A healthy meal for friends

For this meal I served a pulled-pork sandwich that was less then 369 calories! To do this I used a pork tenderloin in place of the traditional port shoulder and replaced the BBQ sauce with crushed tomatoes, brown sugar, and mustard. I even topped it off with a light cabbage slaw. For the side I made Chile-Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges. This served four and had a calorie count of 191.

For the sweet part of our meal I made roasted pears with crushed cookies. Pears are naturally sweet and become even more when baked until very tender. They are delicious on their own or topped with a dollop of rich mascarpone cheese and crumbled cookies for a slightly lavish treat. This had a calorie  count of 196.

Celebrate American Heart Month!

With February being American Heart Month rock out the kitchen with heart inspired recipes! Below you will find some fun recipes to try out, enjoy!:)

Heart Milk Cubes:
* 10 Cavity Heart Shape Silicone Mold (I picked mine out at Wal-Mart for less than $1.50)
*Milk
*8-9 drops of red food coloring
Combine milk & red food coloring and pour into silicone mold. Freeze overnight and serve in the morning in a glass of milk
http://asubtlerevelry.com/heart-milk-cubes

Lil York Mint Owls:
These are an adorable way to use up heart shaped York mints, and there are many variations to colors you can use for the eyes and wings. To save blog space I'll post the link below
http://www.myowlbarn.com/2012/01/valentines-day-treat.html

Strawberry & Ghiradelli Heart Puppy Chow:
This recipe was a sweet and fruit inspired variation to puppy chow without the usual peanut butter I'm used to. It was terribly addicting, I used White Ghiradelli chocolate chips, & sampled as many of those chips as I did the puppy chow! Check it out on the link below
http://jericas-world.blogspot.com/2013/02/be-mine-series-valentine-puppy-chow.html

Cupid's Cloud & Brownie Hearts!

Cupid's Cloud and Brownie Hearts are the perfect combo for Valentines Day! I love the splash of color the raspberry whip displays and the brownies are healthier than expected!

For Cupid's Cloud: You will need 2 cups of frozen raspberries, 1/8c + 1tbsp of white sugar, 1 cup of light whipped topping & 1/2 tsp vanilla. Blend the whip topping, 1 tbsp white sugar, and vanilla with a mixer. I used my Magic Bullet to blend 1 cup of frozen raspberries at a time with the 1/8c of sugar. Fold into whip topping mixture and transfer to freezer until ready to serve.
http://www.aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com/cupids-cloud-a-valentines-day-dessert/

Brownie Hearts: I've included the recipe in the link below to save space.
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fudgy-chocolate-brownies-10000000222750/

Once your brownies are cool, transfer to a cutting board and use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out hearts. Put a couple of dollops of Cupid's Cloud between 2 brownies. Dust with powdered sugar and serve!

Pot sticker soup that will make you hoot!

When winter is in full swing I crave soup! So, I created a healthy yum-0 veggie soup that warm you from top to bottom. 

 For this meal you will need:

-1 onion, chopped

- 4 cloves of garlic, minced

- 8 cups broth (chicken or broth)

- 1 bag of fresh stir-fry vegetables (not frozen)

- 1 (15 ounce) package frozen pot stickers

- Salt and pepper, to your liking

- Cooking spray

Step 1.

Heat cooking spray in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the chopped onion and garlic; cook and stir until translucent or soft.  Pour in the broth and add salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, make sure the seasoning is to your liking.

Step 2. Reduce heat to medium, and add the frozen pot stickers and stir-fry vegetables. Cook until the pot stickers float, about 8 minutes.

Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean Coconut Snowman!

Ice-cream in my opinion tastes amazing year around & what better way to be creative with food then by making your own edible Frosty the Snowman? You can use any high quality vanilla ice-cream. I chose Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean variety for the base, fluffy coconut to roll it in, and used Wilton Sprinkles the Rainbow Chip Crunch for the eyes, mouth & buttons, Sunny Seeds for the nose, Mint Oreo Fudge Cremes for the hat & Krafts Jet-Puffed Caramel/Vanilla Swirled Marshmallows for the top of the hat. Have fun with it & be as creative as you like! :)

Ingredients:
1 pint of good quality ice cream- select a larger size if wanting to make more than 3 snowmen
Jar of Wilton Rainbow Chip Crunch Sprinkles (black color) for eyes, mouth & buttons
Sunny Seeds-Chocolate Covered Sunflower seeds (orange) for nose
Package of Mint Oreo Fudge Creme cookies for hat
Package of fluffy coconut to roll ice cream in
Krafts Jet-Puffed Caramel/Vanilla Swirled Marshmallows for top of hat
3 various sized ice cream scoops to make snowman base

DIRECTIONS

1. STEP 1

   Line a baking pan that fits in your freezer with parchment paper. Scoop the vanilla ice cream rounding scoops as much as possible, until you have each size, and place on the prepared baking pan. Place the pan in the freezer to harden for 15 minutes.

2. STEP 2

   Remove the ice cream from the freezer, and roll in coconut.  Return to pan, then return the pan to the freezer. Remove 1 small scoop of ice cream at a time from the freezer, and make faces using sprinkles for eyes and mouth and sunny seeds for the nose. Return to freezer until ready to serve.

3. STEP 3

   Remove middle-size scoops from the freezer one at a time; place black sprinkles in a row down the front to create buttons. Remove remaining scoops from freezer, and stack to create snowmen, pressing slightly to adhere. Return snowmen to freezer.

Take snowmen out of freezer, & plate it on a plate of choice. Toast the marshmallow place on top of the mint Oreo, grab a spoon and enjoy!

Loosely adapted from Martha Stewart: 

http://www.marthastewart.com/354162/coconut-snowmen

Lemon-Lime Tea Cakes... with sherbert.

These little cakes are a fabulous desserts that are drizzled with a lemon syrup to complement the lemon and Lime zest and juice in the batter.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
11/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon finally grated lemon zest, plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finally grated lime zest, plist 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 lemon (ends but off), very thinly sliced and seeded

Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, 2/3 cup sugar, and lemon and lime zest on medium speed until light and creamy (not fluffy). Add lemon and lime juices along with eggs and beat to combine, scrapping down bowl. With mixer on low, gradually add flour and salt and beat until blended. Divide batter among muffin cups (about 1 tablespoon each). Bake until cakes are golden around edges and toothpicks inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Step 2
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, com pine 2/3 cup water and 2/3 sugar; cook over medium, stiffing occasionally, until sugar dissolves about 5 minutes. Add lemon slices and rapidly simmer until peel turns translucent and lemon syrup thickens slightly, 5 minted.

Step 3
With a toothpick, poke holes all over tops of warm tea cakes in pan. Drizzle 1/2 teaspoon lemony syrup over each cake. Let cakes cool slightly in pan; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Spoon lemon slices on top if desired.

I added some sherbet for a plash of color and as a flavor intensifier.

Banana Palm Trees & Cranberry-Orange Bread!

MO hit low 60's today! What better way to enjoy the warmer temps then with a fruit platter and citrus toned homemade bread! The Banana Palm Tree is super easy to make just kiwis, a couple bananas and some tangerine pieces. Both recipes and pics are provided below, enjoy!

Banana Palm Trees

Ingredients: 

2 Bannans

• 2-3 Kiwis
• 2 tangerines
• Assemble platter by picture. Be as Creative as you wish!
• 1 cup cranberries coarsely chopped 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 large egg, well beaten
• 3/4 cup orange juice 
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 x 5 x 3inch loaf pan.
Zest up your orange and rinse and coarsely chop up your cranberries.
In a small bowl, beat your egg. Add in the 3/4 cup orange juice, 1 tablespoon orange zest and the 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and whisk to combine.
In a large bowl, whisk together the 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Cut the 4 tablespoons of cold butter into small pieces, and blend it into the flour 
mixture using a pastry blender. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined.
Then fold in the chopped cranberries (and nuts if you're using them).
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.
Then remove the bread from the pan and let cool completely before slicing. 
Recipe courtesy of
http://www.marinmamacooks.com/2011/11/cranberry-orange-bread/