Sweet Potatoes for a Picky Crowd
Posted: December 14, 2011 Filed under: recipe | Tags: chickpeas, Chipotle, corn, recipe, sweet potato 2 Comments »Every time we have an office party when we are asked to bring something for the crowd, I get worried. Most of the people I work with are not fans of vegetables (I know I am generalizing here but overall I would say they are a meat and potatoes group). I always want to bring something healthy to show them that healthy doesn’t mean tasteless. Today was our deputy directors going away party and I made my best recipe yet!
Chipotle Lime Sweet Potato Salad. I got this idea from our wedding actually and added some chickpeas for some veg protein.
Above from wedding.
This recipe was seriously simple and I got a ton of compliments on it. The only thing you have to cook are the sweet potatoes and they take 20-25min.
Chipotle, Lime, Sweet Potato Salad
- 4 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
- 1 cup frozen corn (I used sweet white)
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- 2 finely diced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – can add more peppers for more heat
- juice of 3 limes
- zest of 1 lime
- 3 tbsp olive oil – divided into 1 tbsp and 2 tbsp
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 large clove of garlic pressed or finely chopped
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 bunch of cilantro chopped fine
- Toss peeled and cubed sweet potatoes in 1 tbsp of olive oil and bake at 400 for approximately 20-25min until fork tender.
- While the potatoes are cooking whisk together remaining ingredients minus the corn and chickpeas.
- Mix in the chickpeas and corn.
- Add potatoes while warm to lime mixture and fold in to get the potatoes fully coated.
- The longer you can marinate, the better. (It is good hot out of the over too!)
Deeeeelicious!
Toasty Tomatoes
Posted: August 18, 2010 Filed under: dinner | Tags: chickpeas, oven fried green tomatoes Leave a comment »Hello!
Tonight I tried something new for dinner inspired by Emily
I have always loved the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, but the idea of actually frying tomatoes dipped in cornmeal really didn’t excite me. I love how sweet tomatoes get when they are roasted but the grease was a big turn off.
Enter oven friend tomatoes.
Easiest recipe ever!
See the link above or just..
- Slice tomatoes
- Lay on paper towel
- Mix cornmeal with S&P and chili powder
- pour out small bowl of milk
- Dunk maters in milk then corn meal mix
- Place on greased cookie sheet
- bake 20min, flip
- bake 20min more
- Enjoy!
Crispy corn coating with warm sweet tomatoes in the middle. I will be making these again!
Along with my tomatoes I had a lovely mixed of chickpeas, mushrooms and leeks
and olive bread with homemade EVOO blend with S&P, oregano and red pepper flakes.
Good Deal!
Good wholesome ingredients making a perfect meal.
Running update: I had some serious foot pain after my race, but it is getting better and I hope to get in a run on Friday and yoga tomorrow.
Real Simple
Posted: February 16, 2010 Filed under: Tuesday | Tags: adora, butternut squash, chickpeas, couscous, scallops, snow peas Leave a comment »I learned something interesting today…Sissy does not like to be locked in any place. She has been having a bit of sniffles, and I thought a little steam would be good for her. I knew she didn’t like being shut in, but I thought she would chill out; instead she spent her time between the two shower curtains meowing at me. Cameras and water do not mix.
Backing up to the day…lunch
Leftover butternut squash, roasted chickpeas and spinach. I also had some crackers on the side. Nick was a Theta Chi.
Simple, delicious and filling!
I have decided to eat bigger lunches and snack at home. This is all in an effort to not stuff my face with things like graham crackers and cookies before I even make dinner.
This afternoon’s snack was the last quinoa crunch square.
These little guys took me forever to get through. Next time I don’t think I will add nuts because I couldn’t really taste them and I had put them in whole. Maybe just almonds or something?
Tonight’s dinner was out of this month’s Real Simple.
Scallops with Snow Peas and Couscous – this was so simple and only required 4 ingredients!
- 2 servings of whole wheat couscous, cooked according to the box directions in veggie broth and a splash of OJ
- 2 servings of scallops browned in EVOO S&P – I used bay scallops
- lots of snow peas cooked in the scallop pan once scallops have been removed and covered.
- 4 orange peels cut into strips added to peas
- I also added 2 small organic yellow peppers
This was crunchy, easy and simple!
Yummy browned scallops! They are bagged frozen wild caught from Target. Yes, they have sea food now in their Archer Farm line.
I am also trying to cut back on my dessert portions, so I ended with a lovely Adora disk.
I missed these little dark chocolate vitamins!
No Biggest Loser tonight so Sissy and I are going to curl up and watch an episode of Project Runway and then some Olympics.
Have a great night!
Olympics Day 1
Posted: February 13, 2010 Filed under: saturday | Tags: almond butter, apple, BARCS, butternut squash, chickpeas, kale chips, wrap Leave a comment »Greetings from Guitar Hero land! We have been switching between the game and Olympics all day long. We also took a break to watch Duke stomp all over Maryland in Basketball. Nick and I are both Duke fan thanks to our parents both attending.
I played with some pretty nice kitties this morning. There was one that was just a lap lover named Sydnee. She was a year old and seized from her previous owner. 
Stupid humans. Most of the animals are strays or owner surrendered, but there are a few that we get from animal control. The animals of BARCS are just looking for love.
Anyway I stopped by Target on my way home to get Nick’s V-day present and when I finally got home I was starving.
I made the quickest thing possible, wrap and apple.
In me wrap; my last 3 meatless meatballs, LC wedge, Frank’s, lettuce
Apple with raw almond butter.
I really don’t like the raw. I also had about 3 graham cracker sheets and a vanilla raspberry ice cream bar from Trader Joe’s.
All this food kept me full until at least 7pm when I thought that maybe I should get up and make dinner.
Roasted chickpeas, butternut squash, kale chips.
I roasted the chickpeas in clementine juice, cinnamon, S&P and apple cider vinegar. Baked clementines are amazing with flavor!
B-nut squash with garlic powder, kale chips with the last of the Heinz ketchup.
Dessert was a tea, adora disk and sugar cookie. No pictures.
We are heading to Ellicott City tonight to check out the night scene. We shall see how it is over there.
Have a great night!
Present Time!
Posted: November 9, 2009 Filed under: Monday | Tags: chickpeas, curry, food inc, salad, Sicily, tofu Leave a comment »Hello all! I hope everyone had smashing Monday!
Sicily sure did!
She clipped her own nails, ate and slept. I wish she could cut her own nails, it would make our lives much easier.
While Sicily was having a grand old day I was busy at work consuming a lovely lunch and typed away.
My breakfast held like a rock, yay yogurt, so I only found myself needing to eat at lunch time. That would be 5.5 hours, whoa! Needless to say I was ready to break into lunch at noon!
The main feature was a grande salad.
In the bowl we have romain hearts, carrot, tomatoes, roasted chickpeas from last night, chipotle hummus and balsamic dressing. I really liked these chickpeas and I going to try making them for my family for thanksgiving as an addition to apps and cocktail hour. I will most likely take out the pepper and hot sauce so that my grandmother can also enjoy! Thank you MamaPea for the recipe!
I also had an apple sliced and a chewy piece of chewy 12 grain organic Whole Foods bread.
My afternoon went by quickly and was pretty uneventful until I whipped out this baby for my pre-gym snack a-la car ride!
I made my own sort of trail mix this morning when I was trying to figure out what to grab for a snack. I threw in some Kashi GoLean Crunch, mixed nuts, chocolate chips and orange cranberries. So good I am making it again for tomorrow. I love these cranberries with the chocolate chips!
At the gym I finally decided to return to Body Pump. It has been about 4 months since my last class so I went light on the weights. I am not sure how Erica survived a whole weekend of this class! Awesome girl! My legs were burning after the squat track and it was only the second song! I know I will be sore in the morning! I also did 30min on the t-mill for an easy warm up.
I had been wanting to make curry tofu for a really long time now and I finally got around to it tonight.
I started with roasting a whole butternut squash in the oven while I showered. Then I sautéed up 1/2 an onion, tofu and chicken in the Trader Joe’s red curry sauce and put on a pot of TJ’s harvest grain blend. To top this all off I steamed some green beans in the mirco then added a tad more sauce to the finished product.
Piled high.
I got a high five from Nick for this one (he had the chicken, I had the tofu). I have to give all the credit to the Trader Joe’s red curry sauce. The stuff is amazing!
We are now settling down to some tea and… look what my amazing boy friend got me today!!!!!!!
Food INC. dvd! Awesome!!!! I am so going to make my family watch this over Thanksgiving!
I have to try and get him to put it back on…we have switched to Monday night football. Go broncos beat those stealers!
Good night all! I hope everyone had a good day!
Beans and Peas
Posted: October 6, 2009 Filed under: Tuesday | Tags: apple, chickpeas, clif bar, Greek yogurt, lemon, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin muffin, salad, tortilla Leave a comment »Sissy is getting better with not foaming at the, but she is still crazy while Nick holds her.
I ate a lot of beans/peas today…
Starting with some leftover taco salad sans taco shell.
I also had salsa verde instead of red (please see green blob onto). On the left we have fall! Pumpkin muffin and Staymen apple.
Where is that phone cord going?
To me on the phone with the help desk. Of course they have to call during lunch! You can tell how happy I was.
Before I was leaving for the day at 4pm (!!! loving the fact that I am leaving at 4 right now!) I had my favorite bar to date for what you get out of it.
PB pretzel Mojo. 200cal and lots of protein held me to dinner. I really like regular Clif bars too, but sometimes I feel like they are a little too much and I always end up eating the whole thing when I should only have 1/2.
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Today I went for a nice gentle 4.5 mile run. Along the way I encountered a few new things. I played with a kid and his soccer ball, ran into a dog with no tags and I freaked out and walked towards him, passed him, he barked and sniffed me, and I was able to get by him. Lastly I say a GIECO pacer! So exciting! They are people running the marathon so you can track your pace by following the 8:00min/mile, 9min/mile, 10min/mile etc. person.
I also did straight to the core on demand and 30 push-up, 30 plyo push-ups, 30 tricep dips.
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I wanted to try and new recipe from Real Simple tonight for dinner…Nick was not too happy.
Chickpea patties with Greek style salad and “pita” chips (I only had tortillas so I worked with those)
Patties are: chickpeas, fresh chopped parsley, cumin, S&P and almond meal. My salad was simple romain and spinach with tomatoes. The creamy dressing? Plain Chobani, lemon S&P and dill weed. I love this dressing and I am so happy I have leftovers!
Patty close up shot!
Baked tortillas with Cooking spray and a sprinkle of salt. I opted to make my past patty into a sandwich with dressing, spinach and 1/2 of my tortilla pita.
This was delicious with the crunchy/doughy tortilla and look at the YOGURT! max 50cal for my entire plate, but most likely less because I have some left and Nick had some…we started with 1/2 cup of plain yogurt = 100cal. Yeah I don’t really count calories, but I just couldn’t get over how tangy this was with the plain yogurt and lemon!
I also had a few spoons of pumpkin ice cream to finish out the night 
Off to finish Biggest Loser!
I heart Jillian. I don’t care if people think she is such a hard a**, she gives it to you real.
Night Y’all!
