Apricot Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

It was a hot day and I knew, I was going to be in the kitchen for several  hours, preparing for the Sabbath.  It meant making fish, chicken, side dishes and salads.  Dessert was going to be cold or from the freezer.  I did not plan on baking.  I got around using the oven except for one item.  Cholent is made in a crock pot.  The chicken was cooked on the barbecue.  Most foods were made in the microwave or did not cooking.  I did pull out the frying pan and a sauce pan for short periods of time.  The bottom line was that I did not heat up the kitchen very much.

I was stymied with what to do with a sweet potato.  Of course, the beauty of the sweet potato, is you can bake it, put on a pat of butter and enjoy it. Simple and delicious is the way to go.  Of course, it can be candied but I find, it is usually sweet enough by itself.  I do love mashed sweet potato and started off on that path.

It was over 90 degrees in the sun and my kitchen didn’t feel much cooler and I didn’t want to use my oven.  I microwaved the sweet potatoes whole, for 8 minutes.  I would have baked them after I finished shaping them but again, it was not worth using the oven so I fried them in a smidge of margarine.   What is a smidge?  Just a little bit…..

Apricot Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

4 sweet potatoes

1 pat or margarine

1 tablespoon honey

8 dried apricots

1 tablespoon olive oil

____

Microwave whole sweet potatoes for about 8 minutes until completely cooked.  Since each microwave is different, the timing may be different.  Stick a fork in the potato at about 5 minutes and see how it is.  I would check it every minute, after that, until the fork goes in easily.

Peel the sweet potatoes and mash them with the margarine and honey. Mash well.

Make a two-inch ball out of some of the sweet potato and while you are rolling it, push a dried apricot inside.  Place in a frying pan with hot olive oil.  Do the same with the remaining sweet potato.  Brown lightly on each side.  If you are not dealing with hot weather, I suggest baking this in the oven.

Serve plain or with a little maple syrup.  I was thinking of adding chopped scallions and I will try that, next time, I make these.

This is linked to  Friday Favorites
See Ya in the Gumbo       Mop it Up Mondays        Inspire Me Monday        Mealtime Monday        Gluten Free Recipe Linky   

Hearth and Soul Hop     Slightly Indulgent Tuesday      Fat Tuesday    Tuesday Talent Show at Chef in Training       Naptime Creations Tasty Tuesday Link Party

The softer, orange-fleshed variety of sweet potato, commonly referred to as a yam in the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rice Salad for a Change

There are certain salads, we fall back on, a tossed salad, potato salad, macaroni salad and cole slaw.  Nowadays though, salads have become exciting with the addition of mango and avocado and the hot peppers.  The look of salad is new but sometimes, we want that traditional potato or macaroni salad.  What happened to rice salad?

We visit friends, go to organizational dinners and weddings and I don’t remember seeing rice salads, exciting or plain.   I am back to making rice salads.  This one is not exciting but it serves its purpose.  It has those good vegetables in it.  I would put more in, next time.  It would go well with a spicy dish.

Rice Salad For a Change

Ingredients:

• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, minced
• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1 small carrot, grated or minced
• 1/8 cup seasoned rice vinegar (I used garlic flavor)
• 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked rice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano

Preparation:

Toss prepared vegetables together in a  bowl.

In a small bowl with the vinegar, drizzle olive oil while whisking, to emulsify the liquids.

Add to vegetables; cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Add cooked, cooled rice; add salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate until serving time. Serves 4.

This is linked to Summer Salad Sundays      Foodie Friday

Polenta and Vegetable Bake

Since I bought two rolls of polenta, I want to use them but I want to do something, I know we will like, with them.  Since, we are vegetable aficionados, I knew vegetables of some kind, had to be involved.  Eating Well comes through time and again with good, solid, healthy recipes so that is where I turned for an idea.  With a name like, “Polenta and Vegetable Bake”, I couldn’t go wrong. 

If you have not made polenta or bought the rolls, I suggest you give them a try.  They are versatile and I have a feeling, as I am more comfortable cooking with polenta, my imagination is going to be the drive that determines the recipes.

Polenta and Vegetable Bake (adapted from Eating Well)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cups broccoli florets
• 1 small zucchini, finely diced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce, preferably lower-sodium
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or oregano or cilantro
  
• 4 slices prepared polenta
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican cheese, divided

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450 degree F. Coat a round baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and just beginning to brown, 4 to 6 minutes.  Stir marinara sauce into the vegetables and heat through, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in basil or oregano or cilantro.
   
3. Place vegetables in a single layer in the prepared baking dish.
   
4. Top with polenta and cover with cheese and more sauce, if necessary
5. . Bake until bubbling and the cheese has just melted, 12 to 15 minutes.
   

This is linked to Real Food Wednesdays     Whole Food Wednesdays          Gluten-free Wednesday    We Are That Family     Allergy Free Wednesdays    Cast Party Wednesday     Momnivore’s Dilemma        Frugal Follies     Allergy Free Wednesday     Creative Juice     Pennywise Platter    Breakfast Ideas Monday

Tomato Vegetable Casserole

This is my disappearing recipe.  I copied it, into the blog and was about to alter the recipe to what I had actually done but decided to get my photos first.  I still am not sure why but I could not find them.  I went through pages of photos and still no photos for this recipe.  I finally gave up and saved this as a draft and promptly forgot about it.

Today, when I was about to blog another recipe, I found the draft and decided to take another look.  Lo and behold, the photos jumped out at me, almost immediately.  Have you had days like this?

Tomato Vegetable Casserole     Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis  (adapted)     6 servings

Ingredients

1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium yam, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings
1 large zucchini, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick pieces
Salt and pepper
1 large ripe tomatoes, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons taco chip crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss the potato, yam, bell pepper, carrots, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss until coated. Spread vegetables evenly over the bottom of the pan.

Arrange the onion slices evenly over the vegetable mixture. Arrange the zucchini over the onion. Drizzle with 1  tablespoons of oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange the tomato slices over the zucchini.

Stir the Parmesan and  crumbs in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the Parmesan bread crumbs over the vegetables in the baking dish. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Bake uncovered until the vegetables are tender, and the topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes. 

This is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays         Made from Scratch Mondays    Allergy Free Wednesday      Real Food Wednesday    Made from Scratch Mondays       Hearth and Soul

    Cast Party Wednesdays      Pennywise Platter   Seasonal Event

Vegetables Are Fun

I did not write, “Vegetables are fun to eat.”  I wrote that they are fun and since I learned how to make pretty objects, out of them, they have become even more fun.  Here is a plate of my latest.

I added these to different salads and made frames from them.  Some of the pieces are very long, others are short.  The carrots are more likely to be in small pieces while the onions could be a few feet.  This is pure fun.

Here is my dramatic rendition of this plate, followed by a more extreme one.  Just silly fun.

This is linked to Inspire Me Monday       Katherine Martinelli       Real Food Wednesdays

Tons of Chicken Soup

Each year, when Passover arrives, I pull out my two biggest pots and make chicken soup, lots and lots of chicken soup.  I don’t use a recipe.  Rather, I look around and grab almost every vegetable in site.  I did that, this year, and once again, we had superb soup.  It always amazes me, how the same soup tastes better on Passover than the rest of the year.

I end up freezing containers of soup except for the soup, we use, in the immediate following two days.  I take these containers out of the freezer, as I need them and I always add fresh vegetable to the ready-made soup.  That gives the soup a wallop of flavor.  
Usually, I use nothing but fresh vegetables and chicken.  I experimented with each batch, this year and one of those I made a little bit Thai.  I added some soy sauce and cut up ginger and it took on a subtle flavor.  No rice on Passover, for us, so I made Pesach noodles out of egg, potato starch and water and we had mock noodles in our soup.

As you can see, I made this soup, plain, no vegetables, no chicken but yes kneidlach.

Chicken Soup with lots of Vegetables

I am going to give you the ingredients for only one pot.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken for each pot (In this case, I bought packages of bottoms and used from 4-6 in each huge pot.
• water 3/4 up the pots
• 3 stalks celery, cut into chunks
• 2 onions, cut into quarters (I used large onions)
• 1 sweet potato, cut into chunks
• 1 turnip, cut into chunks
• 3 parsnips, each cut into 3 pieces
• 5 carrots, cut into 3 pieces, each
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 turnips, cut into chunks

Directions

Place chicken in a large pot and cover with water.  Heat water and then lower to a simmer.  Cook 2 hours.

Put all the vegetables in the pot except the parsley.  Cook  for another 40 minutes, again simmering.

Add parsley and seasonings and cook for another 30 minutes.

Remove vegetables from pot.  If you want to serve with vegetables, put in new ones and cook until they are done, about 20  minutes.  Cut them into smaller pieces than the chunks.  You can chop them or make them slightly bigger.

Remove the chicken and break into small pieces and return to soup.

Put into bowls and enjoy this.

This is linked to Sunday Night-Soup Night

Crock Pot Soup

Tonight, I made a green soup.  Last week, I made an orange soup.  Another night, I made a yellow soup and still another, the soup was red.  I think that food was created with color, for our pleasure.

I am sharing last week’s soup, today, and I hope you will like it.

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1/2 bag of baby carrots

one onion in chunks

one white potato, peeled and cut in chunks

one yellow squash, sliced in chunks

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 cups organic vegetable broth

2 cups Rice Milk

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Put liquids in crockpot.  Add cut up vegetables.  Add spices.

Cook on medium for 6 hours.

This is a mellow, soothing soup.

Other Soups From This Blog

• Crock Pot Potato Soup
• Have Leftovers – Make Soup
• Honesty Soup
• Ginger Carrot Soup with Apples – Guy Fieri
• Butternut Squash Soup

Linked to 5 Dollar Dinner Challenge   Pennywise Platters

Asian Chicken Stir Fry (with Mango)

I like to fall back on a stir fry when I run into a problem with my menu plans.  I usually can construct the meal with what I find, in the house, and it is an easy dish to make.   That is what I did, tonight.  I had a few cooked chicken cutlets in the refrigerator.  I had cooked them with pineapple chunks and juice so the cutlets were rather plain, perfect for a stir fry.  I also had a mango, I had to use up so I sliced it and threw it in with the chicken and pineapple.  I looked around and pulled out a large onion and red pepper and finally, I had half a bag of broccoli to add to the mix.  With the right seasonings, this was transformed to a state of deliciousness.

Asian Chicken Stir Fry

5 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons Mirin

1 teaspoon grated ginger 

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 cooked chicken cutlets 

1 mango, peeled and sliced

1 cup pineapple chunks in juice

1 cup Organic Vegetable broth

1/2 large red pepper, sliced

1 large onion, sliced

1 1/2 cups broccoli florets

8 ounces thin spaghetti (I used gluten-free)

Procedure

In a large skillet, mix soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic & Mirin.

Cook the onions, pepper and fruit in this liquid.

While this is cooking, follow directions on spaghetti package and cook spaghetti, drain and put aside.

After the onion mix is cooking for 5 minutes, add the chicken cut into strips and the pineapple.

Heat an additional 3 minutes and add vegetable broth.  When broth is heated, put broccoli and mango into pan.  Cook for 2 – 3 minutes, depending on how crisp you like your broccoli.  (I let mine cook too long.)  If you put the mango in earlier, it disappears into the rest of the ingredients, never to be seen again.

Linked to  Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbits    Tasty Thursdays    Full Plate Thursdays      Friday Food     Mangia Monday      Real Food Wednesdays

• February 6 Stir Fry Forest (2012artproject.wordpress.com)
• Amazing chicken stir fry (foodstaycation.com)
• Mushroom and Pepper Stir-Fry (cookinginsens.wordpress.com)
• Quick Asian Stir Fry (toomuchbutter.com)
• Help Me Make Better Egg Stir-Fry Recipe Questions (thekitchn.com)
• Sesame & Ginger Stir-Fry (marcellaburg.wordpress.com)
• Orange Ginger Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry (meggieskitchen.wordpress.com)

Savory Sweet Potato Salad

I love turning wonderful sweet potatoes into a savory dish and this salad manages to do just that.  Like any potato salad, this is a salad that can fill you up, if you eat enough of it.  OK, I sat down and made a meal of it.  For me, that means a small bowl.

Savory Sweet Potato Salad

2 large sweet potatoes  1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 4 teaspoons rice vinegar (I use seasoned) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 cup olive oil 4 scallions, thinly sliced Method: Peel sweet potatoes.  Cut into about one quarter inch cubes. Microwave in water for 8 – 10 minutes or until fork tender. While potatoes cook, whisk together mustard, vinegar, and salt in a large bowl, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified. Add hot potatoes to dressing and gently toss to combine well. Cool salad to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Add scallions and salt to taste and gently toss.

    Real Food Wednesdays

Tropical Salmon

Salmon seems to be a “no-fail” dish.  I guess, it can be burnt and that would ruin it but otherwise, you can add a multitude of flavors to it. You can bake it, fry it, poach it, broil it and smother it and you will probably have a good dinner.  You can, also, serve it with almost any side dish.  Just picture salmon and rice, salmon and potatoes, salmon and noodles, salmon with green vegetables, orange vegetables, red vegetables, etc.  I am sure, you get the idea.  Salmon has enough flavor to hold its own with almost all foods. There are particular ingredients that call for diversity such as pasta or rice.  In my opinion, salmon falls in with these as far as being creative.  Do you have any good salmon recipes?  I am always on the look-out for more ideas. Tropical Salmon

adapted from a Mrs. Dash recipe

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon Lemon Pepper seasoning 2  salmon fillets 1/4 cup diced green pepper 1/4 cup diced red pepper 1 scallion, chopped 1/3 cup  and 1/4 cup pineapple juice  1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger 1/8  cup shredded coconut

Directions:

1.	Pour 1/3 cup pineapple juice in square or small rectangular baking pan.
2.	Brush fish fillets with 1/4 cup of  pineapple juice. Sprinkle fillets lightly with Lemon Pepper.
3.	Combine all other ingredients in medium bowl.
4.	Pour vegetables over salmon fillets, spreading somewhat evenly.
5.	Bake in 375 degrees  preheated oven,  15 – 20 minutes .     This is linked to Hearth and Soul Real Food Wednesdays                         Pennywise Platter          Melt in Your Mouth Mondays