Frozen Daiquiris - Strawberry, Mango etc. ( includes Thermomix instructions)

Just the thing for a hot summer's day!

Maybe it even counts as one of  your five a day? There's certainly plenty of fruit in it (oh yes, and alcohol!). I was making these a couple of years ago, and had perfected the recipe to our tastes and memorized it - but not blogged it! D'Oh! So given that it has been a couple of years since I last made daiquiris, and my memory is blighted by age (and a summer of daiquiris, probably!) I had to guess at what I roughly remembered the ingredients to be, then add to them to get the balance right for our tastes again, and THIS time I have done the 'sensible' thing, and written it down, so I don't forget again next time.

Delicious strawberry daiquiris... or as I told my children, strawberry smoothies...

I think my favourite is mango, but we had one of those last night, and strawberries look so pretty, so obviously I had to make a batch of strawberry daquiris today to take a photo... remember to drink sensibly and all that, darlings!

***UPDATE - a new level of deliciousness has been discovered!!! You can make the most amazing tropical daiquiri with a blend of pineapple, mango and papaya - which you just so happen to be able to buy in the frozen section of Sainsburys... just saying!***

Contains 8 units of alcohol (UK 25ml measures of 40% spirits), and makes four servings of 140ml.

For the calorie / Syn counters, the values are as follows for one serving (a quarter of a quantity as per the recipe below):

1 serving of strawberry daiquiri - 169 calories / 8 Syns
1 serving of pineapple daiquiri - 176 calories / 8.25 Syns
1 serving of mango daiquiri - 189 calories / 8.75 Syns

Stuffed Baby Peppers with Spinach and Ricotta

These little gems are a surprisingly healthy treat that are very more-ish and great for sharing (or NOT sharing if you want them all to yourself!).

I must firstly thank a friend, the lovely Audra, for the inspiration for this recipe. She shared a lovely recipe for roasted  piquillo peppers stuffed with goats cheese and spinach, which I changed around a bit (because that's what I do quite often) to suit my own purposes.

I think they're pretty easy to make - certainly not as fiddly as you might think! And they're definitely worth the effort for such a tasty morsel that's full of healthy yumminess - I ate half a quantity for my dinner last night!

The filling makes enough for two batches (as I prefer to use up certain things when I open them where possible, such as ricotta, so that the remains don't waste away in the fridge!), and will keep in the fridge for a couple of days so you can make a second batch fresh when you've eaten the first one! (Or just double up on peppers and make two trays - they are nicest eaten freshly cooked though).

Also delicious served with a selection of mouthwatering antipasti!

This quantity of peppers serves two, if eating as a light lunch type of thing (nice with some dressed Italian leaves on the side) or as a large side dish. It's also great as party food, and compatible with calorie-counted diets, 5:2, LCHF (all green list food, and you can use extra parmesan and a good drizzle of EVOO to top it off if you like) as well as being Syn free for the Slimming World diet (if you use up your healthy extra A choice for the ricotta cheese and up to 9g finely grated parmesan cheese per portion (this is a lot more than you think, especially if you use a microplane grater!).

207 calories per serving (with weights as below, calories in square brackets).

If making one quantity (with 300g baby peppers and a half quantity of ricotta/spinach mix), then it is 414 calories for the quantity, hence if using 12 baby peppers it is approximately 17 calories per stuffed pepper half.

Nutty Chocolate Bark

So simple, it's cheeky to call this a recipe - but helpful for those counting calories, or sticking to allowances to be able to weigh out portions.

As a self-confessed chocoholic, I can easily inhale what should last several days within the space of an evening, without even thinking about it!

If I'm trying to lose weight, chocolate tends to be my nemesis, so I have to find ways of making it last / stretch and pad it out with things that will make it more satisfying, and add a more healthy element, without compromising on deliciousness!

Calories: 150 calories per portion (26g), makes 12 portions.

Slimming World: makes 12 portions (weigh out at 26g each), where the nuts and seeds can be your healthy 'B' choice for the day, and the chocolate part is 3.5 syns. If not counting the nuts and seeds as your healthy 'B' choice, add on 4 syns per portion (so 7.5 syns in total).