Spinach!

Spinach.  Super food!  It's so amazing for you... full of nutrients, good source of protein, high in vitamins, full of iron, low in calories, versatile... Popeye loves it.  Click here to read more about the benefits of spinach.  :-)

I will say that when I was pregnant I hated spinach.  Couldn't touch it.  Now that I'm not, I'm back to loving me some spinach.  Here are two recipes I've tried recently that are chock full of the healthy green stuff.  Both are WW friendly, too!

Yay, got to use my food processor to make this delicious concotion!  Mmm... Jim and I ate it with some random things we found in the house... carrots, crackers... and then decided to splurge and get some chips for dipping.  All worked well.  Obviously if you go with veggies, it's even less points. 

Spinach and Artichoke Dip (WW recipe)

 The following pictures I took of our dinner tonight.  It looks like a jumbled spinach mess, doesn't it?

 

 

Cheese Enchiladas (WW recipe)

The recipe calls for bigger shells, but I did smaller ones... I thought it actually worked out pretty well.  After baking, it smelled soooo good with the fresh salsa.  Yum!  I think next time I may add some meat or mushrooms... something else to add to the texture a bit.  They needed something more, in my opinion.  Just not sure what!  Any suggestions? 

How do you like to eat spinach?!  :-)

Oh Garbanzo!

I just realized that this is my 51st blog entry!  That means that I've actually blogged 50 times?!  That's a little insane.  Insane maybe, but it sure has been scrumptious. 

I was lucky enough to have another snow day today... I wasn't nearly as lazy as yesterday.  Played some wordfeud with my brother, got some work done that's due tomorrow, watched some Ellen, and even Jazzercised tonight!  I heart Jazzercise.  <3

Anyway, in the midst of all that I made some more hummus.  Here it is in the food processor:

Alissa's Green Olive Hummus (1st attempt!)

Now, I've decided that I'm not going to give you the recipe until I perfect it.  I basically added a bunch of stuff in there today just to see how it would turn out.  Pretty good, but it could be better.  Wouldn't you rather have a recipe that's perfected?  Yep, I thought so. 

I also made Turkey Tetrazzini tonight for dinner.  Mmmm... and I may have made this, too:

Garbanzo and Avocado Salad (WW recipe)

Wow.  Just wow.  Oh glorious garbanzo beans!  This was soooooooooo fabulous.  Jimmy and I ate the whole bowl of it between us and barely touched the tetrazzini!  Can you believe that?!  Awesome.  I will definitely make this again.  The bright side?  We have leftover tetrazzini... which I personally think is even better than fresh tetrazzini.  Yum!

*Side note: For some reason, all of the recipes that I get out of this one WW magazine that I have I cannot find links for the recipes.  I'll give you the gist of what's included in the salad... I eyeballed the amounts based on what I had available and the fact that I wasn't making this for a small army. 

You need: 
-1/2 c. grape tomatoes, halved
-2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
-1 avocado, pitted and chopped
-1 small can of diced green chiles
-1/4 c. feta cheese
-1 clove garlic, chopped
-salt and pepper to taste
-2 T. fresh lemon juice

Throw it all in a bowl, stir, and eat!  Easy!  If you plan to save some of it for a later date, add the avocado separately so it doesn't brown.  You'll have to add new avocado when next you eat... that is, if there's any left!

Here's hoping for 50 more blogs of delicious food!  Thanks for reading, readers... if you're out there... :-)

Fluffy White Stuff :-)

Snow day!

It was a surprise snow day, too!  That made it even better than a normal snow day.  As far as we knew, it was supposed to snow anywhere from not-at-all to holy-cow-that's-a-lot-of-snow.  That's just how specific the meteorologists were being.  Waking up to a few inches of that fluffy white stuff was pretty sweet.  Below is a picture of where my husband threw a snowball at me from outside as he was leaving for work.  Good aim, honey... but I still got to crawl back into bed.  :-)

I wasn't completely lazy today...

I tried two new recipes (surprisingly, both were fluffy and white!):

White Bean Hummus

We've been on a crazy hummus kick lately.  I say "lately", but I really mean since we've discovered the awesomeness that is hummus.  We love hummus.  My favorite lately has been greek olive hummus... Jim's has been supremely spicy hummus.  Today, I made white bean hummus.  Please keep in mind that there are bunches of recipes for white bean hummus.  All I put in mine was cannellini beans, tahini, and lemon juice (fresh citrus!).  You could add any number of seasonings to the hummus and make it your own.  Cumin, oregano, green onions, rosemary, garlic, etc. 

I think the next time I make hummus I'm going to put green olives in it.  Mmm.  I'll keep you posted!  :-)

I also made this today:

Creamy Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

You could easily make this vegetarian by not putting any bacon in it.  I do have to tell you that Jimmy came home from work and asked why the house smelled so awful.  (He hates broccoli... and cauliflower isn't far off.)  This might be the worst smelling soup ever, but it tasted really good!  Jimmy even said so!  Does that even make sense?!  Cauliflower just doesn't smell good.  Sorry cauliflower.  I still love you.

Happy 2011!

I'm baaaack.  I know, it's only been a few minutes!  :-) 

We threw a New Year's Eve party at our place and it was a great excuse to make a lot of food.  Everything seemed to go over pretty well and despite everyone eating lots of food, there were (I should say "are") tons of leftovers.  Here's what I made:

Cold Spinach Dip

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

Pumpkin Smash!

Pumpkin Pie Dip

Vegetable Pizza (I made my mom's version dubbed "Veggie Bars"
and the recipe is a little different from the one linked... fyi!)

Onion Dip

Jelly Meatballs

Hot Apple Cider with Rum
(Pretty self-explanatory!)

Hot Fiesta Dip
(I add green chiles to mine...)

Hot Creamy Sausage Dip

Rosemary Chicken Pockets
(Dubbed "Chicken Salad Wontons" by our party-goers!)

I'm a huge fan of all things dipped, so we put out lots of cut-up veggies, scoops (baked and regular), pretzels, graham crackers, and apples and everyone went into a dipping frenzy!  It was fabulous! 

We also figured out that if you put little umbrellas in random things at the table, people generally stay away from them until the very end.  I say generally because there's always a rebel in every crowd. 

Happy 2011!!!  :-)

Just Desserts

I decided that I'm going to make this blog just about desserts that I've made.  Everyone likes dessert, right?  You really can't go wrong.  Unless you call it desert.  That's where camels live.  Get it right.  ;-)  (Does that bother anyone else?)  Hehe. 

I made this tonight to bring to a little book club party I'm going to tomorrow:

Pumpkin Pie Dip

I used my little handheld mixer!  :-)  Love when I can use the right tools.  You're supposed to put it on gingersnaps... I don't know how I feel about that.  Gingersnaps are okay, I guess.  Eh.  Not my favorite.  Maybe this dip will change my mind.  Pretty tasty.  Hopefully everyone else will think so!

Here are some other great desserts that I did NOT make tonight.  I repeat, did NOT make tonight.  What do you think I am, insane?  (Don't answer that.)  I think I already blogged about the third one, but it bears repeating... it was delicious.  These are all WW recipes and got rave reviews, so don't knock them til you try them! 

Mixed Berry Crumble

Lemon Raspberry Bread Pudding

Apple-Pear Crisp

Enjoy!  :-)