After Dinner Thoughts

Dinner was insanely delicious this evening. When I called Mom this morning I gave her the list of choices. She said the pineapple fried rice sounded intriguing. And, it was! It was fairly easy to make - the prep took the most work and that wasn't much really. Mom, Dad, and I loved it! Don't know yet if Michael will be on board for this one, but it will definitely be repeated at some time in the future. A real keeper.

So, along with the fried rice we had a nice green side salad and I made a Pistachio Cake. I had picked up some raw shelled pistachios a few weeks ago and didn't know how I was going to use them. So, today was the day. I chopped then roasted them for about 15 minutes in a 325 degree Fahrenheit oven. Then, I added about 1 3/4 cups to the cake batter; and probably about 3/4 cup on top of the icing. Oh - instead of the icing suggested on the recipe I made a quick cream cheese icing:

8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup smart balance 50/50 spread stick, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 small box instant pistachio pudding mix
about 2 cups powdered sugar (I used what I had)

Mix the first three ingredients together until smooth. Add the pudding mix and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time - beat until smooth each time. Add to the cake and top with prepared pistachio nuts.

It was much better than I expected. In fact, it was darn good. It looked a bit funky what with being so green, but it wasn't real sugary - and I was really glad for that. I left half of the cake for Mom and Dad and the photo is of the half I brought home. I really need to remember to take my camera over to take photos before cutting.

Everyone enjoyed dinner and will look forward to these recipes again. Until next week - Happy Halloween!