Southwestern Sweet Potatoes

This recipe is how I learned to like sweet potatoes.  I'm not much of a sweets eater and when I was ever at a dinner with sweet potatoes, they were served as a marshmallow goo or with cinnamon and sugar.  Not my thing.  I'm a savory girl.  Maybe a bit salty too.  ha ha.  Now I love sweet potatoes, but still not sweetened! 

Only 1 picture for this recipe.  I thought about sharing the recipe after they were almost done.  

Southwestern Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
1 large pepper or equivalent in sliced multi color peppers
1/2 large sweet onion
EVOO
Seasonings of garlic powder, pepper, onion pepper

• Bake your sweet potatoes in the microwave (firm)or use leftover baked sweet potatoes 
• Slice your peppers and onions while potatoes cook.
• Cut the cooked potatoes lengthwise in half, then slice through to make half circle cuts.
• Heat pan to medium heat with the EVOO 
• Add all to heated oil, season. 
• Stir and cook to desired texture

I like my veggies and potatoes browned. This photo was while they were 5 minutes away from done for me. 

Enjoy!

💚

Easy Roasted Grape Tomatoes

I never thought of roasting tomatoes and adding them to a meal or even making them the main attraction of a dish.  But I had a pint that got dried out a tad from being forgotten a few days.  They were fine, they were just slightly wrinkly in places.  So I decided I'd roast them and add them to pasta with pesto for an easy supper.

The hardest part of roasting the tomatoes is halving them.  And that's not even hard.  It's just tedious cuz, you know... short attention span Tracy was handling it.  ha ha.

These were lightly seasoned but the roasting infused the seasons and really brought out the sweetness of the tomatoes.  Wow, were they delicious!

In case you are like me, and didn't really know what to add to your tomatoes or how long and what temperature to bake your tomatoes, this recipe is for YOU!  I even measured this time and if you've read any of my recipes, you know this is like miraculous. 

Easy Roasted Grape Tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 Pint Grape Tomatoes halved
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp salt (I use pink Himalayan)
1/4 tsp pepper
4 cloves minced garlic ( I buy the jars of minced garlic and use the equivalent - this is a great short cut for any busy cook that's also wanting to visit with the family and have a bit of time for their side business)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Add your halved tomatoes to a small mixing bowl.

Add the EVOO, salt & pepper, and garlic.

Gently fold the ingredients to keep the tomatoes intact.

Place the tomatoes on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Now add them to tonight's supper!  I added them to freshly cooked pasta, pesto, and some pre-cooked grilled chicken pieces.  Easy peasy yummy in the tummy supper!

Enjoy!

Your turn!  What do you plan to add your tomatoes to?

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Chickpeas

Roasted chickpea pita with sliced cucumber, red onion, tomato, lettuce, and homemade tzatziki sauce

I mentioned in my Veggie Enchilada Lasagna recipe that we are trying to eat more "plant based" and less meat.  In an effort to maintain proper protein levels but incorporate great flavor and satiety, I found chickpeas and black beans may be our go-to protein during the week as we get started.

Roasted chickpeas are super easy and very versatile.  This recipe is for a Garlic Parmesan flavor but you could totally get creative with this on your seasonings, double the batch for a larger family, and the kids can help you mix the chickpeas and decide on the seasonings.

I don't have great pictures as putting these on a blog was a thought part way through.  We ate these with pitas, veggies, and homemade tzatziki sauce the first night.  I ate leftovers on a baked potato the next day.

Leftover roasted chickpeas on a baked potato with tzatziki sauce.  YUM!

This recipe is super easy, has minimal ingredients, fairly easy clean up, and minimal time.

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Chickpeas

Ingredients: 
Chickpeas - 1 Can (I used organic no salt added)
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp
Garlic Powder - 1 tsp
Onion Powder - 1 tsp
Grated Parmesan - 2 tbsp
Salt & Pepper to taste (optional)   I only used pepper as the Parmesan is salty to me

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a 9x13 glass baking dish or lipped baking tray.  Maybe lightly coat with spray oil to prevent some of the sticking I had or use more Olive Oil.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and wrap them in paper towels to dry some.  After they are ready, put them in a small mixing bowl and add the olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, grated parmesan, and salt and pepper if desired.

Mix gently and then put in your baking dish.

Place them in the 400 degree oven and time 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, give them a gentle stir and then let them bake 10 more minutes.

Enjoy!



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Super Easy Garlic Dipping Oil for Bread Recipe

We made a light summer supper tonight.  We included dipping oil for our bread.  It was so easy to make... but I might add, that although many Italian restaurants serve this with their bread (and it's oh so yummy) I don't think it's actually an Italian custom.  I think proper bread etiquette is to eat bread with your meal and use it to dip into the delectable sauces... but I've never been to Italy, so what do I know!

So, since we're in Georgia, USA... we had sort of an appetizer supper.  Cheeses, fruit, crusty garlic bread with dipping oil, and cocktail sausage... because there just wasn't enough to share with Baby dog if we didn't have them.  =)

Garlic Dipping Oil

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of Olive Oil 
• 5-6 cloves of fresh garlic, chopped 

Add about 1 teaspoon of Olive Oil to a small fry pan and warm on medium heat.  Add the chopped garlic and stir until brown.  

Oh the fragrance is fabulous! 

This made about 2 teaspoons of garlic (maybe a tad more).  

Add 1 teaspoon of the roasted garlic to 2 tablespoons of olive oil in dipping bowls.  Let the dipping oil sit for about 30 minutes to infuse the flavor.

This was sooooooooooooo good and sooooooooooo easy!

Enjoy!

Chicken Parmesan Dinner with Low Carb Side Options

This is one of my most requested dinners.  Honey is not picky and eats everything I make, but every now and then he asks for something specific, so I do my best to come through.

This is on the simple side, since I love simple things.  =)  I don't bother with breading the chicken.  This not only saves on carbs and calories but also saves on the mess.

Another great thing about this dinner is that I'm cooking for 2 but this makes enough for 4 servings plus a little extra for someone's lunch the next day.  Leftovers rock!

Simple Chicken Parm
Ingredients:
1 lb package of organic boneless skinless chicken breasts
block mozzarella cheese to shred(you can use pre-shredded, but we don't because of the added junk it has)
1 jar of organic tomato sauce (I think Walmart's brand is wild oats or something like that)
1 small can of tomato paste
garlic fresh or garlic powder
Italian seasoning blend
grated Parmesan cheese

Caprese Salad Side
fresh tomatoes sliced
sweet onion sliced
mozzarella shredded
basil
balsamic vinaigrette

Additional Sides (optional)
Dreamfields pasta for honey
Zoodles for me (organic zucchini)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spoon some of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a glass backing dish.  Add the chicken breasts and top with a little more sauce, garlic (fresh or powder), italian seasoning, and grated parmesan cheese.  Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes.

Put the sauce in a small pan, add a can of tomato paste, season with garlic, italian seasoning, grated parmesan cheese, and of course WINE (just a little) and heat on low.

Then I went and had a glass of wine on the deck because it was gorgeous outside!  You can do something productive if you want.  

After about 20 minutes, start boiling the pasta water and prepare the sides by slicing the tomatoes and onions, shredding the mozzarella cheese (enough for your caprese salads and to top the chicken breasts) and give your veggeti a workout with some organic zucchini.

Once you get the pasta in the boiling water (about 1/2 the box), pull the chicken out and top each breast with mozzarella.  Put the chicken back in the oven uncovered.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and the put back in the pan and add some of the warm tomato sauce.

Microwave the zoodles for 1 minute on high.

The cheese on the chicken should be yummy, gooey by now and slightly browned.  YUM!

Time for presentation:

Assemble caprese salad on side of plate, alternating tomato and onion.  Top with shredded mozzarella cheese, pink salt and pepper, basil (if you have it) and drizzle balsamic vinaigrette on top.

Add your pasta or zoodles and chicken breast.  Top with warmed sauce as desired.

low carb option with zoodles

Enjoy!!

Healing Chicken Noodle Soup

Okay... I'm on day 6 of the flu.  I'm still running a fever.  It's the worst week to miss work.  Yay me! But amidst dozing, changing "Sliders" episodes on Netflix, and putting my robe on and off (hot, cold, hot, cold) I've been inspired to blog some.

I was at work the day I started getting sick and since I made this on day 2 of feeling like poo (hey, that rhymes), I didn't put my all into this.  I made it the best I could in hopes of the garlic, onion, and broth would do their thing and make us feel better.

The problem is that after I made this soup, honey and I were too sick to really eat.  We never could get much of this in us.  Maybe a half a cup at a time and honey sometimes passed on it completely.  He's only started eating more the past 2 days.  So although, this should be a healing recipe, it didn't really help us this time because we hardly ate any of it.

Here's the quick homemade recipe with a picture of the final product.  It was my lunch today, but I could only eat about 1/4 of.  But Baby dog got to enjoy a little taste.

I have to admit, this could have looked better too if I hadn't felt so bad.  I got feeling weak part way through shredding the chicken, so it's half chunked, half shredded.  ha ha... also I couldn't stand slicing the onions so I stopped at 2.  I put noodles in it because honey likes the noodles.  I wish now, that I had not even added noodles since he hardly ate any.  I completely forgot celery, but I don't really like cooked celery anyway.  If you forget it, I think they make celery seasoning if you have that.

Healing Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cartons low sodium chicken broth (reserve 3/4 of 2nd Carton)
1 package of carrots (I used Bolthouse organic carrot chips) 12 oz.
2 celery bits or seasoning for flavor
1 tbsp of Better than Bullion
Pink Himalayan Salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 large sweet onions or 3 medium
fresh garlic (as much as you can stand)
olive oil
noodles of choice (optional)



Put the chicken breasts in your stock pot and cover with filtered water.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat and cover for about 30 minutes to cook the chicken and create a broth base.

While the chicken cooks, gather the rest of your ingredients, slice your onions as you please and peel and chop about 8 garlic cloves.

Go ahead and throw 4 whole cloves in the pot while the chicken simmers.  Chop the other cloves and put in a small fry pan with olive oil and brown it over medium low heat to bring the flavor out more.

Once the chicken is done, remove from pot, shred, then put back in pot.

Add the rest of your ingredients.

If adding noodles, I added about 4 small hand fulls (my hands are small!).  I still had too many noodles it for us.

Add 1 carton of chicken broth, keep your pot on a simmer temperature, put the lid on it and go take a nap!

In a few hours, your soup will be done and may need a bit more broth and possibly salt and pepper. The noodles soak up the broth and it can hardly look like soup after spending the night in the fridge.  So keep your reserved broth handy.

Enjoy and feel better!

Sick in Bed...

Honey and I have been sick in bed most of the day.  Upper respiratory, sinus junk, achy, queasy... yuck..

I made us chicken soup today, loaded with onions and garlic.  We hope that will scare off what is ailing us.  Maybe we'll feel better tomorrow.

If the soup comes out okay, I'll share a recipe, rather than a full how-to.  I was too puny to take any pics today.  It was easy though as I'm fairly weak.  BLEH!  I did get about a 30 minute nap somewhere around 3pm though!

Praying you are well and stay healthy!