Mushroom,sweet Peppers & Thyme Toast And An Award

Yesterday was a very productive day,we set up our Christmas tree ,the small one and the big one (I know it is late for those of you who do it right after thanksgiving ) ornamented it and put up the lights,the home now looks so festive with candles and greetings and the Christmas classics playing softly in the background. Manasi loves this time of the year and it is fun to have her participate whole heartedly in all this. She enjoyed her hot cups of coco while decking up the tree.Mahir & myself were enjoying cups of tea as usual.

I was looking for something simple  for lunch which could be fixed in less time and was complete in nutritional values along with being tasty :) I looked through Light Bites And Lunches by Readers Digest and came up with this amazing recipe for Mushroom & Thyme Toast. I loved it ,it was healthy & tasty with fewer calories and we all love mushrooms. I have tweaked the recipe a little and  trust me the result is YUMMY !!!

Ingredients:
Ricotta Cheese: 4 tbsp
2 celery sticks finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
Good pinch of cayenne pepper
chestnut mushrooms: 1 pound
sweet peppers: 6 yellow & red
Garlic clove: 1 crushed
fresh Thyme: 1 tbsp chopped
creme Fraiche: 2 tbsp OR Sour cream
Lime Juice: 1 tsp
8 Thick slices cut from a small loaf of mixed seed bread
Salt & pepper

Preparation & Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Note: This recipe will serve 4, so you can increase or decrease the amount of ingredients according to your requirement.

Method:

1. Put the ricotta,celery,parsley and cayenne pepper in  a bowl and mix well together.Set aside in a cool place until needed. Preheat the grill to high.

2. Leave any small mushrooms whole and halve larger ones. Place them in large heavy frying pan,preferably non-stick along with sweet pepper rounds and add the garlic,thyme,and sour cream or creme  fraiche  and 1 tsp of water. Cover and cook until the mushrooms are tender but crunchy to the bite. The mushroom should give up its juices,before you turn off the flame. Add 1 tsp lime and salt & pepper.

3.While the mushrooms are cooking,toast the bread slices on both sides under the grill.While still warm spread on one side of the toast some ricotta mixture and then spoon out the mushrooms and peppers on this spread & enjoy  it while it is crunchy and warm :)

Note: I have used the weight watchers bread for this recipe.
I have substituted dried parsley for fresh.

Ricotta Cheese:
Like other cheeses, ricotta is a good source of protein and calcium. Because of its high moisture content,it is lower in fat than many other varieties of soft cheese.

Are you on the look out for some lip smacking and drool worthy recipes look no further,here is where you should be http://tastyappetite.blogspot.com/  Jay the proud owner and my dear friend who owns this  special space has some amazingly wonderful recipes. For those of you who have not yet visited her blog please do,you will thank me for it:) And here is the award that was given to me & my blog by Jay.Thank You so very much Jay,I love it,it is so sweet of you and I loved those 5 petal roses they are my favorite and I have them in my backyard and they smell so wonderful when they just start to bloom in summer.