Baked Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables, which works out great since they are packed full of nutrients and very healthy for you. They give you more than the recommended daily value of Vitamin A and about 1/3 of the Vitamin C needed, Whole Foods has the details here, or you can just trust me.

Sweet potatoes are also very versatile. I've never been a fan of the way you usually see them prepared at Thanksgiving with brown sugar and the works, that's just too sweet for me. I really enjoy them cooked on the grill, sauteed with spinach, in a black bean burrito, baked, in soups, as french fries, really the list could go on. The baked sweet potatoes I'm featuring in this post are far from fancy, and a ridiculously easy weeknight side and also make a good lunch. Most offices have microwaves, and it's definitely worth annoying your coworkers and holding up the microwave for 10 minutes for this healthy and tasty lunch. The recipe for this recipe, which is a knock off of these grilled sweet potatoes with scallions, is below.

Corn and Tomato Scramble

Corn and Tomato Scramble

This corn and tomato scramble from Epicurious is one of my favorite side dishes, especially when I can find some fresh corn on the cob (which I didn't this time, but it's still tasty).  The only changes I make to this are using balsamic vinegar instead of cider vinegar, I also try to use about a 1/2 to 2/3 of the butter it recommends, and sometimes I throw in avocados.  As soon as you can find corn on the cob at your market, do yourself a favor and make this.

How To Make An Omelette

We have more leftover steak than we can dream of so I decided to throw some in an Omelette this morning.  I also added some scallions that I had on hand, and parmesan cheese.  I like to use parmesan because it's strong so you don't have to use a lot to get good flavor.  I really wanted to add tomatoes, but I was sad to see mine had gone bad.

How I Make An Omelette
1.  Chop up any vegetables or ingredients that you want to add to your omelette.
2.  Saute any meat or vegetables that you want cooked in the omelette.  In this case I sauteed the steak a little; other things I tend to saute for an omelette are onions, mushrooms, and spinach.
3.  Combine 2 eggs, a dollop of milk, a dash of salt, and a dash of pepper and beat
4.  Mist your pan with oil and preheat (I love my Oil Mister from Williams-Sonoma) on medium low heat.
5.  When the pan is hot enough (a drop of water would sizzle) pour your eggs into the pan and let them sit for a minute.
6.  With a spatula, gently push one edge of the egg into the center of the pan while tilting the pan; allowing the still liquid egg to flow underneath.  Do this again on the opposite side.
7.  When the egg looks pretty much cooked add your ingredients to one half.  Usually I throw in whatever my refrigerator has to offer; this time I added sauteed steak, uncooked scallions, and a little parmesan.
8.  Use a spatula to lift one half (the half without the ingredients) and fold it over the half with the ingredients.
9.  I usually let it cook for a little under a minute and then slide it onto a plate.

I'm also in love with our grind and brew coffee maker.  Today's beans were a Viennese Blend from Oren's Daily Roast in NYC; it's a blend of Columbia and French Roasted Columbia.