Chipotle Lobster and Avocado Wrap

Chipotle lobster salad with avocado, scallions, cilantro and lettuce on a whole wheat wrap – fabulous!!

A few weeks ago I grabbed a bite at Lenny's clam bar with my husband and daughter and we ordered the special – the chipotle lobster avocado burrito. It was SOOO good I HAD to recreate a lighter version of it myself.

I don't eat lobster often because it's not cheap, but I love it and like to treat myself once in a while, especially in the summer. I went to my local fish market and bought a 2 pound lobster and had them steam it for me (I personally don't love cooking live lobsters). All the fish markets near me steam them for you for the same price as buying it live. This yielded enough lobster meat for 4 servings.

Then I tossed the lobster with lemon juice, a little light mayo and yogurt to make it creamy and added some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to give it a little kick. Tossed in some chopped scallion and fresh cilantro and the lobster salad was delicious.

I wrapped it on a whole wheat tortilla with avocado and lettuce (you can lower the carbs and make it gluten free by turning this into a lettuce wrap) and had myself a fabulous lunch over a bed of greens.

If you want to make a lunch to impress or even a light dinner, this is the perfect wrap!

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Baked Eggplant Sticks

Strips of eggplant, breaded and baked until golden and served with a quick marinara sauce. Serve these as a snack, appetizer or side dish. I'm making these tonight with an eggplant I bought at the farmer's market and figured I would revive the recipe from the archives. Enjoy!

I can vividly remember the day when my picky daughter, who was in middle school at the time, told me she liked eggplant.  

Eggplant? Really? She was eating dinner at a friend's and they were having breaded eggplant for dinner and she loved it. Kids are always more willing to try new food when they are eating over their friends'. I was delighted she liked a new vegetable and I made breaded eggplant for her at least once a month, only I baked them instead of making them fried.

Eggplant is probably not for everyone, but if you like eggplant, or want to try introducing them to your family and don't know how, this is a good place to start. There are many varieties of eggplant, Japanese eggplant is a bit sweeter and milder. If you have a farmer's market near you, you will find a lot of varieties is season right now.



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Chilled Watermelon Cucumber Feta Salad

Chilled watermelon and chunks of cucumber are tossed with feta cheese, Kalamata olives, fresh mint and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. It's that salty-sweet thing going on here that's so good – and will keep you cool as a cucumber during these dog days of summer.

This is the ONLY salad I want this week; temperatures are going to be in the high 90's all week long here in New York. During these sultry months, I usually make my watermelon salad with arugula, feta and red onion, but I loved this new combination with cucumber, mint and olives for an alternative, and a great way to use up any cucumbers you may have lying around.

You can double this to make a big bowl for a crowd, or cut it in half if you want to serve two. This makes a great side dish to grilled chicken, or seafood.

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Savory Zucchini Asiago Tomato Scones

Light and biscuit-like savory scones made with a blend of whole wheat and white flour, shredded zucchini, sun dried tomato, Asiago cheese and fresh rosemary. Almost smells like pizza when it comes out of the oven!

I was at the farmer's market in Long Beach this past weekend and bought lots of zucchini and tomatoes. I also came across a stand selling savory scones, a concept I fell in love with. Rather than my usual scones that I make with fruit, these are made with seasonal summer ingredients – perfect for brunch, lunch or with dinner. Today I had a scone for lunch with a beautiful heirloom tomato salad from the tomatoes I bought over the weekend. I'm thinking the leftovers would be perfect for dinner tonight with my homemade tomato bisque using the rest of the tomatoes I have.

Scones are usually made with double the amount of butter, to lighten them I have been having great success replacing butter with whipped butter in my baked recipes which is a lighter since it's whipped. I also use half the amount of butter used in traditional scones, and adding the zucchini really helps give the scones lots of moisture. The scones come out tender and soft with lots of wonderful flavor.

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Simply Obsessed Frozen Coconut Mango Pops

Frozen popsicles made with coconut milk and pureed mango, so good!!

We're having a heat wave here in New York. The kind of heat that you don't want to be outside, unless you're in a pool or sprinkler keeping you cool. I won't dare turn my oven on this week, even grilling is out of the question until things cool down.

But these ice pops... I'm obsessed!! I'm making these all summer long, I can't even begin to tell you how delicious they are. I don't think any of my other ice pops come close. And since so many of you asked about what popsicle mold I use, I linked the popsicle maker from Progressive available on Amazon here.

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Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Hope you all had a happy July 4th!! With zucchini season in full bloom, I thought I would revive this from the archives - one of my absolute favorites!! Enjoy!!

Summer zucchini hollowed out and stuffed with lean Italian sausage, then topped with marinara and cheese.

OMG! You guys are going to love these!

I've had this concept in my head for a while, but now that zucchini is in full season and my friend gave me some fresh from her garden, I put my idea to the test. The results were simply amazing, thumbs up all around, especially from my picky teen!

One boat fills me up, but you can enjoy two and still be in good shape. I love Polly-O part-skim mozzarella because it melts beautifully as you can see in the photo. I'm pretty picky about my Italian sausage, but I love al fresco's sweet Italian chicken sausage, you forget it's chicken while you eat it and it's 75% less fat that pork sausage, and it's gluten-free. Hope you enjoy.

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The Best Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burgers

I set out to make a great tasting grilled portobello mushroom burger that even a meat lover would love. The mushrooms are marinated then grilled and topped with melted Swiss Cheese, grilled red onion,  tomatoes, spinach, and avocado – yum!!

The only thing my husband said would make these burgers better is adding bacon... maybe next time.
I wanted to give the mushrooms a meaty flavor, so I marinated them with balsamic, soy sauce and Montreal steak seasoning. These were so good, perfect for meatless Mondays or any night of the week.

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