Personal Sweet and Spicy Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

One of my new inventions for our kitchen is called "personal potatoes." My invention began with regular white potatoes, a post which I will do shortly because they were the BEST, and now has ventured to sweet potatoes!

Basically, we use the deep circled creme brûlée ramekins and make little individual scalloped potato dishes! It keeps portion control and flavor all packed into one :o)

Ingredients: (serves 2 people; cook time is 40 minutes; prep time 10 minutes)

-1 sweet potato

-1 tsp of chili powder

-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-1 cup of milk (or heavy cream), divided

-2 slices of stick butter

-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

2. Mix together the milk or heavy cream with the chili powder, cinnamon, and salt and pepper. Set aside

3. Peel and slice the sweet potato into thin rounds (1/8 of an inch thick)

4. Place a little slice of butter on the bottom of each ramekin

5. Stack the sweet potato slices into each ramekin, fitting as much in as you can

6. Pour milk mixture over the sweet potatoes

6. Cover individually with aluminum foil

7. Bake for 30 minutes, remove the aluminum foil, bake for an additional 10 minutes 

**keep an eye out for the milk spilling over and causing a lot of smoke, it wont hurt anything but will cause you fire alarm to go nuts (see previous post about fire alarm issues in our house!)

Serve with a protein and vegetable and you have yourself a comfort meal! In these pictures we did lemon pepper chicken strips and peas sauteed with garlic and butter!

Enjoy :o)

Weeknight Salads

Trying to get on a healthy eating kick is SO difficult to do. When your commute is 2+ hours total, you work for 9+ hours, and you are a little sleep deprived.... its hard to get motivated to stay healthy when the unhealthy things are just so fast and easy!

However, one thing I could eat every single night is a decked out SALAD. I am not talking some leafs with dressing, I am talking a salad with more toppings than leaves. 

We had some extra salad mix in the fridge one night this week, so Mike and I each made our own delicious custom salad for dinner.

I think a good way to make a salad healthier is to GO EASY on the dressing. This is so hard for me to do, as you all know, I love dressings, sauces, and anything you can dip something in. Condiments are my weakness and I am not afraid to admit it!


**(I am still trying to figure out a copy-cat recipe for Chick-Filet Sauce, so if anyone has one PLEASE TELL ME NOW!)**

The best way to manage your dressing intake is to measure out the amount you want to eat and toss it with the lettuce in a bowl before plating it or putting on the toppings. This gets the dressing mixed up really well over all the lettuce, keeps the portion under control, and allows for little wasted dressing! 

Anyways.... onto the main features of the night...

My Salad (I will call it..."Toppings with some Lettuce"... I know, I am so creative):

-Lettuce tossed in Raspberry Vinaigrette

-Roasted corn**

-Fresh slices of red pepper

-2 Hard boiled eggs

-Fresh Goat Cheese

 

Mikes Salad (which he calls..."Asian Medley".... okay, I named that it myself):

-Lettuce 
-Left over chicken from the Asian BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that we had early in the week

-He used the rest of that Asian BBQ sauce as a dressing too!

-Roasted Corn**

-Fresh Goat Cheese

**For the roasted corn, I just used some frozen corn and sauteed it on the stove until it was roasted!

We were able to do both of these salads with our left overs and ingredients in our fridge/freezer! This is great weeknight cooking and something healthy and simple for anyone who doesn't want to slave over the stove during there spare hours home in the evening!


I hope this gives you some healthy eating inspiration and ideas for the next time you are going to whip up a salad!

Enjoy :o)

Asian BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

This weekend I was browsing my moms Food and Wine Cookbook 2010 over and found this great recipe and knew immediately that we had to make it.

I mean come on! This was the picture in the cookbook, how could I NOT make that!!

I traveled to my favorite store in the whole wide world, the Springfield butcher, had them hook me up with some chicken drumsticks (which were HUGE)... and about a million other things, but those are for different posts.

The great thing about this recipe is the drumsticks are baked, so you don't feel too guilty eating them, and its really easy to make. The sauce is delicious, and had we not devoured all of it for this meal, it would have been worth saving and eating with so many other things!

The whole meal included the Asian BBQ drumsticks, some frozen pot stickers from Costco (AMAZING SIDE DISH) with the Asian BBQ sauce drizzled on top, and a fresh spring salad.

Tell me this isn't some GREAT weeknight cooking?!

The recipe is really simple to make, delicious, and fun!

**Side Note: Broiling chicken with a sugary sauce on it makes a lot of smoke in some ovens... so try not to do what I did and make the smoke alarm go off a million times while in the final steps of this recipe and scare the living hell out of your dog, make your boyfriend/roommate angry and irritated at the noise, and give yourself burning smoke filled eyes and an hour long head ache from smoke inhalation and high pitch beeping! (There is never a dull cooking moment in our house!!)

( Source of recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-drumsticks-with-asian-barbecue-sauce )

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 16 chicken drumsticks (3 pounds)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup sweet Asian chile sauce or hot pepper jelly
• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup chicken stock or broth
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 cup toasted sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°. In a large bowl, mix the vegetable oil with the five-spice powder. Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper and toss. Arrange the chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast for about 35 minutes, turning twice, until cooked.
2. Meanwhile, in a blender, combine the hoisin sauce, chile sauce, rice vinegar, stock, ginger, garlic and sesame oil and puree until very smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and simmer until slightly thickened, 5 minutes.
3. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and toss with the sauce, until completely coated.
4. Preheat the broiler and position a rack 8 inches from the heat. Return the chicken to the baking sheet and broil for about 10 minutes, brushing with the sauce and turning occasionally, until glazed and sticky.
5. Add the sesame seeds to a bowl. Dip the chicken in the seeds to coat; serve.

Things I did differently:
-Nothing really, it was great and easy on its own!
-I left off the sesame seeds... mostly because I would have NO idea where to find those in the store so I figured the recipe would be just as good with them
-I think because my chicken drumsticks where so huge it took a long time to broil them to get the sauce nice and sticky on the chicken. I didn't time it, but just waited until they looked dark and delicious!

Enjoy :o)

This was one of the best soups we made all winter. It was a recipe that I found for my awesome blender/soup cooker from William Somona recipe archives. 

Black Bean Soup with Salsa Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried black beans
• 2 Tbs. canola oil
• 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
• 1 or 2 jalapeno chilies, seeded and minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small red bell pepper, diced
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. dried coriander
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 8 cups water
• 1⁄2 small ham hock or ham bone
• 2 Tbs. fresh lime juice
• 2 Tbs. minced fresh cilantro, plus 6 to 8 sprigs
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the salsa cream:

• 1⁄2 cup sour cream
• 2 Tbs. fresh lime juice
• 2 Tbs. purchased fresh salsa
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

Pick over the beans, discarding any misshapen beans and stones, and rinse well. In a large pot, combine the beans with cold water to cover by 3 inches. Soak for at least 4 hours or up to overnight. Alternatively, for a quick-soak method, bring the beans and water to a rapid simmer (but do not boil), then simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain the beans and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onions and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the chilies to taste, garlic, bell pepper, cumin, coriander and oregano. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are softened and the mixture is very aromatic, 7 to 10 minutes.

Add the beans, water and ham hock, cover partially and simmer over medium heat until the beans are soft, 1 to 1 1¿2 hours. Remove from the heat and discard the ham hock.

In a blender or food processor, puree the soup in batches, leaving some texture, and return the soup to the pot. Alternatively, process with a handheld blender in the pot until the desired consistency is reached. Add the lime juice, minced cilantro, salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, thin it with water. (If you prefer a velvety consistency, puree the soup until smooth, then pour it through a fine-mesh strainer into a saucepan.) Reheat gently over medium heat.

Just before serving, make the salsa cream: In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, lime juice, salsa, salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and garnish each bowl with the salsa cream and a cilantro sprig. Serves 6 to 8.

(source:  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/black-bean-soup-with-salsa-cream.html ) 

I wanted to also mention, this is by far the best food picture I have taken on my blog so far, props to me!

Ya, that's some awesome photography! That is why I made it extra huge for you all!

I really recommend this soup tho, make it now before it gets too warm to eat soup, and do not skimp out on the sour cream, it makes it a million times better!

Enjoy :o)