S'mores Bar

My boyfriend's nieces were in town and are always bored despite a full day of activities.  So I decided to do a camp fire in the back yard and let them roast some hot dogs and make s'mores for dessert. 

I bought whole wheat hot dog buns and of course, we needed some vegetables to make this meal complete!  

I made a quick green bean salad but made some changes, as I wanted to make it kid friendly!  So I took the onions out and added some chopped black olives.

For the s'mores bar I dressed it up a bit to make it fun and special and I added milk chocolate, dark chocolate and cookies and cream chocolate.  Most importantly, remember everything in moderation!

You can make dinner fun & healthy!

Enjoy!

Garden Update 2

Everything is staring to grow!

I cannot wait to share some recipes from these yummy veggies!

Broccoli Pesto

I was going to make pasta with chicken and broccoli and I felt bad about wasting the broccoli stems so this recipe developed from me not wanting to waste and it turned out amazing!

Start by washing your broccoli and cut the florets off  then set them aside

Chop the stems

Add the chopped stems to your food processor and grind.  Once the broccoli is ground there will be more room for the other ingredients.  

I used 4 broccoli stems and about 1/4 cup fresh basil, 1/4 cup pine nuts, 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese 3-4 minced garlic cloves, juice from 1 lemon, and extra virgin olive oil to consistency (about 3 Tbsp)

Blend all ingredients together in the food processor

I then incorporated the pesto into my pasta.  I included whole wheat linguine, chicken, and the broccoli florets

Enjoy!

Baked Parmesan Green Beans

This is an easy one (I promise!!) 

Start by washing your beans and cut off the ends of your green beans

cover cookie sheet with tin foil and place prepared beans on the pan.  Sprinkle with a small amount of olive oil, fresh ground pepper and preheat oven for 350 degrees.

Bake until beans are tender when you stab with a fork.  They shouldn't be crunchy and they shouldn't be mushy.  (this should take around 15 minutes)

Once tender sprinkle with parmesan cheese & serve

Enjoy your veggies!

Whole Wheat Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Sorry for the week hiatus!  I missed you and I missed my kitchen but I'm back and with a great recipe for you!

First you mix:
1lb low fat ricotta cheese
1 egg yolk (save egg white in a separate bowl)
1 & 1/3 cup non fat milk
1/4 cup sugar
zest & juice from 1 lemon

Then mix:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp ground flax seed

Incorporate dry mixture into wet mixture slowly

Wisk the egg white you set aside earlier until foamy/frothy

Then add 1/8 tsp salt and wish until you get soft peaks

Then fold the egg white into the pancake batter (1/2 at a time)

Once fully incorporated, heat a lightly oiled pan on the stove and once warm begin to add the batter to the pan (my pancakes were about 4 inches in diameter)

Once they start to bubble around the edges (like below) they are ready to flip

The second half will cook quicker than the first side.  

Once the other side is browned they are ready to serve

Recipe makes around 14 pancakes

each pancake contains: 120 calories, 3.3 grams total fat, 1.8 grams saturated fat, 24 mg cholesterol, 204 mg sodium, 17 grams total carbohydrate, 1.3 grams fiber, 4.9 grams sugar, and 6.6 grams protein