Delicious and Healthy Party Food

I am about to blast you with some delicious recipes for some nutritious and heart-healthy party food ideas. We recently celebrated my husband's birthday, and with our focus on eating and living well, I wanted to create options that were fresh, healthy and colourful- so we came up with a Mexican themed menu.

I prepared some shredded Mexican chicken breast, some taco seasoned lean ground beef, some Mexican beans and had hard tacos, soft tortilla shells and loads of veggies and 'fixins' for everyone to build their own Mexican Masterpiece.

No Mexican fiesta would be complete without some salsa and guacamole. With parents, and children joining us for the party, I didn't want to make anything too spicy, so here is my homemade version of these 2 'spiced down' favourites.

Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 fresh pineapple cut into tidbits
• 1 plum tomato diced
• 1/3 green pepper diced
• 1/3 red pepper diced
• 2 green onions diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp sea salt

Directions

Chop all ingredients and mix in bowl. Juice lime over salsa and add salt. Stir and taste for seasoning. To add a bit of spice you can add some fresh chopped jalapeno. Place in fridge for flavours to marinate. Serve cold with some tortilla chips.  This would also be delicious served over a grilled chicken breast or fish.

Guacamole

Ingredients

• 4 avocados
• 1/2 red pepper diced
• 1/3 cup cilantro finely chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Directions

Scoop flesh out of avocados, mash them to desired 'chunkiness' consistency. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate. Serve with your Mexican favourites!

We love the Organic Neal Brothers Blue Tortilla chips. It's also delicious on your Mexican tacos, tortillas, nachos, quesadillas or even on your burgers!

BIRTHDAY TREAT TIME!!!!

Ok, ok, so I kept a little treat for the end. It was, after all, my husbands birthday party and when I asked him what special desert I could make for him he said 'trifle'. Different, right?  So I thought of a way to add a bit of 'nutrition' into this and decided to make a Banana Trifle.

Here's the recipe I loosely followed to make his creamy, dreamy whipped banana pudding trifle dreams come true!

Birthday Banana Trifle

Ingredients

• 3 bananas, diced
• 2 packages of banana instant pudding
• 4 cups 1% milk
• 1 container of light cool whip
• 1 Pound cake, diced
• 1/2 pack of Nilla wafers

Directions

Make the banana pudding according to package directions. Cool in refrigerator until ready to assemble. In your trifle bowl, layer half of the ingredients at a time. Start with the pound cake, banana pudding, bananas, crumbled Nilla wafers, place some around the perimeter of the bowl to create a nice pattern, then the cool whip. Repeat step with remaining half and reserve some chunks of cake, cookies or bananas.

Brent loved his Birthday Banana Trifle! It looked so beautiful and was a little different than the usual cake. It's OK to have a little treat on your birthday... especially when you go to the gym the next morning and work it off!

Thanks to all our family who came to celebrate and to my beautiful daughter for hosting some great party games!

Spaghetti Squash- Asian Style

It's soooooo cold outside- forecast for the weekend is -30 with the windchill, so what better way to warm up than with a steamy bowl of Asian inspired, nutritious and tasty Spaghetti Squash Stir Fry.

As you know, I have been trying to add more vegetables to our dinner table, and let me tell you... I think I finally found a way to enjoy this stringy squash!

You start off by cutting your squash in half, removing the seeds and baking it at 400F for about 45 minutes.

Now, this is the most fun... flip them over and using a fork, scrape the inside and see the magic happen! It all comes out like stringy spaghetti- hence the name!

Look at this amazing pile of golden nutrition! Now put aside and gather your other ingredients and ask Siri about the nutritional content of this delicious squash.

Seriously, that's what I did!

And look at the proof, Siri knows!

• 1 cup of spaghetti 491 calories

• 1 cup of Spaghetti Summer Squash, as she calls it, is 14 calories. unbelievable!!!! 

Now don't even start comparing the vitamin C content (15 times more)!

Now off to the Stir Fry pan. 

I assembled my choice ingredients. The original recipe this was inspired from had mushrooms (yuk for me), so I substituted with some sweet peppers and added some chicken breast for added protein. 

So here's how I did it.

Asian Inspired Spaghetti Squash 

(inspired by http://www.pickledplum.com/yakisoba-spaghetti-squash-recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 small spaghetti squash 

• 1 sweet pepper chopped in strips
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, sliced

• 2 scallions, finely chopped

• 2 cup coleslaw mix of carrots and cabbage
• 1 cup bean sprouts

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 tsp dried red chili, chopped (optional)

• 1 tbsp chopped peanuts
• 1 tbsp cilantro

• For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• ½ tbsp hot thai chili garlic sauce

• Salt and white pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Cut spaghetti squash in half, scrape off the seeds with a spoon, place open side down and bake in the oven at 400Fº for 40-50 minutes.
2. Use a fork and scrape the flesh into strings.
3. In a large pan over high heat, add vegetable oil and cook the peppers, add coleslaw mix and red chile and cook for two minutes.
4. Add chicken and cook for another two minutes.
5. Add spaghetti squash, bean sprouts, scallions and sauce, and mix well until the sauce has evenly coated all the vegetables. Cook for two minutes and turn the heat off.
6. Transfer to a bowl, top with cilantro, peanuts and serve.

Modern Sweet Potato Stew

I love those Looney Spoons Girls, Janet and Greta Podleski. Any time I need to add a healthy, nutritious and tasty meal to my repertoire, I turn to their cookbooks and I am always impressed with the impressive flavour. It's all about the fresh herbs and spices. Have a look at my latest!

The names for these recipes crack me up! Check below...

One Flew over the Couscous Nest

(adapted from Crazy Plates: Low-Fat Food So Good, You'll Swear It's Bad for You by Janet and Greta Podleski)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1 tbsp ground gingerroot

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup each chopped onions and chopped red bell pepper

1 tsp each ground coriander and curry powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 c chicken broth

3 c peeled, cubed sweet potatoes

1 c couscous

2 tbsp orange juice concentrate

3/4 c light coconut milk

2 tbsp each cornstarch and chopped fresh cilantro

Heat olive oil and add chicken, ginger and garlic. Cook and stir until chicken is no longer pink (Since I used cooked chicken, I just sauteed the garlic and ginger with the onions). Add onions and pepper and cook 3 minutes. Stir in spices and cook for 1 more minute.

Gorgeous Sweet Potatoes ... the star of the show!

Add broth and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, prepare couscous per directions, but add orange juice concentrate to couscous before adding water. ( I used quinoa, but you could use any grain you enjoy).

Combine coconut milk and cornstarch until smooth. 

Add to chicken and veggies along with cilantro. Increase heat and cook until thickened.

Serve over fluffed up grain of your choice. Now go an create your own magic in your cold winter kitchen!

Asian Peanut Chicken

So I love peanuts and I love peanut butter. So when I can pear it up with my other favourite ingredients... MANGO, COCONUT MILK and CILANTRO...you know it's gonna be a fantastic meal!

... and when this fantastic stirfry contains colourful sweet peppers, you know my family it going to devour it.

So what you need to do first is to prepare your ingredients for the sauce.

Sauce:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup peanuts
3 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup sliced mango
1/2 cup light coconut milk
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp light soya sauce
garlic (pressed) and chili peppers to taste

Cut 3 chicken breast in chunks and place in your wok with the canola oil.  Place all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Chops your peppers and whatever other veggies you might like and toss them in the wok. Add your sauce mixture and let the flavours meld together (making sure your chicken is cooked through, about 10-12 minutes).

Top of with my favourite- CILANTRO!

Et voila! Delicious over a bed of basmati rice. Crowd pleaser for sure!

Cilantro Love

What do you do with leftover fresh roll fixin's?

THIS!!!!
I shared with you some fresh roll recipe a few weeks ago, now it's time for sharing with you what I do with the leftover ingredients.  You'll have the following leftover:
- bean sprouts
-shredded carrots
-cucumber
-fresh cilantro (Ohhhh, how I love you)

Mix it all together with a light Asian dressing and some chopped mango and chopped peanuts and you have amazing leftovers!