sugar and spice and everything tasty.

what happened to me? i thought i was doing so well. a post ever 3 or 4 days... then all of a sudden, it's been two weeks! it's seriously like a part of me was missing. 

i thought about it every day. seriously i did. i would think to myself "what can i blog about today? ...ahhh nothing. no one wants to read about how i made a bowl of cereal, reheated leftovers and had chicken grilled on my george foreman smothered in bottled barbeque sauce."

so today, i changed that. chinese slaw salad, soy and chili chicken tenders, and honey roasted sweet potatoes. finally, some good eats around here.

to start, this salad is a staple around the schultz household. if i were to call my mom right now, she could probably tell me every ingredient and it's exact measurement for the whole thing, dressing included.

it is so simple and tangy-good, i would totally make the full 6-serving recipe for myself and just eat my way through it in about 3 days.

let's be realistic, it would take about 36 hours.

next item on the menu was chicken. i was cooking for both my roommate and me and she has recently been on a sweet chili sauce kick. we used the exact same stuff at the restaurant i worked at over the summer so when i first saw the bottle, i stopped what i was doing, blinked a few times, and then shook my head with somewhat resentful memories drifting through my head. on nights that i worked at the saute/pizza section of the line, when someone yelled out for a "sweet and spicy pizza" it was a buzzkill. 

go the freezer.

take out the pizza crust.

go to the reach in cooler.

take out the sauce.

grab a spatula.

grab the cheese.

assemble.

put on a pizza screen.

put in the oven.

set a timer.

if you think that sounds kind of exciting, you weren't reading it in the monotonous tone that i was writing it in. so try again.

however, there is another reason i feel resentment toward that pizza and hence the sweet chili sauce we used to make the pizza. ok here's the deal. there were 3 kinds of pizzas on our menu: regular (canned pizza sauce), sweet and spicy (bottled sweet chili sauce), and spinach and artichoke (homemade spinach and artichoke dip spread onto the crust). and for the first 3 months i was working there, i had never tried the spinach and artichoke pizza. we never had someone accidentally punch it in or mess one up or anything blissful such as that. and just the way the computer printed the tickets, the person reading them would sometimes confuse "swt n" (all we saw of sweet and spicy) with "spin" (all we saw of spinach and articoke). they would call out sweet and spicy and someone would make it, only to realize after it came out of the oven that the ticket actually said spinach and artichoke.

but it was never the other way around.

i bet we made at least 7 sweet and spicy pizzas that were actually supposed to be something else, but never once was it the spinach and artichoke.

hence my resentment for that sweet chili sauce. it tastes great, but the bitterness it surfaces will not soon be forgotten.

back to what i was originally talking about before that ridiculously unnecessary rant.

sorry, but hey, i never said you had to read this. :)

so yes, my roommate suggested we use it and since we were planning on the chinese slaw salad, i thought it would work out wonderfully. but being the foodie i am who always wants to try to make something better when someone has clearly already spent hours perfecting it, i added a few other things to make the sauce into a sauce... just a better one.

i started sauteing the chicken in a little olive oil, then tossed in some soy sauce. after i flipped the chicken once, i added the sweet chili sauce and a little ground ginger.

wah la! a sauce made into a better sauce.

while all this was going on, i also had sweet potatoes roasting in the oven. those suckers always take so dang long so i chopped them pretty small and tossed them in a little sweetly-spiced honey mixture. i threw them in the oven looooong before i even knew what i was doing with my chicken. so if you think i always plan these meals out earlier in the day or something, i'm blushing with your flattery. most times i walk into my kitchen with an empty stomach, walk around opening doors for about 5 minutes, crank on the oven, take out some pans and just kinda go.

but sometimes i do know what i'm making for dinner before i've even had lunch.
those are the days that normally end up on here.

ok enough rambling, time for some end products!

obviously the salad was great. the cabbage and carrot slaw mix is super crisp and crunchy and then that acidic dressing just cuts right through to hit your palate at the right time. and who can forget the toasted ramen noodles? helloooo. awesomely awesome and maybe just a little hint of awesome. oh and they're delicious right out of the pan. i'm kinda shocked some actually made it to the salad this time around...

the sauce that i created ended up really tangy with the soy sauce and the sweet chili, and the ginger just gave it that awesome kick in the background that i love so much. it also thickened up a lot and turned into more of a glaze... i think i speak for both my roommate and i when i say that my strange decision to try to make one sauce into a better sauce definitely worked out in the end.

mmm. honey roasted sweet potatoes. so soft and sweet and slightly savory and silky smooth it makes my mouth water thinking about the leftovers i have tupper-ware'd up in the fridge. and the combo of the spices they're tossed in make them into a perfect alliteration of adjectives... apparently. ;)

Chinese Slaw Salad

1 bag cole slaw

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 packages chicken flavored ramen noodles

¼ cup slivered or sliced almonds

2 tbsp. sesame seeds

2 scallions, chopped (optional)

DRESSING:

½ cup sugar

¾ cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup vinegar

2 packages ramen flavoring

Brown the almonds, crushed up ramen noodles and sesame seeds in the butter until golden brown and delicious. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain some of the excess butter. Toss with the cole slaw mix. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine. Toss dressing over the salad or drizzle over each individual salad to prevent soggy leftovers. Serve cold or room temperature. Serves 6.

Soy and Chili Chicken Tenders

2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into strips

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. lite soy sauce

¼ cup sweet chili sauce

1 tsp. ground ginger

 

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large non-stick skillet. Add the chicken tenders and cook for 3 minutes, or until they are starting to brown on one side. Flip them over and add soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and ground ginger. Stir to combine. Continue cooking until chicken in thoroughly cooked and sauce has started to thicken. Serve warm. Serves 2.

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes

2 large sweet potatoes

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup honey

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

¼ tsp. nutmeg

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and dice sweet potatoes into small to medium cubes. In a medium sized bowl, combine all other ingredients. Whisk to combine. Add sweet potatoes and toss until they are evenly coated with the honey mixture. Spread onto a baking sheet or shallow baking pan into a single even layer. Bake for 10 minutes and then stir in order to prevent some of the cubes from drying out. Depending on the size of your cubes, continue baking until the sweet potatoes are soft to the touch. Serve warm. Serves 2.

an actually achievable (and suprisingly savory) 30-minute meal.

i had just gotten out of the shower after working out and was looking through foodgawker and pinterest for something to make for dinner last night when my roommate calls out from the other room.

"you almost ready to go get a movie?"

"do you mind if i make some dinner first? i'll do it fast, like half hour?"

"oh yeah that's fine."

well great, now my options are canned soup or a sandwich... bummer.

but i really wanted sweet potato something or other. so i don't know whether it was the pity i felt for that sweet potato that had been forgotten in the bottom of the vegetable drawer far too many times this week or if it was the determination i had in making something half-way decent in the half hour i gave myelf, but either way... this was just what i was looking for.

ever since high school i had watched rachael ray's 30 minute meals and thought "well obviously you can make this in 30 minutes. all the ingredients you need are pushed to the front of your cabinets and all the equipemt you need is not only not sitting in the sink waiting to be washed, but is laid out for you. if someone went through my kitchen and did all that for me, i could do that in 30 minutes too."

but friends, jesus walked on water, the titanic sank, and a 30 minute meal is achievable.

(just to be clear, this dish is no where near jesus walking on water on the unofficial unbelievably-holy-cow scale, but i'm just saying... it's possible.)

and ohmygoodness, it is so creamy and delicious and healthy, it blew my mind.

i started boiling the water for pasta and threw the cute little bow ties in when it was ready. i then threw my sweet potato in the microwave because there was really no other way i could've gotten it all the way cooked in the small window of time i had.

(i make it sound like the world would've collapsed and hell would've broken loose if we had left to get this movie in 45 minutes instead of the 30 minutes i had said. but really i was just challenging myself i guess.)



while that's cooking, i started sauteing some onions and mushrooms with a little bit of olive oil until they were nice and soft. once they looked beautiful, i added in a tablespoon of butter.

is there anything better than butter melting into some soft veggies?

i'll answer that. nope.

when the sweet potato came out of the microwave, i peeled off the skin and mashed the flesh with a potato masher.

once the sweet potato was mashed, my butter was melted and making those mushrooms savory and happy and begging for a roux. i threw in some chicken base and then the flour, and tossed it to combine.

i tossed in the milk and whisked it to get rid of the flour lumps so it would thicken faster. i turned the heat up a little so it would come to a boil faster. but before it started to simmer, i threw in the mashed sweet potato.

if you know a thing or two about rouxs and you already looked at the recipe, perhaps you caught my problem. i had a total of 3 tbsp of fat and only half that amount of flour. however, i figured the starchiness of the sweet potato would help the sauce thicken up more.

knowing me, i would find the exception to the rule.

anyways, after the sweet potato was incorporated and the sauce started to thicken, i added in a decent sized pinch of cayenne and a healthy amount of cinnamon.

but after i stirred those in and tasted it, i thought for sure i ruined it. too much cinnamon! a perfectly good sweet potato... wasted! gahh!

but wait, i told myself. just.... wait. stir it, keep it simmering, just let it seep into the sweet potato-y goodness that is forming on your stove.

because what seemed like an over-seasoning turned into the slightly sweet, mostly savory, creamiest pasta sauce i have ever created. seriously.

i tossed in the bow tie pasta and gave it a stir. and i put it on a plate. and i sprinkled it with a little cheese. and i grabbed my fork and took a bite.

and then i grabbed two more forks because i could not keep this sweet potato sensation to myself. i made one roommate stop playing fifa to try it and i made the other roommate stop doing her homework to try it.

let's just say a couple minutes later, they were both wandering into the kitchen, piercing the their forks into the creamy little bow ties still left in the pan asking what was in it and how did i do it and "how do you just come up stuff like this?"

i don't really have an exact answer for that but let me warn you, this stuff is addicting.

as in two helpings for dinner last night and leftovers for lunch today.

and can i just add that the orange-ness of the sweet potato makes this sauce especially halloween-friendly? i'm really not a big halloween person, but if you're looking for a good "orange" recipe for this weekend, this one is sure to warm you up.

so here it is. i was advised that i should start putting recipes up here and at first i was hesitant. i mean, most of the stuff i make, isn't following a recipe. it's adding stuff in until it works. but when i look at blogs, i definitely look at the recipes for guidance or ideas, or sometimes exact measurements. so here it is. i wrote this up as i was mowing down helping #2 so it was still fresh in my memory :)

Creamy Sweet Potato Farfalle

2 T. olive oil

½ red onion, chopped

4large button mushrooms, sliced

1 T. butter

1 ½ T. flour

1 large sweet potato

2 cups milk

1 T. chicken base (or one cup milk, 1 cup chicken stock)

1/8 tsp. cayenne

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ lb. bow tie pasta

½ cup shredded swiss cheese

Poke holes in the sweet potato with a fork and microwave on high for 8-9 minutes or until soft. Once it’s soft, put the flesh into a bowl and mash. (Or if you have more time, feel free to bake. It'll take about 45-60 minutes on 350, if that sounds better to you.)

Sauté onion on medium heat until it is transparent and starting to brown. Add mushrooms and sauté until soft. Add salt and pepper, chicken base and the 1 tbsp. of butter. Once the butter is melted, add in the flour. Then, pour in the milk and whisk so the flour gets evenly incorporated in the sauce. Turn the heat to medium high in order to get the sauce to bubble. Once the liquid is warm (but not quite bubbling), add in the mashed sweet potato and whisk to get rid of all the lumps. Season with cayenne and cinnamon and let simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the pasta into the sauce. Toss to coat the pasta and serve. Sprinkle with swiss and enjoy.