Lunch – The MonroePost

May 28, 2013

Super Simple Sweet Potato Spectacular

I know you are laughing at my post title. Its pretty epic. So are these potatoes. I love sweet potatoes just about any way they are prepared. Baked, mashed, pie, fries (oh yum), cakes, waffles, etc, etc. So, no doubt I be loving this recipe. Found this recipe in an old, weird, paper, spiral bound book I got fo’ free somewhere. It even had an orange cover. I basically tweaked the recipe to my likin’ (hearing my country twang yet?).

Here goes…

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes (use as many as you like-I could eat like 5) naw seriously 2-3 fit in a 12 inch skillet. So plan accordingly.
1 T PER POTATO (3 potatoes? Use 3 T oil) -cold pressed, unrefined coconut oil (do NOT sub anything else or skimp on this, k?)
pinch of salt
lil pinch of cinnamon sugar

Directions:

Peel sweet potatoes.

Slice potatoes in thin rounds (1/4- 1/8 in). Don’t go like paper thin as we are not making chips here, but slightly crispy gooey center rounds. I don’t have one of those fancy mandolin things but feel free to use it if ya got it. Otherwise, please use a sharp knife. (Thanks bro for sharpening my knives for me!)

Heat coconut oil in a skillet. [Word here: I love my cast iron skillet and use nothing else…I haven’t tried this in stainless steel or in non-stick so I apologize if your results aren’t 100% like mine if you don’t have a cast iron…but I recommend you get one. I got this one cuz it was cheap, works great for me. End Word.]

Next, carefully add the sweet potato rounds to the hot oil (not smoking or bubbling just hot). Try to keep a single layer (a few overhangs is ok!) Let them cook on one side for a few mins then flip them and continue to do that process until they start to brown up a bit. I find that my metal spatula works best (not in non-stick obviously though!). Now there is a perfect line between brown delicious and brown burned. Don’t go to the other side of the line. Keep your oil on like medium to prevent oil from getting too hot. You are not really frying these, you are more like pan-frying with a little oil. Also make sure every potato gets enough oil on it.

When it gets looking good add your pinch of salt, sug and cinnamon. Yum, these are so good I usually eat them on the way to the table. If for some reason they don’t turn out good, come on over and I’ll teach ya how to make some. I love these. Hope you do too!!

March 21, 2013

Leftover Beans- 2 Ways

I made a large pot of beans the other night to eat with rice-cuz we’re trying to be all frugal-like…good ol beans and rice. It was good as always but by about the third day of beans and rice for lunch I’m ready for something new. So last night for dinner I whipped up some bean and rice cakes. Ate them with roasted broccoli and carrot soufflé. Fanshy smanshy. Not really. I just needed to add some color to the drab looking bean cake-ya know?

I don’t really have recipes for these, per say…just kinda throw whatever you have in…

Beans and Rice Cakes

Use about equal portions of rice and beans…maybe more beans if your rice is dry, mine is rather sticky so it was fine.
1-2 eggs (depending on amount of beans and rice)
A couple handfuls of breadcrumbs, cracker crumbs, goldfish, whatever you have!
Any additional seasonings you want (I didn’t add anything because beans were seasoned well)

Mix up all these ingredients and form into patties. I sprinkled some flour on both sides to help it from sticking to the plate. Melt a few tablespoons of coconut oil in a skillet (cast iron if you have it!) and fry on each side until brown and crispy. I served with sour cream on top.

Bean Dip

A couple of cups of leftover beans
Sour cream
Salsa
Cheese
Etc etc etc…whatever you like!

Drain the liquid off the beans as best as you can. Whiz the beans in the food processor (or vitamix is what I used) until creamy with a few small chunks. Spread the beans out on a plate or in pie dish. Spread sour cream on top of that, then salsa, then top with cheese and as many toppings as you wish! Olives, avocado, etc. This is so simple, but I never would have thought to do this from leftover bean soup! I did find this idea with a quick google search, but I wanted to share with you my ah ha! moment! We ate with some blue corn chips!

This is not the lovelies of pictures…beans are hard to make beautiful. I was also lacking in toppings…so we did the basic sour cream, salsa and cheese. It was good!

March 8, 2013

"Oh My Stars!" Soup

Stars. Quite literally. In both expression and reality. I have been simmering a pot of bone broth (my first attempt at this!) for about 18 hours now. The health benefits of a long simmered broth are ridiculous. Since we had a left over chicken carcass from the other nights roast chicken dinner, I threw that in a pot with goodies yesterday morning. I have followed a couple of great blog posts on how to do this and why it is so good for you. The Wonders of Gelatin, The Cumulative Time Approach, Basic How-To. Pinterest is full of good resources too- just look up “bone broth.” Excellent. So now, I have tried my hand at it. I used the cumulative time approach linked above because I don’t have a crock pot (yes, it’s true). Anyways. For lunch I decided that I would fish out some carrots, chicken meat and a few cups of broth and toss some little tiny stars into another pan. Violá Chicken Star Soup! I added some additional salt and pepper as well as some parsley. To mine I added some fried garlic (the by product from making some garlic oil earlier for the babys ears). Holy hot tuna it was good.

Simple yet so incredibly nutritious. It feels so good knowing that you are feeding your family so healthy for them. I kept talking about how good it was for us and Leandra like went crazy eating it. She was like “this is SO good mom. It makes us warm all inside.” Love that kid.

There really isn’t a recipe as the possibilities are endless, especially if you have a good quality broth. I had heard that chicken soup can cure anything, and up until this point I had never really felt that was true. Mainly because unfortunately, boxed broths lack the nutrients and gelatin required for healing. That’s all I had ever really made. I am changed now. I will be making more bone broth in the future. I see the light.

So lovely.