Good Morning!!  I love Wednesdays – they’re half way through the week, so you get excited about the weekend coming up, and I get to go to Java Jog!  Java Jog has become one of my favorite weekly activities.  I love the girls I have the privilege of running with and seriously… WHO DOESN’T LOVE A FREE CUP OF COFFEE?!  Anyways, I could go on and on about how much I love a good Wednesday morning run and sipping on this cup of coffee, but I’ll move on with my blog post for today.

On Monday night, I was able to attend the Healthy Mexican Cooking Class at Whole Foods.  Mary Lindsey text me the night before about it and told me she had an available spot if I wanted to come, and of course I did!

We started out with an appetizer on the table, chips & guacamole – yum!  As I got upstairs, Mary Lindsey mentioned that it was half priced pint night, so I decided to liven up my Mexican with a nice Mississippi brewed beer from Lucky Town Brewery. (water on the side)

I love the cooking classes at Whole Foods, especially the Healthy ones.  Mary Lindsey does such a great job going through the recipes as quickly as she can, while also answering each and every question that comes her way.  Here is a list of all the recipe’s we went over on Monday night:

First, we made the 2 types of salsa – fire-roasted salsa and roasted tomatillo salsa.  While they refrigerated, we made the honey-lime dressing for our salads.  We topped our salads with roasted pumpkin seeds and it was a delightful second appetizer of the evening.

Mary Lindsey prepped the rest of the meal in front of us and afterwards we were able to assemble our own tostado.  The tostado included black beans, pineapple jicama slaw, guacamole, and both salsa’s.  I had never tried or really heard of Jicama before, but I do believe I thought it was pronounced Jicama and not Hicama, until Mary Lindsey pronounced it on Monday night.  She passed a bowl of it around for us to try and it was surprisingly delicious.  It reminds me of an apple, pear, cucumber, and potato all in one.  The outside looks like a potato and it cuts like a potato, but the taste is sweeter like a pear, and it’s crispy like an apple, but watery & light like a cucumber.  It’s pretty amazing.  My goal is to find a lot of Jicama recipes to share with y’all on a blog post one day.  They don’t provide a ton of protein, but they’re very rich in fiber and they taste just fine on their own as a snack if you cut them up into matchsticks.  You could also dip them in hummus or a bean dip.

We wrapped up our evening with personalized tostados that turned out delicious!!  I may have put too much tomatillo salsa on mine because it was way spicy for me.  There were some leftovers so I made a second one to complete my dinner for the evening and put a little less of the spicy salsa this time around.

Lastly, Mary Lindsey already had dessert prepared for us and I was a little skeptical whether or not I would like it, but it turned out delightful and refreshing.  I’ll definitely be making these throughout the summer to keep on hand in my freezer – Mango Lime Pops.  I love any recipe that is easily adaptable to taste, I guess most recipes go that way, but some are easier to change up than others to ensure you’re still getting decent flavor.  I’m not a big Popsicle person and I can’t typically finish one, although I enjoy having them on a hot summer day, so these smaller healthier versions will be right up my alley!

Thanks to Whole Foods for another wonderful healthy cooking class and thanks to Mary Lindsey for all the hard work she puts into each and every class she teaches.  She also has a wonderful Sous Chef by her side at each of the cooking classes and he does an excellent job answering questions, providing input when it’s appropriate, and helping Mary Lindsey any way he can!

• Do you attend cooking classes at your local Whole Foods?  Which one has been your favorite?
• Have you ever tried Jicama?  What have you cooked with it?  Did you like it?

I attended a sushi class that I really enjoyed, we were all able to take home 2 rolls that we personally made!  I’m excited to test out some Jicama recipes, let me know if there is one I should definitely try out!