Sweeeeeeet potatoes!!!

I'm starting to notice a trend here.  About every 30 days, I have to come on to my blog and admit that we have slipped into our old ways and had a couple of days of bad food choices.  I am not sure if that's human nature or  what, but since I'm human...I'm using that as my excuse.


Saturday looked like this in the McGhee household....8 am swim practice, 10 am swim team meeting, 11 am hair appointment, 1 pm baseball pictures, 2 pm birthday party, 3 pm baseball game, 5 pm formal fundraiser.  9 am, 10:30 am, 11:30 am, noon, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, 4 pm, let puppy out to pee.  Somewhere around 10:30 am, I gave up and realized when in survival mode, one is not picky about what one eats.  And when one begins to lower ones standards slightly, a rapid decline in ones standards is quick to follow.  


Basically what I'm trying to tell you is that I ate like crap this weekend.  And I think I am trying to blame it on my minis and my puppy.  What's in the past is now in the past (and my past includes hot dogs, pizza, and tequila), so I am moving forward today and getting us all back on track.


If you are one of my regular readers you know that one of my true loves in life is sweet potato kale quinoa.  I have made that dish for so many people and everyone loves it (once they get past the quinoa looking like ants all over the sweet potatoes).  

Since I love the sweet potato-kale combo so much, I went on a hunt for another recipe that combines the two veggies.  As a sidenote, I am starting to realize I need to stop looking for recipes and start writing more of my own.  I end up changing 95% of the recipes I find and always feel like "I could do better than this" when eating the food.  And, yes, this is one of those recipes....but I'll give you the original recipe and then recommendations on how I would change it.


Loaded Sweet Potato Skins

What You Need 

• 4 to 6 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds – make sure they are all around the same size) 
• 1 shallot 
• About half a bunch kale (enough for 2 cups kale) 
• 1 cup chickpeas, canned or cooked (I omitted the chickepeas)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (we used a blend of Monterrey jack and cheddar, next time I will use 1/4-1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese) 
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 
• Fresh ground pepper 
• Olive oil 
• Sour cream and green onions, to garnish

What To Do

1  Preheat the oven to 400°F. Wash the sweet potatoes, and prick them with a fork. Rub them with oil, and sprinkle with some kosher salt and pepper. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until tender. (If you are crunched for time, you can pierce potato with a fork and bake in microwave).  

2  Meanwhile, finely chop the shallot. Roughly chop the kale. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the shallot until soft, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the kale, and saute for a few minutes, until tender. Set aside.

3  When the potatoes have finished baking, remove them from the oven and let them cool a bit. Cut them in half and scoop out about 1/2 of the inside, making sure to keep a layer of sweet potato within the skin so that it can stand on its own. In a bowl, mash the sweet potato, then add 1 cupchickpeas (drained and rinsed, if using canned), 1 cup shredded cheese, kale, 3/4 teaspoonkosher salt, and fresh ground pepper.

4  Fill each potato skin with the filling (you may have some left over). If desired, you could top with more shredded cheese as well (though we did not). Bake until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with sour cream and sliced green onions.  (I did not serve with sour cream.  Next time, I will drizzle with balsamic vinegar).

Prepare your sweet potato.

Mix your filling.

These were pretty good as written.  I think with a few changes that I suggested, they will be delish!

Snacktime!

I've got no good stories today.  Mainly because my mind is so preoccupied with all this HUGE SURPRISE that is about to happen to my family in 7 hours!!!!  Are you dying to know what it is?!?!?  Tomorrow, I promise.  Tomorrow, I will tell.  

I have to confess.  My minis are bored with my food.  Last night's dinner of cold cuts (which I consider processed, but they did only have 3 ingredients and they were organic) on bread with apple salad and cheese slices was the most excited I've seen them over food in weeks.  I am trying not to be bitter about it, but can anyone here understand what I'm talking about?  I can spend hours in the kitchen making a dinner that gets reviews of, "how many bites do I have to have to take?" while slapping some lunchmeat on a slice of bread gets me, "you are the best mommy in the whole wide world".  Minis.  I swear, they'll suck the life out of you.  

So, I am trying to find more recipes to please them.  The other day I made a batch of peanut butter banana oatmeal bread that went over well.  And by went over well, I mean, they ate it.  I got zero rave reviews, however the plates were empty.  At this point, my standard of success is so low, it's practically impossible to lose.  

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bread

• 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 large mashed banana
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1.  Mix together the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, kosher salt and ground cinnamon.

2.  Add in the vanilla extract, milk and egg. Mix the ingredients together.

3.  Then add in the mashed banana and peanut butter. Combine all of the ingredients.

4.  Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 8 by 8 inch metal baking pan. Bake at 350 F degrees for 20 minutes.  (Check to make sure it is done with a toothpick.  I had to bake for closer to 30 minutes).  

Cut into squares and enjoy!  Slather on some peanut butter.  

This next recipe I am sharing is a great alternative to chips.  My minis (and my Mr.) love chips.  Believe it or not, they would rather have chips and salsa than chocolate and cookies.  Because chips are highly processed food, we haven't had them in 4 months.  Let me rephrase that, we haven't had them at home in 4 months.  Mr. McGhee may be sneaking them at work and washing them down with a Diet Coke, for all I know.  Mr. McGhee, if you are reading this....those sweet ladies that work for you tell me things!!!!  So, put down the Tostitos and come home to some sweet potato chips.   And to make it up to me, buy me this, this, and this for Mother's Day.  I take back what I said about all I want for Mother's Day is for you to help me in the garden all day.  

Lime Sweet potato chips

• sweet potato, very thinly sliced
• olive oil
• sea salt
• lime juice

1.  Cover a baking sheet with tin foil.  Rub olive oil on the sheet (or spray with cooking spray).

2.  Coat sweet potato slices with olive oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  Lay them out on the baking sheet.

3.  Bake at 450F for 8-10 minutes.  Flip over and cook an additional 5 minutes.  Pay close attention to them while baking, they will burn very easily.

4.  Remove from oven and squeeze lime juice over the chips.  Add additional sea salt, if you prefer.

Enjoy!  Very easy and very delish!  In fact, I just enjoyed a bowl of them for lunch!

Enjoy!  I'll be back tomorrow and let you all in on my little secret......

Menu Planning

The question I get asked the most is "how do you do it all?"  In the interest of full disclosure, I do not work full time out of the house.  However, I do work very part-time running a non-profit, run a very small supplemental consultation business, and have 3 minis that keep me busy with swimming, baseball, yoga, soccer, strength training, and therapy appointments.  And, I spend some serious time researching, cooking, and writing for this blog.  So, yes, the McGhee household is very busy and Monday-Thursday we come home from activities after 6 pm.  And that makes dinner tough.  However, I am very committed to feeding my family a healthy, balanced dinner every night.  In order to do this, I can't wait until 5 pm to think about dinner.

The theme of the day is planning ahead.  This is an  organizing blog that I started following a while back that has fabulous ideas on how to menu/meal plan.  I will say, while I love reading Jen's suggestions, I have never actually done any of Jen's suggestions.  I recently saw this on pinterest and think it could be a great tool.  You store your tried and trusted recipes in the pockets and each week, select seven recipes to make that week.

This is a simpler concept, mainly to be used to record what your menu plans are for the week.

I use a very simple method of menu planning.  I have a day planner that I use to keep track of all of our schedules.  I have a running list of recipes I want to try.  There is no organization to my list, if I see a recipe, I write it down.  Once a week, I go through my list and write down a menu item on the calendar for each day.

Sounds easy, right?  Except every day, I am gone from 3-6pm, so making those dinners for 3 hungry minis gets tricky.  I try to always have a soup or stew made each week because that is an easy dinner.  I make a huge batch and we can usually get 2 nights out of it.  One night I will pair it with grilled cheese and fruit salad, another night I will pair it with a spinach salad.  I also love breakfast for an easy dinner night.  And on a real rough night, I resort to PB&J, fruit salad, and a spinach smoothie.

With all that being said, the recipes I am sharing with you today are NOT for nights when you come home at 6pm and need to make dinner.  But on those Sundays, when you are home catching up on laundry, paying bills, and shooing the minis out of the room so you can watch your DVRed shows.....these are the recipes to try.  Make two of the chickens, you can use the leftovers all week long for dinner.  Make double of the vegetables, you can pack them in lunches all week long.  If you live with someone that doesn't eat leftovers, tell them they are making life much more difficult than it needs to be.  

Roasted chicken (For the first night, you can follow this recipe and for a later night make the vegetable dish below).

1 3-5lb. roasting chicken

6 garlic cloves, peeled and squashed

1/2 lemon

1/4 cup or so of grapeseed (I use roasted garlic grapeseed oil)

kosher or sea salt

freshly ground pepper

1. Two hours before you begin, take the chicken out of the refrigerator to bring it up to room temperature. Tip: Always start cooking meat from room temperature as it ensures even cooking throughout.  **This is how the recipe is written, I never remember to do this**
2. Dry chicken inside and out with paper towels (alternately you can leave it in the fridge uncovered for a day as well and really dry it out) and season the cavity with coarse salt and pepper.
3. Put 4 cloves of the squashed garlic and 1/2 a lemon into the cavity. Set the bird on a platter breast side up and rub with oil then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Flip the bird over and repeat on the back and legs.
4. Preheat your oven for 425°F. 
5. Place chicken in center of roasting dish, back side up. That’s right, back side up (as in breast side down).  Roast in 425°F oven for 25-35 minutes (more towards the 35 minute mark if the bird is closer to 5 pounds), then turn the oven down to 375°F and roast for an additional 60-120 minutes (depending on the size of your bird).  Chicken is done when internal temperature (measured at the thickest part of the thigh) reaches 165°F.
7. Remove the chicken from the roasting pan and set on a wooden board to rest for 20 minutes. 


This is just to show you how you want to put the chicken in the pan....breast side DOWN.

Quinoa salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Kale


I feel the need to tell you all, this *may* be the single-most amazing veggie dish I have ever made.  AMAZING!!!!

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 medium red onion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 cups kale
• 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
• 1 cup uncooked black quinoa
• 2 cups water
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• crumbled goat cheese (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Place sweet potatoes and red onion slices in a medium bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Toss together and put them on a large baking sheet.  Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.  Stir a few times while baking.

2.  Drizzle kale with 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar.  Season with salt and pepper and place on a baking sheet.  When sweet potatoes and onions have been in oven for 15 minutes, put the kale in the oven.  Bake for 15 minutes or until kale is wilted and starting to crisp.

3.  Prepare the quinoa, following instructions on package.  

4.  When the vegetables are done roasting, let them cool to room temperature.  In a large bowl, combine quinoa, sweet potatoes, red onion, and kale.  Drizzle the salad with the remaining three tbsp of balsamic vinegar.  Add in the dried cranberries.  Go crazy and toss in some crumbled goat cheese.  And don't be chinzy with the cheese, load it up!  Season with salt and pepper.

I can't describe how delish this is!  I will tell you that I made a double batch at lunch time and I am concerned there may not be enough leftovers for Mr. McGhee and the minis at dinnertime!  

This is a delicious Sunday night dinner and a great way to start your week.  Make sure you make extra chicken because tomorrow I have a recipe to share, using the chicken!