Potato Day! And also Hot & Spicy Day!!!

So today is not only Potato Day, Hot & Spicy Day, but also my hubby's birthday!! Happy Birthday Honey!! And since he gave me free reign over his birthday dinner, I made a delicious strawberry spinach salad with buttermilk poppy seed dressing. Sounds very fancy but very easy. And I couldn't ignore the potatoes. So I just boiled them for 8 minutes, and then threw them back into the pot with some seasoning, olive oil, and a little bit of garlic and herd sandwich dressing. The kids loved them, so they turned out amazing! They also loved the strawberry spinach salad which I was very worried they would just look at me and say "Really?" But they dug right in and loved it! Now tomorrow is my husband's real celebration because he had to work today. Poor baby. :( So tomorrow is the rainbow cake attempt! (Details will follow tomorrow!) But tonight I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip bar cookies so we could sing him happy birthday and he could blow out the candles.

Now the spinach and strawberry salad and the chocolate chip bar cookies both came out of one of my favorite recipe books.  Eat What You Love by Marlene Koch. The potatoes were my own creation so I don't have a recipe for them. I threw in whatever sounded good, but potatoes are easy like that.

So here are the recipes. Please try the strawberry spinach salad. It's AMAZING!!

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Buttermilk Poppy Seed Dressing

Makes 4 Servings.

1 1/2 cup serving= 2 PPV

Dressing:

1/4 cup plain nonfat yogurt

1/4 cup low fat buttermilk

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 Tsp lemon juice

3/4 Tsp poppy seeds

dash salt

pepper to taste

Salad:

6 cups spinach leaves

1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries.

1. Whisk all dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

2. Place salad ingredients in large bowl and pour dressing over. Mix well. Serve immediately.

Soft-Batch Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Serving 1 Cookie= 3 PPV

6 Tbsp butter, softened

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup Splenda granulated sweetener

2 oz jar baby food- prunes

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Oven- 350 degrees. Spray 13x9 in baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Large bowl with electric mixer- butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, sweetener, prune and vanilla and beat till smooth.

3. Medium bowl- whisk flour and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and stir by hand until combined. Add chocolate chips.

4. Spread mixture into baking pan. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until light brown.

Now don't be scared of these bar cookies just because they have prunes in them. You CANNOT taste them. My husband was shocked when I told him what was in them. But they turn out so light and fluffy compared to the original chocolate chip bar cookies.