Sweet Potato Hash

I made turkey burgers for dinner last night.  I can’t eat turkey burgers without sweet potato fries.
When I was making dinner last night, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, because I made way too many sweet potato fries.  So I popped them into a container and stashed them in my icebox.

Fast forward to this morning, when I was rummaging around looking for something to make for breakfast.

I saw the container of sad little sweet potato fries on the shelf.  I started thinking about what I could do with them… what about some kind of hashbrowns?  I had about 1/8th of a bag of regular frozen hashbrowns in the freezer… an idea began to take shape.

Here’s what I did….

Sweet Potato Hash

2 tablespoons bacon grease or olive oil or butter
A handful of leftover sweet potato fries, chopped up (any kind of pre-cooked sweet potato will do)
A handful of grated frozen hashbrowns (any kind will do)
Half a small onion, chopped
6 small mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
s/p

In an 8inch cast iron skillet (or non-stick if that’s what you’ve got), melt the bacon grease over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion and let it cook for a few minutes.  Then add the sliced mushrooms, and again, let it cook for a few minutes.  When the veggies have cooked down a bit, throw in the cut up sweet potato fries and the shredded hashbrowns.  Stir it around, then let it sit for a few minutes.  Add salt and pepper.  Don’t over do it, as you can taste it along the way for seasoning.  I don’t use much salt because the bacon grease has some already.  You want some color on the potatoes and veggies.  After 5 minutes or so, make a well in the center of the mixture and put in the extra tablespoon of butter.  Stir things around, and let it continue to cook until the other stuff you’re having for breakfast is done.

I served this to my husband with a couple of scrambled eggs.  The picture you see was my portion, which I topped with a fried egg.

This was really good.  I think from now on I’ll make too many sweet potato fries on purpose, just as an excuse to have this for breakfast again!

Read Full Post »

Cherry Vanilla Breakfast Smoothie

So this was my breakfast this morning.  It’s a cherry vanilla smoothie.  I made it because we have a cherry tree in our back yard and this is the first time in 4 years it actually produced fruit!  I didn’t show a picture of the finished product because it was less than photogenic.  Honestly, it looked awful.  Instead of telling you what I did this morning, I’m going to tell you what I will do next time to make this 1000% better.

Cherry Vanilla Breakfast Smoothie:

1 cup washed, stemmed and pitted cherries (honestly, you can use however many you want)

1 banana (preferably frozen, so you don’t have to add ice to water down the flavor)

1/2 cup plain yogurt (you can use more than this, or even use a flavored yogurt if you want)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I actually used vanilla bean paste)

1 cup unsweetened almond, soy or regular milk (I used almond because that’s what I had)

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

The version I used this morning also had honey, which made it WAY too sweet.  I almost couldn’t finish it.  I also only used half of a banana, which wasn’t enough to keep it thick or cold.  In my opinion, most breakfast smoothies benefit from more frozen bananas!

I drink smoothies for breakfast during the school year because they are quick and easy.  I don’t make them as often during the summer, because my schedule is much less crowded, and I generally feel like cooking.  I drank this one this morning because I had cherries I needed to use, and I had to be at school to interview new teachers.

I’ll post my stand by smoothie recipe later this week.

Read Full Post »