Hi Mr Lardass!

I checked the nutritional information on bottles of Sweet Chilli Sauce.

They are essentially thick sugar syrup flavoured with chilli with or without garlic. Generally they are in the range 200 – 220 calories per 100g.


If you have a favourite sweet chilli sauce at home – use it, but weigh a tablespoon or two, calculate the calories and add them to your daily totals.

Here are 2 ways of making a tablespoon of sauce go further:

1.	Slit a pocket in the side of a chicken breast, spread it with the sauce – then grill, oven, roast or stem it – check the recipe thread for the steaming instructions.
2.	Stir the sauce in at the end of cooking so you get the maximum flavour impact.
Two more ideas:
1.	Sprinkle a tablespoon of dried stuffing mix over chicken or other meats before oven roasting or grilling. This adds a bit of flavour and very few calories – no need to coat the whole piece of meat.
2.	Mansized Sweet Chilli sauce with granulated sweetener. I had only dried chilli at home – if you have fresh then use one or two depending on your taste, finely chopped.
Mansized Sweet Chilli Sauce
Approx 65 calories per 125 ml
What do I need?
125 ml water
1 level tablespoon cornflour
2 level tablespoons tomato puree
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 level teaspoon ground chilli powder
1 level tablespoon granulated sweetener
jug
fork or whisk
tablespoon
spoon
saucepan
What do I do?
1.	Put the water and cornflour in the jug and blend with the fork or whisk to get rid of any lumps.
2.	Add the remaining ingredients, stir to mix, then pour into the saucepan.
3.	Set the saucepan over a medium heat and bring the sauce to the boil , stirring as it heats
4.	After it boils, cook for one minute more, stirring constantly – the sauce it will thicken and become slightly glossy.
Points for style
One level teaspoon of chilli is “medium” heat to me- but chilli tolerance is personal – use half or double the quantity to suit your taste.
Add a squirt of garlic puree too if you like. It tastes good with cooked pasta or vegetables too.
The sauce will keep for a week in the fridge or it can be frozen it.
Mr McLovin!
Want to make vegetables more interesting ?
I think lemon juice, lime juice and fresh herbs have a natural affinity with cooked veg, just stir them in after cooking.
Fresh thyme and coriander are my favourites – beware dried thyme , it can be a rather “stalky” and hard on the teeth.
You can try adding half a stock cube to the cooking water – you’ll lose most of the salt when you drain the cooked veg. Sprinkling half a teaspoon of instant gravy powder over drained, cooked veg works well too. Stir the veg and the water remaining on them dissolves the granules to form an instant savoury sauce.
Try this easy roasted winter vegetable recipe – the temperature and cooking time are the same as for chicken pieces so can cook a complete meal in one easy hit. Put the baking tray with the meat above the vegetables.
Roasted Vegetables
Serves 2 Approx 100 calories per serving
What do I need?
350g butter nut squash or mixture of Winter root vegetables, peeled and sliced
350g beef tomatoes, cut into wedges
½ onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 teaspoon dried basil or 1 tablespoon basil
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
knife
bowl
spoon
oven proof dish or metal tray
aluminium foil
What do I do?
1.	Set the oven to Gas 6, 200 ° C.
2.	Place all the ingredients in the bowl and stir to mix evenly.
3.	Tip the vegetable mixture into the dish or tray and cover with foil.
4.	Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Points for style

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.