Sweet Potato Chips

This is my new KitchenAid Pro-Line Dicing Food Processor and my adorable youngest, M.

These are my paper thin slices of sweet potato and apple which will be turned into chips.

Hot from the oven sweet potato chip, which lasted all of 15 minutes.

Last night I spent the evening reading the manual and sorting through all of the blades and attachments to my new food processor.  The manual had a lot to be desired.  I am thinking that the writers of this document thought that anyone buying this particular model was upgrading and knew something about food processors.  I am not upgrading as I have spent the last 44 years of my life without owning one of these gadgets.  Needless to say, all those blades and setting are a little intimidating.

Now that I have this fancy toy I had to make something right away.  Being that I have an abundance of sweet potatoes in the house, sweet potato chips seems like an excellent starter dish.  I searched the internet and found that most recipes use a lot of olive oil which is not something I wanted to do.  Several recipes used the oven, several used a dehydrator and one used the microwave.  Well, I certainly didn't want to wait 10 hours for my chips and my microwave is loud and does not hold many chips,  so I decided that the oven was for me.  The following is what I came up with.

Ingredients

Sweet Potato

PAM

Salt

Directions

Wash and dry sweet potato.

Slice very thinly using food processor.

Spray a light coating of PAM on a cookie sheet.  

     -my one potato used two cookies sheets.

Spread the slices on the cookie sheet without overlapping.

Spray a light coating of PAM on the potato slices.

     -this helps the salt to stick.

Sprinkle with just a touch of salt.

     -if you are going to omit the salt, also omit the coating of PAM on the chips.

Oven temp is 375 for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through the cooking time.

     -depending on the thickness of the chips, the cooking time may be longer.

     -chips can burn fast so keep an eye on them toward the end of the cooking time

     -the chips are so thin that they will cool down immediately.

It's Whats for Lunch

Easy, portable, low calorie and good for you.

Diary free, Soy free, Gluten free.

Flash-Roasted Vegetables and Rice with Chipotle Tomato Sauce

This rice dish is a little different.  It is over rice but does not have the usual Asian flair, more Spanish or Mexican.

This recipe is from the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of Vegetarian Times.  I found the vegetables a little on the mushy side and the spices a little intense, so I have scaled back on the roasting time and cut the chili power and chipotle chiles in half.  This dish has great potential.  To make it Vegan, just omit the crumbled queso fresco.

This will easily serve 4 and took less than 45 minutes to cut, roast and assemble.  I assembled each persons serving into individual bowls instead of layering in a casserole like the original recipe called for.

Vegetables and Rice:

1 c white rice

2 small zucchini, cut on a bias into 1/4 in slices

2 small yellow squash cut on a bias into 1/4 in. slices 

2 small red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1/4 in rings

2 tbs olive oil

1/2  to 1 tsp chili powder

4 oz. queso fresco, crumbled (optional)

Chipotle Tomato Sauce:

1 or 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp)

1 14.5 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large white onion, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick

1) Preheat oven to 475 and coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.

2) Cook rice according to directions.  I used my rice cooker.

3) Toss together eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers with oil and chili powder.  Spread on baking sheets and roast 15 minutes, or until tender.  Turning occasionally.

4) To make the Chipotle Tomato Sauce, blend the chipotles and garlic in a blender until smooth.  Add the tomatoes and pulse until almost smooth, leaving a little texture.

5)  Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion and cook for 5 to 7 minutes.  Stir in tomato mixture and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened.

6)  To serve, spread the rice in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Top with the vegetable, than add the Chipotle Tomato Sauce.  Sprinkle with the queso fresco, if using.

Notes:

Omit the queso fresco to make this dish Vegan.

To save calories, cook the onion in a thin layer of water instead of using the oil.  Add water as needed.

In the summer months using tomatoes from the garden in the place of the can of fire roasted diced tomatoes would certainly work.

To reduce clean up, assemble into individual bowls.

This is dish creates a complete meal and a side dish was not necessary.

The pictures are from The New Year Challenge blog.  Thank you for saving me a step.