Four Cheese Gnocchi Bake

Three of the four cheeses

Over Easter, I slipped on Weight Watchers a bit. I went out for a few meals, I missed my meeting (as it was on the bank holiday Monday) and generally slacked. After being in the habit of being good, I reset myself slightly and getting back into the WW mindset was kind of hard. Somehow I managed to get away with it and stayed the same after Easter, but I knew I needed to do something to snap myself back to being on-plan.

What really helped me when I started WW was to make lots of new recipes – I love trying new things and it was actually a good way of learning the basic rules of the plan quite quickly. Sharing them on here is a good way of forcing myself to keep things fresh, rather than going back to the same recipes again and again. I do repeat them, but I’ll always try something new at least every fortnight.

This recipe is actually perfect for when you’re feeling a bit fed up with following a diet plan, because it’s rich and luxurious and downright naughty. It has four different types of cheese in it! FOUR! I got this off the WW app, but then doctored it a bit to make it more exciting. The original recipe has more gnocchi, but I find gnocchi really filling so I cut it down (also it's 400g in a pack). It also does not have the low fat cheese on top, but if I can find a way to shoehorn more cheese into a recipe, you’d better believe I will do it. You are looking at the girl who adds cheese to reheated lasagne. Hey – as long as you point it, it’s fine!

Four Cheese Gnocchi Bake

400 g Broccoli, raw, broken into small florets

1/2 pack of Mushrooms

3 cloves Garlic

2 Leeks

200 g Cheese, soft, low fat 8pp

100 ml Milk, Semi Skimmed 1pp

50 g Cheese, Stilton, chopped 6pp

1 g Black pepper

400 g Gnocchi, Fresh 16pp

20 g Cheese, Parmesan 2pp

100g Low Fat Cheese - 8PP

= 41PP / 10PP per person

To reduce points: You do not need all this cheese. Of course you do not need all this cheese. But do you want all this cheese? I bet you do.

Top tip: To avoid having lots of different types of cheese in the fridge to 'use up' (uh oh), go to the cheese counter and ask the nice man to give you a small quantity of cheese. 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the broccoli and cook for 4-5 minutes until just tender. Lift the broccoli from the saucepan with a draining spoon into a colander, saving the water in the saucepan.
3. Meanwhile, fry the mushrooms and leeks in a non-stick pan or wok with FryLight or a little water and the garlic cloves (crushed).
4. Stir in the soft cheese and add the milk. Stir until both are combined and smooth.
5. Add the Stilton and stir through - it should melt pretty quickly as it's only a small amount. Season the sauce with black pepper and any other spices you fancy.
6. Cook the gnocchi in the same water as the broccoli, according to pack instructions. Drain well.
5. Mix the gnocchi and broccoli with the cheese mixture and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Scatter the Parmesan cheese and low fat cheese over the surface and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbling and golden.