Griddled King Prawns

So ... here I am, at the very beginning of my healthy eating and weight loss journey. Up to now, I am thoroughly enjoying it, am never hungry and haven't even thought about cakes, biscuits, butter or chocolate! The reason for that, I believe, is that I am eating such delicious, satisfying meals; I'm covering all the necessary food groups, keeping fairly close to the NHS-advised "Eatwell Plate" proportions and ensuring that the food I eat is good quality and prepared in a tasty way. After all, I AM worth it!!

Over the last week we have enjoyed lovely meals, such as baked salmon with stir-fried veg and wholemeal rice, dry-fried lamb steaks with new potatoes and steamed veg ... and even sausages and baked beans! But last night was a little bit special. This was a truly scrumptious meal, one we will definitely be repeating!

I baked a couple of quite large potatoes in their "jackets" and hubby knocked up a wonderful fresh salad (no oily dressing, but lots of fresh herbs from the garden - marjoram, chives and lots of mint). I drizzled some balsamic glaze over my salad and sprayed a tiny bit of light olive oil on my spud (I'm avoiding butter wherever possible), we topped our jacket potatoes with low-fat cottage cheese and a couple of skewers of lovely king prawns.

Before putting them on the hot griddle, I threaded the raw prawns onto metal skewers and flavoured them with smoked paprika, a little chilli powder, crushed garlic, grated ginger and freshly-squeezed lime juice. They were really flavoursome and the whole dish tasted quite luxurious.

Toad in the Hole!!!

Crikey, I hadn't made this for donkey's years! Turned out pretty good, though, considering I don't use a recipe so it's all guesswork. Basically, I just cooked half a dozen pork sausages in a non-stick baking tin, then (when they were cooked and nicely browned) added the batter and put back in the oven until well risen and browned.

For the batter, I used a couple of tablespoons or so of white flour (either plain or SR - I used a bit of both), salt and black pepper, one egg and about half a pint of milk. NB - nothing was weighed or measured, so these are VERY approximate guidelines!


We had this lovely "comfort food" dish with some roasted root veg and steamed courgettes, topped with a little gravy made from granules ... hubby loved it!