Edible Ideas

 Serves: 2

Gemz taught me this one while I lived with her, you can pretty much add any veg that you like and swap cous-cous for rice if you prefer. If like me you live with a big hungry carnivore try it with bacon, cheese and mushroom, Yum!

Name Stuffed Peppers
Serves 2
Preperation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients
2 large peppers
1 packet of flavoured cous-cous (Ainsley's Veggy one is highly recommended but any will do)
50g Closed Cup Mushrooms, quartered
50g Plum Tomatoes, diced
40g Cheese, grated
4 Tablespoons natural yoghurt

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Boil the kettle with at least a litre of water.
2. Cut the peppers in half lengthways, de-seed them and cut off the stalks so you're left with four parts to stuff. Put them all into a pan of hot water to blanch while you prepare the rest of your ingredients
2. Prepare the cous-cous as per the instructions on the packet.
3. Add any other ingredients you've chosen to use except the cheese and natural yoghurt to the cous cous.
4. Remove the peppers from the hot water and place on a baking tray. Fill each part as much as possible with the cous-cous mix, place in the over for 15 minutes until the tops are starting to brown, remove, cover with cheese and put back in the over for a further 5 minutes.
5. To serve, add a dollop of natural yoghurt to the top of each one.

As an additional note these still taste pretty good when cold so don't worry too much if you've made too much or you can't eat it all at once, pop them in the fridge and they're fine for up to three days.

I was inspired to create the following recipe after discovering it on the Channel 4 Food site. The original recipe calls for fried eggs. This one uses less fat and involves poached eggs, but don't let that put you off. I've discovered a neat trick when it comes to poaching eggs!

Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 15 mins

Ingredients
2 large flat mushrooms
2 thick slices of beef tomato
4 sprays Lo-cal Sunflower Spray Oil
2 eggs
1 pint boiling water
2 burger buns
A few lettuce leaves

Method
1. De-stalk mushrooms and put on a grill pan or baking tray, along with tomato slices. Spray everything with the sunflower oil spray and pop under a grill for 5 minutes, until tender.

2. Meanwhile, boil 1 pint of water in a kettle and poach the eggs on a medium heat for 3 - 5 minutes, depending on how runny you like your yolk.

3. Toast burger buns. Top each bottom half with a few lettuce leaves, a grilled mushroom, a tomato slice and a poached egg. Sandwich with the bun tops and serve with a side salad.

Notes
Poaching eggs can be quite tricky, so here's the way that I do them. It's easy and relatively mess free! I wish I could say that I inventing this method of poaching eggs, but alas, I did not. I got the method from B3ta.com of all places!

How to poach an egg (according to B3ta.com):
1. Get a cup and some clingfilm. Place the clingfilm over the top of the cup and push inside to form a cup-shape.

2. Crack an egg into the cling film then pull the corners together to seal the egg inside. Twist the clingfilm at the top.

3. Place the wrapped eggs into the water and cook for the length of time required.

x-posted to skinnygemzy

Servings: 2
Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 35-40 mins
WW Points Per Serving: 3

Ingredients
* low fat cooking spray
* 3 medium sized leeks, sliced and rinsed
* 2 medium eggs
* 100g plain low fat soft cheese
* 100g low fat plain yoghurt
* 25g rye crispbreads
* salt and ground black pepper
* 1 tsp dried thyme

Method
1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/fan oven 160°C. Spray a shallow overproof dish with the low fat cooking spray. Blanch the leeks by putting them into a saucepan of boiling water for 6-8 minutes, until just tender. Drain well and arrange them in the overproof dish.

2. Meanwhile beat together the eggs, soft cheese and yoghurt with the seasoning. Break up the crispbreads by wrapping them in clingfilm and crushing them with a rolling pin. Pour the cheese sauce over the leeks and scatter the crispbread crumbs over the top.

3. Bake for 35-40 mins, until the top is crisp and brown and the sauce is bubbling.

x-posted to skinnygemzy

Huzzah, I think I have just about worked out how all this community malarky works so hopefully, with a bit of help from my friends we'll have a page full of yummy, filling and guilt free foods to keep us going throughout the summer!

First up seeing as it was the idea that sparked off this community, addicted to ice cream? Can't resist the urge to buy magnums or soleros  to scoff for those really hot days? This year I'm going to make myself some smoothie icepops instead. Really simple to make, all you need is one of those cheap plastic ice-pop maker sets, a freezer and a carton of smoothie - or if you're really posh you could make your own smoothies using fresh fruit. My favourite last year was strawberry and banana with a squish of orange juice (technical terms all the way) to make it more liquidy, this year I think I'm going to try more with apple juices, I'll let you know how that goes.

Many more ideas to come, if you're interested, watch, join, learn and post up your own ideas! If you see something you like and you've tried it yourself then comment on worked, what you like and didn't like, how you altered the recipes etc. Pictures are always welcome too so we can see the masterpieces that people have created.