Tag Archives: Potato

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Potato Home Fries

Happy Tuesday! In an effort to cut back on our grocery bill, I’m only buying produce for the entire month of April. It seems that it’s really the organic, natural packaged crap that’s expensive, so we’re doing a lot of fruit and veg this month. In that vain, I had no idea what to pair with the salmon I cooked the other night, so I made it up … sweet potato home fries! These babies keep great in the fridge. They’re delicious warm and really yummy cold too.

Sweet Potato Home Fries (serves: 4, cook time: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
1 cup mushrooms
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup high heat oil
sea salt and ground pepper

Instructions:

Chop the potatoes, mushrooms, and onion into bite-sized chunks. Mince the garlic on top of the potatoes.
Heat the skillet to medium first, THEN add half the oil. Coat the bottom of your skillet.
Add sweet potatoes, garlic, and onions and spread in an even layer in the skillet. Cook on medium-high heat, uncovered until potatoes are browned and onions are caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the oil, slowly, as needed. Take care not to mess with them too much, flip potatoes once or twice in the entire 10-ish minutes.
When your mix is pretty well cooked, add the mushrooms. These are already soft so they don’t take much cooking. Cook for a few more minutes to heat up the mushrooms.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy!

Ashley Life Update: I had a wonderful weekend at a friend’s wedding in Louisiana. Got to hang out with my immediate family (see my sister’s and I above) and a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a long time. And the 13 hour drive there and back wasn’t too bad. We set up a bed in the back of the car and then whoever was driving listened to books on tape. Man those things pass the time!

We also stopped at an epic Country Buffet in Arkansas (the best in the state). I swear I had no idea that America had areas like that. Just VERY southern. That’s why I love road trips, you see cultures you never would have explored otherwise.

AND, another plus, we finally got some communication from Mike’s job. We should be finding out our next stop in the next couple weeks and the options are looking good!

I hope you all had great weekends too! Love and hugs – Ash

Thriving Thursday: Mom’s Shepherds Pie

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Happy Thursday to you all! It’s almost the weekend and I’m excited about it. This last couple months has been absolutely crazy at work. It’s really wonderful to see so many people starting their path to health but I’m a little glad that it’s starting to taper now. I was starting to miss my relaxation (and cooking) time. So here is a great recipe directly from my Momma’s kitchen.

My mom is a fabulous cook. She claims to hate it but how can you hate something you’re so good at?? I think she gets tired of cooking every single night (who wouldn’t) but goodness knows we would have been a MUCH less healthy family without her daily meals.

She is one of those people who can whip up a meal when the fridge and pantry are completely empty. If friends stop by for a chat, she has the most creative and delicious appetizers on the table within 5 minutes. She has mastered the art of feeding AND socializing with people. Those who have tried it know how hard that can be.

She taught me this recipe before I left for college and it quickly became my signature dish. She uses mashed potatoes from the box (understandable with 4 kids and no time) but I love mashing potatoes. They taste better and I get to let out my pent-up aggression on them. So I turned to my friend Alex for some further input. She is also an amazing chef and trained in the art of food.

So here is my combination from the two lovely ladies. My mom’s was quicker but slightly healthier and Alex’s was a little more time-consuming but richer and more savory.

Mom’s Shepherds Pie

Note: This is a delicious dish but if you’re trying to lose weight, do not eat it for dinner. You don’t want the potatoes sitting in your stomach all night. Unless you use the energy, it will turn into fat.

Ingredients:

5 medium potatoes
1 cup organic butter
1 cup milk (unsweetened almond, coconut, whatever…)
1.5 lbs ground turkey
2 Tbsp high heat oil (like coconut or grape seed)
1 onion
3 carrots
1 zucchini
4 cloves garlic
1 cup gravy (I use Bisto but it contains trace gluten so be careful)
salt and pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to its lowest setting.
Chop potatoes into small pieces. Boil them in a large pot of water until soft when stabbed with a fork.
While they’re boiling, chop the onion, carrots, and zucchini.
Drain the potatoes and mix in a large bowl with butter and milk. Mash them all up! Set aside.
In a large pot (yes a large pot) sauté the onions, carrots, and minced garlic on medium heat. Cook until onion is transparent, about 5 minutes.
Add turkey and zucchini to the skillet. Cook for 5 minutes then add gravy. Continue to cook until meat is browned.
Spread out the turkey mixture evenly in the pot then layer the potatoes on top.
Heat in the oven for 5 minutes to let juices mix.
Enjoy!

I hope you’re all having wonderful days. Love and a grin. – Ash

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Potato Fries

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Sweet potato fries. I’ve only had them once or twice in restaurants but I ALWAYS love them. So when I saw this post from Snack Girl, I figured I’d try it. Holy Bajolies these things are good. I did it a tiny bit differently from Snack Girl’s original recipe so here is my version:

We ate them with Santa Fe style scrambled eggs: eggs, almond milk, red pepper, spinach. Then salsa and avocado on top. YUM.

Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes (yams)
coconut oil or grapeseed oil (because it’s high heat)
cumin
garlic powder
salt
pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.
Peel sweet potatoes then cut them into thin lengths. The thinner the cuts, the more crispy and delicious the fries.
Lay out the sweet potato in single layers on the baking sheets.
Sprinkle them with oil then with all the spices. Be conservative with the spices.
Bake for 15 minutes then grab some tongs (or burn your fingers) and flip every fry. Continue cooking for 5-10 minutes or until the fries are golden brown.
Enjoy!

Ashley Life Update: It’s snowing here again! The second storm in a week! Since I can work from home most mornings and my workouts are all here too, I’m loving this. I can just sit at our dining table, working and looking at the pretty snow 🙂

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

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Sweet potatoes are flippin’ awesome. They are fantastic for digestion, heart health, skin health, and blood sugar levels. Specifically, they are high in Vitamin B6, Vitamin A, Fiber, Potassium, Vitamins C and E, and Manganese.

This recipe was my attempt at making my mom’s amazing shepherds pie but without the starch of potatoes. With that in mind, it was GROSS. But once we stopped thinking of it as Shepherds Pie and started thinking of it as a dish on it’s own, SO DELICIOUS. Isn’t it weird how your brain can trick you like that?

This was incredible easy to make and I just kept it in a crockpot in the fridge and reheated it (on the lowest temperature possible) for 3 nights straight. Thank you bulk-cooking!

Sweet Potato Pot Pie (6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

7 organic sweet potatoes, chopped into small chunks
3/4 cup organic milk (almond, coconut, dairy, whatever)
1 organic yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds organic ground turkey
1 package of organic gravy mix
8oz organic frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, etc)

Instructions:

Boil sweet potato chunks in a large pot until soft. While they are cooking, mix gravy.
Drain water from pot add the milk and mash it all together. Set aside.
In a separate, deep pan, sauté onions and garlic for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
Add turkey to pan and cook until brown.
Add gravy and frozen veggies to pan and mix together.
Either in the large pot or in a crockpot, layer the meat mixture, then the mashed sweet potatoes. Heat in the crockpot or oven on low for 10 minutes. This allows the juices to mix together. YUM
Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday: Steak and Potatoes

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I don’t really love steak. I’m not a big-slab-of-meat kind of person. But when I asked Mike what his favorite meal was and he replied, “steak and potatoes,” it became the dish that I cooked for him for our “date” this past Saturday. I entered into the situation with a little bit of trepidation because I’ve never cooked steak before but I’d say it turned out pretty well.

I knew I would have very little time on Saturday so I prepped everything the day before. I put the grass-fed steak in this awesome Zesty Dijon Marinade (I found the recipe here):

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup Dijon mustard (we didn’t have any so I used honey mustard)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2 garlic cloves

Mix it all together, add the meat, and refrigerate concoction for 3 to 24 hours.

Then I cut up all the potatoes and stored them in a plastic bag for the night.

When Saturday came, I took him pottery painting (haha. more on that later) and then came home and popped the potatoes in the oven with a little salt and pepper (I added some garlic cloves and chopped red pepper at the last minute)

and then threw the steak on my new iron skillet (5 minutes for each side of a 1 inch steak).

And voila! It was pretty delicious. A little overcooked but I’ll get better at the timing thing. Also, it’s important to mention that I completely disregarded my stomach’s dislike of red meat with this recipe. I haven’t been experiencing any negative symptoms from the grass-fed beef so I thought I’d be fine. I think it was the sheer quantity of beef that did me in but my stomach was a little grumbly and stubborn for about 24 hours after this meal. And of course, Mike was fine.

I hope you’re all having wonderful days. It’s not Monday anymore. YAY!

🙂