Weightwatchers Fish Pie

Weightwatchers Fish Pie

     

This is usually my treat food if i go to a nice restaurant near the sea because its just so delicious.  If there's one thing in Ireland that's great its our fish.

If you have a local fish monger near you, seriously avail of it because the difference in flavor is unreal.  I bought the fish mix for this pie in the new fish shop on Sundrive Road and talk about helpful.  


The fella who owns it, i can't remember his name but if your unsure about cooking fish he will tell you everything you need to know and if your not sure of portions tell him how many people its for and he will give you the amount you need. 


I asked for a fish mix for 4 people and he gave me 1Lb which works out exactly right even going by Weightwatchers measures. It cost me 4.65 which was great for the quality of the fish. 


So i said that i would match a song to each of the dishes for this week and after deliberating whether or not to go for "was a little fishy in a dishy" but that was actually Scottish so i went for this one,  The Divine Comedy the Seafood Song but there was also one other song from years ago that kept popping up in my head, its Sinead O Connor's "Mandinka".  It reminds me of fish and chips on a Friday and me ma saying that lovely girl with no hair so here's this one aswel. So its three for the price of one today lol. 


Back to the fish pie. 


Serves 4


Weightwatchers Pro Points per serving 7 


Weightwatchers Pro Points per recipe 28


Ingredients


3 medium potatoes, peeled and halved


1 Lb of fresh fish mix, or it can be frozen but must be defrosted  before you start to cook. 


1 head of broccoli, broken into little florets


2 Carrots peeled and chopped into sticks 


1 onion finely chopped 


600mls of Slimline milk


2 Tbl of Flora Pro Active 


1 bay leaf


1 Tbl of Dried Dill


Salt and Pepper to taste


A dash of Worcester Sauce 


A pinch of Parsley


1 ounce or 1 Tbl of Blue Cheese


2.5 Tbl of Flour, i used 2 Tbl and 1 teaspoon


Directions


Pre heat the oven to gm 5 


In a pot of boiling salted water, boil your potatoes, carrots and broccoli

In a large saute pan add the fish, add some salt and over a medium heat pour the milk in and poach the fish for about 8 minutes. 

When ready drain the milk into a jug and set aside and keep the fish in a separate bowl.  Add onion to the saute non stick pan and soften for about 2 minutes, add 1 Tbl of Flora Pro Active to the pan and allow to melt the add the flour. Coat the onions with the flour and butter mix and add the dill.

Then pour in the milk slowly, little by little and stir constantly, preferably with a whisk until it starts to thicken.  Lower the heat.  Drain the water from the Potatoes and veg.  Add the veg to the sauce and then add the fish back to the mix and crumble the blue cheese into the pot and add salt, pepper and Worcester sauce. 


Transfer into an oven proof dish. Mash your potatoes with a masher and 1 Tbl of Flora until you have the desired consistency. 


Place the mash untop of the fish mix and sprinkle some parsley untop. 


Place in the oven for 15 minutes just so that the potatoes start to crisp. 

Serve and enjoy the Niptuck way so you don't have too!

Weightwatchers Bailey's Tiramasu

Weightwatchers Bailey's Tiramasu

Delicious sponge fingers dipped in coffee and baileys, mixed with quark cheese and vanilla sugar with a dusting of cocoa powder, now that's a dessert and all for a Weightwatchers Pro Points value of 4. 


Im still thinking of a song to match this and will post later on but if any of you have suggestions please let me know and tell me the story behind it aswel and i shall post it.


This treat is perfect for the run up to St. Patrick's Day, even though its not Irish the addition of the bailey's just makes it even more decadent and to top it all off its incredibly simple.


As i said yesterday, i would post an Irish song that i think matches the dish.  This tirimasu is delis and yes sexy and i needed a song to match it so i decided it had to be Imelda May, Big Bad Handsome Man  Just listen to the words and you'll understand why this song matches the Tiramasu and for the men looking at a stunner like Imelda May will be enough enticement.  


Enjoy both. 


Serves 6


Weightwatchers Pro Points per Serving 4


Weightwatchers Pro Points per recipe 24


Ingredients


1 tsp of good coffee mixed with boiling water to make say half a mug.


25 mls of Baileys Irish Cream


24 Sponge fingers 


1 tube of Quark Cheese


1 teaspoon of sugar or vanilla sugar


1 tube of Weightwatchers vanilla yoghart 


1 teaspoon of bournville cocoa powder


Directions 


Make up the coffee and water and add the baileys to it.  Pour into a deep dish bowl and set aside to cool down. 

In a mixer add the quark, vanilla yoghart and sugar together and whisk until well blended. 


Take the fingers and only dip one side of the fingers into the coffee mixture and place on a deep rectangle tray, i used a casserole dish.  Continue until half the fingers have been used. 


Pour half of the quark mix untop of the fingers

Sprinkle with half of the cocoa powder, using a small sieve like a tea strain. 


Dip the remainder of the fingers into the coffee mix and layer as before ontop of the previous layer.  Pour the remainder of the quark on the fingers and use the remainder of the cocoa power to sprinkle. 

Cover with clingfilm making sure it does not touch the tiramasu and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.


Each serving works out at about 4 fingers, 2 on the bottom and 2 on top. 


Enjoy the Niptuck way so you don't have too!

Irish Stew Weightwatchers Style

Irish Stew Weightwatchers Style

Well now Stew is defintely a staple in any Irish Home, however, nobody that i know makes the same stew, or one as good as your mother's. 

So bearing this in mind, this is how i make mine and its delicious.

This is a winter stew so the potatoes are boiled with the rest of the ingredients so that they thicken the soup.
 
A summer stew in my house is made witht he addition of steak pieces and the potatoes are cooked seperately so that its more of a thin stew.

Some people use oxtail soup to make theirs but in our house we never did.  The most important ingredient within a stew for us is Yorkshire Relish.  We cannot even think about making stew without hearing "Do we have Yorkshire Relish?" Its as important as "Did anyone make sure the emmersion is off?" while going on holidays.

Anyways if anyone is looking for something to make ahead of St. Patrick's Day so that you all have something to tuck into after the parade, this is your man "Paddy".  This, in my opinion actually tastes better the next day, but you can freeze it and reheat and its delicious.  Can also help cure hangovers in my house but not sure if that's been researched enough or medically proven!

So our national day is apon us and im going to dedicate this week to all things Irish but while i was thinking of what to cook today for dinner i realised that everytime i think of stew i reminisce about walking home from school in the lashings of rain.  Getting in the door and peeling off my uniform, while listening to Thin Lizzy with the smell of stew wafting through the house.  Getting into my warm, dry clothes and eating a bowl of stew that felt like my stomach had an electric blanket in it making me all toasting. 

This is the actual song i was thinking of was, Thin Thin Lizzy Dancing in the Moonlight

Serve this with some Farmhouse brown bread to help mop up some of the soup.

Back to the stew

Serves 4

Weightwatchers Pro Points per serving 5

Weightwatchers Pro Points per recipe 20

Ingredients

3 Potatoes, cleaned, peeled and diced

1 Onions, diced,

3 carrots, skin removed and chopped into sticks

1 stick of celery, chopped

1 pack of Superquinn, typically 95% fat free beef mince. there's 356g per pack and still on special at 2 packs for 8 euro.

1 oxo cube

800 mls of boiling water

1 tsp of gravy mix made up with about 2 tbl of boiling water

1 tbl of Yorkshire Relish

Salt & pepper to taste

 2 tsp of dried Parsley

2 tsp of dried Thyme

Directions

Boil 800mls of water

Place mince, onion and celery into a large non stick pot.  Crumble the oxo over the ingreients with the gas on a medium heat.  Stir to help coat the ingredients with the oxo cube.

Add in the potatoes and carrots.  Season with salt & pepper.  Add 1 tsp of parsley and thyme.  Pour in the boiling water. 

Turn up the heat to high and let it all boil and then reduce down to low for about 30 mins but it must be on low and not simmering.   The potatoes should just cook into a soup making it thick.

Add the Yorkshire Relish.  Make up the gravy and with a small sieve like a tea strainer and the gravy and stir and keep on a low heat for about another 5 mins.  Add the remainder of the herbs, stir and serve.




Enjoy the Niptuck way so you dont have too!

Weightwatchers Farmhouse Bread

Weightwatchers Farmhouse Bread in time for St. Patrick's Day

I love homemade bread with soup, chowder, stew, and definitely smoked salmon to name but a few.  However, getting the time to make soup and prepare it is difficult.  


Also the lowest Weightwatchers ProPoints per slice of home made bread is usually 2-3 pro points a lot but quality over quantity but there's still the issue of time to make the bread in the first place.


Then i came across a mix in Aldi, you can guess where i do my shopping right? well there it was and i worked it out at 2 Weightwatchers Pro Points per slice but the slice is pretty decent as you can see.

It was not expensive and all you need with this mix is 350 mls of warm water and basically it does all the hard work for you. 


Serves 16


Weightwatchers Pro Points per serving 2 


Weightwatchers Pro Points per recipe 32


Ingredients 


1 pack of Aldi Farmhouse Bread 


350mls of warm water


Spray Oil


Directions 


In a large bowl, add the mix and water together.  With an electrical food whisk, mix the ingredients for roughly 4 minutes until it gets smooth and can easily be molded. 


Heat the oven at gm 5. 


Shape the dough roughly and cover for 30 minutes so that it rises.  After 30 minutes shape into a loaf tin the has been lightly spray with spray oil and smooth the top out with the back of a wet spoon, cover and allow another 45 minutes to rise even more. 

Add caption

Place a bowl of water in the bottom of the oven 5 minutes before you intend to place the bread in. 


Place the bread in the middle shelf and bake for 60 minutes. 

Remove from oven and loaf tin, cover with a clean tea cloth and allow to cool naturally while wrapped in the cloth. 
Once cool Slice into 16 slices 

Serve with some Potatoe, Leek and Blue Cheese Soup  for a low Weightwatchers Pro Points Value


Enjoy the Nip tucked way so you don't have to!