Baby Broccoli and Cheese

Ingredients

• 1 12oz bag of frozen broccoli
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1-1 1/2 cup water

Directions

Cook the broccoli and 1 cup of water over medium heat until tender, somewhere between 5-8 minutes.  Pour the broccoli and water into a blender or food processor and pulse until pureed.  Add in the cheese and pulse until combined.  If it doesn't come together add in the remaining 1/2 cup of water.

I prefer to divide the baby food into small, single serving Ziploc containers.  This makes 5 four-five ounce portions.

Sophie prefers her broccoli with the cheese...she really ENJOYs it!

Tasty Tuna Salad

Last night time got away from me, so I turned to trusty ole' tuna salad to bail me out of my dinner dilemma.  Tuna has gotten moderately expensive in recent years, so I buy mine in bulk from Sam's club (I think there's 8 cans to a pack).  This recipe makes 4 servings.

Ingredients
3 cans of tuna in water, drained well
4 TBSP fat free mayo
1/4 c. sweet relish
1/4 c. diced celery
2 TBSP diced roasted red pepper
1/4 c. diced yellow or red onion
1/8 c. diced green olives w/pimento
pepper to taste

Directions
Put ingredients in bowl and stir!  I recommend making this a few hours ahead to let the flavors marry.  All together I think this takes about 10 minutes to make; that's one of the reasons I always keep a few cans of tuna in the pantry!  Enjoy.

Meringue Clouds

On New Year's Eve I made molten chocolate lava cakes and this left me the proud owner of some lonely egg whites.  Since most people are trying to cut back to lose those holiday pounds Santa gifted us with I thought I'd start the new year right by giving you a light and low cal cookie recipe!
These little beauties are light, crispy and sweet.  They allow you to fulfill that sweets craving without blowing your calorie counting for the day--these cookies ring in at about 10 calories a cookie.  That means for 100 calories you could eat 10 of these--take that boring, chemical laden 100 calorie cookie packs!


Ingredients
2 large egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tarter
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 c. plus 2 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp REAL vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat your oven to 250.
Whip the egg whites, cream of tarter and salt with a hand mixer on medium high until soft peaks form.  Add in 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form, once this happens mix in the vanilla (they should stand up without falling over on themselves).  With a rubber spatula fold in the remaining sugar. 
Load this mix into a large pastry bag (or gallon Ziploc bag) and cut the tip off to give you approx a 1/2" opening.  Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and pipe 1" circles approx 1/2" apart from each other.  You should be able to get all of these on one sheet, but if needed you can use a second sheet.
Put these in the oven and turn the heat down to 200 and bake them for 1 hour.  Rotate your sheets and bake for an additional 45 minutes (that's 1 hr 45 min. total).  Turn your oven off and crack the door, cool them for 30 min. in the oven and remove to the counter to finish cooling.

These will keep well for a week in an air tight container, though I don't believe they've ever lasted that long at my house! Enjoy these cookies while feeling guilt free!