Memorial Day Picnic Party

Wow, today had everything that Memorial Day should have, pool party, parade, red/white/blue clothing, hot hot sun, and all the best barbecue foods.  My mom made a DELICIOUS grilled corn salad and I am going to ask her to send me the recipe and I will put it up here for you all to enjoy! We also had grilled flank steak, my favorite type of beef.  My sister made beer bread, so yummy! AND Brownie sundaes for dessert.  Seriously, you are all going to try to get invited to our family party for next year right.  Well I thought I would share what I brought since they are two of my backyard barbecue favorites.  If you read my facebook recipes before I started blogging you may have already seen this one. Here it is again...

Siam Peanut Ramen Slaw



16 oz packaged coleslaw mix

2 pkg ramen noodles (no seasoning)

1/2 cup slivered almonds

4 oz honey roasted peanuts

4 Tbsp butter (I used light and therefore point values are based on this)

1/2 cup diced scallions

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup dark sesame oil (you can use olive oil if you don't want to buy sesame, I keep it on hand for Asian food but small bottle, expensive, I understand...Also the original recipe called for a cup, when putting the recipe into my points calculator I decided it always seems to have almost too much sauce so I decreased it to 1/2 cup and it tasted just fine!)

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup rice vinegar (again any vinegar will do, although maybe not balsamic, but I use rice for my Asian cooking)

Peanut sauce (bottled)

Mix coleslaw, almonds and peanuts.  Break up ramen noodles and stir in.  Add scallions and cilantro. Melt butter and pour over mixture and toss to coat.  Mix oil, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar in a separate dish and set aside.  Pour over coleslaw mixture 1 1/2 hrs before serving.  At time of serving, retoss, and then drizzle with peanut sauce.  The equivalent of 1 tsp per serving.  This makes about 18 servings of 2/3 of a cup, 6 pts.

The next item on the menu is a fun way to call a dessert a fruit/jello dish.  You may have seen this before...

I modified it a little to look like this:

Strawberry Pretzel Squares

I flip flopped the cream cheese/cool whip layer and the jello layer so I could top it with fruit and make it patriotic.  I also took great pains in slimming this down as well as I could.  Some things are not worth substituting I think.  Here's how this one goes:

2 cups crushed pretzels (use fat free)

1/2 cup sugar divided

2/3 cup butter (I used light)

12 oz cream cheese (I used low fat neufchatel)

2 Tbsp milk (I use 1/2 percent)

1 cup cool whip (Lite)

3 1/2 cups water divided

2 pkg Strawberry Jello (fat free, sugar free)

4 cups fresh strawberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

Melt butter in microwave.  Pour over crushed pretzels and 1/4 cup of the sugar.  Mix well and then press into 9 x 13.  Make jello using 2 cups boiling water and 1 1/2 cups of cold water.  Set in fridge for 1 1/2 hrs, add 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries. Spoon over crust and return to fridge to set.  This may take 3 or more hours so don't wait till the last minute like I did and then stay up until 1:30 am.  Beat together cream cheese, milk and the other 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.  Gently fold in cool whip.  Spread over set jello.  Decorate with other fruit for a patriotic feel.  If you cut it into 15 pieces it is 5 pts a piece, thanks to my slimming down! I think it tasted just as yummy as the original too. 

So there you have it, two picnic favorites.  I hope you all had a good time today too.  Hopefully you weren't like my Mom's neighbor who was mowing and weed-whipping and chain-sawing down trees all afternoon long.  Ugh, no fun for him and no fun for us listening to him.  Hey buddy, we are trying to swim here...Kidding.  So I will anxiously await my Mom's corn recipe (hint hint) and until then Summer is officially here. (It's 85 in my house at 10 pm and my kids JUST fell asleep, boo to no air conditioning).  Goodnight everyone!