Spicy Crab and Mango Salad in Wonton Cups

This is the first recipe I've ever tried

by Ellie Krieger. She's one of the newbies on the Food Network and her other job is being a nutritionist. They seem to be making her website into a

weight loss site that you can sign up on for a small fee and she will tell you what to eat. Well, I won't be doing that... but I will make her recipes

from time to time because this one was really good and it was nice and light.

I work at a big company and one of the focuses of this company is to make sure that their employees are happy at work and feel "recognized". Part of that

recognition plan always involves "food days" here and there. These can be as simple as pizza and wings from the nearby pizza joint, or they can be a

veritable eating bananza with people whipping up their specialties and bringing them in for everyone to share. We all end up grazing all day on all the

food and fall face first into our keyboards later in the afternoon because we're too tired and full to work. It's a really productive day.

Well, we just had a food day not too long ago and as I've mentioned before, I'm trying to watch what I eat. That's not to say that I've given up on all

rich foods because I'll never do that (I've got a chicken and dumplings recipe coming up soon that was goo-ood!), but I try to eat nearly perfectly

through the week, especially throughout the work day. So, when I heard there was going to be a food day, I decided to bring in something fairly healthy,

but still tasty and fun to make.

One of my favorite things to make in the world is appetizers. I love small little cute food and I love the assembly-line type of cooking. Lots of prep

and then the assembly line starts and you crank out hundreds of little gems that everyone will love. Ok, maybe not hundreds. I also love that appetizers

are easy-to-eat little explosions of flavor in one (or two) little bites. They're usually pretty and sometimes colorful and they're just plain fun.

So, to satisfy all my appetizer requirements (fun to make, pretty to look at, tastes good), I chose these little crab salad wonton cups. Here's how I made them:

Start by spraying two mini-muffin tins

with cooking spray, then brush some canola oil on one side of each wonton wrapper.

Press each wonton wrapper, oil side

down, into the mini muffin sections. The wrappers automatically look like little flowers without any effort - just pressing them down. Bake them in a 375

degree oven for 8 minutes or until they just turn a golden brown. They will turn dark brown FAST so make sure you're paying attention to them. I made two

batches and the first batch was definitely darker than the second. Live and learn!

Next, mix together the crab salad. In a medium bowl, toss together the crabmeat, celery, mango, scallion and

cilantro.

To make the dressing, whisk together the lime zest, lime juice, salt, pepper, and pepper flakes. Add the oil and whisk until well combined. If you can

help it, don't leave out the pepper flakes; I think they really made this appetizer. If you don't have pepper flakes, chop up a jalapeno pepper very fine

and add it to the salad part - that would be really good, too.

Add the dressing to the crab salad mixture and toss to combine. Fill each cup with the crab salad and serve.

I made these late in the evening, so apparently I wasn't in the picture-taking mood I usually am - sorry! But they did come out great, they were a hit at

food day, and I loved the taste and lightness of them as well. I would make these again, especially in the summer time for picnics.