Easter Recipes

From:  Wide Wallpapers

2014 is a year of change.  Everything is changing.  I have gotten my certifications, Sunny starts school this year, I'm doing a fitness competition.  So many big changes!  After making the same holiday dinners for the past 3 years I've decided that since this is a year of change I'm also changing all my holiday dinners.  Easter is the first holiday that has food associated with it so, it starts here!

So, with that being said, here is the 2014 Easter menu.  Recipes follow the menu.

Main Dish
Simple baked Cobia

Grain
Herbed brown rice 

Vegetables
Roasted carrots
Asparagus (if the price isn't too high)
Salad

Bread
Yeast rolls

Dessert
Meringue nests with whipped cream and berries

_________________________________________________________________________________

Foil Wrapped Cobia

Ingredients
2 lb Cobia Fillet
Seasonings of your choice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Spray a large piece of aluminum foil with pan spray and lay fish down.
3. Spray again with pan spray and season then tightly wrap foil around fish.
4. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes until the fish is done.
5. Rest for 5-10 minutes before serving

Roasted Carrots

adapted from:  Ina Garten's Roasted Carrots

Ingredients
1 lb carrots, peeled
seasonings of your choice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Cut carrots into 1 1/2 inch chunks
3. Spray baking sheet with pan spray, lay out carrots in a single layer and spray them.
4. Season to taste
5. Roast for 20 minutes until brown and tender

Herbed Brown Rice Pilaf

Adapted from:  Herbed Brown Rice Pilaf
8 servings
Calories:  84.5
Fat: 0.5 g
Sodium:  592 mg
Potassium:  65.8 g
Carbs:  18 g
Protein:  1.6 g

Ingredients
1 small onion, diced
2 cups brown rice
5 cups vegetable broth or water, warm
2 T minced garlic
2 t thyme
2 t parsley
6 green onions, sliced

Directions

1. Saute onion in a medium saucepan until translucent.
2. Spray pan again with cooking spray, dump in rice, and coat with pan spray.  
3. Pour in broth, thyme, garlic, and parsley
4. Cover pot, turn stove to medium, and cook for 40 minutes. 
5. Turn off heat and let stand 10 minutes.
6. Fluff with a fork and stir in green onions

Meringue Nests

Ingredients
4 large egg whites
.5 cup sugar
.25 t cream of tartar
food coloring
8 oz tub of Cool Whip {you won't use all of it}
6 cups of your favorite berries, fresh or frozen {thaw if using frozen}


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Spray 2 baking sheets with pan spray and line with parchment
3. With an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until the whites reach soft peaks
4. Add in sugar and continue whisking until stiff and glossy.
5. Drop 4 mounds of meringue on each baking sheet and use the back of a spoon to make an indentation in it and spread them out to about 4 inches {you can also use a piping bag and pipe your nests}
6. Bake meringues about 1.5 hours, until they are dry, rotating halfway through.
7.  Cool completely then fill with Cool Whip and top with fresh berries.

St. Patrick's Day Shephard's Pie

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Did y'all wear green today?  I made sure to!  I've always hated the tradition of pinching people.  I take no risks.

Ken loves the fact that St. Patrick's Day means he'll get a shephard's pie.  He adores shephard's pie.  Up until today I've always felt that my shepherd's pie has been missing something.  It never looked as pretty as all the pictures I've seen online.  I have found the perfect recipe though.  I guess I should say, I altered the perfect recipe.

Alton Brown never ceases to amaze me.  It is his recipe that I started out with.  I made very few alterations.  

Vegetarian Shephard's Pie with Green Mashed Potatoes
Adapted from:  Alton Brown's Shephard Pie
For the potatoes:
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
.25 cup skim milk
.25 cup fat free cream cheese 
2-3 cups chopped cooked broccoli (I used leftover.  You can either puree it in a food processor or chop it by hand)

Filling
2 medium onions, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 T minced garlic
1 bag of Boca Soy Crumbles
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons tomato paste
3 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons freshly chopped rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme leaves
.5 cup corn kernels
.5 cup peas


Directions

1. Peel and chop potatoes.
2. Place in a pot and cover with cold water
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until soft.
4. Drain, put back into pot, add milk and cream cheese, and mash until smooth 
5. Mix in broccoli until combined evenly.  Set aside
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
7. Spray a large pan and heat over med-high.
8. Add onions and carrots and cook until slightly soft, adding a bit of water to keep them from sticking
9. Add Boca crumbles, tomato paste and flour. Evenly cover the crumbles and vegetables with flour
10. Add in broth, wocestershire, rosemary, thyme and stir together.
11. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer.  Let it go for 10-12 minutes or until the sauce is thick
12. Add corn and peas and simmer for approximately 1-2 minutes
13. Grease an 11x7 baking dish and pour filling in.
14. Carefully top with mashed potatoes, spreading evenly.
15. Bake for 20 minutes.  
16. When you remove it from the oven make sure to let it sit and cool for a while.

What do you normally make for St. Patrick's Day?  Do you go with an Irish theme or a green theme?

Chinese New Year

Every year I tell Ken that I'm going to make a Chinese dinner in honor of the Chinese New Year he replies with the same 4 words, "but we're not Chinese."  Yes Ken, I know, we're Korean.  Yes, he's half Korean.  He is the reason I love Korean food.

This year I told him that we were having Korean in order to celebrate Seollal, the Korean lunar new year.  Seollal is the first day of the Korean Lunar Calendar.  It falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice.  This day is about family and ancestors.  It's one of the most important Korean holidays.

2014 is the year of the Horse.  According to the Official Korea Tourism Organization,

"Every year is represented by one of the 12 zodiac signs, which take the form of animals known as Sibijisin. These signs change with every new year and rotate over a 12 year cycle. For a fun activity at the beginning of each year, people, especially elders, analyze the relationship between their birth year zodiac sign and the new year's sign to find out their fortune. 

The year 2014 is referred to as "Gaponyeon" or "The Year of the Horse." The horse is the seventh in the group of twelve guardian animal deities collectively known as the Sibijisin, which literally means "twelve (sibi) gods of the earth (jisin)." People born in the year of the horse are said to be open-minded and have a cheerful disposition with a good sense of humor. They are likely to achieve success in any activities they undertake. However, they can be somewhat self-centered and must beware of trifling away money on pleasures."

For more information on the Sibijisin check out the links at the bottom of the post.


So onto dinner.  I pulled out my tried and true Korean cookbook.  The Complete Book of Korean Cooking by Young Jin Song.  I love this book.  I have used it too many times to count to make myself many Korean meals.  {Buy it HERE}  I decided that I wanted my favorite noodle dish, Japchae,  and fried zucchini (hobakjeon.)  Unfortunately Japchae was the 1 recipe that is NOT included in the book.  So, I turned to the internet and found a recipe on Korean Bapsang.  Get the recipe HERE for the Japchae and the recipe for the fried zucchini HERE.

Japchae

HobakJeon

The most time consuming part of all of these dishes was the chopping.  I was in the kitchen for nearly an hour chopping, slicing and dicing.  After all that is done the meal comes together quickly

Everything turned out delicious.  Yet, it all paled in comparison to my mother-in-law's cooking.  Me making Korean dishes is alot like when I make a recipe of my mother's.  It doesn't have exactly the same flavor as my mother's or my mother-in-laws.  Maybe I'm lacking the same love that they made it with?  Ken raved about it to his mom, who was very impressed.

Below are some links about the Lunar New Year celebration in Korea.  Did you make anything interesting for the Lunar New Year?

KoreanTourism.org: Seollal (Lunar New Year) Celebrations in Korea

KoreanTourism.org: Sibijisin Story

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Appetizer and Christmas Dinner Recipes

When I was growing up {and before I moved to Florida}  we would goto my aunt's house every year for Christmas Eve.  There was always a big spread of munchies on the table.  Christmas Eve dinner has now become a spread of appetizers that everyone can choose between.  You can find all the recipes HERE. I'm adding crab rangoons to the table, per Kaylee's request.  And I'm not doing a crust on the spinach pie.  

Crab Rangoons
Note:  This would also possibly make a good filling for jalapenos!

Ingredients
1 package wonton wrappers
16 oz crabmeat {real not imitation.  But imitation would work too}
16 oz fat free cream cheese
4 - 5 green onions, minced


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Combine crab, cream cheese and green onions
3. Place about 1 T mixture into wonton wrapper, fold wonton wrapper over filling and pinch closed
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

We always plan our Christmas dinner after my parents get to my house.  It's always a production.  We go back and forth debating on what we should have.  Every year it gets easier though.  They got here Friday nite and it only took us only an hour to get the menu put together.  Here it is:

Family's Main

Roast Chicken

My Main Dish:

Stuffed Pumpkin or Squash
I'm going to use this recipe as my base. How to make Suffed and roasted squash. {the Kitchn}  The vegetables are going to be onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms.  I'm going to skip the proteins and grains and add more vegetables.  

Sides

Green Bean Casserole
Alton Brown's Best Ever Green Bean Casserole


Corn on the cob
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls

Dessert

Christmas Cake
Christmas Cake {The Fat Free Queen}

Christmas Cookies

Until last year I never did Christmas presents for the girls' teachers.  I don't know why but, I just didn't.  {Does that make me a horrible parent?}  But, last year I decided to do cookies for them. I figure that I would want edible gifts if I was a teacher.  {I mean seriously, how many "World's Greatest" or "#1 Teacher" mugs and knick-knacks does a teacher need?!??}

Last year I made "traditional" cookies, loaded with butter and sugar.  After the fact I decided that I wasn't being true to me by making them like that.  A vegan wouldn't buy eggs to make cookies with.  Someone who follows the Paleo diet probably wouldn't make non-Paleo cookies.  Why am I going to make cookies that I wouldn't even feed my kids??  I decided to alter all the cookies, except 1, to be low fat.  People love the flourless peanut butter cookies so I make them every time I need to bring cookies somewhere.  

Peanut Butter
From Martha Stewart
makes 16

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
.75 cup sugar
1 egg
.5 t baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  
2. Mix together all ingredients
3. Roll 1 Tablespoon of dough into balls and place on cookie sheet
4. Bake for 12-14 minutes.  Rotate halfway thru.
5. Cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cookie sheet. 

Chocolate Chip
From: Happy Herbivore Light & Lean
Makes 16

Ingredients
.33 cup plain applesauce
.5 cup brown sugar
1 t vanilla
.25 cup nonfat milk
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1 T cornstarch
.5 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheet
2. Combine all the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) in another.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet
4. Fold in chocolate chips
5. Drop on cookie sheet and bake 7-10 minutes.  Rotate halfway through.  

Oatmeal Raisin
Quaker Oatmeal "Raisin" Cookies
This recipe originally calls for chocolate chips but, I substituted raisins and dried cranberries for the chocolate chips
makes 5 dozen

Ingredients
2 cups pureed zucchini
1 cup brown sugar, packed
.5 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 T milk
2 t vanilla
1.75 cup flour
1 t baking soda
2.5 cup oatmeal
4 cups dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)

Directions

1. Heat oven  to 375
2. Mix zucchini puree and sugars together
3. Add eggs, milk and vanilla
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, and oatmeal.
5. Fold in fruit
6. Drop by the tablespoon on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes.

Banana Bread

Adapted From:  Cook This, Not That 350 Calorie Meals

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas (about 2 cups)

.75 cup Greek yogurt 

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

.75 cup sugar (I start with .25 cups and figure out how sweet it needs to be)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.  (I used a 4 loaf mini pan)
2. Puree bananas, yogurt, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor
3. In a separate bowl mix together the remaining ingredients
4. Fold banana mixture into flour mixture
5. Pour into pan and bake for 50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  The mini loaf pans take about 35-40 minutes  (if the top starts to brown before the inside is. done then put tin foil over the top) 

Do you have any good healthy cookie recipes?  Do you alter normal recipes to make them healthier?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your Thanksgiving is great!  I will be spending time with Ken, the kids and Ken's coworkers.  

Get out after dinner for a walk {I know we will}, and remember, moderation when it comes to dinner {and especially dessert}

Thanksgiving

Here are the recipes I plan on using for my Thanksgiving dinner.  

Main

Meatloaf

I'm altering Martha Stewart's All-American Meatloaf to be vegetarian.  

 

Photo from:  Martha Stewart

Ingredients

3 slices reduced calorie wheat bread

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 celery stalk, roughly chopped

1 onion, quartered

2 garlic cloves, peeled

.5 cup tomato sauce

3 {12 oz} bags of veggie meat (thawed)

2 t dry mustard

1/2 cup egg substitute (equivilent to 2 eggs)


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 and spray a 9x5 loaf pan with pan spray
2. Process bread in food processor.  Place in mixing bowl
3. Process carrots, celery, onion, and garlic until they are minced.  Add to mixing bowl
4. Add ketchup, dry mustard, veggie meat, and eggs.  Mix with your hands until everything is mixed tgether. 
5. Bake for 35 minutes.

Sides

Peas and green beans with sauteed mushrooms and pearl onions
Ingredients
16 oz frozen peas
16 oz frozen green beans
16-24 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 bag pearl onions

Directions

1. Saute mushrooms until soft, set aside
2. Cook peas and green beans according to package directions.  Add pearl onions into one of the vegetables
3. Toss everything together.

Mashed potatoes
1 lb of potatoes per person
Sour cream
Skim milk

Directions

1. Boil and mash potatoes as you normally would
2. Use sour cream in place of the butter normally used and use skim milk instead of whole milk or cream

Mashed sweet potatoes
{Follow same directions as with the mashed potatoes}

Gravy
There are 2 ways to do your gravy.  They are both super simple and easy
For both recipes
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
1-2 onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, either minced, or sliced

Directions

1. Saute onions, mushrooms and garlic until the vegetables are soft, and the onion is translucent

#1
Ingredients
Vegetable broth
Cornstarch 
Water

Directions

1. Bring desired amount of broth to a boil
2. In a seperate bowl mix together 1 T cornstarch and 1 T water per cup of broth
3. Whisk cornstarch slurry into broth, bring back to a boil and simmer until thickened.  If it isn't as thick as you'd like it then mix together another tablespoon cornstarch with a tablespoon water and whisk in.  
4. Mix in mushroom, onion mixture

#2

Ingredients

Lipton Mushroom Onion Soup Mix

Directions

1. Follow directions on box.
2. Add in mushrooms and onions

Stuffing

Ingredients

Approx. 18 slices of bread, cubed
1 cup of onions, diced

2 cups of celery, sliced small

1/2 lb of (veggie) sausage [optional]

1 T poultry seasoning

1 T ground sage

1/2 cup egg substitute

1 cup veggie broth 

Directions

1. Sautee onions and celery until soft (if you're using regular non-vegetarian sausage you want to cook it too at this point)
2. Place all ingredients in a big bowl and mix together (use your hands, it works the best.  Don't be afraid to get messy!)
3. Place in a baking pan and cover with tin foil. 
4. Put into a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes
5. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown.

Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/almost-famous-pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe2/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe/index.html

I'm sorry I didn't give you more definate measurements.  The measurements will honestly depend on how many people you are cooking for.  If you need help deciding how much to make here are a few good links.  

Hufffington Post
Foodista
Cooking For Dummies

Easter Menu Post

 
 Happy Easter!  Yesterday was the community Easter egg hunt and the girls had a blast!  They came away with a ton of candy!  Here are all my Easter recipes for today.  I was hoping to have these up before today so y'all  would have ideas.  But, due to school and kids being so time consuming I couldn't. 


Oven Poached Salmon
2 lb salmon 
2 cups water
any herbs and spices you like

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Grease baking dish
3. Place salmon in baking dish and season
4. Pour water around salmon
5. Poach for 12-15 minutes until done

Peas w/onions and mushrooms
16 oz bag of peas
1 bag pearl onions
16 oz mushrooms
1 medium onion
1 shallot
1 T minced garlic

Directions

1. Diced onions, and shallots
2. Slice mushrooms
3. Sautee mushrooms, onions, garlic and shallots until slightly brown
4. Boil peas and onions according to package directions, drain
5. Mix together peas, pearl onions, and your mushroom mixture

Asparagus
Directions

1. Steam for approximately 15 minutes until done to your liking

Banana Dream Mousse

2 envelopes Dream Whip
2.75 cups skim milk, divided
1 tsp vanilla
2 small packages Fat Free Sugar Free Banana Cream Jello Pudding mix  (you honestly can you whatever flavor jello you'd like.  I've made chocolate,vanilla, and cookies and cream before
2 bananas, sliced

Instructions

1. Beat together Dream Whip, 1 cup milk and vanilla until soft peaks form
2. Add remaining milk and pudding mixes.  Beat on low until combined then beat on high for about 2 minutes (make sure to scrape your bowl occasionally)
3. Pour filling ontop of bananas and refrigerate for 4 hours.

 And here's a link to last year's recipes:  Easter Recipes 2012

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday I made green cupcakes, [the recipe is coming for you tomorrow] today I made potatoes, cabbage and corned beef.  

I love oven roasted food.  Partially because my stove looks like this:  

Yep, that's right.  I do all my cooking on one burner.  And it's been like this for a few years.  So, I love doing things in the oven because I can cook 2 or 3 things at once.  Plus, the oven is a "set-it-and-forget-it" way to cook. 

I found the recipe on Pinterest for the cabbage.  It comes from a blog called Green Lite Bites. 

Pardon the sad plate.  I was starving so I snapped a quick picture

Packet Oven Roasted Cabbage

Ingredients
1 head of cabbage
Pan Spray
herbs and spices of your choice

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees
2. Rinse the cabbage and remove the bad leaves
3. Quarter the cabbage (cut in half and then cut the halves in half, along the core)
4. Lay each quarter on a piece of aluminum foil
5. Wrap and bake for 20-30 minutes (if you like it softer then bake longer.  I actually baked mine for close to an hour)

Roasted Creamer Potatoes

Ingredients
Creamer potatoes (I didn't weigh mine)
Pan Spray 
Herbs and spices

Directions

1. Clean and scrub potatoes
2. Put them in a large pot and cover with water.
3. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer for 10 minutes
4. Preheat oven to 425 while potatoes are boiling
5. Drain and put potatoes on a large baking sheet
6. Spray again with pan spray and then sprinkle on herbs and spices
7. Roast for 20-30 minutes until crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

 I ate almost a whole head of cabbage I think.  Luckily cabbage is pretty low in calories.  What did you have for dinner?  The traditional corned beef and cabbage or something unique?  

Oh, and by the way, I'll have a cabbage soup coming for you....I made WAY too much cabbage tonite. 

Christmas Recipes

Okay, here's a little known fact about my family.  Christmas dinner takes FOREVER to decide on in this house.  I have no clue why but it takes us about a week to figure out our menu.  Christmas Eve is a no-brainer.  We do a "munching spread".  But, Christmas dinner, we have serious sit downs to decide on what we're going to have.  We normally start talking a few days after my parents get here and finalize the menu a day or 2 before Christmas Eve. 

But, here it is.  My Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner menus

Christmas Eve

Jalapeno Poppers 

Fat free and my fave!!

(adapted from Cook This!  Not That!)

1 cup mushrooms, diced
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 cup of fat free shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup fat free cream cheese
12 jalapenos

1. Spray a skillet with pan spray.  Sautee onions and mushrooms until soft.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees
3. In a separate bowl, combine the onions, mushrooms, cream cheese and cheese
4. Slice the jalapenos in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds (leave them in if you want it super spicy)
5. Fill each half of jalapeno with the cheese mixture. 
6. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the peppers are soft and the cheese is brown and bubbly. 

Spinach Pie

(Adapted from SkinnyTaste)

(You can find the crust recipe HERE) 

Ingredients
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1 T dried dill
1 T parsley
1 cup fat free feta
2 T minced garlic
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup egg substitute (equal to 2 eggs)
 1/4 - 1/2 pizza dough recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.  Spray a pie pan with cooking spray
3. Roll out pizza dough to about 1/8" thick.  Cut it out so it's a bit bigger than your pie pan, lay it inside and crimp the edges
4. Mix together the spinach, green onions, dill, parsley and feta
5. In a seperate bowl mix together all the other ingredient.
6. Mix both mixtures together.
7. Spread in the crust
8. Bake for 28-33 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let it rest for atleast 5 minutes before cutting it.

(If you use 1/4 of the pizza dough recipe it will add about 51 calories to each slice of pie)

Sliced Fruit
Strawberries
Grapes
Pineapple
Cantaloupe
Apples
Bananas

Sliced Veggies
Mushrooms
Carrots
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Celery
Radishes
Cucumber
Grape Tomatoes

For the fruits I use a yogurt dip:  

Ingredients
2 cups fat free vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup honey (more or less to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon (to taste) 

1. Mix it all together
2. Chill until ready to use

For the veggies I use a simple  

Ranch Dip 

(I found it on the back of the ranch powder container):

Ingredients
3 T ranch dressing powder
16 oz sour cream

1. Stir it all together, cover and refridgerate

Per Mo's request we are having  

PIGS IN A BLANKET

Ingredients
1 package Hillshire Farms Lit'l Smokies
1/2 batch of pizza dough

1. Roll out pizza dough and slice into long strips about 1" wide
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
3. Drain the liquid from the packages of sausages and dry them off
4. Wrap dough around sausages  
5.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown

ON TO CHRISTMAS DINNER!!

Gramma's Christmas Cake
This cake has been a Christmas tradition for many, many, many years.  I can't imagine Christmas without this cake.  When I got sick I had to doctor the recipe to make sure I could eat it.  This cake is my mom's Christmas version of a Jello Poke Cake.

White cake  

(taken from CalorieCount.About)

2 c all purpose flour
1 1/3 c sugar
2/3 c cornstarch
4 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites
1 1/3 c skim milk
2/3 c Karo syrup
2 tsp vanilla

1. Grease 2 9inch cake pans
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Mix together dry ingredients
4. In a separate bowl whisk the liquid ingredients together
5. Add wet ingredients into the dry and mix well
6. Pour into greased pans
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes
8. Remove from pan and cool (Keep the pans though, you'll need them for the next step)

Ingredients to put the cake together
1 box cherry gelatin
1 box lime geletin
2 C boiling water
8 oz whipped topping (Cool Whip, Dream Whip or fresh whipped cream)
  

1. Place the cooled cakes back in the pans.  Poke holes into each cake using a chopstick, skewer or knife.
2. Dissolve cherry gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water, do the same with the lime.
3. Slowly pour the cherry over one layer of cake and the lime over the other cake.
4. Place the pans in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to set.
5. Take the cakes out of the pans and  use the whipped topping to frost the cakes.
6. Dig in!

Honestly the rest of my Christmas menu is quite simple

Salmon

Ham

Potatoes, Green Beans and Onions

Ingredients

Petite Red Potatoes (or creamer potatoes)

Frozen or Fresh Green Beans

FROZEN Pearl Onions (Mr. Amazing made the mistake of getting me fresh pearl onions for Thanksgiving, they are a pain in the neck to peel!  But, if you can't find frozen, fresh will do)

Directions

1. Clean your potatoes and green beans 
2. If you're using fresh green beans then trim the ends
3. Put potatoes in a pot and fill with water.  
4. Bring the potatoes to a boil and let boil for 15 minutes
5. Add the green beans and onions, bring back to a boil, and boil for approximately 5 minutes.  
6. When everything is done, drain
7.  Serve

 

Rolls

You can either make your own or, if you're lazy like me, you can purchase them.  The only company that makes fat free rolls is Alexia.  Their French Rolls are fat free and very delicious.  

  

Corn 

We're just going to do frozen corn on the cob.  Nice and simple.

Squash with Wilted Spinach 
(The same one from Thanksgiving, ditch the dressing, I'm using butternut and acorn squash and sweet potatoes, and roast some garlic with the potatoes, after you put it on the plate, throw some feta on top)       

Well, there it is, my Christmas dinner and Christmas Eve spread.  Hopefully I've given you some ideas.  If you try any of my recipes please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!