A Comforting Cauli Cheese

Hello lovelies.  And a special hello to Cocojayne a new follower.  Thank you for stopping by.

One of my favourite comfort food dishes is cauliflower cheese, although these days such creamy cheesy goodness is out of the question as it leaps out of the dish and slathers two inches onto my already ample hips.

I was, therefore, intrigued to find that Slimming World had concocted a low syn version of it so today I've given it a try.

You will need:-

One large (as big as your head) cauliflower or two smaller ones. Or a bag of frozen if that's your thing.
One 500ml pot of fat free natural yoghurt
2 eggs - beaten
2 cloves of garlic
One bunch of spring onions
90g low fat cheddar-grated
1 teaspoon of English mustard
Low fat cooking spray such as Frylight

So.  Break the cauliflower up into small florets and boil or steam until tender.

Whilst the cauliflower is cooking chop up the spring onions and garlic quite and spray a frying pan with Fry Light.  Fry the onions and garlic until transparent. I didn't have spring onions (well actually I did. Or they may have been Torontonians onions once)  Sigh.  I used a finely chopped red onion instead as it was more easily identifiable in the bottom of the fridge!

ANY way.

Drain the cauliflower and leave to dry off for a short while before transferring into a ovenproof dish.

Into a bowl transfer the yoghurt, the mustard, and the beaten egg and stir well until combined.

Add the cooked onions and garlic and also three quarters of the cheese. Mix until well combined.  Add seasoning to taste. I use a fab cheapie seasoning which is basically garlic, salt and pepper. It's about a pound for the grindy bottle and I use it over everything, particularly veggies.  Because I'm a rebel I also added a shake of smoked paprika.

Pour the mixture over the cooled cauliflower and then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake until golden and bubbling

I was sceptical about the use of yoghurt  but I was very pleasantly surprised.   Next time I may chop up some grilled bacon to mix in for a bit of a twist. I reckon the sauce would also work well with par boiled sliced potatoes for a low fat version of daupinoise potatoes.

This will be served with some lean pork loin, carrots, broccoli and sprouts. No potatoes as I'm avoiding carbs  right now.

For those of you following Slimming World then the syn value is 3.5.  It stares that this is a four person serving but I reckon our huge dish will be divided into at least six portions. I guess you could make the appropriate alteration for your healthy extra A choice.

Weight loss update - 24.5 lbs gone so far. It's the tip of the ice berg really but I've made a good start since 5 January.

Do you have a low fat version of a favourite comfort food?

See you soon xx

There be Gargoyles in Gloucester ...

Hello lovely blogging people.  A very warm welcome to my little bloglet and a smiley, wavy hello to new followers Rachel and Froogs.  

Forgive my bloggy absence - there's been a pale and wan six foot two 16 year old to attend to.  Poor KTG has had an awful bout of tonsilitis and he's still not 100% a couple of weeks later. 

Prior to this however,  Man and I took ourselves away for a night in Gloucester for Valentines Day.  Well.  It wasn't really for Valentines Day at all - we just fancied a night away and it just happened to fall on that weekend.   We stayed at the New Inn in Gloucester town centre, a delightful galleried inn which dates back to Medieval times, and, reportedly, haunted.  Well we saw no sign of ghostly goings on but from my point of view saw plenty of spirits. Tee hee.   You could tell the building was old - the modern wardrobe was leaning about 10 inches from the wall in our room!  We loved it!  Particularly when you walked up the stairs and pigeons were roosting on the landings!

We were peckish and so stopped for a spot of light lunch.  Because we are both 12 years old, we had milkshakes so deliciously thick you could stand your straw (and probably a telegraph pole actually) up in at Ed's Diner - a fabulously retro 50s diner chain establishment.  Shakes were fab.  Food was overpriced and nothing to write home about really. (my skinny chicken and salad was, in fact, half a tomato, a butterflied chicken breast in a pesto type marinade and approximately 3.5 romaine lettuce leaves - £7.70.  Grrr!).   We fared better at our evening meal which was an Indian/Thai fusion buffet style restaurant on the Quays.  

We couldn't believe the weather.  It was actually too warm for coats as we strolled around Gloucester docks.  The sky on these pics shows what a beautiful day it was. 

As the man hadn't slept after his night shift on Friday night, I left him to sleep on Saturday afternoon and took myself off exploring.  I meandered down a little alleyway where I found the shop purported to be inspiration for Beatrix Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester.  

I continued on through that arch way and then there was the Cathedral looming in front of me.  I'll have to do a couple of posts about this I'm afraid cos I took tons of pics.

I'll show you my favourites first though.  The Gargoyles, !  I stood for ages painstakingly photographing them before I went in (yes they allowed me in. And no, when I left it was still intact and the roof had not come crashing down on my head).  

These two are new additions

Aren't they all fab?

What I hadn't realised is there are about 40 Green Men in Gloucester Cathedral.  I found a leaflet about them just as we were coming away on the Sunday so I didn't have time to go in search of them.  Gutted!! 

More photographs of inside the Cathedral coming soon.  Don't touch that dial!

As an aside, if ever you are missing my inane drivel inspirational writing and photographs, you can also find me on Instagram. Chocobomb1.  That's me.  

See you soon!