New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve supper I decided to really go all out. Quail in Port Cherry sauce, Acorn Squash with orange cinnamon "Butter", Cork Screw (whole-wheat) Pasta with Pesto Sauce (I used a total of 2 tablespoons oil in 4 servings!!) and a salad with baked goat cheese in the center that squished out when you cut into it - very yummy. And yes, it was all very low calorie compared to the regular versions.

Here I am going to share the goat cheese "discovery". This salad is one I had a few years back at a local restaurant called Backstreet Cafe where nothing is healthy and everything is devine! It was delicious so I decided it would be a good one to "de-fat". And it was sooo simple. The following makes 4 generous servings.

Mixed salad greens
2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
Granny Smith Apple, diced and sprayed with lemon or dipped in lemon-water (so it doesn't brown)
4 oz. Goat Cheese (I used tube size with garlic and herbs but it doesn't really matter but the tube size is easy to "form")
Sugar Glazed Pecans (you can just buy these rather than making them but to make them wet the pecans and then shake them in Splenda brand brown sugar and bake until glazed. Store in air tight container.)
Good Quality Basamic Vinegar
Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
About 6-9 Melba Toast rounds, crushed fine I used the processor)

The goat cheese needs to be divided into 4-1/2 inch pieces that are like a small golf ball that has been squashed. (The normal recipe calls for flouring, dipping it in egg wash, then bread crumbs. I found that crushed melba toasts provided the "crunch" once baked without the added calories and fat.)

So take each piece and cover in the crumbs - sort of press them in -and cover well. Now you have to freeze them before baking so that when you bake them they stay together and don't melt into a puddle. Once frozen, bake at 475 degrees on the top position in the oven for about 10-11 minutes. Oh, I also sprayed them with cooking spray right before sticking in the oven.

While they are cooking, pull together your salad. I place pecans, greens and apple in a big bowl and dress. The dressing is dijon mustard with oil & vinegar mixed well, pour over salad and toss to coat. When you plate you want the cheese underneath the salad sort of like a surprise!

A hint on the pecans. I chopped them up so that a mere tablespoon in a salad seems like a lot more when you are eating the salad.

I know I will never write a cookbook since I never measure anything-but I think you can make this without knowing exact amounts!

For WW- the entire salad is about 5 points according to the amount of oil you use and the number of pecans. You can cut it further by cutting the pecans totally and using the spray salad dressing.

But I think it was worth it!