Friday, May 25, 2012

Fun with Gadgets!

Last Christmas, I got some Amazon money, and decided to use it to buy a mandoline slicer.  After reading lots of reviews of various slicers, I chose this one by Norpro (also the maker of my ravioli press!).  And yesterday, I finally got around to using it.

Kev.  He's always trying to get there to be more vegetables.  So, he recently sent me this link to a bunch of recipes for veggie chips.  I decided to start with the curried sweet potato chips.  So, I busted out my new slicer and got to work.  The slicer is awesome and so much fun!  It's really easy to use, and slices very evenly.  I haven't tried any of the other blades, but I'll let you know when I do.

After I sliced up the sweet potatoes, I put them in a bag with the oil and spices and let Daphne mix them up:


I had to cook them quite a bit longer than the directions said, so just make sure that if you make these, you keep an eye on them and cook them until they get crispy but not burnt.  Here they are, right out of the oven:



These were really tasty, full of Vitamin A, and made the house smell really good.  They make a nice side dish on sandwich night.  Yum!  I bet you could use butter, brown sugar and cinnamon instead of olive oil and curry spices too.  Might have to try that sometime...

Original recipe below:

Curried Sweet Potato Chips from NPR

2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced paper-thin
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon hot curry powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For easy cleanup, line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place sweet potato slices in a large bowl and, using your hands, toss with oil and spices until coated. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and crisp. Remove from oven and eat.

Aloha!


If you read my other blog, then you know it's been a crazy month.  Cooking has not been at the top of my list.  But on Wednesday, I needed a good super easy meal, because that afternoon, we took the Daisies on their long-awaited field trip to learn about horses at Red Gate Farm, and I knew there would be no time to cook.  So, it was the perfect time to try a new recipe that has been going around Pinterest.  This recipe can be found on so many different sites that I don't know the original source.  All you have to do is Google "Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken," and you'll find many many links.  Maybe even a link to this blog!

Three ingredients.  That's it.  Five minutes, and you're done.


In your slow cooker, put some chicken breasts (I used 6 Wegman's Organic boneless/skinless chicken breasts), one bottle of BBQ sauce (The original recipe calls for Archer Farms Hawaiian Barbecue Sauce from Target, but I used Wegman's Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce), and one can of pineapple chunks (without the juice) (I just cut up some fresh pineapple into chunks and used that).  Cook it all on low for 6 hours.

While you're waiting, you can go ride a horse:


And when you get home, shred the chicken with a fork and serve it with some rice, like this:


Now, this chicken was very sweet.  Daphne loved it.  Kevin and I liked it, but thought it needed something.  Kev thought it needed some kind of vegetable. Meh.  Personally, I was thinking something more like  BACON might be just the thing to compliment all that sweetness and add some crunch.  The bottom line is, this is not the VERY best thing you will ever eat, but it is easy and pretty good, and if your kids are anything like ours, they will probably love you more for letting them eat this for dinner.