Parmesan & Sage Roasted Potatoes

Well tonight I was planning on roasting a chicken, so I stopped at the store on my way home from work to pick up all the ingredients, got home and re-read through the recipe and noticed I skipped the marinate in the refrigerator for 5-8 hours section. Oops, the chicken will have to wait for tomorrow night. Instead we made visit to the crepe truck that sits outside of our building, which is always a good option. I'm a sucker for savory crepes.

Since the chicken has been delayed I figured I could share this easy and tasty side dish with you that I made last week (or the week before).  Below is the recipe, you can reduce the cooking time if you don't like yours as crispy as I do.

Chipotle Creamed Corn

Remember that Trader Joe's Trip-Tip Asada I told you I bought  in my last post?  Well you can see below how juicy and delicious it was. It's so easy since you just pop it in the oven and let it roast that it doesn't get it's own post, so I wanted to share a side that was perfect with this meat.

The side is chipotle creamed corn. Let me start by getting a little off topic and sharing that I love the sides at Thanksgiving. My mom's stuffing is my absolute favorite, but I also love the simple creamed corn we would have. Nothing fancy about it at all; heat up some corn, throw in some cream cheese, stir, and devour! My chipotle creamed corn was pretty much that with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Since corn off the cob is rampant at the farmers market I used some corn cut off the cob, rather than the frozen my mom usually used. Now the picture below of this corn does not do it justice, but trust me, I couldn't stop stuffing my face with this side dish.

Keep reading for this simple recipe.

Baked Plantain Chips

My family bounced around a lot growing up, and we lived in Puerto Rico for a couple years. This is when I learned about plantains and all of the different ways you could cook them.  I was a picky eater as a kid so there were several ways that plantains were cooked that I didn't like, but I really liked plantain chips and mofongo.  Mofongo is mashed plantains with garlic, herb, and meat or vegetables. The other day I picked up some plantains at the store and decided to try and make baked plantain chips. I was a little nervous they wouldn't turn out well or be that crisp, but they definitely beat my expectations. They were supposed to go with the Tri Tip Asada I bought at Trader Joe's, but we scarfed them all down before the meat came out of the oven. I'll be making them again for a healthy snack or side dish. See below for the recipe and adjust seasonings to fit your taste.

Grilled Polenta Cakes

I made these grilled polenta cakes while on vacation, and for most of the group it was their first time trying polenta. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, hopefully they weren't just being nice and they really did! We had it along with some of my mom's famous brisket (I'll be posting that recipe at some point) and grilled asparagus. It was fun playing on a real grill all week as opposed to my grill pan indoors. These were really easy and I'll be making them, or another variation again soon, since I already bought a tube of polenta at the store today. Keep reading for this easy recipe that works as an appetizer or a side dish.

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.