Dinner Diva's Goes to Charleston

I finally remembered to snap a couple quick pictures from my phone of our dinner this month (although I missed the appetizers). Rightly fitting that I finally got around to writing about our trip to Charleston and our favorite cooking classes there that I should also write about our dinner group. Last month was my turn to host so I decided to pick the theme of Charleston, inspired by our trip of course. For our meal this month we had:

• Michele brought her version of fried green tomato to start us off 
• Watermelon, Feta & Arugula Salad
• Cornbread from SNOB (my favorite restaurant) 
• Crispy fried fish with low country pickles 
• Spring pea gold rice pirlau 
• Janet brought Strawberry Shortcakes - my favorite! 

I was running way behind this time when the girls got here. Not going to lie it turned into a bit of a team effort trying to get everything to the table in a timely manor. Everything turned out delicious, just as good as at our class. The pickles really complete the fish dish. And you'd be surprised at how well the watermelon goes with the arugula. Another really fun time, although as usual we had tons of food, if I ever make that rice or cornbread again, note to self it feeds a small army!

Next month we're doing baby themed food in honor of Janet's upcoming arrival! 

Go To Freezer Recipes

I love to cook, although during the week I def do not have time to prepare a whole meal. Between working 10 hours a day in the office, trying to squeeze the gym in twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as book club, wine tasting, and other obligations there's little time to be had to make a whole meal from scratch during the week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't even walk through the door until 8pm and then to start making a whole meal would be impossible, we wouldn't eat until after 9 and then there's still showering, clean up and any preparations for the next day. We're also not into take out every night either.

My solution - freezer meals! I'm always telling everyone all about my strategy, it works so well for us. I would rather spend a whole day in the kitchen, making one huge mess, and freezing everything, than trying to squeeze in cooking on weeknights. I do try and cook sometimes on a Monday though if I'm home. Wednesdays, Mike is at softball for the summer, so it's just me. And we save Fridays & Saturdays for take out or anything else we have going on. This is how we fill in the weeknight gaps for meals.

I got these awesome freezer to oven ready gladware containers that are awesome, they keep everything fresh and it's so easy. And you can use them over and over again too. We just defrost one of the meals the night before and Mike pops it in the oven while I'm at the gym and then we can have 'real' healthy dinner when I get home. The other great part is that I got the 8x8 size containers, which is usually 4 servings so just two nights of a meal. Before when I would make a recipe we would have to eat the same leftovers over and over again to use it up. This way I get two sets of meals to use from one recipe,  which makes my efforts go even further.

I thought I would try to compile a list of some of our favorite meals that have frozen well and still tasty yummy. Most of them, hmm probably all of them, are skinny Taste recipes, really can't beat them!

• Spinach Lasagna Rolls 
• Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana
• Sicilian Rice Ball Casserole
• Skinny Chicken Enchiladas
• Lighter Eggplant Parmesan
• Cheeseburger Casserole
• Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas with Creamy Salsa Verde
• Skinny Baked Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese

I'm sure I've got some of these and others in my freezer right now which make for the perfect weeknight meal! 

All American Cooking

Our last Dinner Diva's group was actually back in May, but I'm just catching up finally (shocker, I know) . Last month it was Gina's turn to host and she chose to do "All American BBQ" in honor of the summer quickly approaching (at that time anyway). Michele started us off with some great vegetable fritters that I loved using some of the delicious typical summer produce in them. Then as usual Gina had a fantastic menu from pulled pork, to coleslaw, corn on the cob, baked beans and more! The pulled pork was awesome, I absolutely loved it. I think she said it was a Pioneer Woman recipe. If I ever decide to make pulled pork I plan to get the recipe, and I am not a pulled pork person.

I was in charge of dessert this month. When Janet pinned a recipe for apple pie cookies I saw them and knew that would be perfect, what's more American than apple pie, and better yet a mini version, because who is going to eat the rest of the pie once we had our slices that night, I knew I wasn't. These cookies were a little tricky to make and def very messy. I rushed a little bit and it was my first time making a lattice top, so I had no expertise there, but taste wise they turned out great! (Not the most appetizing pictures, but as usual I was in a rush). It was a fun little twist on apple pie and everyone enjoyed them!

Apple Pie Cookies
Source: Oh Bite It
Serving Size: 6-8 good sized Pie Cookies:

1 Box of frozen Pillsbury Pie Crust (2 sheets per box)
Approx. 1 Can of Apple Pie Filling (just enough for a thin layer)
Approx. 1 Cup of Caramel Sauce (just enough for a light coating)
1 Egg (for egg-wash)
2 tbsp. Cinnamon/Sugar
1 tbsp. Nutmeg
Flour just for sprinkling
A round cookie cutter (any size you like - I used the bottom of a glass)

Lay out a sheet of Pie Crust, sprinkle it with some flour and slightly roll it out, just to increase its surface area. Pour some of the Caramel Sauce (Just enough to coat the crust) onto the crust and evenly spread it around, creating a thin layer of caramel. Coarsely chop the Apple Pie Filling into small pieces. Top the caramel layer  with a layer of the chopped up Apple Pie Filling, making sure not to add too much pie filling. Roll out the second sheet of Pie Crust the same size as the first sheet, and slice it into strips. Create a lattice crust (just like on a pie) for the top of the pie filling (create your lattice on top of the actual filling, as if it were a pie!). Dip your cookie cutter into some egg wash and cut out your Pie Cookies. Brush the tops of them with some egg wash and sprinkle them with the Cinnamon Sugar and Nutmeg. Place them onto a baking sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for approx. 20-25 minutes, until they’re golden and firm. Let them cool just a little.

2nd Annual Mother's Day Brunch

Well once again I've fallen behind on my blog. I just can't believe how quickly time flies by. I feel like since "going back to work" the past 7 1/2 months have been a blur and forget about the hours of 9-5 (ok more like 8-6), but in any case I never even look at the clock during the work day. But I couldn't let time totally pass me by without coming back to my blog and writing about one of the best Holiday's of the year, Mother's Day. I'm so grateful to have the most amazing Mother, and Mother-in-Law as well!

Last year I hosted my first Mother's Day brunch and it was a huge success so much so that I plan to make this our annual tradition! I love hosting, and I have to say brunch is probably the easiest meal to host, much easier than hosting my first Christmas dinner. A lot of the food can be prepped or prepared the day before which is great. I actually found myself with free time on Sunday morning, I didn't know what to do with myself while I waited for everyone to come over.

One thing is for sure, we have no shortage of food for this brunch, I think I made even more than last year, which I didn't think was possible. First though we started our brunch off right with a homemade bellini bar, which was awesome and such a huge hit. I think we went through 4 bottles of champagne (I have to remember that for next year to make sure we're fully stocked up). With help in part from a Giada recipe I made strawberry, raspberry and pineapple bellini's. Just add a tablespoon to the bottle of your class, pour some champagne, and voila! Everyone loved these!

Once we had our cocktails it was on to the main event, a full spread. Thankfully most of it was done in advance and I have to say Mike helped tremendously as well. He manned the griddle, cooking all the bacon, sausage, pancakes and hash browns, which was a huge help. For this year's meal we had a lot of the same foods as last year but added on slightly. Our meal consisted of: 

• Broccoli and Cheese Mini Egg Omelets
• Make-Over Breakfast Sausage and Mushroom Strata
• Bananas Fosters Topped Overnight French Toast
• Ricotta Cheese Chocolate Chip Muffins
• WW Blueberry Streusel Muffins
• WW Mini Zucchini Quiche
• Vanilla Blueberry Pound Cake (although it wasn't as good this year) 
• Carrot Cake Pancakes (a new addition) 
• Hashbrowns 
• Turkey Sausage Links & Center Cut Bacon 
• My mom brought the fruit salad and Long Island bagels again, along with a homemade quiche!
• And Mike's brought everyone's favorite trifle again for dessert. 

I think that's everything, although I almost feel like I'm forgetting something there was so much food. I don't even know what my favorite part was, we loved all of it. I just realized though I don't have any pictures of us, the only pictures I have are of the food. I'm sure Mom has some pictures though, although I don't think she's figured out how to upload pictures from her new camera yet. In any case here's a few pictures I snapped quick before we ate of our delicious meal. 

After that we spent the afternoon grazing and picking on all the delicious foods with plenty of leftovers to go around for everyone. I already can't wait for next year's brunch, I know it will be equally delicious and terrific company! 

Unexpected Tasty Pasta Find

I was supposed to be in DC tonight for work but to my surprise this morning, I learned that the client I was going down to visit was actually going to be in New Jersey. Total fail. So then I had to scramble to reschedule my travel to next month. So I most definitely did not have dinner planned for this evening. Thanks to the power of google, I was able to find a tasty recipe that would use up the exact ingredients in my fridge that were nearing the end of their life span, double win. It prob took a solid half hour or more to assemble everything but it was worth it. I think this reminded me of like sausage, peppers and onions with pasta (although duh those are the main ingredients). I really enjoyed it, and would make it again. This would also make a great make ahead meal to freeze. The only thing is the portions size was not huge considering it's 9 points. But if you have it with a salad that would be a good filler to go along with it and bulk up the dinner a little bit more.  

Chicken Sausage, Mushroom and Pasta Casserole

Source: Weight Watchers Recipe (9 pt +) / Serves: 8

  

12 oz uncooked whole wheat pasta, rotini suggested (about 3 cups)   

1 tsp olive oil, extra-virgin (I skipped)  

1/2 cup(s) panko breadcrumbs   

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano suggested (I skipped)   

1 tsp dried oregano   

8 oz cooked chicken sausage(s), Italian-variety, thinly sliced (this I actually increased to 12 oz. I used Trader Joe's Spicy Italian Chicken Saugage)

1 medium yellow pepper(s), thinly sliced   

1 medium uncooked, onion(s), chopped   

1 pound(s) fresh mushroom(s), sliced  (I only had a half pound) 

2 Tbsp water  (I omitted this, the vegetables had plenty of water themselves)

4 cup(s) marinara sauce   (I used only 3 cups, that was what was in the jar) 

1 cup(s) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese   

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9- X 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain pasta and return to pot. 

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add breadcrumbs and reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring often, until toasted, about 4 minutes. Remove breadcrumbs to a small bowl; stir in Parmesan and oregano and set aside. (Honestly I skipped this whole step all together, I just added some regular non toasted breadcrumbs on top of the casserole, which was sufficient for us) 

In same skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until browned, about 5 minutes; remove to a plate and drain any fat from skillet. Add pepper and onion to skillet; cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until vegetables start to brown and soften, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and water to skillet; cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes. 

Add vegetables, sausage and marinara sauce to pot with drained pasta; toss to coat. Spoon into prepared baking dish and sprinkle with mozzarella and reserved breadcrumbs. Bake until heated through and cheese melts, about 25 minutes. Slice into 8 pieces and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving (about 1 1/2 cups).

St Patty's Day Feasts

I had two big corned beef and cabbage celebrations this year. The first was for our Dinner Diva's theme at Janet's house and the second was our annual celebration at Mom's. We were supposed to meet in February and do a Valentine's Day theme but inclement wether had other plans for us so we pushed it out to March instead. Since a Valentine's Day theme no longer made sense we decided to do St. Patrick's Day food in its place.

This was Janet's first time making (and I think also having) corned beef and cabbage. I have to say she did an incredible job! It was absolutely delicious, so good in fact I told my mom she needs to use this recipe for going forward for the corned beef we make on the stove. It simmered for 6 hours in Guinness and beef broth and it gave it such flavor. She also chopped and sauteed the cabbage with onions which I loved as well!

For the rest of our St. Patty's day dinner, I brought a Guinness and Cheddar dip for the appetizer. I had thought about bringing like a hot ruben dip, which did look really good, but since we were having more corned beef for dinner, I opted against it. The next best thing I could come up with was a Guinness dip. It was tasty, I don't know that I would rush out to go make it again, but it was festive and worked for the occasion. Finally for dessert Michele brought a potato cake. Have you ever heard of potato in a cake before? Well I certainly hadn't! I was expecting something savory versus sweet, but turns out you mash the potato finely into grounds and use it almost as flour. It actually tasted very good and you never would have known it was made from potatoes in a cake!

If you ever find yourself in need of a corned beef & cabbage recipe, I highly recommend the one Janet used. I know we'll be using this one next year when Mom makes it!

Corned Beef & Cabbage by Melissa D'Arabian 
Source: Food Network

5 pounds corned beef
5 garlic cloves, lightly smashed
10 peppercorns
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
12 ounces stout (recommended: Guinness)
1 cup beef broth or stock
Water, for simmering
4 yellow onions, cut into wedges, plus 1 medium yellow or sweet onion, sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
6 medium red potatoes, scrubbed
1 medium head green cabbage, cut into quarters, core removed
4 tablespoons butter

Rinse the corned beef and put it into a large Dutch oven or heavy soup pot. Make a bouquet garni with the garlic, peppercorns, thyme and bay leaves and add to the pot. Stir in the stout, stock and enough water to cover the beef by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 4 hours, covered, stirring occasionally.

After 4 hours, add the onion wedges, parsnips, and carrots, and cook for a 1/2 hour. Add the potatoes and the cabbage wedges and continue cooking until the cabbage is tender, but not limp, about 20 minutes. Remove the cabbage to a plate and allow the corned beef and other vegetables to continue cooking until the meat is tender.

In a separate large saute pan, heat 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the sliced onion, and a pinch of salt and saute until tender and beginning to brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the cabbage thinly, gently pressing with a paper towel to remove excess water. Add the cabbage to the onion mixture and toss to coat well with the butter. Cook over medium heat until the cabbage begins to brown.

Remove the meat to a cutting board and slice. Serve at the table with all the vegetables piled onto a serving tray and the sliced meat onto another tray with some of the broth poured over the meat.

Combing Two Loves

One of the things I missed writing about during my blog hiatus was our Dinner Diva's evenings! When I last left off it was my turn to host for January. I wanted to come up with a creative theme versus just doing a country, or color, or ingredient, something like that. What I came up with was, "Recipes from/or Inspired by a Book." Since I love to read and so many books either have food as the central theme or the setting inspires recipes or themes I thought this would be perfect. Of course I had no particular book or recipes in mind when I selected this theme.

Turns out it was slightly harder to come up with recipe ideas that I originally thought it would be. I read a ton of books, like Slim to None, a cute romantic comedy that had a recipe after most chapters, or Life from Scratch, which centered around a cooking blogger, but nothing really stuck me to make for my big dinner. I tried to look for recipes from books like The Twilight series, Hunger Games, The Help and so many others. After some extensive googling, here is what I ended up coming up with for my menu (from what I remember anyway):

• Italian Green Salad Inspired by Eat, Pray, Love 
• Leek & Potato Tart with Gruyere from Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Southern Style Collard Greens from The Help
• Rosemary Orange Chicken from The Hunger Games
  This is what Katniss eats when she has lunch with Cinna. She describes it with great detail in the book: Chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a creamy sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain, tiny green peas and onions... I try to imagine assembling this meal myself back home. Chickens are too expensive, but I could make do with a wild turkey. I'd need to shoot a second turkey to trade for an orange. Goat's milk would have to substitute for cream. We can grow peas in the garden. I'd have to get wild onions from the woods. 

I'm so mad, once again I forgot to take pictures of our lovely dinner. I had set the table using books as the centerpiece. It was nothing fancy but still cute for the effect. The Leek & Potato Tart turned out pretty good, it was really easy to make since you used pre-made biscuits as the pie crust. The collard greens were another experiment. We all tried them, they were ok, but really not my thing. The recipe makes an obscene amount and I only made a third of what it called for, I can't even imagine if I made the full recipe, it must feed an entire Baptist Church! Good thing I have a Mother that LOVES collard greens, in the freezer they went and home to Mom who enjoyed them.

The chicken though was another adventure all together. The recipe requires you to sauté the chicken on the stovetop and then put it in the oven. Well, while I was transferring my chicken to the oven part of the juice spilled out into the hot oven and caused it to smoke up, so there went the oven! It stunk and couldn't be used till we did a self cleaning, but at least the chicken turned out ok even without going in the oven.

For the rest of our dinner the girls brought over "I don't want Earl's Baby Pie" from Waitress. Although I thought this was just a movie and not a book, but Gina was stuck for ideas. Technically though I never actually got through reading The Help, I only saw the movie so I cheated there too. For dessert, Janet brought over one of her own creations based on a scene from 50 Shades of Grey. I have yet to read those books, I doubt I ever will, but her and Gina loved them. Aside from spilling the juice from the chicken in the oven it was another great night, maybe next time I'll get it right, I think last time I hosted, I accidentally cooked a knife in the pan with the pork loin!

Crockpot Winner

This was an awesome pinterest find! I'm always on the look out for easy weeknight recipes that can either be made in advance, frozen or a new use for the crockpot. The crockpot really is the greatest invention, just throw all the raw ingredients in and voila a meal a few hours later. When I originally found this recipe I thought for some reason the rice cooked in the crockpot but to my disappointment it required a separate pot, but not the worst thing in the world. I suppose next time I could just use the trader joe's instant rice if I really wanted to. I'm sure you could play around with this recipe and put in some other mexican related items if you wanted to add some black beans or corn in. I did season my chicken with some cumin and adobo as well.

The other major added bonus to this recipe is that it is healthy and low fat! I put it into my Weight Watchers points calculator and assuming it is 6 servings worth, which I think it is, it's only 7 points per serving. By my visual estimations each serving looks to be about a generous cup and a half. We had two nice bowls worth tonight and there's def enough left for us each to have another two servings this week. I'll def be taking this to lunch one day this week!

AND best of all Mike even agreed that it was good. He wanted to have it on a tortilla but I didn't have any extra in the house. It could be a delicious taco recipe too I'll bet! So many options!

Crock Pot Chicken, Rice and Green Chile Casserole
Source & Photo: Eat, Live, Run

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup
1 yellow onion, small diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese
1 4-oz can diced green chilies
1 cup raw white or brown rice + 2 1/2 cups water

Place chicken breasts at the bottom of your slow cooker. Scatter onions, bell peppers, chilies and cream of chicken soup on top. Place lid on slow cooker and turn heat to low. Cook for 6-8 hours until meat literally falls apart when you stir.

Cook the rice in a small saucepot with the water for 30 minutes or until all liquid has absorbed. Stir the rice into the crock pot along with the cheese. Mix well until the cheese melts. Serve with hot sauce, sour cream and sliced green onions.

Our Christmas Dinner Recipes

This post is solely dedicated to the actual recipes I served on Christmas Day since everyone there was asking me for the recipes. Honestly in terms of food preparation it really wasn't that bad or that much work. On Saturday I prepared the Spinach Gratin, Green Beans and Sweet Potatoes. Mike also made the sauce for the stuffed shells. It was way more work that day doing all the baking then it was making the side dishes for dinner. The menu was amazing though, I was pretty proud of our menu, everything was absolutely delicious and we had just the right amount of food, well ok we're Italian we had leftovers of course, but who doesn't love leftovers? Even all of the salad went! Our delicious menu for the evening was as follows:

First Course: 

• Salad: (Skinny Taste) Mixed Baby Greens with a Pomegranate Vinaigrette
• Fresh Stuffed Shells with Homemade Sauce (made by Mike) 

Main Course & Side Dishes:

• Spiral Ham
• Beef Tenderloin 
• Mashed Potatoes - Made by my Mom
• Stuffed Mushroom Sautee - Made by Mike's Mom
• (Skinny Taste) Spinach Gratin 
• Lightened up Green Bean Casserole 
• (Skinny Taste) Sweet Potato Casserole
• Sauteed Bacon & Blue Cheese Brussel Sprouts with Pomegranate - Made by my Mom

Drinks: 

• White Sangria with Pomegranate

• Peppermint Brownie Martinis 

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Starting off with the salad, this got rave reviews. The combination of the pomegranate, pecans and blue cheese was so perfect especially with the homemade salad dressing, it really dressed up the salad course and even the dressing was a bit hit. Such an easy dish to make and dress things up!

Mixed Baby Greens with Pomegranate Seeds, Gorgonzola and Pecans 
With A Pomegranate Vinaigrette 
Source: Skinny Taste

5 cups Mixed Baby Greens
5 cups bunch Baby Arugula
1 cup pomegranate seeds (from 1 POM Wonderful Fresh pomegranate)
2 oz pecans, chopped (about 28 halves)
1/2 cup (4 oz) gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

Pomegranate Vinaigrette:
5 tbsp of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
3 tbsp of champagne vinegar
1 tbsp shallot, finely minced
1 tbsp honey
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and fresh pepper

For the vinaigrette, combine pomegranate juice, olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a small glass jar and shake vigorously. Toss mixed greens in a salad bowl and top with pecans, gorgonzola and pomegranate seeds. Drizzle with vinaigrette right before serving.
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I first made my Mom make this recipe last year for Thanksgiving and she begrudgingly agreed to make it. She loved her traditional velvetta cheese & spinach recipe but man she was so glad she did. This spinach recipe is absolutely amazing, it's pretty hard to believe it would be considered Weight Watchers friendly, maybe in really small portions. It's so delicious, I can't get enough of this spinach!

Makeover Spinach Gratin
Source: Skinny Taste

3 tbsp light butter (I used Land O Lakes)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
3 cups 2% milk
3 lbs (3 16-oz packages) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup shredded Swiss Gruyere cheese (I used Sargento)

Preheat the oven to 425°. In a heavy-bottomed saute pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 10 - 12 minutes. Add the flour and nutmeg; cook 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the milk and cook until thickened, about 5 - 7 minutes. Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the spinach and add the spinach to the sauce. Add 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese and mix well. Season to taste, with salt and pepper. Transfer the spinach to a large baking dish and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and the Swiss cheese on top.   Bake for 20 minutes until hot and bubbly. Serve hot. Makes a little over 6 1/2 cups.
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I'm not known to be a huge sweet potato fan. They're ok, but I definitely don't rush out to make, have or order sweet potatoes of any sort. My Mom has a good sweet potato recipe from my Aunt Susan that she makes every year for Thanksgiving, but I have to say I think this recipe is even better, almost the entire dish of it went. It has a nice addition of the golden raisins in it which I think were great and it also has crushed pineapple in it! And of course it has the traditional pecans and marshmallows on top! The true test will be if my Mom likes it enough to make it this way next year for Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato Casserole
Source: Skinny Taste 

2 lbs sweet potatoes (about 5 medium), peeled
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 tsp agave
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch allspice
8 oz can unsweetened crushed pineapple, drained
2 tbsp chopped pecans
1 cup mini marshmallows

Cut sweet potatoes into large chunks; boil potatoes in a large pot covered with water until potatoes are soft if pierced with a fork. Drain and return to the pot. Preheat oven to 400°. Mash the sweet potatoes (I used my immersion blender) and add in raisins, agave, spices and pineapple. Lightly spray a pie dish, casserole dish or even individual ramekins with oil, spoon in sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with pecans and marshmallows. Bake for 15 minutes.
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I guarantee even people that don't like Brussel Sprouts will like this dish! Bacon makes anything delicious. My mom always makes brussel sprouts, but she usually just sautés them in garlic and oil but she could not get over how good this recipe was, I don't think any of us good, any brussel sprout hater could easily like this recipe. Bacon will make anything good for sure, but combine that with the shallots, blue cheese and pomegranates and there is so much flavor! I would eat Brussel sprouts anytime if they were made like this! I know this is one recipe my Mom absolutely plans to make again!

Bacon and Blue Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate
Source: Food for my Family

4 slices uncooked bacon, diced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
4 cups Brussels sprouts, halved
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
1/4 cup pomegranate arils

In a large sauté pan, cook the bacon pieces over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until just beginning to crisp. Add in the shallots and stir to incorporate before adding in the Brussels sprouts*. Sprinkle lightly with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until Brussels sprouts are golden brown around the edges and on the flat side. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of water over the top and stir until the water is absorbed into a natural sauce.Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the blue cheese. Pour the sprouts into the serving dish. Sprinkle with pomegranate arils and serve immediately.
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Everyone has tried the traditional Campbells Green Bean Casserole made with the mushroom soup but this version is homemade from scratch and doesn't use any type of soup, and I have to say I think it was even better. I loved that it was all homemade and with the addition of sauteed mushrooms (and I added onions in as well) it was delicious! This is one recipe version I didn't go with Skinny Taste on, I went with one of her "competitors" and I think she wins this one, at least in my mind anyway. It was so delicious, I didn't end up adding the cranberries but I might try it next time when I make it again!

Lightened-Up Green Bean Casserole
Source: Eat Yourself Skinny

1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
2 Tbsp light butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 Tbsp Ranch dressing mix
2 tsp. fresh thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. light butter
1 (8 oz) package sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup French onions, crushed
1/2 cup whole wheat panko
Handful of dried cranberries, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Boil fresh green beans in salted water covered for about 5 minutes.  Drain and blanch on ice to stop cooking process then pat dry.  Set aside.  In a saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and whisk in flour until smooth, about 1 minute.  Gradually add milk, whisking constantly for about 3 to 4 minutes until sauce is thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat and whisk in buttermilk, ranch dressing, thyme and salt and pepper. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, melt one teaspoon of butter and add mushrooms.  Saute for about 7 minutes, or until lightly browned, and remove from heat.  Allow to cool for about 5 minutes then toss with green beans in the ranch-buttermilk sauce.  Place mixture in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with spray.  Sprinkle with crumbled French onions and panko over green beans and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.  Top should be golden brown and bubbly.  Enjoy!
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Finally my token cocktail of the evening was a Peppermint Brownie Martini. Although we only had one brief round of them on Christmas we did have them again last weekend and I thought they were great! I even attempted to make myself one this evening but then realized we were out of milk and added in some french vanilla creamer in since I wanted one. They were definitely better with milk, but this is such a fun Holiday cocktail to make for guests!

Peppermint Brownie-tini
Source: Snappy Gourmet 

3 tablespoons chocolate cream liqueur (such as Godiva Original)
2 tablespoons peppermint schnapps(such as Hiram Walker)
2 tablespoons cake flavored vodka (such as Pinnacle)
1½ teaspoons dry brownie cake mix (such as Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge)
⅓ cup milk or cream
1 tablespoon chocolate syrup (such as Hershey’s)
1 tablespoon crushed candy canes
Garnish: whipped cream and peppermint candies/candy canes

Mix chocolate liqueur, peppermint schnapps, cake flavored vodka, brownie cake mix, and milk/cream shaker with ice. Shake for about 30 seconds. Dip rim of glass in chocolate syrup then in crushed candy canes. Strain drink into glass. Top drink with whipped cream and candy as desired.

Christmas Dessert

In addition to my christmas cookies, I also made one other dessert to have with Christmas Dinner. I went to Starbucks earlier this month to pick up a little gift for a work White Elephant exchange and while I was in there they had out samples of their Cranberry Bliss Bars. I wasn't in the mood to try it but boy was I glad I did. One taste and I was hooked, by that evening I was already looking up copy cat recipes and I have to say the recipe I found really was pretty close. They're a blondie with craisins and white chocolate mixed in and then with a cream cheese frosting on top. I'm sure it's the cream cheese frosting that makes them extra delicious. I was actually surprised at how much of a big hit these were at Christmas. I would def make these again, they'd be perfect to take to a Holiday party or I'm sure you could make them any time of the year as well! 

Cranberry Bliss Bars
Source: Recipe Girl

Blondie Layer:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped

Frosting
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Prepare the blondie layer: In a medium bowl, melt butter for one minute in the microwave; stir in brown sugar. Scrape the butter & sugar into a large bowl and let cool to room temperature. Use an electric mixer to beat in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture. Stir in the cranberries and chopped chocolate (the batter will be thick). Spread the blondie batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake). Cool completely on a wire rack.

Prepare the frosting: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until well-blended. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate; beat until blended. Frost brownies. Sprinkle with cranberries. Drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate. Cut into bars- square or triangle-shaped. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Christmas Cookie Baking

Every year I always do the traditional Christmas cookie baking, aside from the annual cookie exchange. For the most part I usually change up my recipes with what I find that looks good for that year but I do have a couple of staple cookies that stay in the rotation. This year I only made 4 different kinds of Christmas cookies. I wanted to make 5 but I ran out of steam in the end so my Rainbow Cookies had to be sacrificed since they are a lot of work.

This year's cookie menu included only one new addition, Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Crinkle Cookies, although I inadvertently left out the white chocolate chips. Those cookies were ridiculously easy to make and a big  hit with any red velvet fans. It was only a box of red velvet cake mix, mixed with a couple ingredients, dip them in powdered sugar and roll them into a ball. Just don't forget to add in your chocolate chips like I did!

White Chocolate Red Velvet Crinkles
Source: My Kitchen Adventures (adapted from Cookin' Cowgirl)

1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup to 1 cup powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or use a silpat.  In large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, eggs, and vanilla with electric mixer.  Mix until well combined.  The dough will be soft, but not watery.  Mix in white chocolate chips. Put powdered sugar into a shallow bowl.  Drop dough by tablespoon into the powdered sugar.  Roll into the powdered sugar and than into a ball.  Place on prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes.  Cookies will be puffed and look soft, but will set up as they cool.  Allow to cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

For my second, third and fourth cookie batches of the evening, I whipped up a batch of my favorite cookies, White Chocolate Chip Craisin Cookies (and I didn't forget the chocolate chip cookies in this batch. I made Mike's new favorite cookie, that he's obsessed with, the Jelly Thumbprint cookies. He swears these are the best cookies I've ever made. And for my last trick of the evening I whipped up a batch of Grandma Lucy's Spritz Cookies, a Christmas must!

In between all of those were also a failed attempt at a batch of hershey kisses pretzels and a burned batch of my craisin cookies. That was disappointing! Total fail on the pretzels and no thanks to the bottom rack of my oven for burning the cookies!

By the last batch though I was ready to be done baking for the evening, they didn't come out of the oven until midnight. I actually fell asleep on the couch waiting for them to be done and Mike had to take them out of the oven. I was exhausted after a full day of cooking, cleaning and baking. Mike came down the stairs and I was literally taking a break by the end sitting on our kitchen floor with a Corona in hand (see picture). I'm sad I didn't get to make my rainbow cookies, and Mike had requested some ricotta cookies too but in the end we didn't miss them, there's always next year! Good thing there is a year in between all this baking.

The Fruits of My Labor! 

Banana Treats for Work

My new team loves treats. There is so much food around that place, it's ridiculous, like seriously if you're ever hungry, chances are you can find free food somewhere around the building. Pizza, sandwiches, cookies, leftovers from a catered lunch event, it's there. The HR team also has treat Friday's that they've implemented, they rotate who brings in baked goods for every Friday. So I def came to the right place with all the baking I love to do. This was inspired purely by the fact that I had bananas on our counter that were overly ripe and either needed to be frozen or used, so I baked with them quick. They were easy to make, don't require any special ingredients and were a huge hit. I made them into mini muffins and everyone was grabbing them. I definitely plan to save this recipe for the future, it was a great alternative to making banana bread with ripe bananas!

Banana Crumb Muffins
Source: All Recipes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

2012 Christmas Cookie Exchange

In catching up on all the recent events that have taken place over the last month or so, one of the more fun events that I attended was Michele's annual Christmas Cookie exchange. I went to my first one last year and it was so much fun. Michele is such an incredible host, she really goes all out. I think Michele has to be the best hostess, she leaves no stone unturned and thinks of everything. From the amazing food that she prepares, her menu is always absolutely delicious. Forget about even the logistics of organizing the cookie exchange part itself, she also puts together festive Holiday games to play and even has prizes for them, and gives her guests a little something to take home as well. I really don't know how she does it.

I only wish I had brought my camera again and taken pictures of all the incredible food she made for us. This year she made an incredible chicken salad, egg muffins, the french toast was amazing, buffalo chicken meatballs, and so much more, I can't even remember it all right now. And she also puts together a binder for everyone every year of her recipes that she makes for the brunch and prints out copies of everyone's cookie recipes as well!

This year for my cookies I made Jelly Thumbprint Cookies. When I went out with Michele, Gina and Janet to go see The Sound of Music play at the Papermill Playhouse recently we were discussing the exchange and what to make. Gina suggested that she had a great recipe I could make so I said why not. Boy was I happy I made these cookies they got RAVE reviews.

I ended up having to make them 3 separate times over the course of 3 days but it was so worth it. I made the first batch on Thursday night as sort of a trial run, I thought I could make them prettier, but also dropped some on the floor, which I gave to Mike to eat, haha, it was only for a few seconds, 5 second rule. He certainly didn't mind. He called me up on Friday night to tell me and I quote these were the "best ever cookies I had made." He LOVED them. I think he ate about a dozen or more himself. I brought the rest of the batch (that didn't fall on the floor) and they loved them too! The whole thing went and they got rave reviews. My new teammate swears she ate about 15 cookies herself.

These cookies were so easy to make. I have the recipe memorized by the 3rd time I had to make them, that's how easy it was. Making the dough part could not have been any simpler  The most time consuming part was rolling the dough into balls and then filling them with jelly. The first batch I didn't put enough jelly, the second batch I put too much but I got it slightly better by the 3rd batch. The recipe makes 24 cookies exactly and easily doubles. It also uses about a jar of the jelly for each double batch. I was too lazy to sprinkle the powdered sugar on top, but I don't think it missed it. These cookies were so good, this is absolutely a recipe I intend to make part my Christmas tradition and keep for years to come!

Jelly Thumbprint Cookies

Source: Gina's Husband Valerio's Grandmother's recipe!!! :-)

½ c. butter, softened to room temperature 

½ c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg yolk 

1 c. flour

pinch of salt

Polaner Red Raspberry Preserves (about 1/2 jar) 

Beat butter, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla together.  Combine flour and salt and gradually add to mixture until dough is formed.  Shape dough into small pieces approximately the size of a large marble.  Dough will expand when cooking.  Place formed balls on cookie sheet and use your thumb to make a thumbprint in each – fill with jelly. Bake @ 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cooled.

Dinner Diva's Goes to China

This month's Dinner Diva's theme was pretty easy, the theme was Chinese Food. I don't think I've ever really made Chinese food at home before, since it's so easy to just get take out. Turns out it was another great theme, as always! This month it was Gina's turn to host, for the main course she made delicious chicken and broccoli with mushrooms, and fantastic homemade fried rice, which was really cute. She was so cute in setting the table to match the theme and even put out the fried noodles, duck sauce and everyone got a fortune cookie.

Michele was on appetizers and made an awesome scallion pancakes and even brought some edamme along too, although we're not sure if those are really Chinese. I had a difficult time getting the edamme out of the shell, I blame it on user error. But I did pick up a bag at Trader Joe's the other day since they were a great snack. Michele put some sesame oil and Cajun seasoning on them for some extra flavor!

I was up for dessert this month, I had no idea what a traditional Chinese dessert was but then I remembered Chinese Almond Cookies. We usually don't do cookies but these were perfect. I even learned that almond cookies symbolize coins and will be sure to bring you good fortune. Everyone absolutely loved these cookies, and they were SUPER easy to make. I think these will be making another appearance in the future. I loved the almond flavor, it also gave me an excuse to finally use some of the almond flour I bought at Trader Joe's and never used.

Chinese Almond Cookies Recipe
Source: My Recipes

1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I used closer to a teaspoon)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used half white flour, half almond flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk
1/3 cup blanched whole almonds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add whole egg and almond extract and beat until well blended. Stir or beat in flour and baking powder until well blended. Cover bowl and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, flatten each slightly, and place each about 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment-lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets. In a small bowl, beat egg yolk with milk to blend. Brush cookies lightly with egg mixture; discard any remaining. Press an almond into the center of each cookie and sprinkle each with about 1/8 teaspoon sesame seeds. Bake cookies in a 325° oven until lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely.

Hurricane Cooking

Looking back this might not have been my smartest move since there is a high potential that we will end up losing power over the next day and in which case there's a high probability that all the food I made will end up going bad, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it. Yesterday afternoon I decided to make a couple meals and also prep some meals for the week. I decided to make a batch of my Mom's chili recipe. After I talked to her last night I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Mom omits the extra 1/2 cup of water, I def need to remember that for next time!

Then I made a batch of Baked Potato Soup, just because I was in the mood for it. I was going to make a different version this time, I wanted to try the Weight Watchers one but my garlic went bad, so I made the same one I made last time by Cooking Light, which is really good. And when I calculated it out it's the same amount of points anyway. And since I had extra potatoes in the house, I decided to make a batch of Crispy Potato Skins for the Giant's game last night, those came out really good and Mike enjoyed them.

Finally I prepped two other meals to make for the week. I prepared a Pan-Roasted Chicken With Lemon-Garlic Green Beans which just needs to go into the oven tonight. I'm excited for this meal, it looked really good and was pretty easy to prep, although it did probably take a good 20/30 minutes, but no further work is required, it just needs to go in the oven. And I'm really excited for dinner tomorrow night, provided we still have power since I am making a Slow Cooker Vegetable Lasagna, that's a weight watchers friendly recipe and I already cut up all the vegetables. If it's good I'll be sure to share the recipe!

I'm optimistic this dish will be a winner, so in anticipation I'm posting the recipe. Will report back after I make it tonight what the verdict was.

Pan-Roasted Chicken With Lemon-Garlic Green Beans
Source: Real Simple Magazine (12 ww pt + w/ reduced oil)

6 4  olive oil (I reduced the oo to just 4 TBSP)
2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3/4 lb trimmed green beans
8 small red potatoes, quartered
4 chicken breasts (I used boneless)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the green beans and arrange them on top of the lemon slices. Add the potatoes to the same olive-oil mixture and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, arrange the potatoes along the inside edge of the dish or skillet on top of the green beans. Place the chicken in the same bowl with the olive-oil mixture and coat thoroughly. Place the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish or skillet. Pour any of the remaining olive-oil mixture over the chicken.

Roast for 50 minutes. Remove the chicken from the dish or skillet. Place the beans and potatoes back in oven for 10 minutes more or until the potatoes are tender. Place a chicken breast on each of 4 serving plates; divide the green beans and potatoes equally. Serve warm.

What to with Apples & Banana's

One of my favorite parts about apple picking, is what comes after when I need to use up all my apples and I get to bake lots of fun apple goodies with them. I love that part almost as much as I love picking the apples. Every year I make a variety of all different types of apple recipes. I always try to find new recipes to try and then bake several different recipes.

This year I had some ripe bananas I needed to use up as well so why not combine that with the apples and this recipe was perfect. I loved that for this recipe you took the apples and cooked them in the pan with melted butter and brown sugar. The end result of the bread was an extremely moist and delicious banana bread with the apple chunks, it was so good. We all loved this bread and gave it 5 stars, def goes into the make again pile. No picture though - it got eaten too fast!

Mom’s Banana Apple Bread
Source: The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy as seen on Hot Oven Warm Heart

For the apples:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the banana bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon kosher salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

¼ cup fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups very ripe mashed bananas (2 to 3)

Before you start:
 Position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a 1 1/2-quart loaf pan.

To make the apples: 
Preheat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and brown sugar and heat until bubbling. Add the apples and cinnamon and sauté until golden and tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

To make the banana bread:
 In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
 In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
 In a small bowl, combine the orange juice and vanilla.
 Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the orange juice mixture, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each flour addition. Stir in the mashed bananas until combined. Then stir in the reserved apples.
 Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Best Ever Apple Dessert

Two weeks later my Dad is still raving about this dessert. He said it was the absolute best apple dessert he's ever had, and he's had a lot! And I'd have to agree with him. If anyone knows a good baking recipe it's Betty Crocker and she def doesn't mess around because these bars were incredible. If there were only one apple recipe I could make ever again I think this would have to be it, and even over a classic apple pie. They were almost more of an apple crisp than bars, but maybe that is because it was still all warm and gooey when I tasted them before I turned the batch over to my Dad who def didn't want to share with anyone.

I'm not sure if it was the caramels or the shortening, or a combination that made these bars so incredible. They were also pretty easy to make as well as long as you don't buy individually wrapped caramels that you have to open up each of them, that was probably the most time consuming part of this whole process. When I did finally get them all open, I added a drop of milk to help the caramels melt and make them a little smoother and easier to spread. Combined with the apples and caramels these bars were so incredible. I would highly recommend this recipe to anyone looking for a delicious apple treat. I will absolutely make these every year going forward I think this will have to be a new tradition in my apple baking!

Caramel Apple Bars 
Source & Photo: Betty Crocker

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 3/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 cups coarsely chopped peeled tart apples (3 medium)
3 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 bag (14 ounces) caramels

Heat oven to 400ºF. Mix brown sugar, butter and shortening in large bowl. Stir in 1 3/4 cups flour, the oats, salt and baking soda. Reserve 2 cups oat mixture; press remaining oat mixture in ungreased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches. Toss apples and 3 tablespoons flour; spread over mixture in pan. Heat caramels over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted; pour evenly over apples. Sprinkle with reserved oat mixture; press lightly. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender. For 36 bars, cut into 6 rows by 6 rows while warm. Store covered in refrigerator.

Dinner Divas Goes Rock

I know I've said it before but I'll say it again I really so lucky to have found such great friends, whether it's book club, my monthly dinner group, or friends from the gym or more, I really feel grateful that I've found such wonderful people here in Jersey. My monthly dinner group is no exception to that and I never would have thought that it would bring so much to my month, I really look forward to meeting up with the girls every month and trying new recipes and menu's. It's so much fun!

This month was another unique theme. The theme was to pick a recipe using a food or ingredient that is also in the name of a band or musician.  For example, Smashing Pumpkins, Blondie, Peaches and Herb
bananarama, Eminem, Black Eyed Peas, The Cranberries, you get the idea. Since there's four of us again I was only assigned to wine duty but I volunteered to bring the salad as well. Which was really easy to think of, Strawberry Fields salad, ok so technically not the name of a band, but it is the name of a song by the Beatles which was close enough.

For our meal this month we feasted on Korn chips made by Janet. I brought my Strawberry Fields salad. Michele made Pumpkin ravioli's, which were INCREDIBLE, I don't even like Pumpkin but I really want to make these again. She also made Meatloaf for the main course, of course after the band Meatloaf, that was an easy one, and yes there are bands out there named Screaming Broccoli and the Potatoes, I kid you not. And for dessert Gina made the most delicious Blondies, they had coconut in them which you know sold me. I was so happy with the way the salad turned out, I def want to make it again, here is the recipe I used:

Strawberry Fields Salad w/ Candied Pecans 
Spring mix or mesclun mix salad greens
Fresh baby spinach
Bleu cheese crumbles
Fresh strawberries
Candied pecans (recipe follows)
Red Onion
Trader Joe's Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette 

Sugared Pecans Recipe
Source: Simply Recipes

1 egg white
1 Tbsp water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz pecans - about 2 cups
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 300°F. Put sugar, cinnamon, salt, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg in a plastic bag, shake to mix. Put egg, water, and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until slightly foamy, add pecans and coat well. Lift pecans out of bowl with a slotted spoon and put into the bag of sugar and spices. Shake pecans in bag making sure they are well coated. Bake 30 minutes on a baking pan lined with silpat or lightly greased aluminum foil. 15 minutes into the baking, stir up the pecans with a fork. Let cool completely before serving. Makes about 2 cups.

Summer May Be Over...

But that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy a good BBQ! In my family we grill all year round. My Dad is out there in rain, snow, sleet, or any other kind of rain inclement, the only thing that can stop him is running out of propane gas for the grill. Although now that I am thinking about it, we didn't actually BBQ this meal. We had an indoor BBQ last night, Mike for whatever reason hates to use our BBQ, which is really quite annoying, but anyway. He wanted to make the hamburgers on our grill pan that he recently discovered (when they were transporting Nick & Stephs gifts down this week, he noticed they got a grill pan, and inquired as to if we had one, we've had one for over 2 years...). I will say the burgers came out really good in the grill pan, although it could have been enhanced by the fact that we cooked the bacon in that pan first.

Anyway I digress. I made this salad once before and Mike absolutely loved it. The best part is it is so low fat, you can have an entire cup of the salad for only 4 weight watchers points, making it a huge win in my book and it's delicious! This salad is perfect for any bbq year round, or even for packing up with your lunch for work. I already can't wait to eat the leftovers! As a note, I used a pint of cherry tomatoes quartered in my salad since they were on sale, buy one get one free, and it worked perfect instead of using larger tomatoes and dicing them.

BLT Macaroni Salad 
Source: Skinny Taste (4 ww pt + for 1 cup!)

8 oz uncooked elbows
4 slices 25% reduced fat center cut bacon
2 large ripe tomatoes, beefsteak or vine ripe, diced small
4 tbsp reduced fat mayonnaise (I used Hellman's)
salt and fresh pepper to taste
2 cups baby spinach

In a large skillet cook bacon on medium-low heat until crispy on both sides. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package directions. Chop tomatoes and combine it along with any accumulated juice with mayonnaise and pepper in a medium bowl. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water to cool. Combine pasta with tomatoes and spinach mixing well. Toss in bacon right before serving.