Sweet Potato Fries

I have been doing a lot of price matching at Walmart recently and it's been great.  I also have been trying to increase the amount of veggies we are eating.  This is sometimes a challenge.  This week I bought a bunch of sweet potatoes (aka yams) and I am determined to use them and not let them go bad.  Tonight I made fries out of them and they were pretty good.  I made 2 kinds.

1 sweet potato cut into slices and tossed with:
olive oil about a T
garlic powder 1/2 tspish
and Tony Caciatorre's Creole seasoning
Baked at 425 for about 10 minutes on each side
salt to taste

These were good and I preferred these ones.  They were a little spicy for the girls but they ate some of them. 

The second set was a little... bit different, still good, but I probably wouldn't do it this exact way again.

1 sweet potato cut into slices and tossed with:
2T coconut oil
dash of ginger
dash of cumin
a little onion powder
a little garlic powder
baked at 425 for about 10 minutes on each side
salt to taste

Please ignore my oven that needs to be cleaned.

I recently bought some Stevia.  I have been hearing about it over and over and mostly ignoring all of it because I usually don't shop at stores that carry it so it's out of my way to go and get it.  But I recently was reading about how it is important to get enough water in our bodies to reduce the acid and keep up our alkalinity.  And I happened to make it to Whole Foods so I bought some.  A tip that I read was to make "lemonade" by putting lemon slices in your water and a little bit of Stevia.  I tried it and I actually really liked it!  Lemon water is supposed to help reduce acid (you would think it's opposite but it's not).  It seems a little bit expensive but it goes a long way.  The bottle in the picture holds something like 160 servings.  You have to be really careful to not put in too much or you can make things bitter.  It also comes in liquid but I was hesitant because I think it is paired with alcohol.  There is also supposed to be different flavors of it.

Butternut Squash, Quinoa, Chicken Soup

This recipe was posted by a friend (who is a great cook, she didn't create the recipe but did make it and liked it) on Facebook.  I have been wanting to start using quinoa so I finally bought some at Costco and used it!  This is a nice chunky stew like soup and we really enjoyed it.  My kids weren't absolutely crazy about it but they ate it and didn't complain too much.  I thought it was really good.  Hopefully I'll be posting some other quinoa recipes soon.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.melskitchencafe.com%2F2012%2F10%2Fchicken-and-butternut-squash-quinoa-stew.html%23comments&h=NAQEfYLDf

Getting Things Done, A Short Book Review

This has more to do with mental health than physical health but I wanted to share.  I recently heard about a book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.  I checked out the book on CD from the library and listened to it in the last few weeks.  It was really good.  It is a little overwhelming because his system is a little intense and detailed but he walks you through everything.  He makes some really good points about life and how our brain works.  I also liked that if nothing else he has some good tips and tricks that you could incorporate into your life.  I have already used one of them and it has been a good thing so far.  I am going to try and implement some of his other systems eventually but I just can't seem to get very much time to do it with managing 3 little bodies running around.

Here's his website. davidco.com.  If you look around a little there are a bunch of free articles (you have to give them your email address).  However, it will make more sense if you read the book.

Here's a great site if you haven't found it yet to keep track of your exercise, water intake, calories and fat and a few other things.  It's free too!

myfitnesspal.com

Baked Cauliflower Poppers

This week I made some baked cauliflower for the second time.  It sounds a little gross but my kids love it!  It does stink up the house a little bit but by the end it doesn't taste as much like cauliflower.  It's super easy too.

Cut up 2 heads of cauliflower in bite size pieces.
Put in a large plastic bag:
1/4 c olive oil
1-1 1/2 tsp salt
some peper
(I also added some garlic powder)
mix these up and then shake the cauliflower in the bag until each piece is coated.  Dump it in a pan and cook at 400 for about an hour.  Can be eaten with ketchup.

Original recipe:
http://www.delightedmomma.com/2012/01/baked-cauliflower-poppers.html