Dinner
Tesco Finest Ham Hock and Leek Gratin (5 1/2 syns)
30g grated cheddar cheese (HEa)
(The ham hock thing doesn't really need the extra cheese, but I don't drink milk so try to fit in my HEa where I can!)
Carrots, peas, corn

Dessert
4 x 1-syn cupcakes with chocolate icing (4 syns)
(Recipe from Minimins, here)
Yes, yes, I know I haven't iced them very prettily, but at the end of the day it all tastes the same, leave me alone! :)

Total syns for the day - 12 1/2

Snacks
30g Caramac bar (8 1/5 syns)
3 Jelly babies (3 syns)

Total syns for the day - 11 1/2

Breakfast
1/2 pot Muller Light Cherry yogurt
1 apple, diced

Dinner
Easy Chilli
Roasted carrots
Tomato, cucumber, red onion and coriander salad with Kraft ff French dressing, lime juice and sweetener

Brunch (I know, posh eh?)
4 rashers smoked turkey, 2 sl wholemeal bread (HEb)
1/2 tin baked beans, fried mushrooms and toms
fried egg, 2 Linda McCartney Italian sausages (1 syn)
1/2 pot Muller Light orange yogurt, diced apple, 25g muesli (4.5 syns)

Dinner
Easy chilli
Tomato, cucumber, red onion and coriander salad with Kraft ff French dressing, lime juice and sweetener
SW chips

Snacks
1 diced apple with 30g cheddar cheese (HEa)
21g bag Sainsbury's Good For You cheddar and onion snacks (5 syns)
An entire box of mini florentines :( 

Syns for the day - 10 1/2  (plus squillions for the florentines, I'm sure.  I'm not even gonna look them up, I'm just gonna move on!)

Ingredients
Leftover bolognese sauce, at least a couple of cups or so (If you don't have any, you could make this soup by replacing the bolognese sauce  with a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes, some oregano, garlic and chopped lean bacon).
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
one medium onion, chopped
(or if you have other veg, you can use those instead, this is a flexible recipe!  If you don't use celery though, try to add a teaspoon or so of celery salt, it really helps the flavour)
1 pint beef or chicken stock
1 tbs chopped parsley (fresh or frozen, if dried, use 1 heaped teaspoon)
Handful or 2 of mini pasta shapes (or broken spaghetti)
Ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. Add some Fry Light spray to a large soup pan on a medium heat.
2. Add the chopped vegetables and stir fry until they are starting to soften.
3. Add your bolognese sauce and the stock (from a cube is fine, and you may need to add more near the end, depending on how thick you like your soup).
4. Add chopped parsley and ground black pepper.  The stock can be pretty salty so I usually don't add salt.  You can taste it at the end and add some if you think it needs it.
   
5. Let it simmer for 15 mins or so, then sprinkle in the pasta shapes.
6. Simmer for as long as it takes for the pasta to cook.  Your minestrone is now ready!

I have to say, I rarely serve it at that point though.  I like to take a slotted spoon and remove about 1/2 of the meat and vegetables from it and then blitz what's left in the pan with a hand blender before adding the veg back in again.  It makes for a thicker, richer soup.  If you can spare the syns, stir in some grated parmesan.

Ingredients
4 inch piece of cucumber, cut in half lengthways and seeds scooped out
            with a teaspoon, chopped to medium dice
1/4 medium red onion sliced thinly (or a couple of spring onions sliced)
1 clove garlic, crushed (I use a 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
3 tbs fat free plain yogurt
Ground black pepper to taste.

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl (simple!).

Best made 1/2 or more before serving to allow the flavours time to develop.

Ingredients
Enough bolognese sauce to serve 2
2 cups frozen peas
2 heaped tbs curry powder (I prefer mild, you know best how hot you
            like things)
Chopped coriander to taste (fresh, frozen or dried, but if it's dried make
            sure it's chopped coriander leaf not ground to a powder, and also
            not seeds or ground seeds - it'll be dark green pieces of leaf rather
            than pale yellowy brown powder)
4 or 5 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 tbs fat free plain yogurt
Fry Light spray
1/2 cup of water (if you think it needs it)

Method

1. Spray Fry Light into a pan on medium heat and add the curry powder.  Stir it around the pan until the heat brings out the aroma of the spices but don't let it burn.
2. Add the bolognese sauce, peas and water.
3. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so.
4. Add the coriander and tomatoes and simmer for a couple more minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in the yogurt.

I like to serve this with boiled rice and a Cucumber Raita.

 (great with boiled rice, baked potato or SW chips)
Serves 2 or 3

Ingredients
Enough leftover bolognese for 1
1/2 x 400g tin drained kidney beans (by all means use the whole can if you want to pad it out to feed more, or leave them out if you wish.  Just don't leave out the baked beans, they really make a huge difference to the sauce!)
1 x 400g tin baked beans in tomato sauce
Sliced red/green pepper (optional)
Chilli powder to taste
Chopped coriander (if you have it).

Method

1. If you're using peppers, stir fry them in Fry Light spray until they start to soften.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so.

As well as the rice or potato I often serve this with a small salad made with tomato, cucumber, sliced red onion (or spring onion), chopped coriander, a dash of lime juice (don't waste a lime, buy a bottle of lime juice, it keeps in the fridge for months!) and fat free vinaigrette.

To read an explanation of the name of this recipe, see my blog post here

500g extra lean mince
            I usually use beef, but it's good with turkey or Quorn too.  I don't
            eat much pork, but you could try it and tell me what it's like.  Don't
            get too hung up on the whole 500g thing either.  So what if you've
            only got 400g, or a 300g bag of Quorn mince?  By the time we've
            thrown half a farmer's field worth of superfree veg into this thing
            no one but you will know that you cut corners and saved a few
            pence!
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
125g mushrooms, sliced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
            I'm lazy (and cheap), I use a couple of teaspoons of garlic powder
            instead.
1 red, green or yellow pepper, sliced
            Again with the lazy, I use frozen sliced peppers.  Don't you be
            turning your nose up at frozen peppers! :)  Me and a million Heron
            foods shoppers can't be wrong!  They're half the price of fresh and
            let's face it, after it's simmered for long enough, who can tell the
            difference?  AND they say that by the time fresh stuff reaches us
            in the shops, the stuff that was frozen within an hour of being
            picked is better for us anyway.  Plus, I don't hear you complain
            about frozen peas.  When was the last time you sat down and
            de-podded a pan full of peas?  Exactly! :)
3 x 400g cans of peeled plum tomatoes, blitzed in a food processor or
            with a hand blender. (You can use 3 packs of passata instead if you
            want to cut down on work.  It doesn't make a huge difference, I
            just think it's a better sauce if you use the cans of tomatoes and
            I've tried it both ways).
2 beef or chicken stock cubes (I use Oxo, I crumble them in without
            adding water.  If you only have the kind that you mix with water,
            try to dissolve them in as little water as you can, the sauce is
            plenty wet enough with the tomatoes.  Or if you have those fancy
            stock pot thingies, they're good too).
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt (or more, to taste.  I don't cook with much salt so 1 tsp is enough
            for me).
Fry Light spray.

Method

1. Add Fry Light to a large stew pan on medium heat and add the onion, carrot, mushrooms, red/green pepper and celery and stir fry until starting to soften.
2. Remove the veg from the pan and spray the pan with more Fry Light.  Add your meat and stir fry until it's well browned.  If you're using fresh garlic, add it a minute before the end to cook it but don't let it burn, it will turn bitter.
3. Add the veg back to the pan and add the remaining ingredients (this is when you'd add the garlic powder if that's what you're using).  Allow to come to a gentle boil and then cover and simmer on VERY low heat for a good hour or more.  If you have a heat diffuser (mentioned in my Simmer Down post), this is the time to use it.

Once you've enjoyed your sauce with some pasta, why not use the leftovers to make Easy Chilli, Easy Keema Peas or Cheats Minestrone?

Breakfast
Sliced banana, 1/2 pot of Muller Light vanilla, cherry, chocolate yogurt, 35g Aldi nutty muesli (HEb), spoonful of stevia sweetener.

Dinner
Pasta with bolognese sauce (includes carrots, peppers, mushrooms, celery, onion, tomatoes).
1 teaspoon grated parmesan (1/2 syn)

Snacks
21g bag Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself Cheddar & Onion snacks (5 syns)
1 apple, diced, with 30g sliced mature cheddar (HEa)

Syns for the day - 6 1/2