Three Great Recipes to add to your 4th of July Celebration!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Fun Fact of the Day: Good news for fast food lovers everywhere! The new health-care legislation includes a law that requires over 200,000 chains nationwide to print calorie counts next to every item on their menu boards. So no more saying, "Wow I had no idea how many calories were in that Big Mac and large fries." We will all know whether we want to or not!

Article of the Day: 15 Healthy Foods to Have In Your Kitchen at All Times Read this article and find out how many of these foods you have in your kitchen. I'll be honest, I will be updating my grocery list before I head to the store on Sunday!

Red, White and Blue Fruit Pizza

Kudos to Eric for this one!! He made these for me last night (he even used splenda in the cream cheese icing)!! I tweaked the sugar cookie recipe a little bit to make them a little healthier. These are sure to please even your pickiest eater and they even look patriotic!


Ingredients for Sugar Cookies
  • 1cup heart-healthy margarine
  • 1 ½ cups white sugar (I use the splenda blend to save even more calories)
  • ½ cup egg beaters
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt 
Ingredients for Topping
  • 2 cups fat free cream cheese
  • 3 tablespoons splenda (you can add more to taste, I love cream cheese so I don’t like mine too sweet)
  • 2 cups chopped strawberries
  • 2 cups Blackberries or Blueberries
Directions

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually blend into the creamed mixture to form a soft dough. Cover or wrap dough, and refrigerate overnight.
  2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll cookies into medium size balls and flatten out slightly on cookie sheet. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.
  4. While cookies are cooling, combine cream cheese and Splenda. Mix until well blended and soft.
  5. Once the cookies are cool, cover with a thin layer of cream cheese icing and sprinkle with fruit!
Mango Salsa (FoodNetwork.com)
I absolutely love this mango salsa!! It is great with baked tortilla chips, pita chips, on grilled chicken or fish tacos!

Ingredients

  • 1 mango, peeled and diced
  • ½ cup peeled, diced cucumber
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno
  • 1/3 cup diced red onion
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions
Combine the mango, cucumber, jalapeno, red onion, lime juice and cilantro leaves and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

 Rainbows and Butterflies Pasta Salad (FoodNetwork.com)
This is not your normal mayo covered pasta salad! This pasta salad is healthy, light and delicious. The best part is the leftovers make a great lunch the next day!


Ingredients

  1. 8 ounces bow tie pasta, preferably whole grain
  2. 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
  3. 1 cup corn kernels, thawed if frozen
  4. 1 cup shelled edamame, thawed if frozen
  5. 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
  6. 2 medium carrots, shredded (about 1/2 cup)
  7. 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (about 1 ounce)
  8. Salt
Directions
Cook the pasta as the label directs. Drain and toss with 1 teaspoon olive oil to prevent sticking; let cool.

In a large bowl, toss the cooled pasta with the corn, edamame, bell pepper and carrots. Drizzle with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and toss to coat. Add the parmesan and 1/4 teaspoon salt; toss again and season to taste.

Yours truly,

Lauren G.






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1 Comment »

One Response to “Three Great Recipes to add to your 4th of July Celebration!”

  1. Thanks for posting these Lauren! I'm going to make the cookies this weekend. They look yum and I love cream cheese! Keep up the good blogging.

    ReplyDelete

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