First, Brussels Sprouts. I always shyed away from these tiny heads of lettuce look-a-likes and scoffed at the name. Brussels Sprouts? ew. But NO, not ew. oooooooo YUM!
They first made their way into a meal I had at a restaurant and thought, hmm, these are pretty good! After I looked into how healthy they are, I was at the store and grabbed some. I Googled recipes and chose one from AllRecipes.com.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts:
I mixed in a few slices of zucchini that were left over from the below recipe!To go along with my roasted Brussels Sprouts, I made Cream of Zucchini Soup. I follow Gina's WW Recipe's Blog, and besides this soup, she has some AMAZING tried and true recipes.
But on to the soup:
You boil all the ingredients on the stove, and then transfer to your blender to puree. Little tip...
Make sure to hold the lid on TIGHT when puree-ing. Mine flew off (because I was basically just resting my hand atop) and HOT soup went flying everywhere. Thankfully, just a bit got wasted, but the splatters sure did hurt and make a mess...
After this yummy dinner, I got to making a birthday treat for my co-worker. I made a chocolate cake with an interesting twist. Found this recipe from Gina's WW Recipe's Blog, as well.
Chocolate Cake without the oil! Instead? Diet Dr. Pepper! I used Organic Cake mix:
The batter was a lot more liquid than usual and I was afraid I really messed something up...
But I didn't! Just came out super moist:
You don't even need frosting on top - this cake is so moist, but if you wish, fat free Cool Whip would be a good alternative and then topped with Strawberries, or any other fruit. I was really impressed. It was good and almost brownie-like!