Chicken fatteh

I've been asked for the recipe for the chicken fatteh in my last (very recent) post, so here it is.  It's taken (and slightly adapted) from the most recent Weight Watchers book that my very clever sister wrote.  It's very very easy and utterly delicious - far nicer than it sounds like it's going to be!

Ingredients (for 1 person)

1 chicken breast, sliced
1 tsp mixed spice (I didn't have this so used ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon - less of the cinnamon than the other two, but I think that this mix would be better than mixed spice)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
About 75ml-100ml 0% fat greek yogurt (I used low fat yogurt as it's all I could get)
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 1/2 small pitta breads (I used a whole large one as I have so many points to use up but you could just use half)
lemon juice
50 ml chicken stock
a handful of cherry tomatoes (5 or 6?) cut into quarters or one large one
8 g pine nut kernels (I used 12g, again because I have lots of points) toasted
chopped fresh coriander

1. Coat the chicken in the spices and chilli.  Dry fry or fry in fry light in a pan until cooked.  Rest for a few minutes before serving.

2. In the meantime, in a bowl combine the yogurt, garlic and a squeeze of lemon.

3. Split the pittas and toast until nice and crunchy - they shouldn't be soft.

4. Make up the chicken stock and add a squeeze of lemon to it.

5. Toast the pine nuts.

ASSEMBLE THE DISH!!!!!

Use a big bowl (like a pasta bowl or something.)

Put the crispy pittas in the bottom and drizzle over the stock.  Scatter over the tomatoes and half of the pine nuts and then pour over half of the yogurt mixture.  Sprinkle over half of your coriander then put the chicken on top, pour over the rest of the yogurt, then pine nuts and finally coriander again. 

It's one of my new favourite things.

I also made it for a delightful vegetarian friend using quorn chunks and roasted aubergine.  It rocked his world - he said it was the nicest thing he'd eaten in a long time, but given that he'd just spent 6 months in the South African bush, I'm not sure how much of a compliment that is. 

Regardless, just make it.  Yummers.

I'm just rubbish

The last month or so has been disappointing.

I rolled into the new year feeling positive, full of vim and vigour and determined to make positive changes and feel happier.  And for a short time it worked. 

On 3^rd January I joined weight watchers and felt like I was completely In The Zone, somewhere I hadn’t been in a good 3 years.  I was enjoying the things that I was eating and found that so long as I wasn’t overly ambitious, I did have the energy to cook low fat, delicious food in the evenings.  I present to you, for example, my chicken fatteh:

SO GOOD. 

But then things started to go a little bit wrong.  I tripped over an uneven paving stone on the way home from work (yes, I was sober) and ended up in a huge amount of pain.  My energy levels took a dive and I started to struggle.  A week later, I ate oysters and started vomiting…and vomiting…and vomiting.  I had 4 days off work and have been feeling pretty shocking since I returned which was almost 2 weeks ago.

As if that isn’t enough, I now have a horrible cold and chest infection and I feel dreadful.  I can’t sleep, my spirits are incredibly low, I have no energy.  The thought of having to see people and do anything is completely overwhelming (Dear friends, I love you, honest.  Please don’t hate me.) 

I have fallen off the weight watchers wagon after losing 8 ½ pounds in 4 weeks.  I couldn’t go today to face up to the damage because I was trying (and failing) to get antibiotics.  I’m slightly relieved as I just can’t face the disappointment and disgust with myself. 

Fat Fran isn’t getting Fin.  I’m horribly aware that I’m going to Australia in 2 months and I’m going to be a huge fatty which is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. 

I just can’t make this work.