Gouda and Apple Croissant with Baby Spinach

I have a serious sweet tooth.   I blame it on my grandparents, who always had homemade cookies on the counter and who never restricted the number of times I could visit the jar.  That being said, the holidays almost made my sweet tooth hurt. 

In the past three weeks, I think I consumed more butter cookies, peppermint bark, and rice pudding than should be humanly possible. In fact, if you add in the number of Jelly Belly Beans I ate, I’m pretty sure I consumed more than my own weight in sugar.  This could be hard to come back from, seriously.

I don’t have any New Year Resolutions to avoid sweets or anything like that, but I do want to focus on being healthier.  I decided to ease myself in to healthy eating again slowly with this perfect breakfast or lunch croissant.  Topped with baby spinach, I am bringing the vegetables back in to my diet this week.  But to make it a little bit easier (because they don’t have a spinach Jelly Belly you know) I added some candied nuts to the top.  It is perfectly delicious, and quite a bit healthier than a butter cookie!

(Note: I used this method to candy the nuts and it worked like a charm: Cafe Johnsonia – How to Make Candied Nuts.)

Gouda and Apple Croissant with Baby Spinach

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Ingredients:

1 large croissant
2 slices of Gouda cheese
1/3 cup baby spinach
1/2 Gala apple, cored and sliced
2 to 3 tablespoons candied pecans or walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit

Slice croissant in half and top each half with cheese.  Place on baking sheet and bake until cheese is melted, about 6 to 8 minutes.

After removing from oven, top both halves with apple slices and baby greens.  Sprinkle nuts over the open faced croissants and serve.

Makes 1 serving (if you can eat both halves of the croissant – I couldn’t.)