lark_ascending suggested I write up last night's dinner. One bit seems quite successful, interesting and useful experiment, the other wasn't that special, but was tasty, so I'll mention it anyway.Cous-Cous dumplings - makes 6 or so
175-200g wholemeal cous cous
1/2 medium onion
Garlic to taste
Sage
Make up enough cous cous for 2 hungry people, I used wholemeal, not sure if that's necessary or not. Make it with a bit more water than usual so it gets a fairly thick, stodgy consistency.
Finely chop, or even grate, the 1/2 onion. Fry briefly with the crushed garlic, until onion is soft and garlic loses its sharpness.
Mix onion, garlic and herbs into the cous cous. Grease (or fry-light) a baking sheet, and put on dollops of the cous cous mixture, formed into compact balls (using a couple of spoons works well here). Bake in the oven for about 1/2 hour at Gas Mark 7 or so, until just browning on the outside.
They're good as dumpling type things with stew, or would be a fairly good diet friendly stuffing replacement.
Notes:
I thought an egg might be needed to bind it, but stodgy cous cous seems to stick together of it's own accord.
lark_ascending suggested maybe an egg yolk would make it richer. Hm... there's a thought - cous cous based stodgy puddings? Mix in a few of egg-yolks, sweeten either using sugar/honey or artificial (if you must :-), maybe like a bit of lemon zest would go well into it too. Bake in a pudding bowl for a while, and serve with whatever your diet allows (custard should be quite cheap too if made with a milk HE, eggs & sweetener (obIck: Ick!) ). I think it might just work.Random pseudo-north-african chickpea & chicken thing
Probably feeds at least 3 reasonable normal portions, or 2 hungry people.
2 chicken breasts
2 small tins (300g) chickpeas
3 carrots
1/2 medium onion
1 tin tomatoes
Sun-dried tomatoes
Whole cumin
Thyme
Ginger
Garlic
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 8. Chop onion, fry until soft. Put chick-peas into casserole dish, mix in onions, coarsely chopped garlic, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and spices. Cover the casserole dish and bake for about 30 minutes.
Cube and fry the chicken. Cut the carrots into batons and fry until cooked. Mix chicken and carrots and tinned tomatoes into the chick-pea mix and replace in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.
For those counting slimming-world points:
1 Healthy Extra for chicken, and about 1/2-1 sin (for sun-dried tomatoes) per portion. On a green-day, obviously.
