Luscious Lemon Bars

So I am blogging this while eating handfuls of chocolate chips. Sad, but true. I have this super healthy week of whole-food eating planned, including an amazing Vegan Summer Squash, Sweet Potato, Carrot and Ginger Soup tonight, and I cannot stop craving chocolate and sugary stuff. Sheesh, hormones, what is your problem today? I think this sugar craving began earlier this week when I was trying to figure out how to use up my gorgeous lemons from my Bountiful Basket this week...and then, inspiration and a whole lot of excitement hit me. LEMON BARS.

Hold on to your hats, kids. These lemon bars are delectable and the perfect balance of sweet and tart. You will never need another lemon bar recipe. Full disclosure: I adore lemon desserts. Lemon bars, lemon tarts, lemon meringue pie, lemon ricotta cookies, lemon-flavored sugar cookies. There is no end to my love for lemon. My wedding cake (yeah, I was that crazy girl who made her own wedding cake. Thank heavens I had a dear friend to take over decorating it for me so I didn't have a meltdown the day before my wedding) was a lemon pound cake with an amazing lemon curd filling. Suffice it to say, I have made a few lemon bar recipes before, but never really committed to one. I continued playing the field, and then discovered my Prince Charming with this beautiful concoction. Full disclosure, part two-my lemon bars are a modification of Deb's over at Smitten Kitchen, and hers is a modification of a recipe from Ina Garten, of Barefoot Contessa fame. These are easy to make, a snap to cut and dust with powdered sugar, and sure to make everyone you share them with smile from ear to ear.

"Skinny" Chicken Francese with Summer Squash and Zucchini

So for two weeks in a row, I have received some massive, fragrant, delicious lemons in my Bountiful Basket. I have been using them in all sorts of yummy dishes this week, but was at a bit of a loss as to how I wanted to incorporate the lemons into a main dish. Then, like a piece of blessed inspiration, I remembered how much I adore Chicken Francese. The real stuff is breaded in white flour and pan-fried in a lot of oil and drenched in a buttery-lemony-white-winey sauce. It's so danged good, but so danged bad for you.

So I set out to make a lighter, less offensive version for more frequent consumption, because I honestly eat the straight-up version of Chicken Francese like, once every two years. The skinnyfied recipe uses a small amount of flour cut with Panko, adhered with egg whites instead of the full egg, a smidge of extra-virgin olive oil, a modest amount of butter, no white wine, and fat-free chicken broth. It's paired with whole-wheat pasta, and topped with some fresh veggies. So the sin level is decidedly lower, and you can feel good about eating this baby for dinner like, once a month. Heck yeah. That's how we roll in my house.