Healthy Recipes

Now more than ever I need to make healthy recipes for me and my family.  I have the hardest time resisting all the holiday goodies.  My game plan at this time of year is to focus on eating healthy during the day so that I can indulge a little at night. 

I have tried some new healthy recipes the past few months that I wanted to share with everyone.  First, we have enjoyed using our Blendtec for smoothies, but we have a new favorite recipe.  Whole Wheat Pancakes!!!  Madison asks for these all the time. Unfortunately I don’t know how to adapt these pancakes to making them without the Blendtec; I am guessing that you just use whole wheat flour (I am just not sure how much).

Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 ½ C low-fat milk

1 C wheat berries

2 Tbsp canola oil

2 lg eggs

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp kosher salt

These pancakes take me minutes to make and they are cheap and easy!

The next recipe also is made in my blender.  Everyone loves spinach and artichoke dip, right? Well, I have a recipe for a lighter version of the delicious dip.  It is a perfect party dip.  Bryant even requested that I make it for his homecoming lunch. 

Creamy Spinach Dip

2 tsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, roughly chopped

4 C spinach, lightly packed

½ tsp crushed red pepper

1 C low-fat cottage cheese

4 oz Neufchatel cheese

¼ C Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in sauté pan and add garlic, spinach, and red pepper flakes.  Cook until spinach is wilted and set aside.  Add cottage cheese and Neufchatel cheese to jar and secure lid.  Blend just before smooth.  Add Parmesan cheese and sautéed ingredients to jar and secure lid.  Blend until ingredients are incorporated; do not over-blend.

The last recipe I want to share is one I found on skinnytaste.com.  It is called spinach lasagna roll-ups. It was a good recipe, but Dave and I decided that in order to make it really good we need to use a really good marinara sauce.  These are a great way to eat pasta because they are perfectly portioned.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

9 lasagna noodles, cooked

10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained

15 oz fat free ricotta cheese

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

1 egg

Salt and fresh pepper

32 oz tomato sauce

9 Tbsp part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine spinach, ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottle of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles.  Make sure noodles are dry.  Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle.  Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish.  Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese.  Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes or until cheese melts.  Makes 9 rolls.

Well, those are the recipes I have tried recently.  Even though we are almost done with our goals for 2012 I am going to continue trying new healthy recipes.  When I find something delicious I will send the recipes your way.

I love you all and hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!