Cranberry Bars

Yes, it's another healthy recipe. Kind of. I'm not sure how healthy it really is, but it IS tasty.

INGREDIENTS

Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour (4 oz)

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 Tbsp butter, melted

3 Tbsp orange juice

Cooking spray

Filling

1 1/3 cups dried cranberries (6 oz)

3/4 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. grated orange rind

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. To prepare crust, combine flour and the next 5 ingredients (through cinnamon) into a medium bowl. Stir well with a whisk until combined. Drizzle melted butter and orange juice over flour mixture, stirring until moistened (mixture will be crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup of oat mixture. Press remaining oat mixture into the bottom of an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

To prepare filling, combine cranberries, sour cream, granulated sugar, and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring well. Spread cranberry mixture over prepared crust and sprinkle reserved oat mixture evenly over filling. Bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool completely in a pan on a wire rack.

VERDICT

These didn't last long. Even my husband who doesn't care for sweets loved these. The cranberries are nice and tart- and the bars make a great breakfast snack!

NUTRITION

Servings: 24 Serving Size: 1 square Calories: 133 Fat: 4.6 g Carbs: 21.9 g Fiber: 0.9 g Protein: 1.5 g

Healthy Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ok, so maybe healthy isn't exactly the right word. How about 'low-fat?' This recipe is a lighter take on my favorite football season snack, and honestly, it's just as good as the full-fat version!

INGREDIENTS

• 13.75 oz artichoke hearts packed in water, drained
• 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
• 1/4 cup chopped shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
• 2/3 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
• 4 oz shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
• olive oil spray

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a small food processor, coarsely chop the artichoke hearts with the garlic and shallots. Or chop them coarsely with a knife- less to clean up later!

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl.

Place in an oven-proof dish and bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes, until hot and cheese is melted. Serve right away.
VERDICT

Yummy. And only 73 calories... if you only eat 1/4 a cup. But still- much better than the full-fat version!

NUTRITION

Servings: 15 • Serving Size: 1/4 cup
Calories: 73.3 • Fat: 4.4 g • Carb: 3.4 g • Fiber: 0.9 g • Protein: 5.2 g • Sugar: 0.6 g Sodium: 244.7 g

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

After the spaghetti squash incident, I thought it would be wise to stick to safer, more common squash. Thus, this easy to make, well-known squash soup. Enjoy.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, diced
1 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 pears, peeled and chopped into roughly 1-inch pieces
1-quart (4 cups) low sodium chicken (or veggie) stock, or enough to cover
Dash of pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg or cinnamon
Salt, freshly ground black pepper and granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS

In a large stockpot or dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high until melted. Drop heat to medium, add onions, and cook until soft and a little translucent. Add squash and pears and sweat for another 15 or 20 minutes.

Add stock and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until squash is tender.

If you have an immersion blender, great – use it. If not, process half the batch in a blender until smooth. (Be very careful here, lest the blender spill over.) Remove and process the other half. Add both halves back into pot.

Season with spice, salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. (nutmeg! use the nutmeg!)
VERDICT
Nothing says fall to me like the taste of nutmeg in recipes. In soups, in chai latte, in cookies. I love it! This soup was really good. Pouring in batches into the blender was a bit of a mess, but who wants chunky squash soup?

NUTRITION
The recipe says: 191 calories, 6.4 g fat, but I found it more like 110 calories when I entered it into the website I use to calculate recipes.

Spaghetti Squash Pomodoro

Have you ever eaten spaghetti squash? Not many people have. We tried it a few years ago with limited success. But when I saw this recipe in the Wegman's magazine I thought it was worth another shot.

The squash I bought was HUGE. So big, in fact, that Mark thought it was a pumpkin. He convinced the kids it was a pumpkin. He drew a face on it. And then he made the kids cry because I told them that no, we couldn't carve it.I think he just didn't want to eat it.

Anyways... after a few weeks of sitting on the counter I decided to make it. On my way home from work I called Mark and asked him to cut it in half and place it in the microwave like the directions said. He sent me the following picture with the caption "I told you it was a pumpkin!"

It had pumpkin guts. And pumpkin seeds. Crap. Was it a pumpkin after all? I did not give in. We cooked it up. We pulled the guts out. I ran my fork down the sides and... success!! Spaghetti!The rest of the recipe progressed without any further concerns.

INGREDIENTS

1 large spaghetti squash, halved stem to blossom end, seeded
1 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1 small cooking onion, minced (1/2 cup)
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 large clove Garlic, minced
1 small sprig Fresh Rosemary
1/2 of a 28 oz can Italian Classics San Marzano Tomatoes (with juices), tomatoes crushed or blended (1 1/2 cups) Or, you know, just regular tomatoes. Fresh or canned.
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Grated Pecorino Romano cheese
12 small leaves Basil, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Place squash, skin side up (one half at a time), on microwave-safe dish; cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap. Microwave on HIGH, 10-12 min, until tender. Let rest covered, 10-15 min, until cool enough to handle; carefully remove plastic wrap to avoid steam.
2. Run tines of fork lengthwise over cut surface of squash to loosen spaghetti-like strands; scoop out strands.
3. Heat oil in skillet on MEDIUM-LOW; add onion and pepper flakes; cook 5 min, or until onion is translucent but not browned.
4. Add garlic; continue to cook another 2 min. Add rosemary and tomatoes; season with salt and pepper. Simmer on LOW 10 min. Remove and discard rosemary.
5. Add spaghetti squash to sauce; toss quickly and gently to heat through.
   
6. Top each serving with 1/2 tsp cheese and garnish with basil.

VERDICT

Mark complained that it "tasted like spaghetti." I think that was the point. I'm fairly certain that if you were to serve this up to unsuspecting guests they wouldn't know the difference. The color is a bit off, but I'm sure you could explain that away.

Regardless, it was a healthy recipe, a unique vegetable and presentation, and it was pretty tasty.NUTRITION

Each serving (4 oz squash & sauce) contains 45 calories, 6 g carbohydrate, (1 g fiber), 1 g protein, 2 g fat, (0 g saturated fat), 0 mg cholesterol, and 40 mg sodium.

Calories: 45

Baked Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries

Still thinking about the success of the eggplant fries, I decided to move on to another underused vegetable- the sweet potato. It's also called a yam. Who knew? I always think of yams as that weird orange dish covered in marshmallows at Thanksgiving. I never eat that.

Anyways, here is a recipe for sweet potato fries. And of course, it's healthy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 sweet potato, (about 5" long) peeled and cut into 1/4" fries
• 2 tsp olive oil
• sea salt
• ground chipotle chile
• garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425°.

In a medium bowl, toss sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, garlic powder and chipotle chile powder.

Spread potatoes on a baking sheet. Avoid crowding so potatoes get crisp. Bake 15 minutes.

Turn and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Ovens may vary so keep an eye on them and be sure to cut all the potatoes the same size to ensure even cooking.
VERDICT

Well... these should have been really good. I used too much oil on them. They were really oily and soggy, but they had GREAT flavor. Definitely a keeper recipe.

NUTRITION

Servings: 2 • Serving Size: 1/2 recipe •
Calories: 108 • Fat: 4.7g • Protein: 1.1 g • Carb: 15.8 g • Fiber: 2.0 g

Mango Salsa

We like salsa. How much? Check it out here.

Newman's Own has a mango salsa that's really good. So I tried to make my own this year. Partially I used a recipe. And then I threw a bunch of other stuff in. Here's what I ended up with:

INGREDIENTS

3 barely ripe mangoes
3 barely ripe peaches
1 1/2 cups diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup yellow onion
10 chopped tomatoes (peeled & seeded)
2 TBS minced garlic
2 TBS chopped cilantro
1 TBS ground ginger
1/2 cup lime juice
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
5-7 hot peppers (jalapenos, habenaros, etc.)

DIRECTIONS

Choose ripe but not mushy mangoes and peaches. Peel both and chop into pieces. Chop peppers, onion & tomatoes. Mix all together with spices.

Cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the canning jars by soaking in near-boiling water.

Remove hot jars and fill with salsa. Return jars to water bath and boil 20 minutes.

Make sure the tops "pop" on all jars, otherwise eat or freeze salsa.

VERDICT

This was the second mango salsa recipe we tried. The first was missing the zip from the peppers. When made with habenaros, this salsa definitely has spice!

Beer Grilled Chicken

Sigh.

It's been a long time since I've had a complete, full-out, spectacularly failed recipe.

This one might just have broken the streak.

It sounds like it should be good. At least the title captured my attention. Let's have a look at what made this tasty-sounding treat a toss-out.

INGREDIENTS

8	chicken breasts or cut up chicken parts
1/3	cup butter, melted
1 1/2	cups lemon juice
1	can beer
1	teaspoon garlic salt or 2-3 cloves minced fresh garlic
1	teaspoon lemon pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine butter, beer, lemon juice, garlic and lemon pepper.
2. Pour over chicken pieces, and cover; store in refrigerater 4-6 hours to marinate.
3. On a grill, barbecue pieces, brushing sauce over chicken as you turn them.
4. Grill about 15-20 mins per side.

VERDICT

The "1 1/2 cups lemon juice" probably should have been a warning sign. I mean, really? A full one and a half cups? I can see 1 1/2 TABLESPOONS. Or even a half cup. But when the full amount of lemon this recipe called for hit the beer and butter it almost instantly curdled. I nearly tossed out the entire thing right there. I probably would have been better off.

It was lemony. And not in a good way. It wasn't inedible, at least not by my husband. But then again he was starving and probably more willing than I to suffer through it. I wasn't. I tossed it.

Actually, I cut it up into pieces for my salad, and then tossed it the next day when I realized I couldn't bring myself to put something on my salad so vile. Salads are hard enough.

So what do you think? Is there any redeeming value to this recipe? I'd like to know if you have any suggestions.

Honey Tilapia

Easiest Recipe Ever.

INGREDIENTS

Honey
Chopped Pecans

DIRECTIONS

Coat tilapia in a small drizzle of honey (you dont need much!) and then roll in pecans...
you can either bake it or sautee it.
VERDICT

Again, easiest recipe ever. Very little clean-up, lots of taste. My husband wasn't the biggest fan, but I think he's sick of tilapia (it being the only fish I ever make!) But whatever. I like it. And I didn't have to do a lot of dishes!

NUTRITION

419 calories