Oddities

There are a few things in this world which are just meant to be laughed at, Scotch eggs being one of them. I don't know many people who actually admit to liking Scotch eggs, yet what's not to like? Egg, good. Sausage, good. Shop bought Scotch eggs though? Not so much. They are the slightly unpalatable, unloveable and ridiculed plastic party food. Rubbery sausage meat, over cooked eggs, soggy yet tough crumbs. Yuck. Yet a shop bought, mass produced Scotch egg would set you back an astonishing 15 syns! My mum has made home made Scotch eggs for years, but they are high calorie. Thickly breadcrumbed and deep fried in hot oil, they are crunchy and delicious... But not good for you. After hearing about someone oven baking them, I decided to see if I could bring them to a lower syn value - and I have.

First off you need some low syn sausages. I use a sausage from my local butcher which come in at half a syn per sausage, but any low syn sausage would do. Skin your sausages, and wrap the meat from each sausage around 1 hard boiled 1 small-medium egg. Dip in beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs (half a syn per tbsp, you will need 1tbsp per egg), then bake for 20 minutes in a 200 degree oven. This version comes in at 1 syn per egg. Delicious warm or cold, great for picnics or car journeys, they haven't lasted long in this house!

The other weird thing from this week is tonight's dinner - the odd sounding diet coke chicken. Anyone who has done Slimming World will most likely have come across it. I had been on plan for all of a week before I saw this dish and have been put off because, well, it sounds weird! I was at a loss for dinner tonight though, so decided to give it a go. Me being me though I didn't quite follow the recipe, and will make again with tweaks.

2 chicken breasts, sliced
4 spring onions, shredded
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
8 baby sweetcorn, halved lengthways

Sauce:
330ml diet coke
6 tbsp passata
Pinch garlic salt
1 tsp soy sauce
Splash Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
1 chicken stock cube

Heat a wok or frying pan with frylight and stirfry your chicken and spring onions until sealed.

Add in your sauce ingredients and veg, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes (or once your chicken is cooked through), remove the chicken and veg and increase the heat. Simmer until thickened to your liking (another 10-15 minutes for me). Add chicken and veg back to the sauce, stir to coat and heat until piping.

Serve with egg fried rice (made using frylight).

My changes for the future would be to add a chilli (or a good pinch of crudhed chillis) at the start with the chicken and onions, and to double the 5 spice. It really was surprisingly tasty, and I will definitely make again... Even though it sounds a bit odd. It is free, plus it's made from store cupboard ingredients.

What more could you ask for?