Quick and Easy Pantry Cooking Day Twelve: Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I love sweet potatoes and try to always keep them in stock. I know have blogged about sweet potatoes before and I am sure I will again-I really love them!!!

Oven fries are great cooked with just some salt, pepper and oil but they are even better when spiced up and made with sweet potatoes. Rachel Ray has a great recipe for Cajun oven fries. My recipe ends up changing a bit every time, depending on what spices I have. This is how I made them today.

Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

• 4 sweet potatoes, washed well and dried
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sweet, hot or smoked paprika (I used the smoked today)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending how hot you want it-use less if you use hot paprika)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. Cut sweet potatoes into wedges. Combine oil, paprika, cumin and cayenne then toss with potatoes. Spread single layer on baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turn them over and bake 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce.

variations: use another type of potato, add hot sauce to spice mixture (Rachel Ray does this), add a tablespoon or two of maple syrup for some sweetness.

Quick and Easy Pantry Cooking Day Five: Orange Marmalade Sweet Potatoes

There are certain vegetables such as sweet potatoes that I always keep in stock. I put them in soup, roast them with other veggies, bake them as oven fries or just eat them as a baked potato. I now have a new favorite way to prepare sweet potatoes, mashed with orange marmalade. Rachel Ray made them on her show, Thirty Minute Meals and I veganized her recipe. I have combined orange and sweet potato before, making mashed sweet potatoes with orange juice and maple syrup but the orange marmalade is just delicious and takes it to another level! The picture does not do them justice. Use a good quality orange marmalade.

Orange Marmalade Sweet Potatoes

6 small sweet potatoes or 3-4 large (mine happened to be very tiny so I used 6)

2-3 heaping tablespoons orange marmalade (add three if you like extra sweetness)

2 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine

salt to taste

Roast potatoes in 400 degree oven for about an hour until tender. You could also microrave them or cut into chunks and boil them but I prefer the flavor of baked potatoes. Peel and roughly mash potatoes, add remaining ingredients and combine thoroughly.

Quick and Easy Pantry Cooking Day Four: Lentil Salad

Beans are so versatile and healthy. There are practically endless types of beans and endless possibilities for preparing them. Beans have been a staple food throughout the world for thousands of years. Whenever someone says that they don't like beans-I always ask which one. How could someone not like all beans. Maybe I'll dedicate a month to beans! Being that I am not fond of meat substitutes, tofu, seitan and tempeh (shocking I know, a vegan that doesn't love all those things), I depend on beans for my main source of protein in a meal.

This lentil salad is so simple and you can vary what you add to it depending on what you have. I made a Mediterranean style salad but you could give it a more latino feel with cilantro, cumin and jalapenos or add whatever you like. I cooked the whole 1 lb bag of lentils and used half for this and the other half I set aside for a future dish.

Lentil Salad

1/2 bag (1/2 lb dry beans or 1 1/4 cup dry beans)

2 tomatoes chopped

handful parsley, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 tablespoons olive oil

zest of one lemon

juice of half a lemon or about 2 tablespoons lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

variations: add chopped kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, green onions

Cook lentils (no soaking required for lentils) in a large pot of water on medium low heat for 45-60 minutes until tender. Drain. Add all ingredients and mix. Serve warm or cold.

I wanted to make a quick and easy dessert last night so I found the decadent brownie recipe in The Garden of Vegan cookbook. It was so easy to make. But I was so disappointed in the result. It did not make brownies. Brownies are fudgy and rich, a cross between chocolate cake and fudge. This recipe made a chocolate cake. It was a good cake but when you want brownies, this was disappointing!

Quick and Easy Pantry Cooking Day Three: Mediterranean Salad

I found some fresh tomatoes at the farmer's market and had some hearts of palm and artichoke hearts in the cupboard so I decided to make a Mediterranean salad. What is great about this recipe is that you can add whatever you happen to have such as roasted red peppers, olives, garbanzo beans, fresh herbs, etc. This would also be a great topping for a salad.







Mediterranean Salad
2 tomatoes chopped
4 artichoke hearts, halved (use marinated ones or ones in water-whatever you have)
handful of olives (I used kalamata but any kind would be good)
4 hearts of palm, sliced in 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients
variations: add roasted red peppers, beans, fresh basil or parsley

Quick and Easy Pantry Cooking Day One: Caramelized Green Beans

Although I enjoy preparing elaborate recipes or ones that require that hard to find yet essential ingredient, I usually cook simple, healthy dishes. This month I will share recipes that are quick and easy to prepare and that use ingredients that most of us have in our pantries (my pantry consists of one cupboard but it sounds better when I call it a pantry) or are easily found at the grocery store. Most of these dishes are very budget friendly as well.

To start the series off..caramelized green beans. I love green beans but I prefer them on the more tender side-not a big fan of the cooked green beans that are still crunchy. This recipe couldn't be easier yet produces a great tasting side dish. I used the Trader Joe's yellow and green bean mix that is already washed and trimmed to make this dish even easier.



















Caramelized Green Beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 pounds green beans (ends trimmed)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or almond slivers/slices

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add green beans, cover, stirring occasionally, until green beans are tender and caramelized (partially browned), about 30-40 minutes. While green beans are cooking toast nuts in an un-oiled pan on the stove until lightly browned or on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Watch closely since it doesn't take much to go from lightly toasted to burned! After green beans are cooked, toss with nuts. Season with salt and pepper.