Veggie Ideas - Sweet Potatoes

Don't know if you are into these orange, funny looking things, but they are great vegetables. Here are some ideas:

Sweet potato baked or mashed - prick holes in 1 or 2 sweet potatoes using a fork (you don't need so many, just a few so it doesn't explode in the oven) and put on an oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, until they seem soft and edible when you prick them with a fork. (Because of the long cooking time, put these in BEFORE you get hungry.) Bigger potatoes will need to cook longer. When they're soft and ready, put it on a plate and you can slit it down the middle and put butter or margarine in with some salt or brown sugar and eat as is, really good. Or you can slit them, take out the sweet potato innards and put them in a bowl and mash with a fork. Then add the same things. It is very good warm, not so good cold.

Sweet Potato Pie - Once you have 1 big or 2 medium sweet potatoes that are cooked, mash them in a bowl and add 2 eggs, 1/2 c brown sugar (you can estimate, this doesn't need to be exact), a couple spoonfuls of oil or margarine, a few shakes of cinnamon (if you have, not completely necessary) and some soy milk or regular milk. Try 1/4 of a cup, or a few spoonfuls. Add a dash of salt (a tiny bit!). Mix together well and pour into a greased pan or an already-made pie crust where it will taste much better. You can use a real pie crust that you buy in the freezer, or a graham cracker crust that you get in the baking aisle. If you're not scared of salmonella (which I'm not, and I'm pregnant, but maybe you're buying unpasteurized eggs being that you're back in Berkeley) you can taste the mixture before you put it in the pie crust and make sure you like how it tastes - enough sugar, cinnamon or salt, and a good texture. Bake this concoction in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until it starts to smell good and a knife stuck into the middle comes out clean (with no orange smushes on it.) Yummy! This will impress all the ladies.

Cajun Sweet Potato Fries (definitely try this one.) --
Wash 3 large or 4 medium sweet potatoes, and cut into sticks so they look like thick french fries. Place the potato sticks into a greased baking pan or on a greased cookie sheet. (To grease a pan, spray with non-stick cooking spray, or use a margarine wrapper with margarine still on it, or just pour a tiny bit of oil into the pan and spread around with a paper towl.) In a cup or a bowl, mix the following - 1/4 cup oil, 1 teaspoon pepper, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 3/4 teaspoon cumin, and a dash of cayenne pepper if you have it. If you have chili powder, that works too. If you don't have either, don't worry about it. And if you don't have measuring spoons, just do your best, remembering that a teaspoon is not so much, about a fourth of a soup spoon. Mix that together in a bowl, and pour over the potato sticks. Stir so everything is mixed evenly, then bake in the oven for 1 hour at 425 degrees (yes, this is higher than usual) or a little longer until crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. Take these out it they start to burn.
Yummy!!! Eat with ketchup!!

Veggie Ideas - Tomatoes

So now that you're stocking up on all those California veggies, let's start with some easy things to do with them:

Tomatoes

Idea 1 - Broiled tomatoes - rinse and dry, then cut off the top 1/6th of the tomato so that you get rid of the green part but the top is flat and even. See photo below. With a spoon, gently try to scrape out some of the seeds and inside of the tomato, without damaging the outside. This may be difficult, so just try to get out as much as you can. Then, dump in some bread crumbs, flavored if you have them (if you don't, just add some basil and/or oregano, yummy herbs) and scatter grated cheese (or just chunks of cheese) on top of that. Cook in the oven for a few minutes until cheese has melted.


Idea 2 - tomato salad - slice tomatoes as thin or as thick as you want, put on a plate and drizzle with oil (use very little), sprinkle with vinegar or lemon juice, add a little salt and pepper, and enjoy. This is a quick, filling and nutritious snack.

Idea 3 - pizza bagel (do you know how to make this? This is the best. Mom makes this all the time.) - Slice a tomato and put one or two slices on half a bagel. Sprinkle some dried basil on top. Basil is crucial for this to taste better than dorm food. On top of that, put a thick slice of cheese. You can even sprinkle some more basil on the cheese, it will make it look pretty. Bake in the oven until cheese is all warm and melty.

Idea 4 - tuna melt - this is also really good, but requires having tuna and mayo in the house. Once you have some tuna prepared (just smush a little mayo in the tuna can and crush and mix with a fork), spoon some onto half of a bagel, and put a slice or two of tomato on top. Don't put basil on this, it will taste weird. Cover with a thick slice of cheese and bake in the oven til warm and melty. A good and filling lunch.

Idea 5 - tomato and olive salad - cut up some tomatoes in a bowl and add some olives You can cut up some pickles instead of olives. Eat. This will flavor the tomatoes and make a nice salad.

Miss you! Love, Rachel