The Best Broccoli Salad - S

  My mom is asked to make this a lot! It gets rave reviews where ever she takes it. She was very quick to THM-ify it after we started this lifestyle. It still gets rave reviews and nobody knows it's 'diet' unless we tell them!

The Best Broccoli Salad - S

Best made one day ahead of time to let the flavors meld.

2 Heads of Broccoli

1 Lb of Bacon

24 oz of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 Medium Onion

Fry Bacon until it's very crisp. Set aside. 

Chop Broccoli head into very small florets and dice onions.

Mix Broccoli, onion, and cheese with crumbled bacon.

DRESSING

1 cup of Mayonnaise

1/4 tsp of Stevia Extract

2 Tbsp of Vinegar

 (I recommend a good brand like Bragg's)

8 oz of Cream Cheese

Mix all ingredients

 (I'm lazy. I just throw everything in my Ninja Blender)

Mix dressing with broccoli mixture and refrigerate (preferably overnight)

Special Occasion Strawberry Lemonade Cake - S

    I made this wonderful cake for my Mom for her birthday. It was a hit! We ate way too much of it. Even the non-THMers were caught snitching pieces.

    Don't be intimidated by this picture. You don't have to be a cake decorator to make it. It just might not look as nice ;) My instructions won't include any cake decorating equipment.

Special Occasion Strawberry Lemonade Cake

1 Recipe of Special Occasion Chocolate Cake from the Trim Healthy Mama Book

(Page 384 - omit cocoa powder)

1/2 Recipe of Singing Canary Pudding

(made very thick and refrigerated overnight)

1 1/2 Recipes of Whipped Cream

1 Lb of Fresh Strawberries, Hulled and Sliced.


Bake cake according to directions (remember to omit cocoa powder ) in
two 8'' round cake pans. Allow to cool completely.

Place first layer on a cake plate. Spread a good amount of the Singing Canary Pudding
on top (no more than 1/2 of the amount but that might be a little much). Add a single
layer of sliced strawberries. Place second cake layer on top. Ice sides with the Whipped
Cream. You 'll want it to be fairly thick as this is the only 'icing' the cake will receive.
On top add more Singing Canary Pudding ( try to keep it from getting too close to the
 sides or it will 'bleed' down the cake) and the rest of the sliced strawberries.

If you're going for a good presentation, you might want to just hold the last layer
 of pudding and strawberries for right before you serve. If you do that you
can also add whipped cream to the top when you ice the cake.

If you want to make this patriotic, use blueberries with the strawberries!

Grab a grandson whose birthday is two days after your's, make a wish and blow out the candles!
(Last step is optional)

Happy weekend, everybody!

Flying (or not) with THM

I met with quite a challenge about two weeks ago. I was going to be flying across country and wanted to stay on plan. The flight was scheduled to be about 8 hours (including a layover).

    I knew if I was going to stay on plan I was going to have to apply brain power. I feel like I did really good. I was quite proud of my menu, actually. I'm sure others could do better ( and I do want to hear your ideas. Leave a comment!) but I was pretty happy.

My THM Flight Menu

Ham and Cheese Pinwheels

Bologna and Cream Cheese Roll Ups
(you can use hard salami as well)

Trail Mix

Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

These will travel fairly well if they're well chilled when you start your journey. If you think your flight may last longer than the reasonable time for your food to be safe, you can use a lunch bag as one of your carry ons. 

(Please note: My trip was scheduled for March, not the heat of Summer. This made it much safer to take without a lunch cooler.)

Did my menu execute well?

  We may never know. Everything was all packed and we were in the car on our way to the airport when we received a phone call that an ailing Uncle had passed on. Thankfully, we were able to cancel our tickets without getting charged.

   If we reschedule our trip, I'm going to try this menu again. Maybe we can at least make it to the airport ;) 

Chocolate Covered Strawberries - S

Here's a quick Valentine's Dessert for you. Hope you enjoy!

* I rolled some of these in the Coconut Caramel Crunch recipe from Gwen's Nest*

Chocolate Covered Strawberries - S

1 batch of My Skinny Chocolate

Strawberries, washed, dried and chilled in fridge

The secret to this is getting the chocolate to the right consistency for dipping.

I mix up the chocolate and set it in the freezer for 1 minute. 

(I set the timer, because in one short minute, I can forget all about my purpose in life and wander away chasing a stray butterfly)

This freezes fast so you want to be careful.

After one minute,  stir the chocolate and return to freezer. 

Repeat until desired consistency. 

If you get it too thick or too hard, melt it and start the process over!

When you're chocolate is how you want it, dip berries in one at a time and place on wax paper

to set up (I just learned the wax coated paper plates work REALLY well for this, too!). 

Stick in the freezer for a few moments.

ENJOY!

Berry Breakfast Quinoa Parfait

    This is a fantastic summer breakfast. I'm posting it in the fall so you can think about it and drool all winter. You're Welcome.

    Actually, you could try this with apples and I would imagine it would be a very nice fall breakfast.

 

    I'm not sure where I got the original inspiration for this. I'm certain it was online somewhere, but I'm not sure where. So Sorry if I should be giving the credit to someone. If it's you, let me know and I'll link you in.

Berry Breakfast Quinoa Parfait

 Yields 2 Servings

1/4 cup of unsweetened Almond Milk

1 1/2 cups of 0% Greek Yogurt 

4 tsp of Chia Seeds

plan approved sweetener
(I used 2 Tbsp of SJC )

1 tsp extract of choice

3/4 cup of cooked Quinoa, cooled

2 cups of Fresh Fruit*

1/8 tsp Cinnamon

Stir together first five ingredients until well blended.

Layer the ingredients as desired. Garnish with cinnamon.

You can make this the night before so it's ready in the morning when you are!

You also don't have to layer it if you don't want to. You can just stir it together in a bowl.

I have also found the yogurt layer by itself makes a very nice FP dip for berries!

*Fresh Fruit can be a peach, an apple, etc. It does not have to be just berries. Customize it for you!

Linked at Thank Your Body Thursday at Thank Your Body and Tasty Thursdays at Mandatory Mooch.