Sweet Potato & Beet Hash

I was needing some inspiration because I've been stuck on the "what's for dinner" question. I've even been making menus but if you aren't excited about your menu, then cooking it isn't thrilling either. Luckily this morning I was watching Food Network and caught 10 Dollar Dinners. I like that show for Real Food, because most of the time, Melissa D'Arabian uses Real Food ingredients, and when she doesn't they are usually easy to sub out. To save money she is a bit carb heavy, but a lot of her dishes I either make less of the carb or just go without it and it is still great. Today she made this Sweet Potato and Beet Hash that looked intriguing to me. I've been trying to eat more beets because they are so good for you. So, sure the sweet potatoes have carbs, but they still have lots of good vitamins so, in moderation not a bad thing. Hubby and I really liked this side dish. One of my twins ate almost all of hers and my other girl ate a few bites without any complaints (but she filled up on steak, because she is my MEAT eater!) As for the recipe, I linked to her recipe, but when I made it, I just went off my memory of what she did. Here is my version.
-Amanda

Sweet Potato & Beet Hash

1 sweet potato
1 beet
1.5 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
3 pieces of nitrate free bacon
1/4 yellow or white onion
2-3 cloves garlic

Peel the sweet potato and the beet. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss in the olive oil, salt and pepper and place in one layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes, flipping halfway through.

In a skillet, cook bacon that has been cut into small pieces. As the bacon is cooking add very small diced onion. Saute on medium high heat until onion is carmelized and bacon is crispy. Add minced garlic and cook for a minute or two more. Add the sweet potatoes and beets to the bacon and onions and stir.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I made up this quick Sweet and Sour Chicken dish for my girls. I used a sweet and sour sauce recipe based off of Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist blog.  The girls loved it! I used a small skillet and only made up enough for their lunch. I should have double the batch because they licked their bowls and asked if they could have it for lunch again tomorrow.
-Amanda

Sweet and Sour Chicken

1 chicken thigh (or breast)
1 tbsp arrowroot
2 tbsp coconut oil/lard
1 carrot
handful of peas
sauce:
1/4 cup ketchup (I used homemade)
1 tbsp of grade b maple syrup
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger (not in original recipe)

Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl and sprinkle arrowroot, salt and pepper and stir until well coated. Get oil hot in a skillet and then place the chicken in it, shaking off extra arrowroot powder. When browned on one side, flip over and cook the other side. When chicken is about halfway cooked, add vegetables and continue stirring. Add sauce and bring to a boil. The arrowroot powder will help thicken the sauce and have it cling to the vegetables and chicken.

New Cousins!

I just wanted everyone to know that I haven't abandoned the blog! I've spent the past week in College Station, Texas for the birth of my identical mirror twin cousins Darianne Mae and Daylynn Joy Hill. They were born on July 25th and spent six days in NICU. Now they are happily home with my Aunt Rebeca and Uncle Darrin. It was a fun but exhausting week as I helped Aunt R travel back and forth to the hospital to help her breastfeed those two babies. Now I'm back at home and the new Mom and Dad are doing great! My identical twin daughters, Madeline and Isabelle are super excited to have (second) cousins that are also twins!

Frittata

 Last nights dinner was a simple frittata. I love making things with spinach incorporated because my girls like spinach that way. If I give them a side dish of spinach they turn their noses up though. This was super easy to put together and tasted delicious. It was one of those dishes that will be hard to recreate since I used leftover potatoes from a chicken roast from a few nights ago. The potatoes had soaked up all the chicken juices and they were divine. You could sub in some boiled potatoes that are mashed with butter, but they wouldn't taste exactly the same.
-Amanda

Frittata

6 eggs
1 cup of diced ham
1 cup of cooked spinach, drained
4 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper
sprinkle of parmesan
2 cups of cooked diced potatoes
olive oil/butter


Preheat oven to 350. Fry the ham in your oven safe skillet in a bit of butter, bacon grease or olive oil. While that is frying, in a large bowl, whisk your eggs together. Add cream, salt and pepper. Add the cooked ham and cooked (drained) spinach. In the hot skillet, press down/smash your potatoes to form a crust. Let them brown for a few minutes and then remove the skillet from the heat. Pour egg mixture in the skillet. Slice your tomatoes and lay on top. Sprinkle with Parmesan and drizzle with some olive oil. Bake for 25-30 minutes until eggs set. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting.

Rood Vegetable Slaw with Cinnamon and Maple Syrup Dressing

I wish I was creative enough to have come up with this side dish, but since I've hardly ever eaten most of the root vegetables in it, I needed a recipe to follow. I found a recipe on a Raw food site that sounded really good. Her version was a bit different (she cut the vegetables differently and served it on lettuce) But it gave me a jumping off place to start. She also had some different vegetable choices. Use what you can find and go with it! I served this with fried haddock and butter. I had a bit of batter left at the end so I tossed in a few zucchinis too.
-Amanda

Root Vegetable Slaw with Maple Syrup Dressing

2 carrots
1 beet
about half a cup worth of rutabega
about half a cup worth of daikon radish
handful of dried cranberries

Cinnamon and Maple Syrup Dressing:

1/2 cup oil of choice (I used olive and coconut)
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup grade B maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp dijon mustard (I got to use my homemade!)
1/4 tsp salt
water, if needed

I used a food processor to grate all of my root vegetables after washing and peeling each one of them. You could also use a mandolin to slice them if you want bigger pieces, use a hand grater or cut by hand if you really feel like your knife skills need that much work. I did wear gloves when handling the beet because I did not want red hands. Put all the vegetables in a large bowl along with the dried cranberries and toss well.

In a small bowl mix all the ingredients for the dressing. Taste and adjust as needed. I did not think mine needed the extra water that the original recipe called for, but I might have done less vegetables than she did. Pour over the vegetables and stir everything together. Let sit for a couple of hours in the refridgerator to let the flavors develop. This is really good!

Egg Rolls

Oh yum! I was totally craving egg rolls. The thing is whenever I order them they don't taste as good as I think they should. So, I decided to make my own. I did buy pre-made wonton wrappers, because I think that is probably out of my skill reach. But now that I think about it, I do have a pasta roller, and really, they are kind of like pasta... I wonder if they are made the same way? Something to ponder. In the meantime, egg rolls are sort of labor intensive even without making your own wrappers so I'm not sure that it is something I'll ever do. (Uh, oh... do I hear a challenge?) Since I wanted the egg rolls to be the star of the dinner instead of an app or a side, I kept the side dish pretty simple. Just a quick stir fry of sesame ginger carrots and broccoli. One neat trick was to use the rest of the egg that I needed to seal the wonton wrappers in the vegetable stir fry. When you are buying pasture raised eggs, you don't want to waste them!

I made two quick dipping sauces a simple sweet and sour and a soy-sesame. I use an organic, traditionally prepared soy sauce that has been fermented. Be wary of soy sauce that is made from GMO soy that was not fermented. Non-fermented soy sauce is very hard to digest. (Read more here: Dangers of Soy.)
-Amanda

Egg Rolls
(very approximates on the ingredients!)

package of won ton wrappers
1 lb of ground pork
3 cloves garlic
1 cup of finely shredded cabbage
1 cup of finely shredded carrots (I used my vegetable peeler all the way through the entire carrot, and then ran my knife over the shreds.)
2 scallions, cut fine
3/4 cup bean sprouts
handful of parsley
soy-sesame sauce (recipe below)
1 egg for wash
lard/coconut oil for frying

In a medium size skillet cook pork and grated garlic cloves. In a large bowl, mix the cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, scallions and parsley together. Add cooled pork. Mix well. Pour sauce, mix and let sit for at least one hour. Lay out wonton squares. Put about 3 tbsp of pork mixture in the bottom of one corner (drain as much of the liquid as you can.) Fold over and roll to the middle. Wrap the left and right sides in. Brush the top corner with egg wash and finish the wrap. Set aside and roll all egg rolls. Fry in hot lard. I only had enough to half cover the egg rolls, so I had to roll them in the oil carefully until golden brown all around. (I had enough mixture to make 16 egg rolls)

Soy-Sesame Sauce:

1 tsp arrowroot
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 cloves grated garlic
4 tsp honey

Whisk all ingredients together except for arrowroot. Remove half for dipping sauce. Whisk arrowroot into remaining sauce for egg rolls.

Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/4 cup of apricot jam (no sugar added, all fruit)
1/8-1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar (taste as you go to your prefrence.)
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp grated ginger

Ginger-Sesame Carrots & Broccoli

3 carrots
1/2 head of broccoli
splash of soy sauce
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp ginger
leftover egg wash (optional)
sesame seeds
scallion
olive oil

Put olive oil in pan. Pour egg and let it cook like a pancake. Remove. Chop carrots and broccoli and saute in olive oil. Grate in some ginger, add a splash of soy sauce. Add in egg, scallion, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Apple & Bacon Salad

 

I'm trying to add a few more salads into the rotation because they are usually pretty quick to make and for summer, salads just seem right. This was a very hearty and tasty salad that was approved by everyone. John said he thought the avocados were a bit odd in it and I think my girls were just going to eat the bacon until I encouraged them to taste a bit more! I think some dehydrated cranberries would be good in this too!

-Amanda

Apple and Bacon Salad

1/2 head of lettuce

2 handfuls of fresh spinach

1 package of bacon

1 avocado

1 large apple, chopped

1 cup of slivered, freshly toasted almonds

1/2 a cucumber, sliced

1/4 purple onion

homemade honey mustard dressing (see below)

Cut bacon into bite size pieces and cook until crispy. Chop lettuce and spinach into bite size pieces. Wash and dry thoroughly. Add to a very large salad bowl. Add diced apple, avocado, toasted almonds, chopped cucumber, thinly sliced onion and drained bacon. Toss. Serve with honey mustard dressing. Made enough for two adult portions. 

Honey Mustard Dressing
(these are NOT exact amounts, I just eye balled it!!)

1 tsp mustard (I got to use my homemade mustard!)

2 tsp honey

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup avocado oil

1/4 cup olive oil (If you don't have avocado oil, just use olive oil)

1 grated garlic clove

salt and pepper

pinch of dried herb such as thyme, tarragon or oregano (optional)

In a small bowl, whisk honey and mustard together. Drizzle oils in slowly whisking continuously. Add rice wine vinegar, garlic and salt. If it is too thick and the flavor is good, add a bit of water. Otherwise adjust oil and vinegar until you get the acidity level that is good for you.