What’s cookin’, good lookin’?

At the risk of sounding like a total 1950’s housewife, I am going to confess one of my guilty pleasures: I just love looking at different recipes…healthy ones of course.  I could literally spend hours online looking at various sites and adding ones I’d eventually like to experiment with to my ‘favorites’.  Fortunately I have a mom who is more than willing to help me (or in many cases prepare fully) these recipes.  When it comes to eating healthily, the sky really is the limit- the recipes are endless and yes, some of them do seem fairly complex.  But trust me, for every recipe that is slightly difficult, you will no doubt find another recipe that can be prepared in a matter of minutes.  So now you have no excuse but to get cookin’, good lookin’!
 
On Tuesday night, we had some family over for dinner and thought we would branch out a bit in terms of the menu.  Between my mom and I, there was some debate over what/how to make (her: “you can’t expect all the food to be made without oil or me: “no way in hell are we making Indian food- they can eat that in their own house”).  Eventually, we came to a middle-ground and here’s what we served:
 
Starters
Homemade falafels
Crudites (cucumbers, carrots, and cherry tomatoes)
Homemade yogurt dip
Red pepper flavored houmous

Mains
Quinoa and avocado salad
Mushroom rice pilaf
Steamed terryaki fish wrapped in a banana leaf
Ratatouille a la vodka
Fresh multigrain crusty bread
Mutton Indian style (trust me, that wasn’t my choice)

Dessert
Cherries
Freshly cut mango
Vanilla ice cream
 
I really enjoyed the meal and hopefully so did my cousin, aunt, and uncle.  I’ve posted pictures of the food and some of the recipes can be found in the “Recipe” section.  Bon Appetit!