About every other week I will buy a lone sweet potato for all the right reasons. It is a great source of Vitamin A and Beta Carotene, has a good amount of fiber, and is one of the most nutritional vegetables.
Deep down the reason is a pure guilty pleasure because I love potatoes and the orange color really makes me happy. I have always had an obsession with real potatoes that are dirty, heavy and solid. Unfortunately for me, my body does not love the potato as much as my taste buds. It turns out that I am sensitive to nightshade plants and end up with a nerve irritation that causes uncontrollable hiccups. Luckily for me the SP is in the morning glory family which means I can eat as much as I would like.
For over thirty years I had such distaste for the intense sweet flavor in the SP. The bulk of the blame rests on the following dishes of Thanksgiving; SP Pie, Candied SP’s and the ever too sugary SP Marshmallow Casserole.
A few years ago I started to try and add a bit more SP into my cooking such as adding a bit to mashed potatoes, putting small bites in a soup and adding into baked casseroles. I started to develop a real taste for the SP when sugar was not being added and started actually reducing the amount of white potatoes in my dishes. When I started to not be able to eat our Idaho Potatoes (and yes, while in Idaho I threw complete caution to the wind) I actually realized that I could substitute the workhorse SP for most of the potato dishes I loved.
I have made Sweet Potato Salad, Sweet Potato Chowder, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Bourbon Mashed Sweet Potatoes and enjoyed them all. My two quick and easy recipes to make are Sweet Potato Fries and Sweet Potato Hash browns. They are both made within 40 minutes from peeling to eating, are low in fat and super delicious.
Maryland Sweet Potato Fries
• 1 sweet potato
• Cooking Spray
• Sea or Himalayan Salt
• Old Bay Seasoning
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Peel Sweet Potato and use a Mandolin in order to easily create “fries” style julienned pieces.
3. Place on Baking sheet with a silpat or foil.
4. Spray with cooking spray and then toss with salt and old bay seasoning.
5. Place in oven for 35 minutes (flip sweet potatoes half way through and apply more Old Bay.
6. Remove and eat while still warm.
Note: as an additional treat, I like to make and Old Bay Dip with ¼ low fat may and ¾ non fat sour cream, and as much old bay stirred in as you like.
Hash Browns
• 1 Large Sweet Potato, shredded
• 1 Medium Onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon butter, halved
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
1. In a large skillet, heat half of the butter over medium heat.
2. Add in diced onions, and sauté until slightly translucent, about five minutes.
3. Add in sweet potato, salt and pepper, and top with remaining butter.
4. Combine all ingredients in pan, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Flip over potatoes and cook for an additional ten to 15 minutes un
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Comfort of Procrastination
In my mind, I am not a procrastinator who conceives of ways to avoid doing a task or the job at hand. I honestly and truly believe that I get things done, move on to the next task and do not get easily distracted. Well it appears that the mental fantasy is far from the truth.
The truth has finally seeped into my head and it is whispering that I am just a more subtle stealth version of a procrastinator. The normal delay that keeps me from having a spotless house, clean laundry that is put away and planning for a bathroom remodel have all been completed. It seems that studying has created a great procrastinator of me.
I am not remember my days in college when I learned to set aside time a week ahead of time or finished a term paper two weeks early. It was not because I was a go getter, but because all nighters had really horrible physical impacts on me. Turns out No-Doze will just make my body twitch and heart race for days. I just never realized that I set fake dates to ensure that my procrastination was in check. It gave me a false sense of security of being comfortably in control.
Now I am studying again almost a decade later from the last time I took a licensing exam. I realized that my lack of motivation is just the comfortable blanket I forgot I had owned. I have dedicated four days to studying and managed to do four loads of laundry, made two dishes that will make up lunch and dinner for the week, gone grocery shopping, scrubbed my bathroom, had brunch with the girlies, a birthday party dinner, street hockey practice and watched a football game. Most of these I would normally have to do kicking and screaming. Thank goodness I gave myself four days to learn 245 pages of information, which is read and outlined in only two days.
The one thing I will not procrastinate on is cooking good comfort food. As an adult, I have truly come to see cooking as an art form that is more than just about eating food. It is a way to project, protect or change your mood and outlook. As I delay the art of studying once again, I decided that I wanted to make one of my all time favorite dishes that is just pure comfort.
I knew I must make Chicken and Dumplings, and the quick version was just not going to be acceptable since I had studying to avoid. My mind was adamant that it needed to have a chicken put in hot water and boiled with seasonings. Then my own reason demanded that it also be as low in fat as possible which added an hour and two extra steps to the process.
This strong desire for Chicken and Dumplings may come from years and years of having it for Sunday dinner when it is cold outside. With fall coming on, but vegetables still available this is the perfect time to enjoy a nice creamy soup with fluffy cloud like dumplings. I always try to focus my cravings to the appropriate season, because it is just silly to have a hot bowl of chili in the middle of July. I really do love seasonal comfort foods, but have learned to adjust the recipes to lower the fat and calories and increase vegetables and fiber. Sometimes I have great successes and other times I have miserable failures.
Today was a huge success and pushed me to study a bit longer instead of cleaning my kitchen up from my cooking mess
Chicken and Dumplings
Half of One Chicken, skin removed
• Water to cover the chicken
• Handful of Garlic Cloves, slightly crushed
• Salt, a bunch to taste
• Poultry Seasoning ,to taste
• Pepper.
• Three Carrots, diced
• Three Celery Stalks, diced
• Medium Onion, diced
• Medium Yellow Squash, peeled and diced
• 2 ½ cups Bisquick
• 2/3 cups Skim Milk
• Fresh Parsley or Chives, chopped – optional
1. In a stock pot, place chicken in bottom, add in poultry seasoning, garlic cloves, salt and pepper.
2. Cover with Water and boil for approximately 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Remove chicken from water.
4. In separate bowl, strain the broth and let cool and fat rise to the top.
5. While the broth cools, add the diced vegetables into the pot with a cooking spray and sauté until they start to soften.
6. Remove chicken in nice size pieces from bones and remove any excess fat.
7. Add chicken to pan and turn heat off.
8. When broth is cool, remove the fat that is on the top.
9. Add broth back into the stock pot and cook on low heat for an hour uncovered, which will allow the broth to reduce a bit.
10. As soup gets to a taste you enjoy, bring broth to a boil
11. In a mixing bowl combine Bisquick, salt, pepper, optional parsley or chives, and milk.
12. When combined, make loose balls the size of a donut hole, and then drop into the boiling water.
13. Cook uncovered on low heat for ten minutes.
14. Add top and continue cooking for an additional ten minutes.
Procrastinate, Serve and Enjoy.
The truth has finally seeped into my head and it is whispering that I am just a more subtle stealth version of a procrastinator. The normal delay that keeps me from having a spotless house, clean laundry that is put away and planning for a bathroom remodel have all been completed. It seems that studying has created a great procrastinator of me.
I am not remember my days in college when I learned to set aside time a week ahead of time or finished a term paper two weeks early. It was not because I was a go getter, but because all nighters had really horrible physical impacts on me. Turns out No-Doze will just make my body twitch and heart race for days. I just never realized that I set fake dates to ensure that my procrastination was in check. It gave me a false sense of security of being comfortably in control.
Now I am studying again almost a decade later from the last time I took a licensing exam. I realized that my lack of motivation is just the comfortable blanket I forgot I had owned. I have dedicated four days to studying and managed to do four loads of laundry, made two dishes that will make up lunch and dinner for the week, gone grocery shopping, scrubbed my bathroom, had brunch with the girlies, a birthday party dinner, street hockey practice and watched a football game. Most of these I would normally have to do kicking and screaming. Thank goodness I gave myself four days to learn 245 pages of information, which is read and outlined in only two days.
The one thing I will not procrastinate on is cooking good comfort food. As an adult, I have truly come to see cooking as an art form that is more than just about eating food. It is a way to project, protect or change your mood and outlook. As I delay the art of studying once again, I decided that I wanted to make one of my all time favorite dishes that is just pure comfort.
I knew I must make Chicken and Dumplings, and the quick version was just not going to be acceptable since I had studying to avoid. My mind was adamant that it needed to have a chicken put in hot water and boiled with seasonings. Then my own reason demanded that it also be as low in fat as possible which added an hour and two extra steps to the process.
This strong desire for Chicken and Dumplings may come from years and years of having it for Sunday dinner when it is cold outside. With fall coming on, but vegetables still available this is the perfect time to enjoy a nice creamy soup with fluffy cloud like dumplings. I always try to focus my cravings to the appropriate season, because it is just silly to have a hot bowl of chili in the middle of July. I really do love seasonal comfort foods, but have learned to adjust the recipes to lower the fat and calories and increase vegetables and fiber. Sometimes I have great successes and other times I have miserable failures.
Today was a huge success and pushed me to study a bit longer instead of cleaning my kitchen up from my cooking mess
Chicken and Dumplings
Half of One Chicken, skin removed
• Water to cover the chicken
• Handful of Garlic Cloves, slightly crushed
• Salt, a bunch to taste
• Poultry Seasoning ,to taste
• Pepper.
• Three Carrots, diced
• Three Celery Stalks, diced
• Medium Onion, diced
• Medium Yellow Squash, peeled and diced
• 2 ½ cups Bisquick
• 2/3 cups Skim Milk
• Fresh Parsley or Chives, chopped – optional
1. In a stock pot, place chicken in bottom, add in poultry seasoning, garlic cloves, salt and pepper.
2. Cover with Water and boil for approximately 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Remove chicken from water.
4. In separate bowl, strain the broth and let cool and fat rise to the top.
5. While the broth cools, add the diced vegetables into the pot with a cooking spray and sauté until they start to soften.
6. Remove chicken in nice size pieces from bones and remove any excess fat.
7. Add chicken to pan and turn heat off.
8. When broth is cool, remove the fat that is on the top.
9. Add broth back into the stock pot and cook on low heat for an hour uncovered, which will allow the broth to reduce a bit.
10. As soup gets to a taste you enjoy, bring broth to a boil
11. In a mixing bowl combine Bisquick, salt, pepper, optional parsley or chives, and milk.
12. When combined, make loose balls the size of a donut hole, and then drop into the boiling water.
13. Cook uncovered on low heat for ten minutes.
14. Add top and continue cooking for an additional ten minutes.
Procrastinate, Serve and Enjoy.
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