Slimming World Beef Chana Saag Review

Updated October 2015

As a dedicated follower of the Slimming World way of life, I was delighted to hear about the new range of Slimming World ready meals that were hitting Iceland stores for Autumn Winter 2015. I have already tried most of the existing range so was keen to see what was in the new range and how they tasted.

As I try them out over the next few weeks, I'll update this page (as per meals below) to give you my honest feedback and let you know what I thought.

What's new for autumn / winter 2015?

There's 7 new ready meals including

• Bolognese Ragu
• Chicken Saag
• Chicken & Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta
• Beef & Three-Bean Chilli Con Carne
• Beef Chana Saag
• Cottage Pie
• Three Bean and Roasted Veg Chilli

As with the previous Slimming World ready meals all of them are very generous portion sizes which is great value for money and helps members stay on the Food Optimising plan.

As well as ready meals, Slimming World have introduced four new soups, all in 500g portions. These include

• Pea and Mint Soup
• Carrot and Coriander Soup
• Tomato and Basil Soup
• Spicy Lentil Soup

To broaden the range, there's also the addition of two new cooking sauces

• Spicy Tikka Masala Sauce
• Chunky Tomato Sauce

These new sauces are set to be a great base for all the meals that lots of Slimming Worlders love to cook up whether it's with meat, pasta or vegetables, I'm really looking forward to trying them out.

Tomato and Basil Soup

I've tried the Tomato and Basil Soup for lunch today and it was really nice. At first I was worried that the consistency would be quite runny but as soon as I heated it through it was a nice blend of tomatoes and spices.

I'll definitely be buying this again and taking it to work for my lunch as it was really tasty and very filling.

Price

The Tomato and Basil Soup was priced at £1.50 from Iceland and is very good value for money.

Pea and Mint Soup

When I first heard about this flavour soup, I wasn't sure if I would like it. I like peas and I like mint but not together. Oh I was wrong, it's beautiful. Neither of the flavours are overpowering, they're just really nice and the consistency of the soup is perfect along with the addition of whole peas in there too. I'll definitely be buying this soup again as it was really nice and I really enjoyed it.

Price

The Pea and Mint soup was priced at £1.50 from Iceland.

I'll be updating this page over the next few weeks to give you more insight into what I thought about the meals.

————————————————————————————————-

As of today, Wednesday 18th February, fellow Slimming World members around the UK can get their hands on synfree Slimming World ready meals from stores of Iceland. Apparently it's been a long time coming with lots of planning and thought gone into the making of the meals. We have heard in group over the last few months that these meals were coming and how tasty they were so it wasn't a surprise to find out how popular they are with some of the products already selling out within a few hours in store. I wanted to find out for myself what all the fuss was about so I headed on down to my local Iceland store to take a look at the meals and pick up one or two to try out.

What choice of ready meals are there?

There's a good range of 8 ready meals and bags of frozen synfree pork sausages and synfree beef and pork meatballs. The ready meal range includes the following dishes

– Beef in Red Onion Gravy and Veg Crush
– Singapore Noodles
– Chicken Pizzaiola
– Sweet Potato Curry
– Chicken Tikka Masala
– Meatballs and Pasta in tomato sauce
– Hot-smoked Salmon farfalle
– Roasted Vegetable Pasta

All ready meals are synfree so can be enjoyed without worrying about the syn values. The meals are quite large so would be perfect for lunch or dinner but as it's been stressed by our consultant they must be enjoyed with speed and free foods to make them into a healthy well balanced meal.

It's also been advised by Slimming World that these meals aren't for everyday use. They're a low fat, quick and worry free option when you're in late from work or when time is against you and you need a hearty meal that's in line with the Slimming World plan. They're not meant to be eaten everyday as this goes against the principles of Slimming World that foods are cooked from scratch using fresh or frozen ingredients. They're there to help busy lives stay on plan and resist the high fat, high carb take away options that people often turn to instead.

In the name of research, I bought a couple of ready meals and some packets of the syn free sausages. Slimming World members would have been given some vouchers to spend in store which get you 2 products for £5 instead of £3 each so speak to your consultant if you haven't had a voucher.

Price

For the price, I think you get value for money. It would cost you more than £3 to buy in the meat and ingredients to make the meal so I think the price is about right. Again, you wouldn't buy these to eat everyday in the same way you wouldn't buy a takeaway everyday, think about how much a takeaway would cost you? More than £3 I'm guessing!

I bought the Meatballs and Pasta in a tomato sauce and Chicken Tikka Masala ready meals and decided to have one for lunch today to see how it tasted.

Meatballs and Pasta in a spicy tomato sauce

The frozen meal looks nice, the meatballs are a great size and the portion size looks very generous. I popped it in the microwave as per the directions on the packaging and waited for it to ping.

Whats the verdict?

I really enjoyed it. I served the ready meal with a side salad and really enjoyed it. It's a fantastic size portion, ideal for filling you up to stop you picking after the meal and it did just that. I am stuffed.

The meatballs were tasty and the spicy sauce was just right, not too spicy but with a definite kick. I would definitely be buying these again.

Chicken Tikka Masala

 I had the Chicken Tikka Masala on Saturday evening served on a bed of mixed vegetables as I didn't fancy rice. It was a good sized portion with plenty of chicken meat in it.

The sauce was the right thickness for me, I would recommend stirring the sauce half way through cooking and leave it a minute after cooking to thicken up.

I really enjoyed the taste of the curry. It had a definite kick to it and I liked the blend of spices that have been used in the meal. Another synfree winner for me!

Slimming World Synfree Sausages

Yes, you heard me correctly, synfree sausages!

I haven't had proper sausages in a long time as I had tried the healthier low fat supermarket versions and I just didn't like them so I was intrigued to find out how these sausages would taste.

I had mine grilled (under a medium heat for 20 minutes, turning frequently) and served them with an onion gravy (recipe in the new Food Glorious Food book) mash and vegetables.

I thought they were nice. They tasty quite meaty and not at all grainy like other low fat sausages have been. The meat was quite smooth so perhaps a little too processed but for no syns, I'd be happy to have them again.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta

I had this meal as I was cooking for one (my husband was eating out) and found it quite tasty but I'm not sure I would buy it again. It lacked something to me and I would probably enjoy it more if it had some sort of meat in it. I had my Roasted Vegetable Pasta with babycorn, mangetout and mushrooms. The pasta was cooked nicely and the meal was huge so I only plated up three quarters of it to have for my dinner. You could easily share it with someone for dinner.

Beef in Red Onion Gravy with Veg Crush

I had this meal as my Sunday dinner when my hubby was out at the football. It smelt really nice and I was pleased with how much meat and gravy you get in the meal. The beef was lovely. Not chewy or hard, it was really nice and I like it. The vegetable crush wasn't really to my taste although I do like mashed carrot and swede. This wasn't as full of flavour and I was quite disappointed. If I had it again, I would be having it just for the meat and gravy.

—————————————————–

If you've enjoyed one of the new Slimming World ready meals, what are your thoughts? Have you enjoyed them? What's your favourite meal? Would love to hear from you.

Disclaimer: This is not in anyway in association with Slimming World. I am hugely excited about the new products as I am sure they will help lots of people stay on plan and lose weight. To date, I have lost 4 stone 11.5lb with Slimming World since August 2014 so I am delighted! Follow my journey over on Instagram or sign up to follow me by email in the sidebar, thanks! x

lawsoung1947.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.mrsshilts.co.uk/slimming-world-ready-meals/

Share this post