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!

Eat, Shrink and be Merry- Great Source of Ideas!

Always on the lookout for fresh ideas for dinner that are made with fresh wholesome ingredients... I often turn to one of my favourite cookbooks. Eat, Shrink and be Merry. Almost 100% of what I have created from this cookbook turns out delicious. Check out my latest attempt. It turned out delicious!

Na-Cho Ordinary Taco Salad (adapted from Eat, Shrink and be Merry)

Ingredients

Beef:

1 1/2 lb ground extra lean ground beef

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered

1/3 cup ketchup

Salt & pepper

Salad:

1 head of iceberg lettuce, cut into bite-sized chunks

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 diced red or green pepper

1 cup light old cheddar, shredded

4 green onions, chopped

Homemade Guacamole (the Szos recipe of course)

Organic Nacho Chips to garnish – I use Garden Fresh Gourmet

Directions:

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add your ground beef, jalapeno and garlic and saute until cooked through. Stir in chili powder and cumin and allow to cook for about a minute. Add the grape tomatoes, ketchup, corn and salt and pepper and cook for two minutes until the flavors have combined and the tomatoes soften. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To assemble the salad, arrange the lettuce on the bottom of your plates, top with beef, red pepper, cheese, tomatoes, green onions. Top with guacamole, salsa and sour cream and place Nacho chips on the side or crumple them on top!

Makes 6 servings- 280 calories, 11g fat, 25g protein, 22g carbs, 6g fibre

Dig In!

Thin Girl Nachos

Now, when you go to restaurants and order Nachos, you're probably eating your whole day's calorie intake at one meal. But I have found a way to make 'Thin Girl Nachos' at home. It feels like you are having 'unhealthy' foods, but really, with the right portions and ingredients, you can make them healthy.

Here's how!  And it's so fast (you microwave it!!), really good for a quick dinner/lunch... just add a gardent salad to complete the meal.

Take your healthy tortilla chips. I love these Garden Fresh Gourmet. Add some delicious sasla on each tortilla chip...

                              

Add some light cheddar, whatever veggies you like... I added green peppers and black olives. Then microwave for 1 minute or until all the cheese is melted... and you are done!  Once it's done you can add more salsa, a bit of light sour cream or some guac...

Fajita Night- A quick and healthy Mexican Fiesta!

Beef Fajitas on Whole Wheat Tortilla Shells

Ingredients:

3 thin, fast fry steaks (cheap cut of meat and lean too!), you could substitute chicken breasts or shrimp
1 green and 1 red pepper, chopped in strips
1 oninon, chopped in strips
1 paquet of fajita spices (found a good organic kind at Whole Foods)
1 Tbsp of canola oil
8 Whole wheat tortilla shells
Garnish with:
low fat sour cream
salsa
lettuce
tomatoes
jalapenos (if you dare!)

Directions:
Place oil in a hot stir fry pan, add onions and peppers, stirfry for about 5 minutes, add cut up steaks, they are very thin so they fry up fast... about 3-4 minutes. Add the Fajita seasoning and follow directions for adding water. Cook until done.
Warm up tortillas. I place them in the microwave for 1 1/2 minute wrapped up in paper towel.
And you are done! So fast, and fresh and as spicy as you want it to be.
Serves 8 (2 per person)

Nutrional information:

473 calories
39g carbs
22g fat
25g protein
3g fibre

This is my favourtie salsa. Few ingredients, and you all know what they mean!

This is how I build mine... Tortilla shell, beef/veg mixture, cheese (so it melts)...

Then I add the cool lettuce, the salsa and the sour cream. That's all for me!