Roasted Sweet Potatoes: The Easy Way

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 * * Ultimate Roasted Sweet Potatoes * *

You will love this EASY & FAST Recipe!

Sweet Potatoes are wonderful – they add a delicious flavor – and color- to your meals. They team up with BBQ & perk up leftover night with their color and creamy- sweet flavor.

I love Roasted Sweet Potoates especially when I accidentally (or maybe not … ) burn them a little on the bottom- so they have a dark brown, almost black really, spot where they were sitting on the pan.  This adds a wonderful flavor to the sweet, soft potatoes that we enjoy- and think you might too….

Yum!

You will love how simple & easy they are to make – and how delicious they are to eat.  These are so good even a few days later – so you can make a BIG batch today (eat half) and then take some for lunch (if there are any left …)

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A Pan of Roasted Sweet Potato Chunks – Note the dark brown spots- You want that!

 

HOW to make the Ultimate Roasted Sweet Potatoes

You will need:

  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt

Yes- That is all you need to make the most awesome tasting sweet potatoes!

  • Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.
  • Wash your sweet potatoes (with a brush) and dry off with a kitchen towel.
  • Now cut into the same size pieces – This means try and keep them all the same -ish thickness. This is so all the pieces will cook at the same rate.
  • Toss the potato chunks in a little bit of Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt.
  • Spread out on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil and pop into the oven.
  • Check every 5- 10 minutes or until they are soft and have some nice color on them.

Delicious!

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Washed & Dried … the Sweet Potatoes await their fate …..

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Cut your potatoes in half the long way, and place them cut side down (no rock-n-roll here!) then cut in half and into chunks.

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Toss in Olive Oil, and sprinkle with salt

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Pop them into your pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes – checking on them frequently.

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The finished product – soft on the inside and crispy on the outside – make sure to save the browned pieces for yourself! 

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Finished!

So there you have it!

A wonderful side dish or main for a Meatless Monday type meal (great with a big green salad).

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BBQ Garbanzo Beans: An Awesome Vegan Meal!

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Are you ready for our latest obsession? (well, one of them actually…..) It is BBQ Garbanzo beans!

Now the really funny thing is that Kansas City is SUCH a BBQ town… We have a huge selection of BBQ restaurants, cook off events and the like. It is one of those “cheats” that I will do – as I enjoy all the smoky, rich, sweet sauce- Yummo!  So when I found this awesome idea I love that I still can enjoy a vegetarian/ vegan meal and still getting in my BBQ flavors in.

Introducing … BBQ Garbanzo Beans!

Now I found this fabulous recipe idea in this awesome book:

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I have had the book for quite a while, and then recently I was clearing out the clutter (information for another post….) and I was like Yeah! So I started flipping around and found this recipe (p.116) for BBQ Bowl.

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We just had to try it.

It is an amazingly simple combo that I think you will LOVE and like so many other meals, this just gets better and better over the next few days after you make it. What we like to do is make a 3 can batch on Sunday and then eat it for lunch etc.. during the week. DElish!

What you need:

  • Garbanzo Beans
  • BBQ Sauce
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese (optional, but surprisingly good)

What you do:

This is the super- simple part. This is how we make it, slightly different from the directions in the recipe book:

1. Drain and rinse the beans and the pour into a large pan on the stove.  Add about 1/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce to the pan with about half that amount of water. Stir carefully until you have beans sitting in a thin BBQ sauce.

2.  Now turn on the heat to medium and bring to a gentle boil. Continue to cook for a few minutes until the beans are warm and the BBQ sauce starts to get thick again.

3. Serve with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese, or add the cheese and allow to cool and then store in the refrigerator.

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BBQ Garbanzo beans, arugula salad and Sweet Potatoes- with lots of leftovers for work day lunches!

For serving suggestions we have served these with arugula salad greens and some chopped tomatoes. Another time we served it along side some quinoa.  It was also good with sweet potato fries (and extra BBQ sauce for dipping).

So give this interesting and surprising recipe a try… It makes a fantastic office lunch too!

 

Meatless Monday:Garlic Chickpea Pasta

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I was searching around the internet this morning for something unusual to make for Meatless Monday dinner tonight. OK ~I was also secretly searching for a recipe that I could cook from all the ingredients I already had in the house too….  And…. success! I found a great-sounding and great-tasting recipe…Pasta with Chickpeas and Garlic sauce! This recipe uses a can of garbanzo beans, pasta, garlic, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese to make what sounds like a rich and garlicky combination. While I did not have all the ingredients mentioned (I have most), and I am sure that the addition of those extra ingredients would make it even better!

Sauce for Pasta

Here is a video from the website that I found this recipe at if you would like to watch:

Pasta with Chickpeas and Garlic Sauce

What you need:

  • Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, Smashed
  • 1 Can Chickpeas
  • 1 Cup Vegetable Broth
  • 1/2 bag your favorite pasta (we used whole wheat spirals)
  • Tomatoes (we chopped up 2 Roma Tomatoes)
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
  • 1Tbs. Lemon Juice
  • 3 Tbs. Parmesan Cheese

How to:

1. In a small saucepan, heat garlic in olive oil and saute for a minute. Add drained chickpeas and 1 cup vegetable stock and allow sauce to simmer for 15 minutes.

2. While sauce is cooking,  cook and drain your noodles.

3.  Carefully puree sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth~ you might have to do this in batches depending on the size of your processor.

4. In a bowl combine sauce, tomatoes, chopped garlic, lemon juice and pasta. Toss gently and sprinke with Parmesan cheese.

We are planning to  serve this pasta dish with a salad and maybe some garlic bread ~  It sounds like it will be sorta like hummus!   We are planning to have a bit leftover and I am betting that this will taste even better tomorrow for lunch as all that garlic flavor develops!

Here is a video if you want to watch and see how easy this recipe is and the full list of ingredients ~ Including the ones that I did not have! HA

http://www.myrecipes.com/quick-and-easy/dinner-tonight/how-to-cook-pasta-with-chickpeas-garlic-sauce-10000001684855/

Let us know what you though of this recipe? What additions did you make? (Peas… Asparagus tips….)

Trader Joe’s Roasted Tomato Salsa

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We had the hankering the other day for a Taco Salad. I just love Taco Salad because of all the different flavors and textures in each forkful.   So off to Trader Joe’s of course to get all the goodies to make a few of them and tell you about a great new salsa: Trader Joe’s Roasted Tomato Salsa.

Trader Joe's Roasted Tomato Salsa

So as we were zipping around the store and gathering up all the ingredients, we started to check out all the many different Salsa choices at Trader Joe’s… and there are a LOT!

We started out with the jars of salsas as there are a few ones that we like in that section, but then remembered…. Trader Joe’s sells FRESH salsa as well.

There were a few different salsa choices for us, but when we saw Roasted Tomato Salsa we knew we had a winner. We love items that have a little oven roasted flavor/ grill flavor to them.

This salsa is really terrific~ but on the Medium /Spicy side (or at least we think so).

Have you tried this salsa? What did you think?