Morning Treat--Cinnamon-Pecan Waffles

I have always been a breakfast person, but I tend to go for the same things over and over: cereal, bagels or eggs. My son, on the other hand, only wants one thing in the morning: WAFFLES. There are mornings when at 3am he approaches my room whimpering “Mommy? Waffles, I need waffles…” and I need to gently guide him back to bed reminding him that it is just too early, we can only have waffles once the sun comes up.

I was short on Bisquick this past weekend and needed something to bulk up my waffle batter so it wouldn’t be too soupy for the waffles iron. Ever since moving to GA pecans seem to be very abundant, so I chopped some up, threw them into the batter with some cinnamon, and created this morning goodness that I have been eating every morning since.

This photo does not do this dish justice--you'll just have to believe me that these are delicious!

 Cinnamon-Pecan Waffles

Servings: 6 (1 serving = ½ a waffle)

PointsPlus Value per serving: 5

130 calories, 6g fat, 4g protein

Ingredients

1 cup Bisquick Original Baking Mix

1/2 cup chopped pecans   

1 Tbs vegetable oil     

1 egg     

1 cup fat-free skim milk   

1 Tbs cinnamon

Directions

-Spray a cold waffle iron with PAM. Set to highest setting and wait for waffle iron to heat up (mine has a green light that goes on that tells you it is ready, yours may be different).

-While the waffle iron is heating up, mix together all of the ingredients. Let batter sit for 3-5 minutes to thicken.

-In three batches, pour batter into the waffle iron and let it do its magic.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

July 4th celebration featuring Summer Salads

Happy July 4th! We have been celebrating this holiday weekend by doing one of my favorite things--cook-outs with friends. Last night we went over to our good friend's house to enjoy some good old fashion burgers and hot dogs. I think that one of my favorite things about grilling is that you can basically grill the same things every week (in my book that would be chicken breasts or burgers) but you get a totally different meal based on the side salads you serve with the meal.

Last night I brought my Pesto Potato Salad and Greek Pasta Salad (recipe below) with us to the BBQ, and we will be having left-overs of them tonight with some easy balsamic chicken. Other suggestions for BBQ sides include:

-Swedish Potato Salad with Cucumbers and Red Onions
-Green Bean Salad with Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Red Onion
-Mediterranean Orzo Salad

This week is going to be a pretty low-key cooking week, especially since it is a short holiday week and the upcoming weekend is filled with kid's birthday parties and dinners out. As it turns out, we will only be home for three dinners.

Monday: Balsamic Chicken Breast with Pesto Potato Salad and Greek Pasta Salad*

Tuesday: Vegetable Lasagna with homemade bread sticks from epicurious.com

Wednesday: Grilled Pesto Pizza (replace the bruschetta topping with my simple perfect pesto, and top with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes for the last 3 minutes of grilling) with a large Italian Side Salad

Greek Pasta Salad
Serves: 10
PointsPlus per serving: 6
240 calories, 10 grams fat

Ingredients
1/2 box Barilla Plus Rotini pasta, cooked and drained
1 cup canned chickpeas 
2 carrots, diced
10 kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 cup Athenos Feta cheese with tomato & basil   
1/2 cup cherry tomato , sliced
1/4 cup diced celery  
1/4 cup diced cucumber  
1/4 cup diced red onion  

Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil  
2 Tbs cup red wine vinegar  
2 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs fresh chopped oregano
2 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbs honey
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions
-Mix dressing together in a small bowl. For best results, blend dressing in a small food processor.
-Set dressing aside.
-Mix cooled pasta with all ingredients EXCEPT for the feta cheese.
-Top pasta/veggie mixture with dressing and stir well.
-Add feta cheese last, mixing until just combined so that it doesn't get too crumbly.
-Refrigerate for 2+ hours so that flavors get a chance to infuse pasta.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

Pesto Potato Salad and Other Easy Week-Night Meals

Another week, another menu line-up. It's a FarmBox weeks, so hopefully we will get some great produce. My herb garden has been growing out of control, so I had to trim back my basil, giving me the perfect opportunity to make some pesto. Dinner out 2 nights this week, again. I am really looking forward to next week where we will be home every night. I think it is so much easier to make healthy eating choices at home! I can't take credit for all of my meals this week, since 2 of the recipes are borrowed from other sites, but I hope you will enjoy them nonetheless!

Sunday: Italian Chicken Burgers with Pesto Potato Salad (recipe below)

Monday: Melting Pot with the girls (try my Date-Night Fondue recipe for your at-home Melting Pot experience! Not so good for you, but oh so delicious!)

Tuesday: Chipotle Tamale Pie from Food Network's Ingrid Hoffman

Wednesday: Dinner out

Thursday: Pasta Primavera (we never ended up eating this last week, so I froze the mixture for this week)

Friday: Catalina Chicken (made with cranberry sauce instead of apricot jam) with wild rice and challah

Saturday: Philly Cheese Steaks with peppers, onions and provolone (just swapping out some leftover frozen Flank steak in my Chicken Special  recipe and melting some provolone cheese over it. The leftover flank steak has already been grilled so I will just slice it super thin when it is half-way thawed)

Pesto Potato Salad
Serves 4
PointsPlus per serving: 5
 225 calories, 7g fat

Ingredients
4 medium sized red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1/4 cup Perfect Pesto
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
1/8 cup red onion, sliced thin

Directions
-In a medium pot, boil diced potatoes until just tender. Drain.
-Stir in Perfect Pesto and balsamic vinegar until all of the potatoes are covered.
-Gently fold in diced tomatoes and sliced red onion
-Allow to cool, then refrigerate over night prior to serving, allowing flavors to intensify.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

Eating out is hard to do. OK, maybe not.

I have an easy cooking week ahead of me, especially since we are going out Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night for dinner! Not our usual, but we have a kids concert tonight that would only be compete with a pre-party pizza, Thursday night we have a committee meeting so we are grabbing a quick bite afterward, and Friday we have been invited out to dinner. My goal for this week was to keep our budget tight at the grocery store, and since we had 1 frozen chicken breast in the freezer, I was able to get away with buying fresh produce and ground turkey to complete all of our meals this week, putting us at a $40 grocery bill--not bad for 3 people!

Here's our line-up:

Sunday: Italian Turkey Burgers with sweet potato fries (I use the Alexia's frozen ones, they are very tasty and fairly healthy)

Monday: Betty Crocker's Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps with leftover Lo Mein (have you ever frozen lo mein? It actually freezes really well. I always freeze whatever we have left over and then just heat it up on the stove-top and toss in extra veggies and a little soy sauce)

Tuesday: Pizza from Screamin' Mimi's

Wednesday: Pasta Primavera

Thursday: Dinner out

Friday: Out again ;-)

Saturday: Chicken Enchiladas with Goya Black Beans and Rice

The Italian Turkey Burgers were very tasty and juicy--plus they were simple to make!

Italian Turkey Burgers
Serves 2
PointsPlus per serving: 9
400 calories per serving for patty and light hamburger bun

Ingredients:
3/4 pounds ground 93% lean turkey
1/2 packet Lipton Savory Herb and Garlic recipe, soup and dip mix
1/4 cup uncooked quick oats
2 tbs diced red onion
1 tbs fresh chopped parsley
2 light hamburger buns

Directions:
-Mix all ingredients together and form into 2 patties.
-Refrigerate for 1 hour
-Grill over medium flame from 8-10 minutes per side, or until juices run clear.
-Serve on light hamburger roll with ketchup, tomato and lettuce.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

Cooking ahead for a stressfull week

For the past two weeks my part-time job has been taking over my life. The start of Camp is here and I am super stressed--months of planning and organizing and the big day is this week! Knowing that this week will be nuts with parent inquiries and camper changes, I prepped as many of our meals as I could Sunday morning. Here is our line-up:

Monday--Teriyaki Chicken Stir-Fry (Marinated chicken on Sunday and purchased a pre-packaged veggie-stir-fry mix to quickly throw this meal together)

Tuesday--Eggplant Lasagna (Prepped on Sunday and in the fridge waiting to be baked! I just use my Eggplant Rollatini recipe, but rather than make individual rolls I layer the eggplant and cheese like a lasagna)

Wednesday--Vegetarian Taco Salads (Made the beans Sunday morning (recipe to follow), all I have to do is shred some lettuce and top with fresh veggies, salsa, sour cream and cheese)

Thursday--Dinner with friends--OUT :-)

Friday--Tuscan Brick Chicken from Barefoot Contessa with homemade Challah

Saturday--Beer-Marinated Flank Steak from Epicurious.com

Its a FarmBox week, so I made sure we were having something saucy on Tuesday to dip the to-die-for bread in that we will be getting.

So back to the Vegetarian Taco Salad. This dish is inspired by my UMass days when my roommate Sue and I would get super excited when we saw Veggie Tacos featured at the DC. It wasn't until I graduated that I realized how simple these beans were to make.

Veggie Taco Beans
Servings: 4
WW PointsPlus Per Serving: 7
285 calories, 1g fat, 11g fiber, 15g protein, 55g carbs


Ingredients
1 15oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1 Tbs chili powder
1/4 cup water

Directions
-In a small pot, stir together all ingredients and bring to a boil.
-Reduce to low heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes, until sauce is thick.
-Serve over shredded lettuce with your favorite taco toppings.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.

My first big cooking gig--Chicken with Fruit and Olives + Swedish Almond Torte=success!

The crowd

Tonight was kinda a big night for me--I sort of "catered" my first big event. Sure, I have done small showers and parties, but nothing like this. I was asked to cook for our synagogue's annual fundraiser, and although I have a million things going on this week, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. I decided to bring it back to basics by making my Chicken with Olives and Fruit, knowing that I could prep most of the dish on Friday and simply cook off the recipe on the day of the event. Being that is was a kosher event, I faced the challenge of finding a dessert that did not contain any dairy products. I opted for a Swedish favorite of mine, Mazarinetorta, or Almond Torte, that can be made with margarine and non-dairy pie crust. Healthy? No. Delicious? Yes!

Chicken and Fruit for 150+ people!

The Chicken with Olives and Fruit has made an appearance on my blog a few times. And although I try to focus on healthy meals on my blog, I am making an exception and sharing my recipe for Mazarinetorta. It is surprisingly easy to make. Don't believe me? I made 9 of them in just about an hour!

Mazarinetorta

Mazarinetorta
Calories per serving: You don't want to know.
1 frozen pie crust
225 grams melted margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2/3 cups almond slivers
3 eggs

Garnish
1/3 cup powdered sugar
3-4 strawberries, sliced


Directions:
-Pre-heat oven to 325.
-In a large bowl, beat eggs until slightly frothy. Add sugar, melted margarine and almond extract.
-In a food processor, pulse the almonds until they have a fine, flour like texture. Add to the egg mixture. Stir until well combined.
-Pour mixture into the pie crust.
-Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and center is firm.
-Remove from oven and let cool completely.
-Top with powdered sugar and sliced strawberries.

Not so healthy meals to nourish your mind.

Grilled Buschetta Pizza--Put your BBQ Skills To The Test

It is really getting HOT here in GA. Time to fire up the BBQ and enjoy some late summer nights where the cool breeze from the bluff is your only hope for relief. Tonight we grilling up something a little different--pizza. I was really craving it, but when I mentioned pizza to my husband he said "It's just way to hot." Solution: Grill up some pizza dough on the BBQ, let it cool, then top with refreshing summer ingredients guaranteed to cool you down and satisfy that pizza craving all at once. Tonight, I used my basic pizza dough recipe, griled it up, and topped it with one of my favorite Italian starters: bruschetta. Serve this pizza with a nice side salad and dinner is done! Just a slight tip--make the bruschette a few hours before you grill your dough, so that the flavors can all meld together.

Grilled Bruschetta Pizza 
Serves 4
300 calories per serving

Bruschetta Topping
1 tbs olive oil
1 large tomato, chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
-Mix ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Pizza dough
(Makes two 12-inch pizzas--you will only use one for this recipe)
1 1/2 cups warm water (not HOT)
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs olive oil, divided
3 cups white flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt

-In a small bowl mix yeast, warm water and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes until it gets frothy looking.
-Add 1 tbs oil to yeast mixture and put aside.
-In a separate bowl mix flours and salt.
-Slowly mix yeast mixture into flour mixture. Dough should form a smooth ball (add extra flour if it is too sticky--you may need to use your hand)
-Cover bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
-Punch down dough and kneed for 3 minutes.
-Divide dough in half. Toss one crust into a zip lock bag and freeze.
-On a floured surface, roll out your dough until it is about 1/8th inch thick. Using a pastry brush, smooth 1/2 tbs oil on the side that is facing up (this will be the side you place facing down on the grill).
-Pre-heat grill. Place dough on the grill oiled-side down. Let cook for 1 minute. After the minute is up, brush the remaining 1/2 tbs oil on the side of the pizza facing up. Once the dough starts to bubble on top, kinda like a pancake, it is time to flip it.
-Cook for about 1 minute more and them remove, placing on a large cutting board or pizza wheel to cool.

To complete your pizza, top cooled pizza crust with bruschetta topping. For added flavor (and calories, so don't forget to add them in), drizzle with balsamic vinegar and fresh Parmesan shavings.

Healthy meals to nourish your mind.