Cooking for an awesome mom on her birthday!

Birthday girl with the Green Beans!

So as all of our followers probably know by now, all of the ladies who contribute to the blog love to cook. So when it came time to decide what to get my mother for her birthday it was a no-brainer... I was going to cook her a nice meal...and not just cook it for her, but let her help and learn how to do it herself!  We had some oldies but goodies that you have seen on here before, and also some new recipes.  For an appetizer, I made the always-delicious Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza.  We each had a slice to hold us over until the rest of the meal was ready.  We then had Rosemary & Garlic Veal (Chicken for Katie) with Haricots Vert and Shallots, the Sweet Potatoes with Goat Cheese, Pecans, Dried Cranberries, Celery and Shallots.  We finished off with a 100-calorie dessert of Grilled Peaches with Raspberry Yogurt.  The recipes are as follows: 

Rosemary & Garlic Veal:
2 tablespoons fresh Rosemary, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 veal cutlets [or 3 and one piece of chicken if you live with my picky sister ;) ]
Preheat the oven to 450
Combine Rosemary and Garlic in a bowl.  Slice a few 1/2 inch deep slits into the veal and stuff with Rosemary/Garlic mixture.  Then rub the rest of the mixture over the meat.
Spray cooking spray on to a baking sheet and place the meat on the sheet.  
Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.  Ours turned out to be a little bit dry so be very careful not to overcook the veal!

Haricots Vert with Shallots:  Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1/2 pound of haricot vert, trimmed and tailed (or green beans if you have them on hand and would rather use those...we used the "steamable" bags)
2 teaspoon olive oil
1 small shallot, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons diced tomato
Wedge of lemon

Steam the green beans. Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallot slices and saute them until they’re just translucent, not browned–about one to two minutes. Add the green beans to a bowl and then add the shallots. Stir together. Season with salt and pepper. Spread green beans and shallot onto a plate, throw the diced tomato over them and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over the dish. Serve immediately.

pit the peaches

Grilled Peaches with Raspberry Yogurt:
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
2 peaches, pitted and halved
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1/4 cup sliced and toasted almonds


Place the raspberries and the yogurt into a blender and blend until the mixture is smooth and the raspberries are completely broken apart.
Remove from the blender and refrigerate covered until serving.
Preheat a nonstick grill pan over medium high heat.

grill the peaches

Rub the agave nectar over the peaches so they are completely coated.
Place the peaches skin side up onto the preheated grill pan and grill for 4 to 5 minutes or until the peaches have caramelized and are tender.
Remove the peaches from the grill pan to serving plates.
Spoon some of the raspberry yogurt over each peach and sprinkle with the toasted almonds and serve.

et voila!