plate

I enjoy these as a breakfast, but topped with a thick and creamy fat free Greek yoghurt they’d make a great dessert too!

Slimming World Healthy Extra ‘B’ Choices are foods that are high in fibre or contain important nutrients for a healthy balanced diet.

On the Slimming World plan, you can have 225g of baked apple(s) + 1 level tbsp of mincemeat as your daily HexB choice. 

Don’t skip them… enjoy them!

xoxo Natalie

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It’s Guy Fawkes Night / Bonfire Night / Firework Night tomorrow.

Whatever you call it, it’s the wonderfully British celebration (commemoration?) of King James I surviving Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder plot to assassinate the King and bring down the Houses of Parliament – foiled only by his arrest whilst he guarded the explosives. How crazy is that?!

As with any celebration, there is always food. Hot dogs seemingly mandatory, with warming jacket potatoes and mugs of steaming hot chocolate to accompany whilst we watch bonfires burn and fireworks light up the smoke-filled sky.

I like to try and sneak in some extra fruit and veggies into my kiddos diet, and this year I’ve made these fun Firecracker Sparklers with popping candy to enjoy!

Check them out…

Red, white and blueberry: Firecracker Sparklers

Ingredients:
(Makes 12-15)

• 1 small punnet of blueberries
• White chocolate
• 1 pack of popping candy
• Teaspoon of red sprinkles
• Small wooden skewers

How To:

• Begin by threading 7 or 8 blueberries onto each of your skewers.
• Gently melt your white chocolate in a pan or in the microwave and spoon into the corner of a food-grade plastic baggie.
• Snip the tiniest amount off the corner of your bag and pipe in a wiggly line onto your blueberries.
• Whilst still soft, sprinkle over your popping candy and red sprinkles and place in the fridge to set.
• Enjoy!

Remember, remember the 5th of November,
the gunpowder, treason and plot;
I see of no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
‘Twas his intent.
To blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below.
Poor old England to overthrow.

 

If you’re following the Slimming World plan:

Blueberries are a SuperFree food // 25g of chocolate is 6.5 syns // popping candy is 5.5 syns per 25g // sprinkles are 1 syn per 1 level tsp.

Depending how generous you are with your toppings, these work out around 2 syns per 3 sparklers

Do you celebrate Bonfire Night (or whatever you call it)?

Tell me what you get up to with your family!

xoxo Natalie

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Just because you are on a weight loss journey, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t indulge your sweet tooth every once in a while day. In fact, one thing this journey has taught me is that you SHOULD enjoy all the things you love… but in moderation

I’m a real dessert girl and love to have ‘something sweet’ after my dinner and this delicious Strawberry Trifle Recipe is not only very easy to make, but it’s also low in syns making it a great treat for anyone looking after themselves.

As with most healthier alternative recipes, this is not exactly as you would make if you were not worried about calories, fat content or syn values – but it’s still a great pudding the whole family can enjoy.

I’ve chosen strawberry flavour and decorated with extra fruit on top for extra goodness, but you could change this up for any fruit of your choice or even decorate with a light dusting of grated chocolate or vermicelli sprinkles.

My Slimming World Trifle Recipe

Actually, I feel a bit of a fraud calling this a recipe, because it’s more like a few ingredients thrown together but, shhh…. it looks like I’ve spent hours in the kitchen!

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

8 large fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 sachet sugar free strawberry jelly, made up per instructions
150g reduced fat, ready made custard
Tbsp creme fraiche

Extra strawberry to decorate

Method

• Layer your chopped strawberries in the bottom of your trifle dish
• Pour over jelly mix, just enough to cover
• Place bowl in fridge for 20-30 minutes to set
• Remove from fridge and top up with remaining jelly (this gives you a nice jelly layer and stops the fruit floating).
• Return to fridge until set
• Spoon over a layer of reduced fat custard
• Decorate with a generous dollop of creme fraiche and a sliced strawberry

Tip

When making up your jelly, use just enough boiling water to dissolve the crystals then top up with iced water. It helps the jelly set faster!

Syns

3.5 per serving on Slimming World Extra Easy plan.

The post My Slimming World Strawberry Trifle Recipe appeared first on One Busy WAHM.

When I asked Thomas if he’d like me to make a Lego cake for his birthday, I guess I should have been more specific with my offering.

Whilst I had envisioned a nice and simple rectangular Lego brick cake, Thomas it seemed, had his mind set on a full-bodied Lego ninja mini-figure. (Yikes, ain’t gonna happen, son!)

Whilst I adore his total faith in my cake making abilities, I knew that unless I did some quick negotiation, I’d be landing myself in a hot mess.

Cue: Lego mini-figure head cake! 

We decided to decorate our cake board to look like a Lego base-plate. Now, this part I could handle – it was super easy!

• Lightly brush the cake board with water and cover with some green fondant icing, rolled out to size.
• Just trim the edges with a knife, just like you would a pastry pie topping.

• Decide approximately where your Lego cake will sit on the board and mark this out. (This will help later when you come to place your cake). I used an empty cake pan to leave a light impression.
• Using a corn fork or other prick, lightly mark your fondant in a grid pattern 1.5 cms apart. This is where you will place your Lego brick studs.

• Using your favourite sponge cake recipe, bake 6 cakes.
• I used the same recipe here as I do for my cake pop batter. To give you a guide for increasing your quantities – I used 3 eggs for every 2 cake pans (9 eggs in total).
• When your cooked cakes have cooled, carefully use a cake leveller to ensure they are all even and flat.

Because of the height / weight of the cake, there is a risk that that cake will collapse under its own weight, or begin to bulge out at the sides. Not a good look. To stop this from happening,  halfway through your cake construction, insert some cake dowels trimmed level with the top of the cake, and top with a cake card

Remember to level each cake as you go to avoid a ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa‘ Lego cake!

(You can buy a handy cake leveller tool for just a few pounds that makes this task so easy!)

Using a large round cookie cutter, cut a circle from your 6th baked cake. This forms the stud on the top of your Lego minifigure head.

Lightly cover your cake tower with buttercream (250g butter, 500g icing sugar, splash of milk to soften) and fill any gaps between the layers to ensure the sides are smooth and straight.

• Roll out a quantity of yellow fondant icing to a size sufficient to cover your cake. You will need as a minimum 2 x height + width of your cake.
• Gently place your rolled fondant on top of your cake and smooth out to remove any air bubbles and wrinkles. Trim off any excess.
• To make the Lego mini-figure face, cut shapes free-hand out of black fondant. Moisten the back with a little water and stick into position. (A large piping nozzle makes a great template for cutting out the eyes). If you prefer, you could use a paper template to cut around.
• Using two large spatulas and a steady hand, gently position the cake head onto your board.

• The little green Lego studs were also made from green fondant using a small plunger-style cutter.
• To attach, use a small clean paint brush and lightly moisten the base with water before sticking into position.

If you have a set of alphabet cutters, you can also add the Lego logo in yellow fondant as one final feature.

The finished result wasn’t as perfect as I would have liked but it was a great learning experience and I had so much fun making this Lego cake.

Most importantly, Thomas loved it!

Happy 7th birthday my sweet darling son!

If you’ve ever wanted to make a Lego cake but have been too afraid to try – give it a go!

It was far easier than I thought it would be – and with 6 layers of cake, it was enough to feed everyone!

~ Natalie

PS. Does anyone want to come clean the icing sugar cloud from my kitchen?

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