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!

Pineapple Boat Fantasies

Your saying, "WHAT???".
Well, when you invent your own recipe, you get to name it!
When you are your very own Master Chef... at home... You also get to buy what's on sale and create magic with it! Well, this is what I did when pineapples went on sale...

I created 'Pineapple Boat Fantasies'... and took some pretty pictures... Well, it's real easy when you have such colourful and juicy models!

Here's what you do. First, carefully cut your pineapple in half lengthwise, these will become your boats. Carefully cut out the inside of the pineapple and cut up into chunks, add to a bowl of cut up fresh fruit of your choice. I chose cantaloupe, strawberries and blackberries.

Toast some coconut in the oven, get some vanilla or plain yogurt ready and assemble.

... and there you have it, gorgeous Pineapple Boat Fantasies. Ok, now this has got me thinking... what other kind of boats can I make. Well, I remember wayyyyyyyyyyy back in the '80's, we used to go to Mother's Pizzeria and I would get this fabulous fresh desert. It was a half cantaloupe in a bowl, and in the centre was some orange shertbet. Oooooooh, it was so good!!!! Might have to invent some more 'vessels' this summer for sure!

Honeymoon in Niagara- Celebrating 14 Years of Togetherness!

My sweet dear husband surprised me last week.  I do love surprises, moreover, I love when someone plans a totally decadent weekend away without me lifting a 'planning' finger! And I love that my husband would do all this for me.... because he loves me! So let me take you on a tour of the sights and tasty treats we enjoyed!

We stayed at a wonderful hotel with an amazing few of the Falls, both American and Canadian Falls, 39 flights up in the 'Junior Presidential Suite'. Amazing!

Here's Brent with the fancy fireplace.

Me, standing in the bathroom with the giant Jaccuzi tub with a giant window that looks into the room and out over the falls... yeah, WILD, I know!

Comfy bed and fluffy pillows, and super model... extra bonus! LOL

Now here's the part Brent was excited about... among other things, of course! Trying out this famous Brazilian Steakhouse. I must admit, I was intrigued too! Well it was quite an event- go with an empty stomach!!!! So you arrive at your table and they explain that if you want the waiters- known as Gauchos- to give you some meat, you place your Green coaster out- green means go! And if you are still eating or thinking about it or just plain full, you flip it to the Red side of the coaster.... STOP. As in, STOP, I can't bear another morsel of food.

So you can start with the 70 item salad bar, but don't fill up- they tell you. They are right! But hey, I couldn't resist the hard boiled quail egg... so cute, right?

Okay, then the meat insanity begins! This Gaucho is carving some delicious beef. I believe it was top sirloin steak. It was so delicious, such a treat, having someone bring you whatever you wanted. Oh we did indulge, as in, 'couldn't eat a thin wafer mint' from Monty Python!

But check this out. It's grilled pineapple! It was my favourite... I tasted a piece of  pineapple heaven that night! Those Pineapple-Carving Gauchos had my number. I went a little extreme and enjoyed almost 3/4 of a pineapple.  So unique and sweet, pineapple with brown sugar and cinnamon, grilled and all caramelized to perfection. I truly felt LOVE that night. Thank you Brent for a wonderful food adventure... and I can't wait to embarque on many more adventures with you!

The Crisp with a Tropical Twist- Pineapple Crisp

There is just no getting around the loveliness of a 'Crisp'... and what do you do in summertime?

Well, you break out the tropical flavours and get ready to enjoy some spectacular tastes!

I am so proud of Melanie, with only a little guidance from me, she basically put this delicious desert together.  Here's the ingredients we used:

-1 fresh pineapple cut into chunks

Topping ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of oatmeal
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 3 tbsp shredded coconut
- 3 tbsp chopped pecans
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix all together in a separate bowl.

Very easy... right? Just take your dish and place your pineapple on the bottom, sprinkle with the topping ingredients.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, serve with some vanilla frozen yogurt for some tropical summer fun!

Spicy Pineapple Pork Chops

Oh.... you need to try this delicious comination- Spicy BBQ Pork Chops with Grilled Pineapple- I just love the way the pineapple picks up those grill marks- it just tastes so sweet.

Chili- Rubbed Pork Chops w/ Grilled Pineapple Salsa

(adapted from http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/06/06/chili-rubbed-pork-chops-with-grilled-pineapple-salsa/)

Yield: 4 servings

A terrific recipe sent along to me from the National Pork Board. Our family loved this recipe big time...

Ingredients:

CHOPS:

4 (3/4-inch thick) bone-in pork center loin chops, trimmed

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

PINEAPPLE SALSA:

3 (1/2-inch-thick) crosswise slices fresh pineapple, trimmed

1 medium jalapeno, halved lengthwise- seeds and veins removed

1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice

salt, to taste

Directions:

1. In a shallow bowl, combine chili powder, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Sprinkle both sides of the chops with the spice mixture. Let the chops sit at room temperature while you prepare the salsa.

2. Prepare a grill to medium-high hat and lightly oil the grate. Grill pineapple and jalapeno until lightly charred (2 to 3 minutes per side). Remove from the grill and dice pineapple and jalapeno. In a medium bowl, combine pineapple, jalapeno and lime juice. Season to taste with salt.

3. Grill pork until internal temperature reaches between 145 and 160 degrees F (4 to 5 minutes per side).

4. Serve chops with the grilled salsa on top.

Hawaiian Burgers- It's a Luau in your mouth

You know we love our hamburgers on the grill here at the Hallidays- but I was bored of the same old thing. So one night, fresh pineapple in sight, I said to Brent, why don't you grill some pineapple and some ham and we can have Hawaiian Burgers! Well indeed, it was a Luau in my mounth. As per Wikipedia- A luau (in Hawaiian, lū‘au) is a traditional Hawaiian party or feast that is usually accompanied by entertainment.

Well it was a party... served on a 'flat whole grain bun' and a light Ceasar Salad and homemade oven fries. As for the 'entertainement portion'....

... I think it was watching Brent trying not to lose those pineapple rings through the grill and trying to get the perfect grill marks!

Here we have the little mis-en-place of Hawaiianess... and the big bowl of salad too!

And for deserts... Pineapple Paradise Fruit Salad!