Mr G and The Fruit

It's been quite a long-standing difference of opinion between Mr G and I, the inclusion of fruit in savoury meals. I am all for it, he is not. I can't think of pulled pork and stuffing without the sweet applesauce. Or a nice piece of gammon without a slice of charred pineapple on top. Or roast turkey without cranberry sauce. 

He will - at a push - now have pineapple with gammon. Over the years I have disgusted him in equal parts with Salmon with Savoury Blueberry Sauce (I shit you not, not only the blueberry sauce, but he also hates salmon... tee hee!) and King Prawn Skewers with Strawberry and Chilli dressing. 

So, when I saw the above recipe, from Two Chubby Cubs (which you can find here) I thought I would have a battle on my hands. But no, he told me that he was prepared to give it a try. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, because I only had one carton of passata, and I only had regular mozzarella. So I used 500 ml of passata and 100 g mozzarella. The amount of cheese was enough for me (she who doesn't like cheese but eats more of it now than ever before...) but I would use the full amount of passata next time so it's a bit saucier.

Nevertheless. Oh my God, this was absolutely lush. It literally was a ham and pineapple pizza, without the base. Mr G ate his plateful and then went back for seconds, after telling me that despite fruit not belonging with savoury food, in this case, and the Prawn, Mango and Avo salad, it did.

I count this as syn free - like Two Chubby Cubs - because unless the pineapple is dipped in batter, deep fried and then served in syrup, hell will freeze before I syn fruit. The amount of cheese in my portion was half of one of our Healthy Extra A's, and the other half, I mixed with two crushed garlic cloves and sprinkled on our Healthy Extra B New York Bakery seeded bagel thins, and finished it off with a dusting of dried parsley. Slammed them in the oven, and voila, garlic bread to dip in. 

Last night, we had homemade pie again, steak and mushroom, made with the pizza base mix. 7.5 syns for the pie, and 2 syns worth of Asda 3% fat oven chips each. This was so good, it is such a good substitute for pastry. It looks like pie, smells like pie and tastes like pie. And the best part is, it doesn't leave you feeling sluggish afterwards, like pie! I went to Tesco today and stocked up on the mix, and I have added a Chicken Balti Pie to the make ahead list.

Tomorrow is Lamb and Mint Hotpot with carrots and sweetheart cabbage. It's coming to that time of year again, isn't it? Casseroles and stews. Thick soups for lunch. Hearty comfort food. Stodgy puddings. I'm pretty confident that I can navigate autumn and winter on Slimming World. As long as I can have an occasional dumpling.

I want five stone gone for Christmas... 19 and a half pounds to go. Wonder if I can do it?