Courgette pancakes

Per person/2 pancakes:

• 1 courgette, coarsely grated
• 30 mature cheddar, finely grated
• 2 medium freerange eggs
• paprika
• Worcester sauces
• salt and pepper
• Frylight

Lightly whisk eggs until yokes and whites are combined, season with salt, pepper, paprika and Worcester sauce to taste. Combine with the courgettes and cheese; the texture will be quite a sloppy batter.

Ladle into a hot frying pan liberally sprayed with Frylight and spread to a disc about the size of a side plate. Cook until minimal runny egg is left on top. Turn onto a side plate and flip, continue to cook until brown on both sides. Repeat for second pancake.

These are nice because the courgettes are still a little crunchy adding texture. It also just occurred to me that as long as you take care of the cheese and cooking spray, they are gluten-free and vegetarian.

Super-omelette

• 4 medium free range eggs
• half a courgette
• quarter of a large onion
• a chopped sweet pepper
• a tomato
• salt and pepper
• paprika
• a lamb stock cube
• balsamic vinegar
• Worcester sauce
• Frylight butter flavour

Fry onions, courgette, peppers and tomato with a little water to stop them burning. Sprinkle over the crushed stock cube and paprika to taste as well as salt and pepper. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and Worcester sauce and allow to reduce. When cooked, remove from pan.

Rinse out pan and make omlette. People do this their own way, but this is my method. I put the eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper. Mix using slicing motions with a fork to split the yokes, but no beating. The yoke and whites still need to be a bit separate. Using a lot of Frylight heat the pan on a high heat until it just starts to bubble. Add the egg mix and turn the heat down. Let it cook for a minute or so and then use a wooden spoon to make wells in the cooked egg. I start in the middle and pull towards the outside of the omlette (I used to pull in the edges in but I think the other way makes a nicer omlette). Let the uncooked egg fill in the wells and cook. Repeat until the egg is barely runny on the top. Add the topping onto one half of the omlette and use a turner or spatula to fold the omlette over the topping. Mine always fall apart at this point but don't worry, it tastes just the same. Continue to cook for a further minute or two and then slide onto a plate and serve.

I had this as a big dinner, but you could split it in two and have chips or wedges and it would be more than enough.

Prawn and Feta Zoodles

• A handful of frozen prawns
• A handful of grilled artichoke in oil, drained
• 1 courgette, juilienned
• A chicken stock cube
• A splash of white wine
• A handful of spinach
• Juice of quarter of a lemon
• 3 teaspoons of low fat natural yogurt
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• A sprinkling of paprika
• 50g low fat feta cheese cubed

In a non stick pan or wok, add everything except the feta, yoghurt and lemon juice. Fry for approximately 10 minutes or until the prawns are cooked.

Add feta cheese and continue to cook until partially melted. Add lemon juice and cook for a further minute.

Remove from heat and stir in yoghurt.

Serves one as a main meal, or 2 with bread, rice or other carbs.


Notes

I wished I'd taken a photo of this because it looked so nice. The spinach and green of the courgettes was really appealling. It tasted so good too, the artichokes gave it a bit of substance. You could easily substitute for something else if they aren't to your taste.

This is not only pretty healthy, it's also quite a good standby meal. Apart from the yoghurt, you could probably do this all out of the cupboard/freezer. Feta keeps for ages so it's a great cheese to have at the back of the fridge. I used frozen spinach and pickled garlic cloves and although I used fresh courgette this time, mostly when I make zoodles it's frozen.

All in, this is a great dish. I will definitely make this again. I may try to Slimming World it up a bit though and skip the wine (maybe sub white wine or cider vinegar) and maybe get artichoke hearts tinned in salted water rather than oil.