Garlic Sweet Potato Mash

So, so good. Andy doesn't like that most sweet potato recipes are sweet. I found this recipe, which has no sugar or maple added, and it is delicious! I love sugar and maple in my sweet potatoes, but I love this one too. We added the chicken stock and it gives it so much more flavor!

Garlic Sweet Potato Mash: (serves 4)

Ingredients:

4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 T butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
chicken stock

Directions:

Boil the sweet potato cubes until soft. Drain. In pan, add butter and saute garlic until lightly browned. Return sweet potatoes to the pan with the butter and mash. Add salt and pepper to taste. To get a nice puree, mash in blender, adding chicken stock for the liquid. Add to taste!

Dehydrator Homemade Granola

Oh my goodness. My mom gave us her old dehydrator, and we have already used it in the past couple days to make 2 delicious batches of homemade granola. It is so easy that way! Found a recipe on Amateur Gourmet, and adapted it for us. If you want the original recipe (that uses the oven) just click the link.

Ingredients:

2 cups oats (I like using the quick oats)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
3 T plus 1 t vegetable oil
1/4 c honey
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1/3 c slivered almonds
1/3 c shredded coconut

(You can add dried fruit or other nuts as you want!)

Directions:

So simple with the dehydrator. Just mix the oats, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients. Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture and use your hands to combine them: Gather up some of the mixture in each hand and make a fist. Repeat until all of the oat mixture is combined with the honey mixture. Now add your additional toppings like almonds and coconut, mix in as well.

Spread evenly on the dehydrator sheets. We leave it in overnight or longer, till it seems dried and crunchy. So delicious with natural vanilla yogurt and fresh strawberries!

Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ok, let me just say these are delicious! I would actually either make them smaller than the recipe suggests, or put only 4 on a tray so they have plenty of room to spread. It's amazing how few ingredients these cookies need to be so yummy! I got this recipe from Rhythm of the Home, but they are by Jules Clancy from The Stone Soup.


(makes about 10 huge cookies)

Ingredients:

5 oz (150 g) unsalted butter, softened

9 oz (250 g) light brown sugar

1 egg

8 oz (225 g) plain all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

225-285 g (8-10 oz) dark chocolate

Directions:

Whizz butter and sugar in a food processor or stand mixer until light and creamy. Add egg and mix until well combined.

Add 3/4 teaspoon baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon bicarb soda to the flour and mix to combine.

Fold butter mixture into the flour until only just combined.

Chop chocolate into chunks and add to the dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes but no longer than 72 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 180 C /350 F. Line two baking sheets or trays with parchment paper.

Scoop 1/3 cup balls of dough and place on the prepared trays. Allow plenty of room for them to spread. Sprinkle liberally with sea salt flakes. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until cookies are golden. The bottom tray may need a little longer. Cool on the tray.

Pita Bread

I was surprised at how easy this recipe was, and how great it turned out. The first time around, we never got to using the pita for falafel or anything else I had planned it for, because we just snacked on them. In South Africa things like pita bread and tortillas are expensive, otherwise I never would have thought to have tried this on my own. The recipe is from The Fresh Loaf, and it's worth checking out the link because there is a lot of great info there about pita and bread baking techniques.

Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 t salt
1 T sugar or honey
2 t yeast
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c water, roughly at room temperature
2 T oil or shortening or butter

Directions:

If using active dry yeast, follow the packet directions to activate. Otherwise, if using instant, mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add oil and water and stir with wooden spoon. All the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick, add more water.

Place ball of dough on clean surface and knead with your hands or mix in a mixer on low for 10 minutes.
Place the kneaded dough in a bowl lightly coated in oil. Roll the ball around till it has been coated in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or damp dish towel. Set aside in draft-free place, about 90 minutes, till it has doubled in size.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down, divide into 8 pieces (or however many good size pita balls you can make - I made more than 8). Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp dish towel, and let rest 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting, preheat oven to 400 F (204 C). Preheat a baking stone or upside down cookie sheet on middle oven rack, that you will back the pita on.

After the dough has rested, take each ball and roll to 1/8-1/4 inches thick on a lightly floured surface.
Put as many pitas as you can on the preheated tray in the oven. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes.

Vegetarian Eats - Saving Money

Over here in South Africa, the one thing that is really cheap is produce. We go to a little produce store by our house weekly and stock up on tons of farm fresh vegetables and fruit. We can buy huge bags of avocados, potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut, apples, bananas, naartjies (similar to clementines), etc - all for about 60-80 Rand, which is equivalent to about $9-$11. We can only buy what's in season. So too bad if I'm craving strawberries (I am) because those won't be out for another few months. But it's a great way of eating healthier and saving money. We've decided the last several weeks to go meatless in our groceries to save money even more. We aren't vegetarian but the last few weeks have shown us we could be. Ok, Andy would object to that - he still sneaks out every so often to the meat stand in Masi, the local township, where he can buy a ton of pork for about $3 and have them grill it for him.
Anyway, here are some of the simple meals we've made meatless:

• chili - just canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, tomato puree, canned red kidney beans, sugar, and a taco seasoning packet from the States. 
• vegetable and white bean chowder - I did a play on our white chicken chili, using potatoes instead of chicken, and using canned white beans, chicken stock (I get chicken bouillon cubes cheaply here and use them in just about everything), and adding butternut and frozen corn.
• pasta with veggies - this is a favorite we have been making awhile, and each week we adapt it. We just saute whatever veggies we have and serve over spaghetti. We serve it also with either shredded cheddar cheese or feta. Our favorite veggies to eat this way are mixed peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and baby marrow (mini zucchini). 
• baked veggies with sauce - my mom always baked veggies and served with a cheese roux. So I did the same but did a play on the roux by using an old packet of cream of chicken soup I had in my pantry. I served it over a mix of roasted potatoes, butternut, sweet potatoes, and carrots. It was delicious. I added in some leftover mac and cheese, and liked it with the sauce. It also encourages Norah to eat more veggies when mixed in with pasta and sauce.
• rice and veggies - just sauted a whole bunch of chopped veggies and cooked with rice and stock and curry 

Butternut Soup

Butternut Soup...so excellent!

Ingredients:

1-2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 large chopped onion
1 large chopped peeled butternut (or sub pumpkin)
1 med chopped peeled potato
2 med chopped peeled apples
1 t curry powder
Pinch ginger
Pinch salt
Pinch turmeric
Pinch cinnamon
1/2 t sugar
3 c chicken stock
1/2 c milk
1 bay leaf

Directions:

Saute onion in oil/butter. Then add butternut, potato, apples, saute 2 min. Add spices, saute 2 more min. Add stock, milk, sugar, bay leaf, boil. Reduce heat, simmer 25 min. Remove from heat, cool to lukewarm. Remove bay leaf. Puree in blender. Return to pot and reheat. Serve with crusty bread and, optional whipped cream to garnish.

Chocolate Cake

Shortly after we came to South Africa was Norah's first birthday party. I wanted to make her a chocolate cake, and since cake mixes are expensive here, figured it would be better to make one myself. I hate dry cakes, so I googled, "moist chocolate cake." This is what came up, and we've made it several times since.
Best Moist Chocolate Cake :)

Ingredients:
2 c flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa powder
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk
11/2 t vanilla
1 c vegetable oil
1 c boiling water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 F or 150 C. This is a slow-bake recipe. Mix all ingredients. Pour into greased/floured 9x13 in square baking dish. Bake 1 hr (or 20 min for cupcakes).

Icing:
Andy always makes our icing. He just mixes with an electric mixer vanilla, butter, and icing sugar (powdered sugar) together till he gets the consistency he wants. Sometimes we add cocoa powder or  food coloring depending on what kind of icing we want.