Garlic Thyme Sweet Potato Rounds

My husband made a spicy pork burger with provolone and grilled red peppers and onions. I was in charge of the side. I knew we were going to have a very filling and fattening main course that was going to have a balance of sweet and savory. The first thing that crossed my mind was salted sweet potatoes. 

I also wanted something a little healthier. When I created these, I brushed on just a touch of olive oil to limit the calories. The oven temperature can also be played around with on these. I chose to roast the potatoes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. They got a touch crispy along the outside so they kept their shape. To keep them softer, I would bake at 350 degrees. For crispier “chip” like potatoes, I would set it to 400 degrees. Just be careful with this setting and check to make sure that they do not burn. If they start burning, tent them with foil.

Yields 4 Servings

Ingredients

4 small sweet potatoes, skinned and cut into ½” thick rounds
1 Tbsp of olive oil
4 tsp minced garlic
1 ½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Ground black pepper to taste
Salt to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (or see note above)
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum
3. Place sweet potato rounds on the lined baking sheet
4. Brush the sweet potato rounds with olive oil
5. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients onto the sweet potato rounds
6. Bake the rounds in the heated oven for 40 minutes. Let them cool for five minutes before serving. 

Fennel Spiced Pork Burgers with Pepper and Provolone

I received a free trial subscription to the Real Simple magazine through a mailing list from Bed, Bath, and Beyond a few months ago. I received a few subscriptions and promptly cancelled it after my free year. It was not a horrible magazine, but it was not worth me paying money for it. I would open and sift through the pages and my eyes would catch on one or two photographs. I would shrug and turn the page. All of their solutions and ideas were a little too expensive for my budget. 

Then one day I was flipping through the pages of a recent issue (June perhaps?), and there was a section called Top This!: Six Blockbuster Burgers. A pork burger with roasted red peppers and provolone caught our attention. 

I have to give my husband full credit for this creation. The only thing that I did was plate the hamburger buns, salt the onions, and make our side (which was thyme roasted sweet potatoes). 

This burger is a meal for the day. You can make them smaller, but we made ½ pounders because Brad was in charge of these meal. He wanted a MEAL.

Close your eyes. Imagine picking up a burger that is heavy in your hand. Your fingertips slightly sink into the bun and juice drips and splashes onto your plate. You don’t even think about biting it because it just happens. Juice runs down your chin. Toppings inside the burger slide around. You don’t notice those things. Instead, you are solely focused on the explosion of grilled meat, peppers, and onions that have overrun your mouth with a symphony of flavor and sticky cheese. That is how good this is. 

The recipe is located on the Real Simple website. Please visit for a momentary meal of awesome.

For the Recipe, CLICK THIS: Spiced Pork Burgers with Grilled Peppers and Provolone

Cook Yourself Thin

Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes by Lifetime Television
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cook Yourself Thin was a cookbook that I downloaded on my Nook for a steeply reduced price. I was very excited because I had seen it in Barnes and Noble, but did not go near it because the last thing I needed was another cookbook on my shelf. Since summer is now in session, I will have time to search for healthier ingredients and put time into preparing body-friendly meals.

Reading the philosophy section, I was surprised that they had a quiz for the reader to take about their eating habits. The results were being an “On-The-Run-Eater,” “Sugar Fiend.” “Yo-Yo Dieter,” and “Comfort Food Craver.” Being the latter, I read over the advice and was ultimately surprised. They mentioned that we have good ideas about nutrition and how to create a flavorful meal. That’s me! Then, they also mentioned the downside, portion control being the biggest. That’s me, too (and rolling my eyes).

Continuing on with the philosophy, keeping portion size in mind, I continued to read the philosophy. They discussed common myths about dieting, the flaws of diet programs, how to keep a food journal just to learn about eating habits, and what a calorie is. There were suggested food lists, directions on how to read better labels, and the many different names of sugars. Towards this part of the philosophy section, I began rolling my eyes. Those of us who have ever dieted know all of this information. I quickly began skimming this section and moved on to the recipes.

Looking over the recipes, I flagged about ten that I would actually cook in real life and not the dream world in my head. The Skinny Down-Home Chicken Pot Pie was one recipe that I liked and this was for two reasons. The first was that it included food substitutions that I already incorporate into my diet, like using ground turkey over ground beef. Secondly, it called for ingredients that I already have in my fridge or could have bought easily on a grocery run trip.

There were two major faults I found with the recipes from this book. The first was a preference thing. Some of the substitutions are ones that are unique to certain diets, such as using ricotta cheese for whipped cream as is frequently done on the South Beach Diet. I personally detest ricotta cheese unless it is in a lasagna. Ricotta does not belong on top of my french toast.

The second issue I had was that the recipes included minute amounts of lots of ingredients, many of which are difficult to find. If I was living near a city, then this would be less of a problem. However, in the country, my grocery store is 35 minutes away. I am not going to make a special trip to the store just because I need two tablespoons of rice flour.

Overall, I think that this book has a lot of value because they are encouraging people to make smarter choices about their cooking. They provide some useful ways to incorporate helpful decision tools for the uneducated individual. However, readers should not expect to have their lives changed by the book. I don’t regret buying this because I got a decent bargain. However, I would be extremely disappointed if I paid full price for it.


View all my reviews

Easy Weeknight Jambalaya

One evening this week, I walked in the door and threw my bags down. I didn’t feel like doing a single thing. I didn’t rinse out my coffee mug that I took to work. I didn’t fold the clean laundry in the basket. I didn’t even last five minutes before I put on my pajamas (and it was only 3:30 in the afternoon). I sat at the kitchen table and played Words with Friends, looked at Pinterest, and checked Gmail, all the while hoping that my husband was motivated to cook dinner. When he walked through the door, he took off his police uniform and threw it on the floor. It didn’t even make the laundry basket. He sat at the kitchen table with me and asked, “What’s for dinner?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “What are you going to make?”

“Nothing. What are you making?” he finished.

I think everyone has had evenings like this, coming home really tired and completely unmotivated. At the same time, a good meal is really needed, and it is needed to be served while wearing pajamas. 

After rifling around the kitchen, looking at ingredients and thinking about cooking times, we came up with making something that was absolutely delicious and rather easy. We had a box of Zatarain’s Jambalaya and decided to add a package of shrimp, a package of Andouille sausage, and onions. This was a quick and easy dinner fix four our lethargic malaise.

Ingredients

1 box Zatarain’s Jambalaya (we used a low sodium box)
Ingredients for rice mix listed on box (water and oil)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 package Johnsonville Andouille Sausage
1 8oz. can petite diced Redpack tomatoes, drained
1 medium onion, halved and cut in ½ inch thick slices
2 tablespoons Cajun black seasoning
Red Pepper Flakes, to taste (we used about two tablespoons)
Ground Black Pepper, to taste

Method
1. Follow the directions on the Zatarain’s Jambalaya and cook the rice  mix while preparing the rest.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the shrimp, sausage, tomatoes, onion, Cajun seasoning, and red pepper flakes. 
3. Cook the skillet mixture until the moisture has evaporated and the onions are translucent, about 7-10 minutes.

4. Add the finished skillet mixture to the rice mixture and stir together. Garnish with ground black pepper.

Semolina Bread

Growing up Long Island, New York, we always had a grocery store that baked semolina bread. You may ask me, Sara, what is semolina bread? Well, semolina is a type of flour made from hard wheat that is used by Italians to make pasta. In Italy, they make semolina bread in addition to pasta, which makes a distinct light-colored chewy bread.  My personal favorite attribute of semolina bread is that it sports sesame seeds adorned on its crust!

Now that I live in Virginia, it is rather difficult to find semolina bread, let alone semolina flour. I have a fabulous book with a ton of bread recipes in it, The Illustrated Step By Step to Baking, which had a recipe for it. Oh how I wished I could find semolina flour.

Then one day, I took a trip with a colleague of mine up into the Appalachian Mountains for the Green Valley Book Fair. On our way back, we stopped at an Amish grocery store called Yoder’s. Amongst the really cool things they had at Yoder’s was SEMOLINA FLOUR. I felt as though I struck a gold mine.

I loved making this bread because it was rather easy. I could make it using the stand up mixer, and it worked out marvelous. This means no kneading!

For non-New Yorkers who ever cross paths with Semolina, I suggest pairing it with pasta or making bruschetta with it. Or, my favorite, just lather on the butter and bite!

Semolina Bread Recipe

This recipe yields 1 boule

Ingredients

For the Starter

¼ tsp dried yeast

½ cup fine semolina, or semolina flour

Vegetable oil for greasing

For the Dough

1 tsp dried yeast

2 cups fine semolina, or semolina flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp fine salt

1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 egg, beaten for glazing

Method

1. To make the starter, dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup warm water. Add the liquid to the semolina and stir until you have a loose, sloppy dough. Place the dough in a large bowl with lots of room for it to expand. Let it sit in a warm place for about 12 hours, or overnight.
   
2. After the starter has been fully created and let rest, make the dough by dissolving the yeast in ¾ cup of water. Put the risen starter, flour, and salt into a large bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the liquid yeast mixture.
3.  Stir the ingredients together. If using a mixer, attach the bread hook and mix on medium speed for 5 -7 minutes (or until it comes together fully and makes a “thwaping” sound). Or, you could knead by hand for about 10 minutes. The finished dough should be smooth and elastic.
4. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in size.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knock it back. Shape into your desire shape, place on a large baking sheet, and wrap with a clean kitchen towel. Let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 more hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Brush the bread with beaten egg and scatter the sesame seeds on top (I didn’t measure the seeds. Add however much you like).
8. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until it is well risen and a light golden brown. Let it cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.
   

Carrots with Walnuts in Vanilla Maple Glaze

My husband really loves turducken. For you non-meat-obsessed people, a turducken is a turkey that is stuffed with duck and chicken. Please translate turducken into the following: A hen inside of a duck that is inside of a turkey or Turkey-duck-hen.

Normally a turducken would be eaten at our household sometime around the winter holidays. However, we recently had word that we are going to need to move. With no official plans made, we decided to start cleaning out the freezer. All 16 pounds of poultry needs to go. So it is the first weekend of June, and we are making a meal that would be similar to a Thanksgiving Fiesta. 

I was in charge of the sides for this meal, and I had no idea what types of warm weather sides I would make for a turkey-type dinner. I decided to go with mashed red skinned potatoes (post coming soon), cheesy garlic butter biscuits, and carrots. Originally I was thinking about using sweet potatoes, but then that would mean two types of potatoes. The next best orange food would be carrots, and that was how I decided. Then my husband and I scavenged around the kitchen and found some ingredients we could use to make carrots taste somewhat like a sweet potato casserole. Vanilla, maple, and walnuts seemed like a pretty great idea.

Tasting these carrots were exceptional. They exploded in sweet flavor that was unexpected. I love mashed sweet potatoes and there are so many different types of casseroles for them. Carrots are not used as much, and to me it was just as good as it was unique. Plus, it was easy and quick. I may even make these during the weekday. That would be the true test.

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of small carrots, or long carrots cut into one inch pieces
• 2 cups water
• 1 vanilla bean pod
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (not the fake stuff!)
• ¼ cup walnut halves
• Salt to taste
• Ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place carrots into a large saucepan with water. Split the vanilla bean pod in half lengthwise with a paring knife. Scrape the seeds out of the pod using the tip of the knife and let them fall into the water with the carrots. Place the pod remains in the water and simmer the carrots on medium low heat until most of the water has cooked off.

2. Place the carrots in a bowl and add the butter immediately. Allow the butter to melt and stir it around. As you stir, add the maple syrup, walnuts, salt, and pepper. 

Cheesy Garlic Butter Biscuits

Pinterest is riddled with recipes for a specific type of biscuit. Some refer to it as Red Lobster knock offs, or Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Others call them Cheesy Garlic Biscuits, or others have called them Better Than ___ Biscuits. Regardless of what they are called, they all end up with a little biscuit that is made with cheese and brushed with garlic butter goodness. Tonight I conquered this heavenly biscuits, both by baking them, and by eating more than I originally planned. 

The neatest thing about these biscuits was that they were so quick. Lately I have been so focused on baking breads and rolls that require yeast. There is kneading involved, and time is set aside for rising. If the temperature is not perfect, the dough will not rise. Basically, rolls and breads have the potential to be a huge pain. There were just three steps with these little bits of baked heaven:

1. Mix the ingredients together.
2. Form little balls and bake them.
3. Brush the biscuits with butter.

I can handle this.

When I bit into the first one as it was right out of the oven, the butter oozed from the bread and covered my mouth. As I chewed, the cheesy bread easily broke apart because it was so soft and tender. With each bite, I was little bit closer to gaining a full pound of buttery bread weight, but the taste was so indulgent that I just did not care. I am going to work out a lot tomorrow… and the next day… and probably a few after that, too.

I looked at a bunch of different recipes for these. I used my favorite aspects of one from Salt & Tumeric Blog, Cheesy Garlic Biscuits. I made a few changes, however. I had to add a few splashes of milk when I was mixing the dough so that the cheese would adhere to the flour. I also added more butter and took out and extra baking step at the end. I like my biscuits to be soft and buttery. However, if you are a crunchy bread fan, other recipes say that you can bake these in the oven for up to ten minutes more after the biscuits have been buttered. 

Recipe below yields 12 biscuits.

Ingredients

1 pack buttermilk biscuit mix (I used 1 ½ cups of Southern Living Complete Biscuit Mix, Formula L)
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk (plus more splashes if necessary)
3 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. oregano 
3/4 tsp. garlic salt

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray cooking sheet with non-stick spray or use a silicone baking sheet.

2. Put biscuit mix, cheese and milk in a bowl and mix well to form a sticky dough.

3. Using spoon, drop lumps of dough onto cookie sheets 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes. 

4. In a bowl, melt butter and mix with oregano and garlic salt.

5. When the timer goes off, take them out and brush with butter mixture.

6. Serve immediately, and eat the most as you can because they will not be around long.