I can’t even form sentences right now. Seriously, I think my brain is broken. So, this post will be…special. And short. I went to the Pats game yesterday and was hanging out with a bunch of guy friends all weekend and three days of eating and drinking like a guy has me feeling…like a disgusting, smelly dude. I can’t wait to eat vegetables and shower daily and paint my nails and talk about clothes and celebrity gossip and my period and hair products and go to bed at 8PM every single night this week.

Anyway, when I talked about my Boozy Book Club last week, I said I’d post the recipe for the raspberry goat cheese crackers I served. They’re yummy snacks—the perfect mix of sweet and tart—and they look pretty, too. I got the idea for them here.

Ingredients

Makes about 25.

• 1 package raspberries
• Goat cheese, room temp
• Crackers of your choice (I used gluten-free rice crackers because gluten-free is, like, so hot right now)
• Mint leaves
• ½ a lemon
• 1 tbsp honey (plus more for drizzling)

Start by making the raspberry honey reduction syrup stuff (I can’t think of words. Brain broken). On medium-low heat, simmer ½ cup of raspberries, the juice from ½ a lemon and 1 tbsp honey. Mash up the raspberries with a wooden spoon and stir as it heats. You’ll know it’s ready when it starts to get frothy looking.

Smear the crackers with about a ½ tsp of goat cheese each (Ew. “Smear.”). Plop on some of the raspberry honey syrup stuff. Top with a whole raspberry. Garnish with a tiny mint leaf. Drizzle plate with honey.

Nutrition Facts

Serving = 3 crackers

Calories: 57.5
Calories from Fat: 20
Total Fat: 2g
Saturated Fat: 1.5g
Cholesterol: 5.5mg
Sodium: 50mg
Total Carbohydrate: 8g
Dietary Fiber: .5g
Sugars: 2.5g
Protein: 2g

“Serving size = 3 crackers.” Ha! I ate like 15 at book club the other week.

Do anything fun this long weekend?

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I’m a snacker. Rather than the traditional three large meals a day, I always push it to five or six snack-sized meals. I just sort of graze on food all day long like a cow. That may not sound sexy, but it is. I never feel overfull and I keep my metabolism up throughout the day—both added bonuses to the glaringly awesome fact that I get to eat delicious food so frequently.

I’m always out to find mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, and this parmesan garlic edamame recipe (slightly adapted from this recipe) is my latest obsession. It even rivals roasted spiced chickpeas, which I snack on almost every day (so good!).

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package frozen shelled edamame
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS (updated! I found there’s no need to cook the edamame first. In fact, it’s WAY better if you don’t!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Let frozen edamame thaw on the countertop. Dry on paper towel if necessary.
3. Mix parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. In separate bowl, toss edamame with olive oil.
4. Add the parmesan-spice mixture to the edamame and toss until evenly coated.
   
5. Spread onto pan and bake for 15 minutes (until cheese is crispy).
   

This healthy snack is oh-so-yummy and reminds me why I could never be a vegan: life without cheese is not life. (In my opinion.)

Now to completely contradict my first paragraph, I just have to mention the delicious three-course meal I had last night at Post 390. It’s Restaurant Week in Boston, which means a slew of phenomenal eateries offer a three-course, fixed menu for an insanely affordable price. Post 390’s Restaurant Week menu was ON POINT. I went with the sweet corn bisque with crabmeat, grilled Atlantic salmon and peach cobbler for dessert. The Resto Week feast didn’t exactly fall into my “snacking” eating habits, but hey, everything in moderation…including moderation.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: ½ cup (about ¼ of the batch if you use one bag frozen, shelled edamame)

Calories: 152
–Calories from fat: 80
Total Fat: 9g
–Saturated Fat: 2g
Cholesterol: 5mg
Sodium: 100mg
Total Carbohydrate: 8g
–Dietary Fiber: 4g
–Sugars: 1g
Protein: 11g

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