Lunch time tends to be where I struggle most coming up with filling, free foods that are packed with veggies.  I can have a sandwich, but I like to keep my He:B for later in the day, in case I get peckish between dinner time and bed time.

Today, I decided to make tuna pasta bake, however, tuna was vetoed by my brother, and chicken got the vote.  Normally, I use a jar of Homepride Tuna Pasta bake – however, at a mind-blowing 20 syns per jar, I decided that it wasn’t worth it, especially at this stage in my weight-loss.  I’d rather use my syns elsewhere!

I took the opportunity to pack it full of most of the veggies I had in the fridge, threw in some lean bacon for extra protein and bunged it in the oven.

Syn Free Chicken pasta bake

Ingredients
3 medium chicken breasts
6 bacon medallions
1 jar of passata w/ basil
Handful of Asparagus stalks – sliced
1 medium leek – sliced
1 medium onion – diced
1 medium pepper – diced
Handful of mangetout – sliced in half
3/4 packet of fusilli pasta
Garlic powder

Method

Boil pasta according to packet instructions.
Cook chicken and bacon fully, in frying pan sprayed with Frylight/Pam – sprinkle with garlic powder.
Toss in all vegetables and stir-fry for a few minutes.
Drain pasta, stir through passata and add meat and vegetables.
Pour in to oven-proof dish, sprinkle with your daily He:A allowance of cheese (I used Low Low mozzarella and red grated/shredded cheese) Be sure to syn this if you’re not using it at a Healthy Extra!

Cook for around 8-10 minutes

This would feed at least 4 people, possibly 6, Col and I both had lunch from it and there’s still 2/3 of the dish left!

It was tasty, quick, the leftovers will do for other meals that I don’t need to spend time preparing, just heating and we didn’t miss the jarred sauce at all.  When hubby tried it, his exact words were, ‘Homepride who?’

It really is easy to lower the syn-values of many of your ‘old favourite’ foods.  Look at me, I just cut 20 syns out of a dish we used to eat at least once a month!