Thank you to all who helped with my dinner!

[LaraW]

Thanks to everyone who gave ideas for our dinner on Saturday! I ended up using recipes from Deanna, Gail, KValley, and laughsandlaughs. DH's aunt came up to see our new house and to have dinner with us.

We served Thai Noodles with Peppers and Vegetables , a spring mix salad with Orange-Ginger Dressing , and for dessert we had Roasted Bananas with Brown Sugar Walnut Glaze over vanilla frozen yogurt.

With dinner, we were looking for a nice Riesling, but ended up with a Gewurztraminer that our liquor store recommended.

Thanks for all of your help! We really appreciated it! :)

Lara

[Deanna]

So it was a success? How about some quick reviews of the recipes you tried? (I'm especially curious about the Orange-Ginger Dressing...)

Thanks

d

[LaraW]

Everything was wonderful!

DH thought the Orange-Ginger dressing was a little too ginger-y, but his aunt and I both thought it was good, and complimented the orange and ginger in the main dish nicely.

The roasted bananas were great, and were very easy to make. Just one word of caution, if you have a smoke detector in your kitchen be prepared for it to go off! :)

On a side note, we had some of the dressing left over. I rubbed it onto some red snapper filets for dinner last night, and stuck on the grill. It was WONDERFUL!

Thanks again for your ideas!

PS, if anyone is interested, I will be happy to post the recipe for the Thai Noodles. I'm sitting here eating leftovers for lunch! :)

Lara

[Gail]

Delighted to hear things worked out so well for you!

You used the orange-ginger whatever on fish? Sounds worth checking into.

...and I am ALWAYS happy to read when someone extolls the virtues of any type of cooked bananas. In my family, they get fried, baked, flambéed and cooked into omelets. Three cheers for the underappreciated banana!

[cjm]

LaraW - where can I find the Roasted Banana recipe?

Gail -

BANANA CHEER
BANANA CHEER
BANANA CHEER

[Darlin]

LaraW -
Would love you to post the Thai Noodles recipe. TIA!!!

[LaraW]

Here's the recipe for the bananas (compliments of KValley)

Roasted Bananas With Brown Sugar-Walnut Glaze

Ingredients
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons reduced-calorie margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 large firm ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Cooking spray
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1 1/2 cups vanilla low-fat frozen yogurt


Directions
Estimated Total Time: 15 minutes

Preheat oven to 450°.Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl, and set aside.Cut bananas in half lengthwise. Place banana halves, cut sides up, on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 4 minutes. Drizzle sugar mixture evenly over banana halves, and sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Bake an additional 3 minutes. Cut each banana piece into thirds crosswise. Serve bananas with frozen yogurt; drizzle with any remaining sugar mixture.

Serving Size:
6 servings (serving size: 4 banana pieces and 1/4 cup frozen yogurt).
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Nutrition Facts
(per Serving):
237 calories; 44.5 g carbohydrates; 5 mg cholesteral; 7 g fat; 58 mg sodium; 3.9 g protein; 66 g calcium; 0.7 g iron; 3.7 g fiber;

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I'll post the other recipe when I get home.

Lara