Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I am still getting used to posting on here everyday, but I am getting better :) Today you get TWO blogs, just because we are doing four healthy recipes today for St. Patty's Day!! I love this day. I feel as though it is a fun way for grownups to be young at heart and imaginative again, so rock on with that green! For lunch today, we had Reuben Paninis and Guinness Stew (remember all of these have been "healthified". 


For the Reuben Panini - find any recipe that fits this, and I altered it by using regular sliced Fresh French Bread, Fat Free Thousand Island Dressing, Light Mayo, Turkey Pastrami, Light Swiss (by) and Sauerkraut. I promise you will not know it is fat-free thousand island and the light mayo once everything else is put on the sandwich. I then just layered everything but the cheese on one side of the bread, and then 1 cheese slice kind of chopped up to fit everywhere on the other slice of bread. I then put it all together and sprayed one side with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and put it in the panini press (a toaster or oven will work just fine). I let it press until it has griddle marks and the cheese is nice and melted. After that enjoy! I LOVE Reubens and this satisfies my craving for one everytime!
I give this recipe 4 stars ****
Adam gives this recipe 3 stars (but he is not a Reuben fan and he still gave it a 3) ***


For the next Recipe: We had a side of Guinness Stew for lunch to go with our panini. Yes, we may not have been completely "healthy" by having so much, but at least we ate at home and each recipe was healthier :). 
The Guinness Stew recipe came from: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/irish_beef_stew/. I took this recipe and toned it down a little bit. It calls for 1/4th of a cup of olive oil while browning the beef, and I just misted the beef with my oil mister (just a couple of teaspoons or nonstick spray in oil flavor would do the same). You do not need that much oil (or fat) to brown beef, in my opinion it does not make it taste better in a stew. The recipe also calls for not extra lean beef, but I did trim most of my beef, and I used Splenda instead of sugar, but this should not be a huge deal if you do not like Splenda. Instead of using 2 tablespoons butter, I used a teaspoon of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, and a couple of sprays of nonstick spray in butter flavor. It will not effect the overall taste, and your veggies will still saute just perfectly. And voila, there is a wonderful Guinness Stew!! Adam lived in Ireland for 9 weeks, traveling all around for study abroad the first year we met, and he said this was one of his favorite meals over there. So I thought I would make it for him this year, since we were actually home for once for St. Patrick's Day, and he loved it!
Both Adam and Myself rate this meal 4 stars ****


Stayed tuned for St. Patty's Day Part 2 (Dinner) :)