One Whole Week!

Sorry guys, I kept thinking I'd have a post for you, but alas, nothing. Today I realized it'd been a whole week!

I haven't been in the mood to cook much and what I have been in the mood to cook I've already blogged about! Repeat posts aren't very interesting, now are they?

In the past week we've had some take-out meals (don't judge!), plus these favorites:

Stuffed Green Peppers


Southwestern Rice and Bean Bowl

Roasted Cabbage with Cheese Sauce


some of my Dad's Homemade Sausage

Maybe it's the shorter days or the negative temperatures, but I just haven't felt up to cooking much. I twittered about it and Laura (I won her giveaway by the way!) suggested getting a new cookbook or ingredient. I've looked through my cooking magazines and went grocery shopping, which was a start!

In a few weeks my parents will be visiting for Christmas and I can guarantee there'll be an overload of foodie goodies to share with you. I've already started filling my freezer with a few awesome meat deals and know that my parents are packing a cooler of food to bring, too!

In the meantime, here's a quasi-recipe! Remember I told you that I don't really like white potatoes? Well, *whispers* I like the white potatoes in the can. Growing up my mom would put them around the meatloaf and sprinkle on some garlic powder. They'd bake alongside and the outsides would get a little crunchy, while the insides stayed soft and tender. But not gross, dried-out tender like a baked potato - a good tender - a moist tender.

1 29 oz. can of New Potatoes
olive oil
garlic and/or onion powder
black pepper

Drizzle the olive oil over the new potatoes and coat with a light sprinkling of garlic or onion powder and black pepper. Any larger ones can be cut in halves or thirds for uniform size.

Place in the oven alongside a baking dinner, or for about 20 minutes in a 400° oven. Potatoes should be warmed through and some look a little tanned on the outside.


I also reviewed (not officially or anything, I just had a coupon!) Terra Exotic Vegetable Chips. Remember I tried to make my own, back in January? Well, turns out buying them is much easier!

The ingredient list was pretty cool - taro, yuca, sweet potato, ruby root vegetable (veggies "kissed" with beet juice), batata, and parsnip. I absolutely loved that they gave a description of what each chip looked like. It's like that handy little map inside the lid of chocolates to let you know what you're eating!

Verdict!? I really, really liked them. In fact, there's only about 1/3 of the bag left after 3 days! My least favorite of all of them were the parsnips. Their texture was very smooth, which seemed to cling to a lot of salt. My favorite were the taro chips, which were really "meaty" and had a hearty flavor I liked. Each of the flavors were a lot bolder than a regular potato chip and you really felt like you were eating a bunch of different vegetable chips, rather than a crunchy vehicle for salt.

However - each time I ate these chips, the reason I stopped was because my lips were having that "too much salt" pruning up feeling. Out of a 10, I'd give them an 8, but if they offered a lightly salted version I'd give them a 9! Not too bad, although a little pricey. I'd recommend them if you want a healthier alternative for a munchie snack, or if you happen to find a coupon!