Cheese and Sweet Potato Crisp

Sweet Crisps--yummy! I found a version of these while surfing sweet potato recipes on Epicurious. These were chewy and crunchy and reminded me of the home-fried potato patties I would eat as a little girl. Only--these are better for you. Making these by hand proved to be more tedious than I would have expected--so if you have a hand grater--please note you will be adding some good muscular work to your dinner preparation. You will be finely grating 2 good sized sweet potatoes--which sounds easy--but I have 4 words that make it difficult for me A-D-H-D. While I was shredding them my mind wanted me to check my email, go fold laundry, look out the window, check the sale status of our books, water plants, reorganize closets--you get the picture, and if you do not--then you probably also have ADHD and are now checking your email because I suggested it to you! ;-)

So, I of course enlisted a bit more help with the grating of the tuber--in the form of my lovely assistant and 7 year old daughter. She was once again super excited to help out and to know she would be added to the Squeaky Gourmet blog--special thanks to her as she kept me more focused on the task at hand!

Next you have to squeeze out the juice of the potato, now I was thinking it would be pretty basic as they seem to be pretty dry root vegetables--wrong! I did use the screen I have for making Greek yogurt and it was an easy task as well as fascinating that it holds as much water as it does. No wonder these are so good for you! Side point, also interesting, when you poor out the liquid oyu are left with what looks like wet corn starch. OK, yes it is potato starch--I was fascinated. This picture shows the amount of liquid in one potato--just under 1/4 cup! Crazy--so now we have worked out arms and our grip strength in just making this appetizer/side dish. It is like chopping firewood since it warms you twice, good for the body to prepare and to consume!



After you squeeze out the juice they look like chewed up paper, lacking the life luster they held prior to the abuse they underwent to get to this state. Poor cousin to Mr. Potato!


Ok so let's assemble this mess into the glorious snack delight they are destined to become!


Sweet Potato Crisps
makes about a dozen
2 medium sized sweet potatoes--peeled shredded and water forced out
1 ounce Romano cheese --shredded
1 ounce Parmesan cheese--shredded
1 egg white
2 tsp fresh sage chopped finely

Heat oven to 425 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix all the ingredients together and form them into 2" diameter circles onto the parchment paper. ( I had no parchment paper for making mine so I oiled the pan with 1tsp olive oil)

Cook until the edges are browned and they are a deep orange in colors--about 15 minutes. Serve Warm!

Calories Per Crisp
Calories: 48
Carbohydrates- 6 grams
Fat- 1 gram
Protein- 2 grams

Other good ideas:
--add different spices garlic, lemon you name it you try it!
-- use as an appetizer for a party

also, if you click any image in this blog you will explode--err I mean you can see a larger size of the images shared.

This post is now part of Real Food Wednesdays--check it out!

Kohlrabi Quick Pickles

Now for a vegetable you rarely see in your local grocery, kohlrabi. This vegetable is in the cabbage family but really has a mild flavor and is really crunchy. I usually eat them raw but thought this would be fun. Hopefully you can find some at your local Farmer’s market.

Kohlrabi Quick Pickles

3-4 peeled and sliced kohlrabi

2 t pickling salt

Combine the kohlrabi and the salt in a bowl and let sit out for 1 hour. Now drain and put in a quart jar or something similar.

In a small pot combine-

1 c water

1 c seasoned rice wine vinegar

3 t chopped garlic

Zest from 1 lemon

2 T sugar

1 t coarse ground black pepper

½ t crushed red pepper flakes

1 small slice peeled fresh ginger

Bring to a boil and then pour over the drained vegetables. Let cool then refrigerate for 3 days before serving. These will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. These are crunchy, fresh and gingery.

Dark Chocolate Nut Butter Rice Crispy Treats--

I was actually an adult before I had a rice crispy treat. My mother was a lentil bean feeding hippie throw back when I was little. We did not have a lot of the junk food treats like Twinkies, ho hos or rice crispy treats. Different world out there today, less people prepare their kids snacks and more people purchase fast food. When I pack my kids lunches I always wonder if they will be looking over at what the other kids are eating and wish they could have it, too. I know I did, no one when they are little likes to be left out. Though--a lot of school peers loved to trade some of their food for my mothers Zucchini muffins--bonus for me!

Anyway, school is about to begin here in NH and with the foods schools are offering I try to make sure I have a variety of healthier choices at home to be packed into the lunch pail. This week we tried out some gluten free organic rice cakes. Now, I will admit just because it is organic does not make it healthy for the body. What it does do though is provide a better advantage to the body in processing the foods and allocating the nutrients to where they belong. our body is not looking at the artificially created food product and wondering just what the heck it should do with it. So--this is a good reason to even make treats organic. In this recipe we include the fats of peanut butter to fill the child up longer and of course help they remain focused at school. Slow down that food fuse to allow for a nice burn rather than an energy surge and a crash of fatigue 60 minutes after snack. I also used brown puffed rice cereal since it is gluten free and has more fiber.

Puffed Rice Bars
serves 16
3 cups Organic Puffed Rice Cereal
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
8 marshmallows OR 1/4 cup Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 cup raisins
1 ounce dark chocolate

Combined peanut butter and marshmallows and heat in a microwave for 2 minutes. Stir the mixture until smooth--you want to make sure the marshmallow has melted and melded with the peanut butter. Then add in the puffed rice and raisins--blending so the cereal is coated. When I did this it did not look at all like it would form bars, it looked like the cereal was barely coated at all but when you press this into your pan it will stick wonderfully--trust me!
So--press firmly into a pie plate or a 9x9 baking dish. Melt the chocolate in the microwave and spread evenly on top of the newly created treat and cut into even pieces before the chocolate cools. I made palm sized pieces, or 1.5"x1.5" which ended up being about 100 calories each.
My kids devoured these....DEVOURED--so I plan on making them on Sundays and quickly putting them into containers for the lunch bags so they won't be gone by Monday.

Per Serving
Calories- 98
Fat- 4 grams
Carbohydrates- 13 grams
Protein- 3 grams

Go eat Dirt Balls! Only 100 calories a pop.

When I was a little girl I would play in the sand box for hours on end. I would create mud pies, mud cakes--6 course mud meals even! Sadly, no one would eat them for me but that did not stop my creations!

In our book , Squeaky Gourmet, we have a recipe called "Dirt Balls" which pulls on the little girl heart strings--reminding me of the sand box and all those hours wasted on mud food when I could have been making dirt balls that everyone would eat. (This recipe was recently mentioned on the NPR show on KAXE--listen here to the interview) So I enlisted the help of my own little girls to help me make Dirt Balls as a wonderful gluten free snack for the kids (and adults who long for the days of mud pies!) These were devoured by all of the kids soon after we made them.


Dirt Balls
serves 14
1/4 cup toasted oatmeal(old fashioned)
2 tbls sunflower seeds
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
2 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chopped fine
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbls roasted almonds chopped fine
1 pack stevia or 3 tbls raw honey


Toast the oatmeal in a non-stick skillet set on medium heat until they are browned. This was a great job for my 6 year old to work on since it is not highly explosive or flammable or anything and she felt like a big girl using the stove with me.


Setting the almonds aside; use your kitchen mixer add the remaining ingredients and blend well. We used raw honey in our mix because we have some allergy sufferers in the family and raw local honey helps build your own immunity to allergy triggers--but it has to be local honey to get the benefit. Once the oats are toasted to your liking you can add them to your coffee grinder or food processor to chop them up a bit before adding to the mud like mixture on the mixing bowl.


Make small balls about 3/4 in diameter , roll in your hands and then roll in the almonds. Now, this is where the fun came in for my 5 year old daughter as she was enlisted to create the dirt balls from the mud/mortar like substance we had created. Of course she did not want to roll them in the almonds, she preferred sprinkling the almonds on so they lost a bit of the rock effect.



Other Good Ideas:
--Add in dried cherries, coconut, puffed rice, crushed bran flakes,powdered milk or even protein powder
--roll in cocoa powder or cinnamon
--use different nut butters


Calories Per Serving: 92
Fat: 7 grams
Protein: 3 grams
Carbohydrates: 7 grams






Check out Fight Back Friday for more Real Food tips, recipes and more!

Coconut Cherry Granola

In Keeping with the kids theme here is a snack my kids love, especially the teenagers! I like it over yogurt or even in a protein pudding.

2 1/2 cups old fashion oats
2/3 cup Pomegranate juice
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup shaved almonds
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non stick cooking spray or lightly butter it. Heat the juice and honey together and stir well. Add all the ingredients except the cherries to the juice mixture and blend. Spread evenly on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stir the granola well and add cherries. Continue cooking for another 20 minutes. Allow granola to dry after cookie. The juice makes it a wet mess and once dried it forms wonderful granola chunks of goodness. Serves 12

Calories 133
Carbohydrates 23 grams
Fats 4 grams
Protein 3 grams

Chocolate is the Vegetable of Love

Well, something like that anyway. For St Valentine's day you may be looking for something chocolaty but less sinful than the traditional chocolate shaped love. So, we offer to you:


Liquid Love err I mean --Chocolate
Makes 4 servings

Chocolate is such a satisfying scent for most people. Add to this drink peppermint extract for a more invigorating scent and a pleasing taste or something more exotic like coconut extract to bring you to an island paradise. Adding cinnamon to it can increase the warm feeling of the drink as well as increase libido--or add a splash of coffee extract if you may need to stay awake longer than normal.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
About 10 drops stevia (add more or less depending on taste) Pinch salt
3 cups 1 percent low-fat milk
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Instructions
Slowly warm milk on low heat stirring constantly to prevent scalding.
In a medium bowl, stir together cocoa powder, stevia, and salt. Slowly pour in 1 cup of the milk and whisk until smooth. Whisk in remaining 2 cups milk and vanilla.

Fill 4 (8-ounce) mugs with Liquid Chocolate and serve immediately.

Nutritional information
90 calories
2.5 g total fat (1.5 g sat)
12 g carbohydrate
7 g protein
1 g fiber
95 mg sodium

Buffalo Tenders

From this to DELISH!!!

Recipe Serves 12

3/4 cup white vinegar

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 cup hot sauce (vinegar based)

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 dry Italian dressing packet

3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine 1/4 cup water with vinegar, oil, hot sauce, and garlic. Add the packet of salad dressing and black pepper. Whisk or stir with a fork until well combined and set aside.

Cut chicken breasts into 1 inch strips and place in large, gallon sized, zipper bag. Pour half of the dressing mixture over meat and lightly toss, reserving remaining sauce. Seal well and place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Overnight works best.

Place meat strips onto hot grill*, being careful not to drip excess marinade as it will flare up. Cook over medium-high heat, turning often, until internal temperature of the thickest part of the strips reads 170 degrees.

Remove from grill and serve in a baking dish or crock-style warming dish. Drizzle the reserved dressing mixture over meat and lightly toss until coated.

Serve with Cool Cucumber dressing and celery sticks.

* Alternately, arrange in one layer in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees, turning once, for 25-30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.

Per serving:

Calories - 132

Fat - 4.5g

Carbohydrates: 2g

Protein - 20g