Smart & Savory Snack

I highly recommend this combo!

Drizzle extra virgin cold pressed olive oil & sprinkle some paprika and freshly ground pepper for a mouth watering munchie!

Homemade Cheesy Rice & Sauteed Broccoli

One of my 4 year old daughter's favorite lunches when she gets home from school!  And what a healthy dose of comfort food it is! 

• For best results, try to use fresh broccoli and Basmati rice. 
• Make a traditional cheese sauce (I used Mexican blend & parmesean) and mix into a larger quantitiy of cooked rice so it's not soupy. 
• Chop up and rinse broccoli, and saute in extra virgin olive oil over medium heat for 10-15 min. Season with coarse salt and a tad of freshly ground pepper.  Garlic powder optional as well.  It beats any processed boxed riced mixes!

Petite Panini

With Arnold Sandwich Thins (multigrain) brushed with olive oil and filled with some shredded mozarella, red bell pepper, roasted eggplant & zucchini, & Italian dressing, you can make these quite quickly. Dip in some marinara sauce and you have one delish dish!

(*tip: buy a ready made bag of marinated roasted zucchini & eggplant in Trader Joe's freezer section, microwave, and then crisp up on a pan over medium heat for a few minutes)

Asian Almond Salad

Toss some iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced almonds, goat cheese, yellow bell pepper, julienned zucchini & carrots with this dressing from Trader Joe's and you will have a savory salad!

Apple Fries

Ok, I just recently saw that Burger King serves these, but I swear I created mine before I knew about theirs!  This has been a great way to entice my daughter to eat fruit and just perfect for little toddler hands.  Now that she's a pre-schooler, she still enjoys them and we often dip in peanut butter!

Green Beans with roasted garlic & pine nuts

Black Bean Lasagna

My awesome friend & former colleague V.L. taught me how to make this when we lived in VA.  Now I have to fix it myself in NC!

What you need:

• 9x12 baking dish (glass or stoneware best but an aluminum brownie pan will do)
• 9 boiled lasagna sheets
• 2 cans Goya black bean soup
• 2 cans Rotel (I use the mild)
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 16 oz. low fat sour cream
• 2 cups shredded mozarella but if you can find it, farmer's cheese is really what you're supposed to use in this recipe
• fresh cilantro to taste or 1 tablespoon dried
• salt to taste but I don't use any since it's mostly stuff from a can anyway that is already salty

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Saute garlic in olive oil.  Add black bean soup, Rotel, and cilantro.  Heat and set aside.

3. Fill a zip lock back with sour cream, let out extra air, seal, and cut one of the bottom corners to make it like an icing bag.

4. Spray bottom of baking dish with nonstick spray.

5. Lay 3 of the lasagna sheets side by side in bottom of baking dish.

6. Pour one ladle of soup mixture on each lasagna sheet.

7. Pipe one strip of sour cream on each sheet.

8. Sprinkle some cheese on each sheet.

9. Repeat for next two layers.

10. Bake 30 min. or until bubbling and cheese melted.

Be careful and enjoy!! 

Bonus tip:  Tastes wonderful with rosemary focacia