photography

Sweet Potato Sunday!

Growing up I was always that kid that absolutely REFUSED to eat my vegetables. I remember sitting at the kitchen table for hours while my mom forced me to have at least one bite of spinach. My parents tried everything! They covered the veggies with sauce or cheese, they tried to spruce them up to make them more interesting to me, but I was a very stubborn child. I was set in my ways and refused to learn to like vegetables. It’s ironic that now as an adult (or a larger child, as I often consider myself) I absolutely LOVE veggies! I try and have a vegetable component in almost every meal, and one of my favorites is the sweet potato!

Sweet potatoes are actually one of my absolute favorite foods of all time. They are second in line behind my ever beloved oatmeal. They include many essential vitamins, including B6, C, D, and A! You basically cover all the important alphabetical vitamins in one serving of this fun vegetable! That’s another thing – they’re a vegetable that tastes like a dessert! What a serious win win.

I buy tons of sweet potatoes every time I go to the store because they can store for a long time. Whenever I don’t feel like cooking a big meal I simply wash a sweet potato, poke a few holes in if with a fork and microwave it for 8 minutes – rotating once at the 4 minute mark. Then I can just cut it open straight from the microwave and load it up with whatever delicious fillings I want! (Chickpeas, cheese, yogurt, honey, cinnamon sugar, nutella, or simply salt/pepper and butter!) However, when I have more time I like to get a little fancier with my sweet potatoes and make myself some sweet oven baked fries! The recipe is easy and the outcome is SO DELICIOUS OH MY GOSH! You’ll just have to try it yourself to believe me! (And this is also a great way to get some vital nutrients into picky kids!)

SWEET SWEET POTATO FRIES

The Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (or 2 small ones)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place sweet potato in microwave for 1-2 minutes so that it’s softer and easier to cut
3. Cut sweet potato into long fry-like strips and place into a bowl (I keep the skins on because I love them, but you can peel your potato if desired)
4. Add the rest of the ingredients of top of the cut potatoes and mix with your hands until each slice is fully covered and the ingredients have all mixed together
5. Spread out the strips onto a sprayed baking sheet
6. Place in oven for 30 minutes
7. Let cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

More fun with Oreos – Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Bars

Do you have a favorite type of Oreo? Personally I like the ones that come out around Halloween time with the orange frosting. They don’t taste any different from the regular ones I don’t think, but for some reason the orange makes it easier to consume an entire package of them… I also like the double stuffed ones because there is nothing wrong with putting more of that mysterious frosting stuff in my mouth. I’m not really into the golden ones, or the uh oh oreos. I know there’s a myriad of other flavors such as mint, peanut butter, birthday cake, and cookie dough!? but I’ve never actually tried those ones. Let me know if any of them are worthwhile in the comments!

For these cookie bars I used double stuffed oreos. Like I’ve said countless times, you can never go wrong with double stuffed! From this endeavor I learned a few things about my new kitchen Including the fact that I have a pretty weak oven. These had to cook for nearly 40 minutes when the recipe I based them on only had them in for 25!

Also, because I don’t have an electric mixer I creamed the butter and sugar myself (cue your impressed faces at my powerful muscles) Either way they came out AMAZING and my sorority sisters devoured them at our chapter meeting!

CHOCOLATE CHIP OREO COOKIE BARS

The Ingredients:

BARS-
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup salted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 crushed oreos
1 cup chocolate chips

TOPPING-
2 crushed oreos
1/4 cup chocolate chips

The Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Soften the butter in the microwave then add to the brown sugar in a large bowl. Cream them together
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla
4. In a separate bowl mix together 1 cup of flour with the baking powder and salt
5. Pour the dry into the wet and mix together
6. Add in the rest of the flour
7. Fold in the oreos and chocolate chips
8. After baking for 15 minutes add the toppings and continue baking for another 10 to 20 minutes (depending on how useful your oven is)
9. ENJOY!

My morning miracle – White Chocolate Coconut Scones

I think that the Gods and Goddesses of baking are watching over me. Why do I think this? Well, this morning I made coconut white chocolate scones and almost everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. However, in the end, they still turned out INCREDIBLY scrumptious! It’s kind of a miracle.

I woke up extra early to make this morning time treat for my friends. That was my first problem, I had barely wiped the sleep from my eyes when I began pulling ingredients. The second problem arose when I was jolted awake by the realization that I didn’t have enough flour! While that might deter the ordinary baker from continuing, I remained determined to see these scones through! I was only about 1/4 cup short of flour so I began scouring my pantry for something I could potentially use as a filler. I found cake flour. I won’t lie, I have no idea what the difference between regular flour and cake flour is, but I decided they were similar enough that the cake flour could be used to make up for the little bit I needed. I continued mixing all of the ingredients and hoped that the risk would pay off.

are they not the same thing? — are these not the same thing?

The next hitch in the plan came when the recipe called for the use of a pastry knife to mix in the butter. A what? I thought about looking up what that was and figuring out the proper way to use one. I thought about doing that, I really did, but then I just used my hands to mix it in instead. I really hoped that whatever a pastry knife was worked in a similar way to fingers! After that, the only problem was that I didn’t cut the scones into even triangles so some of them were HUGE! While some were teeny tiny! I don’t truly consider that a problem though because in the end, people just had size options!

After the entire baking adventure was complete and the scones were done, I felt good about the outcome. The last step was to “drizzle” white chocolate over the top of them. We all know how good I am at doing that… NOT. So I didn’t even try, I just melted the chocolate and smeared it on top with a knife! Nobody complained. Everybody loved them. One of my co-workers told me that they were, “the best scones I’ve ever had!” Wow! I tried a bite and I won’t lie, they are amazing.

I’m telling ya, I’m being watched by the mysterious Gods and Goddesses of baking!

WHITE CHOCOLATE COCONUT SCONES

The Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup +2-3 tablespoons coconut
1/3 cup white chocolate

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
3. Mix in cold butter with your hands (or the mysterious pastry knife) until butter is mixed in and the dough is crumbly
4. In a separate bowl, mix egg cream and vanilla
5. Add the wet into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined
6. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut
7. Form dough into a flat round disk, about 8-9 inches in diameter
8. Place on a baking sheet and cut into 12 triangles
9. Brush each triangle with a a little bit more cream (just enough so the coconut will stick) and then sprinkle with the coconut
10. Bake for 20 minutes
11. Melt white chocolate in the microwave
12. “Drizzle” melted chocolate over scones
13. ENJOY!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: