Oh Where Oh Where Has My Free Time Gone?

The date of my last post cannot be correct...I have cooked some good meals and found a few "keeper" recipes and one that I will tell anyone who will listen how delicious it is (The Cooking Light chicken with pepperoni marinara sauce which will be my NEXT post). But in all honesty, it's been a rough two weeks of craziness at work and home, out of town travel, overwhelming school assignments and consequently I have been a little too friendly with the take-out menu and depleted my store of emergency freezer meals.

BUT, the worse seems past and I have an amazing trip to Arizona in a few days to look forward to as my friend Amy and I are already planning wonderful eateries to visit. Every foodie needs a foodie friend!

In the meantime, thought I would share a very yummy (and healthy!) recipe from Paula Dean for baked sweet potato fries...consider it a belated Meatless Monday!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries - Paula Dean - Food Network

Ingredients
Olive Oil, for tossing
5 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch long slices, then 1/4-wide inch strips
Oil
1 tablespoon House Seasoning (recipe follows)
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Line a sheet tray with parchment. In a large bowl toss sweet potatoes with just enough oil to coat. Sprinkle with House Seasoning and paprika. Spread sweet potatoes in single layer on prepared baking sheet, being sure not to overcrowd. Bake until sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

House Seasoning:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

For the House Seasoning:  Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Meatless Monday: The End of Thanksgiving

Sick of turkey yet?

Even if I did cook a 14-pound turkey for just me, my husband and son and then inexplicably also cook enough sides for as many people as a 14-pound turkey could feed..I do enjoy Thanksgiving because it is THE holiday dedicated to eating. As the below photo shows:

Did I mention this was for just me, my spouse and our 4-year old?

Anyway, there is turkey pot pie filling in the crock-pot while we speak , augmented by leftover veggies. Speaking of veggies, with it being Meatless Monday I thought I would share some vegetable dishes starting with 3 different broccoli preparations from my favorite Cooking Light::

Cheddar Beer Sauce Broccoli

Broccoli with Red Pepper and Toasted Garlic

Lemon Parmesan Broccoli

I made my broccoli for Thanksgiving in the spirit of their lemon broccoli but having used all the lemons during my other prep and cooking I improvised with leftover lemon Caesar dressing…quite good!

Next it’s a good time to revisit those mashed sweet potatoes because since according to my husband I made 3 pounds of them, I had leftovers I used in a sweet potato cheesecake:

Finally I direct your attention to my new favorite easy and tasty appetizer/side item: spicy saltines! These went fantastic with a good friend’s famous white chicken chili at the recent college football tailgate. Literally there are 4 ingredients: 1 ¼ cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons crushed red pepper, 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix, 1 box of saltines:

Have a great post-Thanksgiving week everyone! Next blog will be the December menu…only 27 days until Christmas!

Steal of the Week: Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I have been making a conscious effort to shop seasonally more and more so much of this month's menu features produce that is plentiful (and thus cheaper!) this time of year. One of the fall's most popular produce items is a personal favorite of mine: sweet potatoes. I can rock a mean puree (if you are local and been able to watch Cooking with Passion on Cox 11 you saw that in Round 1 --or look for my hands and a stick blender in the promo here) or I always go the standard cook-like-a-baked-potato and dress in butter and cinnamon and sugar. This time I had cream cheese on hand and thought I'd give that a whirl in creating a simple mashed sweet potato side to go along with these beautiful marinated strips (the marinade was fresh squeezed lemon, fresh ginger, Worcestershire, ketchup and soy sauce) :

I ended up stumbling upon a super easy recipe for Creamy Mashed Sweet Potatoes courtesy of Kraft Recipes.    

And really it doesn't get any easier then peeled and cut sweet potatoes, chicken broth (I used the organic free range I had on hand), cream cheese (I as usual used neufchatel) and nutmeg (I saw no need for the almonds). The great thing about a stick blender is one pot cooking! The finished meal came together with the steaks beautiful grilled by my hubby:

Hubby was such a fan of the sweet potatoes he had to restrain himself from a THIRD helping! They were delicious and I am already thinking of making them for Thanksgiving in lieu of regular potatoes.