SHS Girls Dinner

My group of girlfriends from high school decided to start a monthly dinner club. It has been so much fun! We rotate houses, chit chat, eat, and share good times with each other. I hosted this month. I have included the recipes and the party stuff. 


Bar Area:

I had red and white wine, and water. This was really just an excuse to use my wine decanter, Cork Pops wine opener, and water servers! 


Appetizers:

The main dish was Italian so I had some coordinating apps- 2 types of olives in my new olive boat, crackers with cheese, and store-bought bruschetta with toasted bread.


Salad:

We started with a simple salad of mixed herb greens, cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and selection of dressings. 


Bethenny's Skinnygirl Baked Ziti
This recipe was super exciting to me because I got to use my other Le Creuset casserole dish. The only pic I could find was lid-less but mine has a pretty lid. The other Le Creuset recipe can be seen in my Beef Stew post.
Ingredients:

• 16 ounces whole wheat ziti or rigatoni- I like Ronzoni Healthy Harvest 
• 15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt (I do not have garlic salt so I just used a little less salt)
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 8 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Optional: chopped parsley or basil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil water and cook the pasta for 8 minutes. Do not overcook the pasta, it will cook more in the oven while it bakes.
3. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
4. Drain the ziti, return to the pot, let cool. 
5. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, parmesan, garlic salt, black pepper, and egg white. 

6. Stir the ricotta mixture into the pasta.

7. Once everything is combined, add the tomato sauce.
8. Transfer the pasta to the casserole dish.

9. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.

10. Bake for 20 minutes.

11. Top with chopped parsley and basil.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 3 large crackers-I put them in a plastic baggie and mashed until crumbled)
• 1 tbsp light butter, softened
• 8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 6 oz fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt (not plain flavor, Vanilla!)
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 lemon's worth)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar free strawberry jam 

1.  Heat oven to 350°. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray.

2. Mix together graham cracker crumbs and butter with a fork until evenly moistened. Press evenly into bottom of prepared pan.

3. Gently beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth using an electric mixer. Gradually beat in fat free yogurt, egg whites, lemon juice, and flour. Do not overbeat.

4. Pour over graham cracker crust.

5. Stir jam until smooth. Drop by small spoonfuls over surface of filling. Using a knife, swirl jam gently through filling to create marble effect. I made a bunch of figure-8s to make this pretty look.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool to room temperature. Chill a few hours in the refrigerator. 

*Soooo, I had not read the recipe all the way through before I made it and missed the "chill a few hours" note. After a mild freak-out, I thought back to a few episodes of Cupcake Wars. When the contestants get in a crunch and need to cool their cupcakes quickly before icing them, they throw them in the freezer. I copied, and it worked!

On a side note: hats off to my Williams-Sonoma 10-Piece Glass Bowl Set. While making this dinner, I used 8 of the bowls.