Spicy Roasted Pineapple Sweet Potatoes

What do I make that doesn't contain chocolate?

Well, to be quite honest, not much.  My mom takes care of most of the actual cooking in the house.  I'm bake dessert, she makes dinner.  That's just the way it is.

But sometimes it's good to switch things up.

I made this sweet potato dish all by myself.  I didn't look at any recipes, didn't ask Mom for help, and didn't burn the house down either.  Oh yeah, and it tasted really good too.

Success.

Spicy Roasted Pineapple Sweet Potatoes

• 3 large/5 small sweet potatoes
• 1 20 oz can pineapple chunks in pineapple juice (no sugar added)
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice, taken from can
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (if you like things really spicy you can add more)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Peel and chop sweet potatoes.  Remove pineapple chunks from can, making sure not to discard the juice in the can.  Place sweet potatoes and pineapple chunks on a baking sheet.  Add pineapple juice (from can), olive oil, and cayenne on top.  Toss to coat.  Bake for 30 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender.  Remove from oven to toss every 10 minutes while then roast.  Serves 4 as a side dish/

My whole family gobbled these potatoes + pineapple chunks up.  It's a simple, but incredibly delicious dish.  Enjoy!

Revisited Recipe of the Day:

Cinnamon Sweet Potato Chips

Butternut Squash Tofu Curry

I hate bland food.

It's just so... ugh.  If I'm gonna eat something I want it to have flavor.  And lots of it.  I want to be able to remeber what it tasted like the next day so I can fantasize about how delicious it was.  

And bland foods?  Well, usually I forget what they tasted like mere hours after eating them.  Not o.k. in my book. 

So, you can imagine my annoyance (fine, fury) when the dinner I was halfway through making was just that.  Bland and forgettable.  Big uh-oh.  It was time to change something, and fast.

In a panicked frenzy, I dug through my pantry, looking for something, anything, to impart some flavor into the dish.  Eventually, after a couple minutes of total mayhem, I found something I thought might do the trick.  A jar of Trader Joes Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce.

I had never tried the sauce before, and didn't even recall buying it... but I was pretty desperate.  That's what a bland food does to ya.

After quickly reading through the ingredients - coconut milk, ginger, cilantro - I decided "what the heck" and dumped the whole jar into what I was making.

This could have easily been a huge mistake (I don't advise throwing random sauces into all of your bland foods), but, meraculously, it wasn't.  Not.  One.  Bit.

Instead, my boring dish was transformed into a flavor packed pot of spicy deliciousness.  Thank you Trader Joes.

Butternut Squash Tofu Curry

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 package extra firm tofu
• 1 12 oz jar Trader Joes Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce or something similar
• 1 package frozen spinach or 12 oz fresh spinach

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and saute until soft.  Lower heat and add squash, tofu, and simmer sauce to pan.  Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often.  Mix in spinach and cook 5 more minutes or until, if using frozen, the spinach has thawed.  Turn off heat.  Serve curry over rice, greens, or on it's own if you think you can handle the spice!  This also makes great leftovers.

For the record, I've already purchased another Trader Joes simmaer sauce just so I can be prepared for the next bland food crisis.  This ones Masala, and, let me just say, I can't wait to use it.  Bland food, watch out!

Revisited Recipe of the Day:

BBQ Tofu