New Years' Treats - Apps, Dinner, and Dessert

For New Years, we were apprehensive to again dive into party food mode.  However, you gotta live it up a little!

We attempted to eat healthily - enjoying some snacks, a dinner, and dessert.  I have a three-ring binder full of recipes - not really in great order - and I picked out things that sounded fun to try.

And I think they turned out well - we had fun so that's all that matters.  And we have good leftovers!

 

For appetizers, I set out what we had on hand:
- Carrots and Celery with dip (Sour cream mixed with salsa)
- Goat cheese and apricot preserves with pita bread
- Cheddar cheese with wheat thins
- Microwave popcorn with parmesan cheese (worked better with the powdery kind - not grated) (here's a good site for ways to jazz up popcorn)



I also made a Mexican 5-layer Dip from a Clean Eating magazine.  It was good!  I didn't read through the recipe closely, and the pinto beans are supposed to be cooked and allowed to soak before mashing.  I tried to just use the water in the can as juice and mashed the beans with a fork then a spoon.  Doing it again, I think I'd just buy refried beans; the bottom layer was really watery and didn't set up too well.  I sprinkled some cumin and garlic powder over the sour cream, but it didn't seem to make a difference.  I think I've had it with the sour cream mixed with taco seasoning...?  That'd be good. This is a cute idea for personal dips.  The lime was so good and I loved the top garnish.  I left out the onions as they don't usually sit well with me.

Served in a trifle dish with multigrain scoops from Tostitos!  I think for the leftovers here - it'd be good to saute up some veggies or brown up some meat and make tacos/burritos!

For dinner, I made a tried and true fave of mine - Butter Chicken.  The recipe says you can pull chicken from a rotisserie chicken, but I've always just cooked my own and pulled it.  I don't really adjust anything, though I did use way more chicken than it called for and more diced tomatoes so it made a bigger portion.  Like I said - leftovers! =)

I heard that when you buy Garam Masala spice that it tends to be mostly cinnamon and cumin as those spices are cheaper.  You can make your own here - but I found that cardamom is crazy expensive and didn't go for it this round. Maybe next time! I let it simmer for a while and it smelled super great.  Served over regular brown rice as its what I had.    Goes well with naan bread that I always find in the bakery section of the grocery store.  Trader Joe's has great frozen naan bread though!  Can't go wrong with plain or garlic.

Finally - made some pudding for dessert.  It's called Warm Mocha Pudding, but I served it cold.  I doubled the recipe to have some extra.  I also used low-fat half-and-half as I needed cream for the butter chicken.  So I don't know what the texture would be like with 1% milk.  I also used instant coffee instead of espresso as I had that on hand.  I didn't double that amount as I didn't want a super strong coffee flavor.  I started to cook the pudding on the stove top, and found it took only 5 minutes before it thickened and started popping.  Even doubled, it didn't take the 14 mins the recipe says (maybe if you use different milk it does).  Rather than bittersweet chocolate, I used milk and dark chocolate kisses as I had those on hand.  Couldn't bear to buy more chocolate than we already have to eat!!  A film started to form on top when it began to cool after cooking, so I stored it in the fridge with plastic wrap resting on top.  When served I used whip cream and sugar sprinkles on top.  I think it'd be really good as a parfait with some oreo cookies crunched in between; however, my husband says he's a 'purist' and is fine with it as is.  Thankful for these fun dishes I was given by a friend to use - those are perfect.  :)

Happy New Years from the Stewarts!!