Give me some of that sweet potato love

I love, love, LOVE baked/roasted sweet potatoes! They have got to be one of the healthiest, tastiest, simplest foods around. Seriously, all you have to do to enjoy the yummy-goodness of the orange tuber, is wash the outside well with warm water. If needed, scrub the skin and remove any growths. You may also need to trim off the ends. I'm a big fan of naked roasting or baking...naked referring to the potato...not the cook (if that's your thing, though, we won't judge you). Covering a potato with foil before roasting, really isn't necessary. For a white potato, you can just stick it in the oven, but since sweet potatoes tend to ooze a sugary syrup while baking, you should at least put it on a cookie sheet or pie tin. If you're roasting your potato, add a nice drizzle of olive oil (virgin or dirty girl, doesn't matter). Crank the oven up to 400, and let it hang out for 15-20 mins, though I'd keep checking on it since the temp is so high.

I know people love to accessorize their sweet potatoes...marshmallows, pecans, brown sugar, etc., but sweet potatoes, like women, are beautiful all by themselves...no need to adorn them with anything. Seriously, you need to try eating a sweet potato plain. The flesh is creamy and rich, the skin (yes, I eat the skin) is practically sweet enough to be candy! Did I mention how healthy sweet potatoes are? They're packed with fiber, beta-carotene, Vitamins A & C, and Potassium. All that, in one tasty, low-fat package. What could be better?!

One last thing...sweet potatoes are fairly easy on the pocket, and once baked, can be stored in the freezer for about 3 months. So my challenge to you is to go out, and show sweet potatoes the love and respect they so richly deserve!

Love, peace and bacon grease, y'all!

Depression Dinning

So I've been bitten by the need to organize my eating/cooking habits. I'm guilty of occasionally (once or twice a month by myself) eating out for convenience. I'm also bad about sometimes letting things sit too long and go bad. Anywho, I've decided to start portioning and freezing food. Portioning cuts down on defrost time and, of course, helps with portion control/over eating. Not to mention it looks neater in the freezer. My goal is to have enough food stored up, so that I won't have to do any major grocery shopping for at least two months. It may sound far fetched, but from the looks of my freezer, and my ever increasing knowledge and research on freezing foods, I think it's doable. This idea come from the fact that my income tends to fluctuate (sometimes wildly), so my ability to buy groceries also tends to fluctuate. I purposefully over spent my grocery budget to stock up on things like meat and produce to take advantage some super deals. With the way the economy is, it's a good idea to plan ahead. Things will get worse before they get better.

Over the course of last night and this morning, I've made, bagged, and frozen several batches of waffles. I came across a delish new waffle recipe, and was able to use a very brown banana I had left over from making banana bread. Woohoo! It was almost like a two for one deal! The recipe I found makes extremely light and fluffy waffles...delicate and delightful. Anywho, here's the recipe:

Whole wheat waffles
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbs. sugar (I used sucanat)
1 tbs. baking powder
2 eggs (or 1 egg and 1/4 cup applesauce)
1 3/4 cup milk (you can do half milk, half water as well)
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup fruit or veggie puree (I used banana)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Mix wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add wet to dry.

NOTES: I added a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg for an extra boost to the banana flavor. YUMMY!

Here's a hint on what will be making the trek to my freezer next: Idaho.

Eat well, be well.

Venturing into the land of the frozen

In an attempt to make cooking easier and less time consuming for myself, I've decided to start freezing more things, that way they are ready to go in the future. I predict this will also save money in that I'll be able to stock up on certain seasonal items and on-sale foods, then use them over the next several months. Today, I cooked a big batch of brown rice, and froze it in 1 cup sized portions. I did quite a bit of research to make sure you can freeze rice, because I was a bit sceptical. We'll see how this goes. Tomorrow will be dedicated to Titus 2 and making veggie purees for freezing.

Stir fry heaven

Tonight I made a very yummy stir fry. I went all out (labor-wise...not really cost-wise). I got some good terryaki sauce and chicken breast was on sale $1/lb! I shaved the chicken, so it would cook faster and soak up more of the sauce during cooking. I added zucchini (also on sale, 99 cents a pound), button mushrooms, julienned red peppers, sweet snap peas, water chestnuts (FREE with the terryaki sauce), and green onions. I paired the stir fry with brown rice/Bulgar wheat. SO TASTY!

I do have one word of caution to you, dear readers, PAY ATTENTION AT CHECKOUT! I had this AMAZING coupon for Kashi cereal bars, $2 off just ONE box! They happen to be on sale at the store for $2.99/box...so with my lovely coupon, they're less than a dollar! Well, as the cashier was scanning all my coupons (I'm proud to say I had a nice little stack of them), I noticed my $2 coupon wasn't showing up on the screen...but a little 20 cent off thing had popped up. I quickly pointed this out to the cashier and asked to look over all the coupons I just gave her to make sure I was getting the proper amounts off.

Okay, maybe another word of caution, PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR RECEIPT! I was just looking at mine, to bask in the savings when I noticed I'd been over-charged for my zucchini by 53 cents. It's very easy to be mischarged for produce since it seems many cashiers know nothing about that particular department. Some of them seem to be unable to tell the different between spinach and a bag of carrots. My zucchini were rung up as cucumbers, not really a terribly hard mistake to make, but I'd even been nice enough to weigh them and print out a little price sticker. All the checker had to do was scan it like she'd done with all of the other produce. Eh well, I think I'll let this one go...for now. I'll just say this, don't be afraid to fight for the price you want (though do try to be reasonable about it). About a month ago, I got 4 apples for 40 cents before because they were accidentally marked as 33 cents/lb instead of 33 cents/each. That felt good.

Anyway, remember the prices of things, so that when you get to the checkout stand, you can make sure you're charged what you originally intended to pay. All too often things that are on sale don't ring up that way, and you can be grossly overcharged, sometimes by more than a dollar an item. Some cashiers may try to make it seem like you're really putting them out if you insist on getting the correct price for something, just ignore them. They shouldn't make you feel awkward about getting a good deal.

Happy eating

Pasta in a flash

So I had a couple of ingredients that needed to be used ASAP, and it caused me to start thinking of creative ways to use both in the same dish without too much fuss. Being that I also happened to have less than half a bag of penne, I naturally decided I'd have to create a pasta dish. The two ingredients I had were 3 cloves of garlic and an opened can of artichoke hearts, both of which only had a few days before they got on the wrong side of good. Anywho, here's what I came up with:

Garlic-Artichoke Pasta

Olive oil (about 1/2 cup, divided)
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 cup red bell pepper, julienned or diced
1 can artichoke hearts, drained
1/2 small can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 1/2 cups dry penne
1/4 cup or so, grated Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Put pasta on to cook with salted water. While pasta cooks, saute garlic and peppers in large (10 inch) skillet for about 3-4 minutes. Add artichoke hearts and mushrooms. Cook an additional 3-4 minutes, until pepper is just about tender and everything is warmed through. By this time, the pasta should be just about done. You want to pull it before it gets overcooked. Drain pasta, and put into a serving dish. Remove veggies from heat and add to pasta. Toss with cheese and remaining olive oil. Serve warm. (2-3 servings).

Sweet child of mine

I'm experimenting with different ways to sweeten things. I've grown weary of the unhealthy, mundane habit of adding white, processed sugar to everything. Thanks to a trip to Homestead Heritage back in December, I've been introduced to sucanat. This unrefined cane sugar. Its brown, grainy and has a completely different taste than it's processed white cousin. It's not quite as sweet, and has a noticeable molasses flavor. It brings a nice depth to whatever dish you're trying to sweeten without being overpowering. BE WARNED: sucanat will add color as well as flavor, so if you're trying to make a white cake or anything of the sort...use a white sweetener.

That brings me to the other sweetener that has been gracing my spice cabinet as of late...fructose. This is the sugar found in honey and fruits..."fruit sugar" as it is sometimes called. Medicinally, it is also used as an intravenous nutrient. It is far sweeter than cane sugar, so if you're going to use this in a recipe it's 2/3 cup of fructose for every 1 cup of white, granulated sugar. It has worked beautifully in all of the baked goods I've made.

Dry sweetening has it's advantages, but I've discovered the joys of using simple syrup. You make simple syrup by boiling 1 cup water with 1 1/2 cup sugar (less for fructose, obviously) until it gets slightly thick. You use this mainly to add to drinks or dry things that need moisture as well as sweetening. Certain cake recipes call for adding simple syrup to each layer for extra flavoring. Adding spices or zests can make a nice flavored syrup for sweet tea. I made vanilla flavored simple syrup using sucanat and fructose for some hot chocolate and it was to die for!

Anyway, I hope I've inspired you to go beyond the norm, and look into healthier, more natural ways to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Happy eating