And then there were none.

The only remnants that remain of Ellie Krieger's energy bars are the crumbs on my desktop. Old Mother Hubbard opened her cupboards and found them bare...well, of these scrumptious breakfast bars, anyway. Sigh. It's like they never existed. Here's how it happened: while going through our pantry last fall to do my first ever inventory. I found a very large stack of store bought, highly processed energy bars and jelly beans (yuck, don't even get me started on that.) These went to the pile marked "basement." Even though I didn't want to eat processed food anymore, I wasn't going to deny my hubby everything he was used to - he is a runner and needs these items on occasion, so they remain in our house still.

From then on, I was on a mission to find a way to create a substitute that was even better. More than a necessity item to power up for runs, but something "craveable" as Ellie puts it. Just a few days ago, I went through my nuts, seeds and dried fruit section of the pantry and sadly, 1/3 of it had to be trashed. If they didn't taste superior, they were gone. So I had to slightly alter Ellie's recipe. Here's her original one and I'll include my adjustments in the notes below:

Energy Bars by Ellie Krieger

Cooking spray
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pitted dried dates
1/2 cup powdered nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Place all ingredients except the syrup and eggs in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped. Add the syrup and eggs and pulse until the mixture is well combined. It will resemble a coarse paste. Transfer to the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake until just done, about 20 minutes. Cut into 20 squares.

• My sunflower seeds went bad, but I had fresh pumpkin seeds leftover from last week's pumpkin muffins.
• The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of dried fruit. Unfortunately, my apricots and dates looked sub par and I was fresh out of raisins. Instead I used dried cherries (I could only find sweetened) and dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice. 1 1/2 cups total (Split 50-50)
• After it cooled, I cut it into 12 even bars and wrapped them separately in saran wrap and put them in freezer bags. One bag went to the pantry, the other to the freezer. It is now 48 hours later, and there are all gone. They were so fantastic that I had to share them with friends.
• Yes, I know I just posted an Ellie recipe when I said I would hold off, but if you only knew the restraint I was showing! I've made another five or so recipes from her new book and enjoyed them. What can I say? She had me at hello.
  

Finding new treasures in old friends

Armed with paperclips, bright yellow post it notes, and an eagle eye, I sat down with three of my cookbooks recently to make some new discoveries. As I cook and learn and gain more confidence in the kitchen, I'm going back to old cookbooks that I thought I had exhausted and finding new gems. I'm really able to chart my own growth this way. Over the last few months, my spice rack has doubled in size and I now have the "international" shelf in my pantry. Last year at this time, I craved sugar in a big way. My nutritionist suggested cooking with new flavors and seeing if I could learn to love those, too. I've taken that advice to heart and it's turned out to be true for me. A little heat from curry. The tanginess from lime juice. The rustic, earthy tones of mushrooms. The richness of gruyere. I crave them all now, and so much more. So, I don't really need to shop for any new cookbooks for all ("Amen to that!" cheers my hubby as reads this..), because there's still so much these hold in store. Currently, on my bedside table lies the following:


The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook's Food to Live By

by Myra Goodman with Linda Holland and Pamela McKinstry


The first twenty pages tells the very compelling story about Myra and her husband starting out their lives by growing, harvesting and selling their organically grown raspberries in 1984. Over the next twenty years, they grew tremendously and now their bagged mixed greens can be found in supermarkets around the country. She writes, "When we first moved onto the property, we knew absolutely nothing about farming. The previous owner gave us a quick course in rasberry horticulture, teaching us how to add chemical fertilizers...but when the time came for us to follow the procedures, we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We hated the way the chemicals smelled and instinctively we knew they weren't healthy for us, our future customers, or the environment." You can tell they have a passion for what they do. And you can taste it in their recipes. She devotes one whole chapter to raspberry recipes! My favorite section of her book deals with salads and homemade vinegrettes. I've completely given up on store bought salad dressings now that I've had salads dressed with fresh ingredients. It's just no contest.


The Healthy Hedonist by Myra Kornfeld

I would definitely classify myself as a "flexitarian." I prefer meals made of vegetables, fruit, grains and beans. I always make them my main focus when cooking, but I really enjoy a nice piece of fish on a regular basis. This is a wonderful cookbook for the family with a wide range of eating habits. I have to admit when I first looked through the book, I hardly recognized any of the ingredients. I would suggest this book for the more adventurous and experienced cook. If you've been there and done that, this book will take you to new sights! Yesterday, I bought hazelnut oil in order to try this vinaigrette in her section on salads:



3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup toasted hazelnut oil

Salt

Candied Hazelnuts (1 cup of nuts toasted at 350 F with 2 T maple syrup and 2 T of natural sugar -ouch my teeth hurt already!)



Pour vinegar into a small saucepan & bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer rapidly, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup, about 10 min. Pour the reduced vinegar into a small bowl and stir in the mustard. Slowly drizzle the hazelnut oil into the bowl, whisking constantly until the oil and vinegar are emulsified.





I think this will be great over a bowl of mixed greens. Delish, no? One more comment about this book, there are no pictures. None at all. This is the one drawback.


A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop


This one may already be sitting on your cookbook shelf. It's mentioned often on the Cooking Light Community Boards. I love his philosphy of eating seasonally for so many reasons. Primarily because the food just tastes better. It's as simple as that. The chapters of this book are Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. His family belongs to a co-op and they pick their own produce directly from the farm from May-October! I would love that. When you have that kind of connection to your food, you just want to highlight it's natural flavors. His recipes do just that and are mostly very simple and can be prepared rather quickly. On almost every page, there's a sidebar which explains how best to prepare an ingredient, how to pick it out, or just a general cooking or storing tip. It makes you feel like you're sitting in the kitchen with him getting the inside scoop. One final thought - I love that the majority of the recipes call for ingredients that are already present in my pantry and fridge. I can open this book up in a pinch and make something fabulous with what I have on hand.

Sniff. Sniff. Is this still good?

My husband has witnessed this scene many times before. It's early in the morning. We've just finished feeding the dog and I'm grabbing the milk for breakfast. The sun is not even up yet and the only light is coming from the open refrigerator door. "Honey, come and smell this!" He swears that something traumatic dealing with cows happened to me in my childhood. I just can't handle milk that's over four or five days old. Yes, I know this is extreme.

Which leads me to my upcoming challenge of the week. He is leaving on a business trip from Tuesday to Sunday. I just came back from grocery shopping with many perishable items. In a few days, I will have no one but the dog to turn to and she is very flexible when it comes to sell by dates.

So I thought I would ask my friends here for some suggestions. I'm definitely going to freeze some things and make half of some selected recipes. Here's what's currently in the fridge tick- tocking away: lemons, limes, oranges (mostly for zesting and juicing purposes), broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, scallions, red peppers, white and sweet potatoes, kale, spring mix, spinach, parsley and romaine. Oh and buttermilk leftover from the muffins I made a few days ago. Thoughts?

Last night I kicked off this week of cooking with two fairly well received dishes.

Curried Potatoes with Kale
from "Greens, Glorious Greens" by Johnna Albi & Catherine Walthers:

2 lbs white, yellow finn or red potatoes, peeled
1 T canola oil
2 t curry powder
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups of water
3/4 lb of kale (about 6 cups chopped)
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 lime, cut into 6 wedges

Cut the potatoes into 3/4 inch cubes and set aside. Heat a 10-12 inch skillet over med. heat. Add the oil and swirl in the pan. Add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute, taking care not to burn it. Add the onions and saute over med. heat for 5 minutes, or until they begin to soften.

Add the potato cubes and toss to coat with the curry and oil. Season lightly with salt, add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Meanwhile wash the kale well, then strip the leaves off the stalks. Discard stalks and chop kale into bite size pieces. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a 10-12 inch skillet in a tight fitting lid. Add the kale and cook, covered, over high heat, stirring occasionally, until tender. Approx. 5 minutes.

Stir cooked kale with the potatoes. Heat through and season to taste with pepper and salt (if necessary). Serve hot with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

• I used the wrong potatoes here. I went with white when the authors said they favored yukon in this dish because of its creaminess. I bet this would have taken this dish to a different level if I followed their advice. I just used what I had on hand.
• Even though this dish was well seasoned, I didn't feel like I was enjoying the curry, as much. I expected it to be the lead actor, but it only had a "walk on" part. Next time I'll add more during the steaming phase.
• This dish took a lot longer to prepare than I expected, too. The cooking time was pretty accurate, though. I did add two minutes of microwave time at the end so the pototoes would get a little softer.
• In the end, it was just okay. Neither of us reached for seconds. I will try this again with the adjustments I mentioned.
• Quick update - I just took this out of the fridge to heat up for lunch and the potatoes will a deeper orange color. I guess they made friends with the curry last night. I added grated Parmesan-Reggiano to it (about 2 T) and heated it up. It was outstanding. Like a completely different dish entirely. My suggestion for this dish is to let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving. And add the cheese.

Lemon Orzo with Parsley from Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Healthy Cooking

1 1/2 cups orzo

Kosher salt

2 T unsalted butter

2 T of fresh lemon juice

2 t of grated lemon zest

1 T finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

In a large saucepan over high heat, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Stir in the orzo and 1 t of salt. Cover and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the water is absorbed and the pasta is tender. About 15 minutes. Add the butter, lemon juice, zest and parsley and stir to blend. Serve warm.

• High marks for this one. I absolutely loved it. Have you ever dipped lobster in lemon butter sauce? Okay, so there's no shellfish present here (but it would be great with grilled shrimp), but just a touch of the lemon butter mixture evokes happy memories for me. You don't need a lot. The zest itself is prominent. More flavor. Less calories.
• I usually use chicken broth instead of water when I make bulgur, couscous or rice. With this, I took a chance and stuck with water. I figured the sauce might compete too much if the pasta had the broth flavor.
• We reached for thirds with this dish. The leftovers are going fast. It won't make it past lunch today.
• Quick update: there was about a cup leftover for lunch today, so I dressed it up and gave it to my husband. I added steamed broccoli and crumbled feta cheese. And a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice. He was at the bottom of the bowl before I could ask him how it was...

Looking forward to hearing your comments on how to use up the remaining perishables in five days!

Feeling a little nutty?

The other day I was perusing Mollie Katzen's website and found a number of recipes that I would like to try. One in particular caught my eye because the flavors sounded just wonderful to me. It was "Wild Rice with Cherries and Hazelnuts."

In my pantry, I am storing a wide variety of all kinds of nuts. I have found that a handful of nuts and dried fruit really satisfy me between meals. This was the first opportunity I've had to use the hazelnuts and dried cherries in a recipe together. According to the Hazelnut Council (which in my mind are just ten squirrels sitting in a board room), hazelnuts are a rich source of dietary fiber, vitamin E, magnesium, and heart healthy B vitamins. They are also rich in antioxidants and disease fighting nutrients.

I didn't feel like waiting the 45 minutes to cook rice according to Mollie's recipe, so I took out my leftover cooked bulgur from the fridge. You can find the recipe for basic cooked bulgur in my post about a Mediterranean dinner.

I had about one cup's worth of cooked bulgur left. So, I took a 2/3 cup of fresh unsalted hazelnuts and placed them in a ziplock bag and smashed them with a rolling pin. That was really fun. I scared my dog, though. Sorry Sami. Then I took about 1/2 cup of dried cherries and roughly chopped them. I added both the chopped hazenuts and cherries to the bulgur and added approximately 2 T of natural maple syrup (Whole Foods brand). I mixed it all together with a pinch of kosher salt and heated it up in the microwave for 45 seconds. The aroma of warm hazelnuts immediately hit me as I sat down at the table for lunch. I love it when a meal engages so many senses. I wasn't prepared for how fragrant this would be so that was a happy surprise.

I can't even begin to describe how delicious this easy, fast and nutrient packed dish was. My mouth was making, how should I put it - yum yum noises.

Aren't I the articulate one?

Mollie's original recipe can be found at: http://www.molliekatzen.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipe=wild_rice_cherries

I'm a joiner

I've recently joined two communities that I'm very excited about. If you scroll down a bit on the blog and look under the archive of posts, you'll see the Foodie Blog Roll. I'm so honored to be a part of this talented group! It's going to take me a while to visit every blog, but so far I've found a very diverse crowd. From Vegan to Curry to Cupcakes to Sushi. Raw, broiled or grilled. It's food in every form. I hope you enjoy exploring it, too.

I've been waiting to tell you all about another community my husband and I recently joined. I thought I would wait until the Spring, but what the heck. We are now shareholders of the Sandy Spring Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project at the Calvert Farm in Maryland. Their website which includes their harvest schedule can be found at http://www.sandyspringcsa.com./

I love the idea of supporting local farmers. Each share costs a few hundred dollars which goes to their seed money for the year. They plant just enough crop to cover all of the needs of their shareholders. Come May, I'll meet the Sandy Spring staff at a local pickup point for my weekly bounty of veggies, fruit and herbs. Each week will be different from the next. It's a twenty week program, so it will take us all the way through October. What does this mean for Test Drive Kitchen? Well, I'll be planning my meals based on what I receive each week. It will be a new challenge, because I hate to waste food. And with it being just the two of us, I'm going to be working extra hard in the kitchen cooking, freezing and canning. I'm literally counting the days until May. I'm that excited. I'm open to all suggestions from friends of this blog to help me in our efforts to prepare and preserve our food each week. Please share your idea for jarring tomato sauce, too! I want to be well fed in the winter when living off the farm is a just distant memory.

If you would like to locate a CSA in your area, check out http://www.localharvest.org/.

Muffin v. Muffin.

Okay, let me be clear. I'm not a baker at all. I'm drawn to cooking because I love creativity and art. I like to have freedom. A pinch of this. A dash of that. Baking to me = science, rules and structure. None of which are bad at all. I'm just wired a different way. With that all said, I really wanted to try it. I'm a risk taker, after all. I know it will never be my forte, but I don't want to limit myself by never baking. Cookies don't last long in this house and the brownies were gone before I knew it. So, muffins it is! I tried two recipes from Ellie's new book. By the way, I'm making this promise to all of you that this will be the last post about Ellie Krieger's recipes for a while. I love her. Love her food. But I need to spread my wings a bit.

Ten years ago, I worked in downtown Washington DC for a political consultant. There was a coffee shop I frequented that carried a line of yogurt muffins. The baker substituted some oil and butter for yogurt to make it a healthier version. I didn't care for them much and since then I've been hestitant to try anything like it. But I believe in Ellie and decided to make two batches of muffins in her new cookbook. One was a Pumpkin Pie muffin recipe and the other was Apple Pecan. Each batch made 18 muffins. It's just the two of us here so I was already calling up my neighbors asking them to take some off our hands.

Pumpkin Pie Muffin by Ellie Krieger
Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

• I highly encourage you to resist using the whole wheat flour in your pantry and go and buy whole wheat pastry flour. I really think the pastry flour, which is a little finer in texture and lighter in taste, made this muffin far more superior than other "healthy" muffins I've tried. It wasn't at all dense like I expected. More light and airy.
• There are a lot of different spices in this recipe. I happened to have all of them on hand, but if you don't, I think adding up the fractions and just using "pumpkin pie spice" would be okay. I looked at my pumpkin pie spice last night and noticed that they were all present except the cloves. I know there's not always a lot of leeway when baking, but I'll try this the next time and see if there's a huge difference in taste.
• I've had a container of buttermilk powder in my pantry for a while. And sadly, I found it to be inadequate all around. I specifically purchased fresh buttermilk for this round of cooking and was quite pleased with the tanginess it provided. Has anyone had good experiences using the powder?
• I loved the taste of the toasted pumpkin seeds on the top of these muffins. Mine were packaged as "pepitas" which I believe are the seeds from any squash. So if there's nothing marked as pumpkin seeds, definitely use pepitas.
• Oh, and just for the heck of it, I added semi sweet chocolate chips to six of these muffins. Tasty, but it didn't it. They were delicious without them, too. I gave these to the neighbors kids.

Apple Pecan Muffins by Ellie Krieger

Cooking spray
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-capacity muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and oil until combined. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

• I used almonds instead of pecans because I have a huge bag of slivered almonds I need to get through. I also used a Fuji apple rather than Golden Delicious because I prefer them as a snack. I know there's a whole school of thought over baking apples and snacking apples. I thought the Fuji worked out really well here, though. And I had them on hand!

Definitely try to find unsweetened applesauce. The muffins would have been over the top sweet if I used sweetened. I used the Whole Foods brand.

In the Muffin v. Muffin challenge, the apple was my favorite. But just by a little. It reminded me so much of my mom's apple sponge cake. It just tasted like home to me.

Here's the nutritional information for both muffins provided by Ellie Krieger:

Pumpkin Pie Muffins:

Serving Size 1 muffin. The recipe said it made 12, but my batter made 18.

Per serving- Calories: 205; Total Fat: 7G (Mono: 3.5 G, Poly: 2 G, Sat:1 G); Protein: 5G; Carb: 32G; Fiber: 2G; Chol: 36 MG; Sodium: 223MG. Excellent Source of Thiamin & Vitamin A. Good Source of Manganese, Protein and Vitamin K.

Apple Pecan Muffins:

Serving Size 1 muffin. Again, I squeezed out 18 muffins. Ellie still says 12. I guess she has bigger muffin pans than I do!

Per serving - Calories: 213; Total Fat: 8G (Mono: 3G, Poly: 1.5G, Sat: 1G); Protein: 4G; Carb: 35G; Fiber: 2G; Chol: 36MG; Sodium: 236MG. Excellent Source of Thiamin.

A Mediterranean meal on a cold winter's night

Brrrr. Winter has arrived and it's sticking it's heels in deep. Our front yard is frozen solid and we're almost sure to see more snow tomorrow. On a night like this, I just want to escape to a friendlier climate. I don't have enough airline miles saved up yet, so I served up Mediterranean flavors for dinner instead. After a fun (and freezing) day hanging out downtown with my best buddy, I came home too late to consider dealing with the flank steak in the fridge. This is where a stocked pantry and fridge full of fresh veggies has it's benefits! I reached for Ellie Krieger's new book - I know, I know. I'm clearly obsessed with it. An hour later, our dinner plates looked gorgeous. Bright green spinach and chickpea salad with orange infused yogurt dressing. Roasted, carmelized honey sweet potatoes and a side of cooked bulgur. Here we go:


Chickpeas and Spinach Salad
with Cumin Dressing by Ellie Krieger



2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed


1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley


1/2 cup chopped red onion


1/4 cup olive oil


3 tablespoons lemon juice


1/2 teaspoon lemon zest


1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin


1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper


Salt and pepper


4 cups baby spinach leaves



Yogurt with Orange Essence, recipe below, optional


2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves, optional



In a medium bowl combine the chickpeas, parsley and onion. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the chickpea mixture and toss to combine. Serve the chickpea salad over a bed of spinach leaves. Top with the yogurt sauce and a sprinkle of mint, if using.

Yogurt with Orange Essence by Ellie Krieger


1/3 cup lowfat plain yogurt


1/4 teaspoon orange zest


2 tablespoons orange juice


1/2 teaspoon honey

In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, orange zest, orange juice and honey.

• The more I cook, the more comfortable I am substituting an ingredient that I have on hand for one that's called for in the recipe. Instead of red onion, I went with diced red pepper. A few years ago, I used to run out to the store if I didn't have something!
• I used a fresh orange for the juice in the yogurt sauce and it was slightly bitter. I added more honey to balance the taste. This is a good example of letting loose and not always following the recipe directions to the letter (which I always used to do!) All oranges are not created equal, so one must sample and adjust.
• After I mixed the yogurt with the spinach and the spinach with the chickpea mixture, I decided this dish would benefit from additional dressing. So, I used organic fresh squeezed orange juice, honey and yogurt in equal parts. It was really sweet, much sweeter than the dressing I used to coat the spinach. I thought it really enhanced the whole dish.
• I didn't have any fresh mint available. But I will definitely get some next time. I think it would kick this up a notch.

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes by Ellie Krieger

2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into 1-inch pieces and put in a 9 by 13 baking dish. In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, honey and lemon juice. Pour mixture over potatoes and toss to coat. Sprinkle with the salt, and bake, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour, until potatoes are tender.

• I really needed to switch gears from my "go to" roasted veggies recipe. I usually only use olive oil, salt and pepper. The honey and fresh lemon really bring out the natural flavor of the sweet potatoes. No one, not even your pickiest eater, will be able to resist this dish.
  

Basic Cooked Bulgur


2 cups of chicken broth

1 cup of bulgur (rinsed first)


Combine chicken broth and bulgur and bring to a quick boil. Decrease heat to a simmer and cover. Bulgur will be finished in 12-15 minutes. There might be excess broth. Drain and serve.

• Bulgur seemed like the perfect grain to balance out this meal. In a way, this whole meal is a de-constructed tabbouleh salad.
• My husband encouraged me to "mix it all together" on the plate. He felt the sum was better than the parts.
• Superfood alert. Sweet Potatoes, nonfat plain yogurt, honey, spinach, oh my!