Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams

I went to Harmon's in St. George last week to pick up some sweet potatoes. What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Well, most everyone calls yams, sweet potatoes, but most of what you see in the store are sweet potatoes. According to the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission, sweet potatoes are grown in the US, primarily North Carolina. So really, both varieties above are really sweet potatoes. A true yam is a starchy edible root that is not smooth, but rough and scaly. If you're wanting a great source of vitamin A, then you better stick with sweet potatoes. In a one cup serving you will get the same amount of beta-carotene as you'd get in 16 cups of broccoli. They are also a great source of vitamin E and other essential nutrients. A super food for sure!

Winter Container Garden

I was just going through pictures on my computer. I have to get 3 to the high school for a senior slide show during graduation. Anyway, I found pictures I had taken in December of my container garden that I meant to share with you. I bought 2 packs of panels from Lowe's for $24.99 each. These hook together. I bought them to keep Pug and Luigi out of the "garden", because they were eating my tomatoes and cucumbers. I bought some plastic at the garden center to cover the thing once it became cold. I've been harvesting Swiss chard, spinach and bok choy ever since. Which reminds me, I need to get out there and water today :) I used office paper "clips" to keep the plastic from blowing off. Below is my awesome pot of bok choy. Great for stir fry! Top left is 2 varieties of Swiss chard, and another Swiss chard plant on the top right. Bottom left is spinach, and bottom right is the bok choy.

As you may recall, I brought my tomatoes inside and put them under a grow light. I had cherry tomatoes all winter. I recently just moved it outside, where it froze. It was covered with a spider mite, which I couldn't get rid of. I have my garlic and green onions under plastic on my patio table, which is on the patio. It gets sun, but it is covered. I'll endeavor to get some pictures of that as well. I need to get some seeds started by Saturday. Feb. 14 is the official planting day here in St. George for early crops.

Kitchen Closeup by Deidre Hall - Contest and Book Review

I had the opportunity to attend a cooking class at Green Valley Spa last Friday night featuring Deidre Hall (Days of Our Lives) and her friend, Lynne Bowman. My friend, Trish, had asked me the day before if I wanted to go with her. I quickly went to Deidre's website (just googled and found it), and after reading there that she mentioned Dr. Oz, Jamie Oliver, etc., I decided that this would certainly be worth the class fee.

I have to say, that initially, I wasn't sure what to expect. After all, what exactly would I learn that I didn't already know? What do most people know about nutrition anyway? I was pleasantly surprised with almost everything about the class. With Lynne talking about the food aspect of things, and Deidre cutting/chopping vegetables in preparation for the recipes (and playfully being the helpful side-kick), it felt like being in the home of a dear friends. It was lovely. No preaching, or lecturing; just the sharing of recipes and philosophies of eating good, nutritious food.

The focus was on a plant based diet. Three fantastic recipes were prepared and we were allowed to sample them all. I will prepare each of the recipes again, but I totally fell in love with the Red Pepper Soup. Fantastic! The recipe is so simple to prepare, you can hardly believe that it can be so delicious. If you are a follower of my blog, you know how I love organic, fresh vegetables. I'm a big fan of Swiss Chard, spinach and kale. But I have never seen a recipe for soup like this before. Just getting this recipe was well worth attending the class for!

We were given a copy of the cookbook for attending. It is a delightful, easy read. I sat down one morning after tending to the dogs, green smoothie in hand, and read the entire book in about an hour. I will get a few extra copies and give them as gifts to some of my BFF's. It's that kind of book. The recipes I've tried so far are dynamite.

Part way through the class, I realized just how wonderful the recipes were, and asked if I could get a book to give away on my blog. Not only did I get the book, but it is signed for the winner by both Lynne and Deidre! You'll love it, I promise! I also asked if I could share a recipe. Again, the answer was yes. I'll post the Red Pepper Soup in a separate post.

For the contest, you need to go to Deidre's website here. Click on the Amazon.com link in the lower right hand corner. This will bring you to the book on Amazon, where you can click on the "Click to LOOK INSIDE" link on the top of the picture of the book. Look through the book, and tell me what looks interesting to you, and why you'd like to win a copy. Simple as that!

• 
  One entry for doing the above and posting a comment.
• You can have another entry for posting the link to this post on your blog, and linking back in another comment on this post.
• A 3rd entry if you share the link on twitter with the name of the contest and share that with me in a 3rd comment. Or post it on your facebook page and comment.

Contest will go until Monday February 7, 2011 at 6 pm.

Baked Delicata Squash Fries

I was blog hopping, looking for some good vegetable recipes, and came across this great looking recipe from "Bitch Cakes" for Baked Delicata Squash Fries. She has a Weight Watchers/Healthy Eating and Fitness blog. Anyway, now I'm on a mission to find this squash in one of the local store here in Southern Utah. I probably won't find it here, but perhaps they carry it at Whole Foods in Las Vegas. I might just call the Whole Foods in Vegas to see if they have it. It would call for a little road trip, but I am up for it! Also, I wanted to tell you how much the entire family LOVED the recipe for the Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Onions and Thyme. And tonight's meal of Baked Costa Rican-Style Tilapia with Pineapples, Black Beans and Rice was dynamite! I made a 9x13" pan of it for our family of 6, and it is all gone. I saved out 2 portions for sons who have college classes during the dinner hour. One of them came to find me so he could tell me how good it was. And that was without the cilantro, which I forgot to pick up at the store. I highly recommend both of these recipes, and will definitely make them again.

Lentil Chili from Whole Foods

I got this recipe from Whole Foods. You can find the recipe originally posted here.

picture courtesy of Whole Foods.com



Serves 8

This simple vegetarian chili recipe uses lentils instead of beans. Brown lentils work best as they will hold their shape even when tender after cooking. Serve over brown rice or with whole-grain hearth bread.

Ingredients

8 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 teaspoons salt-free chili powder
1 (16-ounce) package brown lentils (about 2 1/4 cups lentils)
2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Method

Bring 3/4 cup broth to a simmer in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook about 8 minutes or until onion is translucent and pepper is tender. Stir in chili powder and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add lentils, tomatoes and remaining 7 1/4 cups broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes or until lentils are almost tender. Uncover and cook 10 minutes longer. Stir in cilantro and serve.

Results

This was really good. We had nothing in the way of leftovers. None. It was that good. I did make some substitutions. Since I had already cooked up a bunch of lentils for another recipe, I used about 4 cups of pre-cooked lentils, and some chicken broth to make the correct consistency. I added the other ingredients, but only added 2 tsp of chili powder. I think it is better to start with a little, test for taste, then add a little more when it comes to chili powder. I bought my chili powder from The Spice House, along with many of my other spices. They are fantastic spices! My sister-in-law had given us a gift certificate for Christmas 2009.

I served this with some corn bread, and shrimp sauteed in olive oil, garlic and spices. A delicious dinner that everyone enjoyed.

Grilled Ono with Lemon Caper Butter Sauce and Butternut Squash

Here is what we had for dinner last week .......
I made grilled Ono for dinner on Monday and served it with some oven roasted butternut squash and sauteed greens (not pictured 'cause we ate them all up!) Everyone raved about how good this tasted. Ono (Wahoo) is a fish found near Hawaii, and is perfect for grilling. We bought our Ono at Costco. It is sold in IQF portions that are individually wrapped. Perfect if you just want to grill one or two pieces of fish.

I got the recipe for Grilled Ono with Lemon Caper Butter Sauce at great-grilling.com.

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Four Portions
4 Six to 8 ounce Ono/Wahoo Filets
A mild fish rub or paprika
Salt and Pepper

Prepare your Ono for the grill, rinse, salt and sprinkle a little paprika for the color. Coat your filets with some olive oil. 
Grill your Ono making nice grill marks on the hot grill. For timing figure something like six to 8 minute per inch of thickness of the filet. As mentioned previously do not overcook your Ono.
Top with the Lemon Caper sauce.

Lemon Caper Butter Sauce
This is a great sauce for just about anything, grilled fish, shellfish, chicken breasts or event thinly pounded pork tenderloin.

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter
1/2 Lemon juiced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon capers (if using dry salted capers rinse)
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley or other herbs if you like.

After your fish is grilled and ready heat a saute pan on medium high heat, add the olive oil and the butter. Reduce heat to medium. As the butter melts completely add the capers. Saute for a minute, add the lemon. Watch out for the sizzle! Pour the sauce over your grilled delicacies.

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The greens, spinach and 2 varieties of Swiss Chard, I cut fresh from my garden. I sauteed them in a little olive oil with some garlic.

The butternut squash was pre-cubed and ready to cook. My parents brought it over for me to prepare. I just put some olive oil in a bowl, added some spices and some sliced onions, and the butternut squash, then made sure everything was mixed/coated well. I baked it on a cookie sheet for about 20 minutes at 350*F. It was fantastic!

Sweet Potatoes with Creamy Orange-Thyme Butter

I know, where is the picture? Right? Well, getting dinner on last night was my first priority, so the picture got skipped. However, you should go right out and purchase some sweet potatoes and put this on your menu rotation, picture or no picture! The cookbook that I use and love, The Simpler the Better by Leslie Revsin, is where I find many outstanding yet simple recipes. I had a couple of sweet potatoes on hand, so I decided to see how Leslie would prepare them! I served them with cod by the way. Yum! I also sauteed a yellow squash with onions and sliced celery as another side dish.

The recipe is simple. Set oven to 425*F.

• After scrubbing/washing the sweet potatoes, slice them in half.
• Brush some softened butter on the cut side of the potatoes, and place face down on a cooking sheet.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Mine were done at this point (fork slide into the potato like going into soft butter. If not, turn the potatoes over and continue baking for 10-15 minutes.
• Here is the recipe for the creamy orange-thyme butter. 1 medium orange (I used a tangerine...that is what I had on hand) 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme 3 TBSP butter, softened 2 medium-large sweet potatoes (mine were small-medium) Mix together and top your cooked spuds with this.

 Delicious! If you don't have this cookbook in your arsenal, you really should get it. I really use it a lot. I'm not getting any money (or anything else for that matter) to endorse this book. I really love the great recipes in the book and they are a cinch to make!