Recipe - Creamy Tarragon Chicken and Latest child insult

Well, I've reverted to 'Crap Blogger' mode since Easter.  Nothing noteworthy to report, the weather was far too cold to do anything but stay at home, clean and cook.  If you're getting this post via email, you'll see that I had a weight gain this week, and I am very, very cross.  I've been good, I've really been trying - but yes I did cheat and I had a fairy cake or two at my niece's party.  And maybe a handful of mini sausage rolls.  But this is me on a healthy eating plan.  Deprivation.  You know those people who can eat and eat and eat, and eat anything they want to boot, without putting an ounce on?  Well, I eat like one of those people.  Unfortunately, where we differ is that I do put weight on.

If you follow me regularly you'll see from the recipes I post that I like a good feast.  I don't like rubbish or unhealthy food - don't get me wrong.  I love a takeaway as much as the next person, but the cost is ridiculous, not to mention the impact on my weight.  If I can find a way that makes a recipe healthier without impacting on the taste of the dish - I'll do it.  When I 'diet' (I hate the word) I tend to become very boring and predictable with my meals (hence no meals of interest to blog about!).  Jacket potatoes, salads, prawns, rice, couscous, chicken - all good food, but salad doth not a blog post make, sadly.   Something had to change, otherwise 95% of my blog content will all but disappear (Praise the Lord for my children, whose insults make up the other 5% and remain to this day - more on that later...).  I found my old recipe folder, recipes I'd tried out in the last ten years, when I first went online and my interest in home cooking was piqued (I was like something possessed gathering recipes from here, there and everywhere and printed hundreds out into folders!).  While Mr G and the kids were still asleep, I went downstairs and pored over them with a coffee, and doing some rudimentary calculations in my head, realised that some of these recipes were very low in Propoints.  I gathered up a handful of recipes that I thought would be nice to retry, and made a list of the ingredients and fresh herbs I was out of.

I apologise that there's no pictures to go with this post - Adam had a friend over for a playdate and they were having McDonalds for a treat.  We had the drain men over jetting the drains up the street as they were blocked further up and this was backing up raw sewage into my kitchen drain.  I was so harrassed and hungry that the instant this was dished up I wolfed it down.  The next time I make it (which I will, soon!) I will insert the pictures in this post.

Ingredients
*Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
476g chicken breasts (I left mine whole)
Salt and ground black pepper
100g seedless green grapes
1 small bottle (187cl) white wine
150 ml Weight Watchers West Country Thick cream
Handful of fresh tarragon leaves, torn by hand
Flat leaf parsley, to garnish

*The recipe dictates that you fry the chicken breasts in a little oil and garlic for 4 minutes on each side until cooked - I omitted this (and saved the points I'd have spent on the oil!) by cooking the chicken on a health grill.  I added the garlic later.

When the chicken is cooked, add the garlic, white wine, grapes and tarragon.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about 3 - 4 minutes until slightly reduced.  Remove the chicken from the pan to a plate and cover with foil.  Stir in the double cream and bring back up to the boil.  Season to liking.

I served the chicken breasts with jacket potato, Chantennay carrots, and leeks, with the sauce drizzled over the chicken and garnished with parsley. 

WeightWatchers esource pointed this recipe at 11 Propoints per portion (not including the potato and vegetables).

And now for the insult.

Me:  Are you signing up for this netball class after school, Caitlin?  I hate netball.  Hate, hate, hate it.  I was awful at it in school.  *Ponders*  But then I was awful at everything sporty at school.

Mr G:  You'll be ok Caitlin, you're tall enough for it.
(I am 5 ft 2 inches, Caitlin is nearly as tall as me, maybe 5ft 1 - and she's only 10).

Caitlin:  People at school say I'm a midget.

Me:  You're not!  You're nearly as tall as me!

Caitlin:  I know, right?  So I said that I was nearly as tall as my Mum, and they said to me 'Your Mum must be a Hobbit then'.

Thanks... but that's not all...

Me:  What did  you say to that?

Caitlin:  Well, she's got the hairy feet for it...

In her defence - I have got feet like a Griffin.  And on that note... Merry Brandybuck - out!