Pasta Salad

I use the Skinny French recipe as the dressing for this. There is no formal recipe - but I choose whole wheat rotini noodles and boil according to directions, then in a collander - rinse noodles with cold water. Let drain for a few moments while chopping up some red or green pepper, red onion, cucumber, and any other seasonal veggie that your heart desires. I open up a small can of sliced black olives and rinse and drain. Toss all together with noodles and coat with the dressing. Top with some grated parmesan cheese and viola - pasta salad.

Skinny French Dressing

Due to food allergies, we make our own salad dressing. Here is one of our favorites - and it's healthier for you. I use this dressing as a base for healthy pasta salad too.

1 can Healthy Request Tomato soup, 1 Cup Splenda, 1 Cup canola oil, 1/c Cup vinegar, ground black pepper to taste

Mix well and store in container in fridge. I use some for Pasta Salad - then store in my Pampered Chef Mix and Measure container.

Cornbread Casserole

My Mom gave me this recipe after fixing it for Christmas this last year. The original recipe calls for more butter - but I've gotten by with a half stick vs a whole stick of butter.

1/2 stick of butter - melted, 2 eggs - slightly beaten, 1 can whole kernel corn - undrained, 1 can creamed corn, 1 pkg corn bread mix (we use Jiffy), 1 cup sour cream (I use light or nonfat), 1 red pepper - diced.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine ingredients together and pour in a greased 9" x 13" casserole dish and bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until knife comes out clean in the middle.

Pico de gallo

Ah, tomato season at the farmer's market!!! I don't have an official recipe with fractions, but am just offering what I do when making it. Here's a little definition of Pico de gallo.

First about 3 or 4 nice tomatoes, wash and chop them up and place them in a bowl. Rinse off some cilantro and chop that up. Chop and dice onion and green pepper. Add a couple shakes of Tobasco sauce to the mix and refridgerate. Sometimes I've added a splash of lime juice with it. You can also rinse and drain and add corn and black beans to jazz things up. Mmmm-mmmm good!

Zucchini Quiche

It's Zucchini season! This recipe was awesomely easy to make and I substituted Southwestern Egg Beaters instead of eggs and oregano and parsley and topped with some Montery cheese after taking it out of the oven and it was awesome.

Original recipes as follows:
3 Cups zucchini - thinly sliced, 1/2 cup onion - chopped, 1 cup Bisquick (I used reduced fat), 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/8 tsp. pepper (ground black), 2 tsp. dried parsely, 1/8 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 4 eggs - slightly beaten.

Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and blend well. Pour in greased 9" baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until lightly golden. Cut into wedges. Serves 4 to 6.