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

Fat Free Thanksgiving Menu

The countdown to Thanksgiving begins!  Since I know people are starting to figure out Thanksgiving dinner I'm going to give you my Thanksgiving menu.  I still need to run the calories on these since one of my goals is for Thanksgiving dinner to be under 500 calories.  I'm not 100% certain if I'll make it but I think I might be close. 

Main Dish (Meat)  
 Turkey Roulade stuffed with homemade stuffing
(Courtesy of Publix FamilyStyle Magazine)

Ingredients

Approx 2 cups stuffing
2 (1.5 lb) boneless turkey breasts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Butterfly turkey breast (follow the instructions from the top picture above)
3. Remove the plastic wrap and spread half the stuffing on each of the turkey breasts.  Make sure to leave space on either side of the breast.
4. Roll it up starting with the long end.  Make sure the skin is on top when you end
5. Tie with kitchen twine every 2 inches
6. Brush with melted butter, or olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
7. Place on a shallow baking pan and cook for 45 - 55 minutes until the internal temperature is 165 degrees (use a meat thermometer for this)
8. Take it out of the oven and cover loosely with tin foil and let it rest for 15 minutes.
9. Remove twine before serving.

Main Dish (Vegetarian)

 

 Butternut Squash with Wilted Spinach and Blue Cheese

{My alteration:  I'm going to add sweet potatoes and acorn squash to it and use fat free feta instead of blue cheese}

Sides 

Mashed Potatoes

{Boil a few pounds of potatoes until soft, drain then return to pan.  Use a potato masher to mash, add fat free sour cream and skim milk to the potatoes and continue mashing until smooth and creamy} 

               

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

{Follow the same directions as the previous recipe except substitute sweet potatoes for the white potatoes}

Gravy

Ingredients

4 cups fat free vegetable broth

1/4 cup cornstarch

Directions

1. Bring 3 1/2 cups of broth to a boil in a medium saucepan
2. In a seperate bowl mix together remaining 1/2 cup of broth and cornstarch
3. Add cornstarch mixture to saucepan and stir continuously until it comes back to a boil.
4. Reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Potato Rolls  

I'm using this recipe for the bread for my stuffing also.  

I'm going to substitute cream cheese for the butter 

 Green Beans with Mushrooms and Onions

I'm not a fan of green bean casserole so, this is a perfect substitute for my table

            
Stuffing
This is my mom's recipe.  I've used it the past few years.  I love this stuffing.  I normally double (or triple) it because Kay could eat a whole pan of it by herself.  I've altered it slightly to be vegetarian.  You can substitute the veggie sausage for regular, the egg substitute for 2 eggs, and the vegetable broth for chicken or turkey broth.  I'm also using the same bread I'm making the rolls with for it.

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.

Brussel Sprouts
Here's a great link on prepping brussel sprouts: VeganYumYum

Ingredients

Brussel Sprouts (however many you want to cook is up to you)
Garlic (to taste)
Pan Spray

Directions

1. Trim and cut your sprouts
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees
3. Lay out a sheet of tin foil large enough to hold all the sprouts and spray with pan spray
4. In a separate bowl toss the brussel sprouts with garlic
5. Place sprouts in the middle of the foil and spray with more pan spray
6. Fold tin foil around sprouts and fold closed so no steam can escape
7. Place in oven and bake for 35-50 minutes until soft.

Dessert 

Pumpkin Cheesecake
{Alterations:  I'm not putting a crust on it.  I'm using fat free cream cheese and sour cream instead of full fat and I'm going to use egg substitute instead of actual eggs.}