Berries, Berries, Everywhere!

We are eating A LOT of berries in this house.  My hubby eats them, I eat them and now my son is eating them.  I have to go to the market twice a week to get berries.  My husband eats them on his cereal in the morning, my son uses them for smoothies, I use them to make a big fruit salad everyweek and to make light desserts.  Usually I make angel food cake with berries to make a light dessert, but experimented this week and used ricotta cheese!  Prepare the ricotta earlier in the day.  I process the ricotta cheese in the food processor, or use a blender, and process it to get the grittiness out of the cheese, to make it smoother.  Recipe below.

 I always use part skim ricotta cheese when I am cooking, lighter in fat.  Then I add two tablespoons of Grand Marnier Orange Liqueur.  I buy these little bottles at the checkout in the Liquor store, cheaper, and they are great when you only need a little bit of a special liqueur for a dessert or cooking.  I grate orange peel into the ricotta, and add some powdered sugar.  Let it go through the processor again.  Cover and refrigerate so the cheese sets back up.  Rinse the strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, and gently pat them dry.

 Pour the berries into a bowl and squeeze 1/2 of a lemon over them, and add 1 teaspoon of the Grand Marnier, stir them up, cover and refrigerate them.

 When ready to serve, divide some of the berries between four dessert glasses, add ricotta cheese on top, divide the rest of the berries between the four glasses and top with a 1 inch square of a No Pudge Fudge Brownie.  It's almost like cheesecake without the crust and the calories!  All you need to mix the brownies is a vanilla flavored Greek yogurt, or a plain Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract mixed in it. Spray a square baking pan with cooking spray.......

Pat the brownie batter into the pan, bake and you're good to go.  These brownies are chewy, fudgy and so good!

 Light Ricotta Cheese and Berries

1 16 oz container of Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons of Grand Marnier Orange Liqueur

1 Tablespoon of orange zest

Process the ricotta in a food processor or blender.  Add the sugar, liqueur and the orange zest and process again until blended.

3 cups of mixed berries

1/2 of a juiced lemon

1 teaspoon of Grand Marnier Orange Liqueur

Wash and pat  berries dry.  Add the juice and the liqueur and stir, cover and refrigerate until ready to use. When ready to serve, divide some berries between four dessert glasses.  Top each glass with about 1/2 cup of ricotta mixture.  Divide the remaining berries between the four glasses and top with a low fat brownie.