Easy Cucumber Hummus Cups

It's summer and it's time to party! Easy Cucumber Hummus Cups are a no-bake, no cook, super easy appetizer idea. How easy? The middle of thick cucumber slices are scooped out and creamy hummus is piped inside then topped with a roasted red pepper strip!  

Peanut Butter Toast with Berries and Honey

Yesterday I posted the recipe for a delicious savory Mediterranean Veggie Hummus Toast, but today I thought I'd share an equally delicious but sweet toast idea...Peanut Butter Toast with Berries and Honey! Oh my word you guys, this one is a keeper! 

Mediterranean Veggie Hummus Toast

Mediterranean Veggie Hummus Toast is my homage to one of my favorite sandwiches I enjoy at a local cafe. It starts with the goodness of whole grains from Pepperidge Farm® Harvest Blends bread then it's topped with a wonderful veggie combination for a nutritious vegetarian snack or light lunch anyone can enjoy! 

Oven Roasted O'Brien Potatoes

The other day I made BBQ chicken for dinner, and to go with it, these wonderful Oven Roasted O'Brien Potatoes.  Perfectly browned and roasted potatoes mixed with peppers and onions, just like the pan fried version, but better!  What a fantastic side dish! 

Creamy Dill and Cucumber Potato Salad

 A departure from ordinary potato salad, this Creamy Dill and Cucumber Potato Salad could not be more perfect for summer!  Red potatoes, crisp cucumbers, sweet onions, sour cream and fresh dill all come together in this tasty cucumber potato salad side dish.  So good, you'll be wanting seconds!

Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Roasted Vegetable Pizza is an easy dinner idea you can pull together in no time with a little prep work ahead of time.  Roasted veggies are nestled on a creamy layer of jarred light Alfredo sauce and covered in mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses for a meatless meal everyone will love! 

Strawberry, Avocado and Spinach Salad with Lime Poppy Seed Dressing

Strawberry, Avocado and Spinach Salad with Lime Poppy Seed Dressing is a delicious and nutritious combination of flavors and textures.  Great on it's own as a light meal or on the side with some grilled chicken or fish.  

Easy Potato Pancakes

Potato Pancakes are one of those foods that bring back a lot of memories from my childhood.They have always been a favorite of mine. If I had to choose only one food I'd have to eat day in and day out for the rest of my life, these Easy Potato Pancakes would be a top contender. And, the shortcut preparation for this recipe makes them a win-win!

Slow Cooker Spiced Pear Butter

Hello Slow Cooker Spiced Pear Butter! Imagine sweet pears spiced with the warmth of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice in a smooth "butter" that is perfect on toast and all sorts of other things!  

8 Terrific Ways to Spice Up Everyday Foods with Hot Sauce

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and it's advertiser.  All opinions are mine alone. #SauceOn #CollectiveBias

Baked Eggs in Spicy Habanero Sauce

An easy and delicious baked egg recipe!   Make it for one or for a crowd. Spice it up as much as you can handle it!  Keep the yolks runny, or bake them up solid.  It's all in how you like it! 

Stuffed Veggie Pitas

Stuffed Veggie Pitas make the perfect lunch or light dinner...they are meatless and there is nothing to cook.  They are stuffed to the brim with a mixture of carrots, cucumber, red pepper, red onion and avocado that is dressed in a light garlic sauce.  Seriously, you'll want to find a few minutes to make these...they are so good! 

Tropical Green Smoothie

Given a choice I will, more often than not, choose to "chew" my calories, rather then "drink" them. But the other day, I had green smoothies on my mind.  I did a quick survey to see what kind of ingredients I had on hand:  ripe banana...check...fresh pineapple...check...fresh baby spinach...check...and last but not least, coconut water.  I whirled them all up in my magic bullet, not sure what to expect, but was rewarded with a delicious, healthy, and refreshing afternoon snack.  Thus...the Tropical Green Smoothie was born! 

Maple Walnut Granola

When Michele from Flavor Mosaic asked me to do a guest post for her this week, I was thrilled and honored.  I have been a big fan of Flavor mosaic for some time now and really enjoy all her delicious, flavorful recipes and gorgeous photos.  I have made several recipes from her blog and loved every one of them.  I brought her one of my reworked, diet-friendly, no refined sugar, gluten-free and absolutely delicious recipes:  Maple Walnut Granola.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

There is nothing quite like the combination of peanut butter and jelly. Simple, timeless, and always a classic.  Growing up, PB&J was a staple for us kids.  Many PB&J sandwiches were packed in school lunches over the years!   I think I lived off of PB&J as a young adult going through nursing school. I often skipped the bread all together and just made a mixture of PB&J to eat with a spoon.. Anyone else do that?

Lighter Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole (without Canned Cream Soup)

I like a tuna casserole now and again, especially this time of year.  I've always made them with the standard "Cream of Something" condensed soup, but discovered the other day that I had no "cream of anything" in the pantry.

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

I just love a good creamy tomato soup.

This recipe is a keeper.  The addition of cheese tortellini makes it a good hearty soup.

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole

I made this scrumptious potato casserole last week to go along with some BBQ ribs for dinner one night.  I changed up the recipe quite a bit but didn't sacrifice ANY of the flavor. We had my inlaws over for dinner and my MIL had seconds.

Ya, it's that good! 

This type of hashbrown casserole dish has been around for some time. If you haven't made it, you have probably eaten it at some time.   It's basically frozen potatoes, a can of condensed cream soup, cheese, sour cream, butter and cornflakes.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter mixed with crushed cornflakes for the topping, which I omitted completely.  I used 5 crushed up Ritz® crackers for the topping instead.  They were perfect and greatly reduced the fat and calorie count in this dish.  I used reduced fat sour cream and, because I didn't have any cream of mushroom soup, (as originally called for in the recipe) I used a can of cream of cheddar.  I totally replaced the processed cheese called for in the original recipe with a greatly reduced amount of reduced fat cheddar cheese and added some dried onion into the casserole for flavor (because when I have made this type of recipe in the past, that is what the recipes have always called for an I like the onion flavor with the potatoes).

The result was a winning potato casserole dish that comes in at 4 PP per 1/2 cup serving!

This is an excellent pot luck type dish that no one will know is reduced anything...and no one will miss that 1/2 cup of butter or all that extra cheese!!

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole 

adapted from Allrecipes

Printable Recipe

Servings - approx 16   Serving Size - approx 1/2 cup   Points Plus per serving - 4 Points Plus

Calories - 150,   Total Fat - 7.7g,   Carb. - 13.7g,   Protein - 6g,   Fiber - 1.4g

1-32 oz. package of frozen Southern-Style hashbrown potatoes

1 -10.75 oz. condensed cream of cheddar soup (NOT reduced fat)

16 oz. reduced fat sour cream

8 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese, divided

1 TBS. dried onion

salt and pepper, as you like

5 Ritz® crackers, crushed (or other similar buttery type crackers)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 13"x 9" casserole dish with cooking spray.  

2.  In large bowl, mix the soup, sour cream and the dried onion.  Measure out about a 1/4 cup of cheese and set aside.  Add the potatoes and the rest of the cheese to the soup/sour cream mixture and stir to combine.  Season with salt and pepper, as desired.  

3.  Pour potato mixture into prepared baking dish.  Top with the reserved 1/4 cup cheese and then the crushed crackers.  Bake in oven for about and hour or until the casserole is hot and bubbly all the way through.  (I did cover mine loosely with foil for about 45 minutes, then took the foil off for the last 15 to crisp up the cracker topping.) 

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Yum.  This turned out delicious and for so many less calories than the original.  I did make the serving size 1/2 cup, which I feel is perfect for a side dish, instead of the 1 cup serving size in the original recipe.  And yes, if you follow the link to the original recipe you will find my picture there, as this was another "faceless" AR recipe I gave a face to.  

Blogger is still having issues with photo uploads through my preferred browser, but I hear they are aware of the problem and working on it.  I did find a work around.  It just is a bit more work to download pictures.  

Also, Cinco de Mayo is this weekend!  Will you be celebrating with some Mexican dishes?  Here are a few of my picks to help make your celebration festive and diet friendly!!

 

Lighter Classic Patty Melt

Homemade Hummus

Can I just tell you this is the first time I have ever made hummus from scratch...and the question is...why on earth did it take me so long?  It is so super easy (with the help of a food processor) and so much tastier than any store bought brands.  Not to mention....more economical. 

You can spice this up as little or as much as you like, control the consistency, and put as much or as little garlic in it as you desire.

You can serve it with cut up raw veggies ( I like cukes and carrot sticks) or serve it with a wonderfully soft and chewy flat bread such as the one pictured below.

This Brownberry Pocket Thins Flatbread is a recent great product find for me.  It's soft and chewy and 3p+ for half a pocket.  It's high in fiber and contains no HFCS.  When I served it with the hummus, I cut each half into three, nice-sized, triangles for dipping.  This product is also great for pocket sandwiches.  My son has been taking a hummus and cuke or baby spinach sandwich to school in his lunches this week with it.  If you can't find Brownberry, look for Arnold Pocket Thins Flatbread.  Both Brownberry and Arnold are a part of the Bimbo Bakery, so it's the same product.  

You will need to purchase a jar of Tahini to make this hummus.  Tahini is sesame paste and it can be found in most larger grocers and specialty shops.  To be honest, if I can find it here in the greater Cleveland area, you can probably get it anywhere in the country.  If you can't find it, you can make your own , but I personally have not tried it. 

If you are like me and have never made your own hummus before, what are you waiting for?  Dust off that food processor and see what you've been missing!

Homemade Hummus

Printable Recipe

Servings - approx. 16 (recipe yields about 1 quart of hummus)   Serving size - 1/4 cup   Points Plus per serving - 3 Points+

Calories - 116.9,   Total Fat - 5.9g,   Carb. - 13.1g,   Protein - 4.1g,   Fiber - 3.1g

*if you take a smaller serving, 2 TBS, it will be 2 Points+.  The nutritional values for a 2 TBS serving are as follows:  Calories - 58.5,   Total Fat - 2.9g,   Carb. - 6.6g,   Protein - 2g,   Fiber - 1.5g

Ingredients:

2 - 15oz. cans of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained

2/3 cup tahini

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. kosher salt

4 garlic cloves, roughly diced

hot sauce, to taste

water

Directions:

1.  Combine all ingredients except hot sauce and water in food processor.  Process until a smooth thick paste.  Add in enough water, while it's running through the top, until it is smooth with a spreading consistency.  ( I think I may have used about 1/3 cup...but put in as much or as little as you desire for the consistency you like)  Add in hot sauce to taste. Garnish with some extra virgin olive oil (not included in the nutrition info above) and some smoked paprika, if desired.   Serve with pita, pita chips, crackers or assorted raw vegetable dippers.  It may taste a bit garlicky at first, but as the hummus sits the garlic flavor mellows. 

2.  Store any leftovers covered in refrigerator.

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This is some serious yum.  It so easy as long as you can find the tahini.  Tahini is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids. The jar of tahini I purchased has enough in it to make this recipe approximately 4 times.  So worth the splurge.