20 lighter recipes

As I'm preparing to get back to healthier eating, I thought I'd look back and see what lighter recipes I've already tried. I wanted to gather together the recipes that I would make again. These are the first 20 that I found.

Baked Flounder with Fresh Lemon Pepper


Easy Italian Spiced Pork


BBQ-Bacon Meat Loaf


Chicken with Vegetable Sauce


Spicy Orange Beef


Chops with Herb-Tomato Sauce


Dari’s Picante Chicken


Spicy Meatballs with Fiery Chili Sauce


Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Caramelized Onion Gravy


Chicken Cordon Bleu



Honey-Glazed Spiced Pork Tenderloin


Glazed Pork Tenderloin


Grilled Pork Tenderloin Oriental


Buttery Herbed Chicken



Beef and Potato Tex-Mex Hash



Beef Tamale Skillet Meal


Mini Cocoa Swirl Cheesecakes


Bev’s Chocolate Chip Cookies


Multigrain Snickerdoodles


Whole Wheat Blueberry Kuchen

He's 1!

Newborn:


6 weeks:


5 months:


1 year:

Usually I would say something such as 'time flies' but honestly it's been a long year! I haven't slept through the night since my bladder started waking me up during late pregnancy. It takes a toll on a very near 40-year-old woman.

But he's worth it. He's so smart and fun (yes, he does smile a lot but the camera distracts him). He's definitely more of a handful than his brother. He's into everything. EVERYTHING! Everytime I turn my back he is on the computer or running from the trash can with a piece of trash in his hand. My older son never had one honest-to-God tantrum and this one throws himself to the ground every chance he gets. He really livens things up around here.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Things will be changing around here

There was a time when I cooked somewhat healthy but especially this past year I've been tired and unfocused which has led to me cooking way too many splurge meals and way too few healthy recipes. It's time to buckle down again which shouldn't be too much of a problem - I have plenty of health-conscious cookbooks and recipes to choose from in my collection.

But first, before I can make anything new and exciting, we are finishing up the leftovers from the cookout this past weekend. Tonight I am taking some of the leftover tortilla chips and salsa, onions (that were sliced and diced for burger and hot dogs), cheese (from the cheese tray) and browned ground beef (from the leftover burgers that weren't grilled) and making a variation of Jamie’s Mexican Chicken and Tortilla Casserole. In the comments, Noel mentioned she used ground beef and that sounded really good to me. It will be decidedly unhealthy but unfortunately after spending a small fortune on the cookout I am forced to stretch out the leftovers as long as I can. I'm balancing it out by eating the healthier leftovers for the rest of my meals.

Question of the Day: How has your eating been lately?

The party's over - now what?

Red Potato and Green Bean Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette
from epicurious.com

8 ounces green beans, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
3 pounds small red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, halved
2 tablespoons dry vermouth I used more white wine vinegar in place of the vermouth
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 large shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon coarse-grained Dijon mustard
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil I used canola oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Cook beans in large saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, 4 minutes. Drain. Transfer to bowl of ice water. Drain; pat dry with paper towels.
Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 12 minutes. Drain; transfer to large bowl. Sprinkle vermouth over hot potatoes; toss gently and let stand 5 minutes. Whisk vinegar, shallot, and mustard in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Pour over potatoes and toss to coat. Cool completely. Mix in green beans and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) Serve cold or at room temperature.
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I've started to shy away from making new recipes for my big cookout (too many dissapointments over the years) but I did sneak in a couple of them. This potato and green bean salad wasn't bad. I'm not a huge fan of crisp tender green beans but they were okay - it was the potatoes that I really liked. It was mild tasting yet flavorful. I used canola oil because I forgot to buy olive oil so I lost some flavor there. I thought for sure I would have to add more dressing but I didn't. I didn't get any feedback on it but that happens when you have a table loaded full of food.

The final menu was:

Garlic ring bologna and Sweet and Tangy Mustard (I had half a can of sweetened condensed milk from making the peppermint patties last week so I made half a batch of mustard)

Cheese and crackers

tortilla chips and salsa

Good Health Natural Foods garlic olive-oil potato chips (these are so good and the customer service is excellent on their website.)

regular chips

chili-cheese dip with tortilla chips (DH's aunt brought that - very good, very spicy)

black bean corn salsa with chips (a guest brought this)

burgers (made my own this year and they didn't fall apart - scored $1.69/lb ground beef too)

hot dogs (Hebrew National)

chicken sausages with jalapenos and pepper jack (from Costco)

pulled pork - I made this ahead of time and reheated it in the oven. It went over very, very well.

Bar-B-Q Baked Beans - since I had the oven going I baked these in the oven as the recipe directs even though I usually throw them in the crockpot.

pasta salad (two - I made one and a friend brought one)

Aunt Nancy's coleslaw

Red Potato and Green Bean Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

Deviled Eggs - I forgot to put these out so I walked around and served them after the cake, when I finally remembered them.

Toppings for the burgers and hot dogs including Easy Dill Pickles which got several compliments (I sliced them into rounds for the burgers).

Fruit salad

Sugar cookies

Oat-Fashioned Strawberry Dessert - this was one of the hits of the day

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Easy Buttercream - This cake is always great. I will probably never make another chocolate cake recipe. The decorating was very sloppy though. I was rushed.


Yellow Cream Cupcakes - I thought these were dry but the baby ate an entire cupcake and my older son has eaten more of these than I care to admit (I've been too tired to stop him).



Plus drinks.

The weather was gorgeous and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. It's a lot of work but I love doing it. I don't know what to do with myself now.

Question of the Day: Do you like to cook for crowds? I actually prefer it to cooking for a small group.

Bake sale follow-up

I wanted to let you know that the peppermint patties were one of the first things to go. Word must have gotten around too since when I worked my shift a woman came asking for two big peppermint patties but they were long gone by then. I also made Raspberry Kisses since I thought the table needed something besides chocolate. They sold early as well.

It was probably mainly a presentation thing. I used cellophane bags and silver bag ties which only cost less than 10 cents each for me (hey, it's a donation). Much prettier than a ziploc. Also, my items stood out among the many, many, MANY, brownies on the table. Some were square, some were in muffin cups, some were in mini muffin cups, some had peanut butter, some had walnuts, but most of the other offerings were some type of brownie. There were also chocolate cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal scotchies, revel bars and peanut butter no-bakes but besides those and what I made I think everything else was a brownie of some sort. Yes, brownies are popular but more variety would have been nice. The only non-chocolate items were the oatmeal scotchies and the raspberry kisses. We did okay but we had plenty of leftovers.

Funny thing - we were set up right outside a meeting room and there was a Weight Watchers meeting in that room. We got some dirty looks.