One potato, two potato, Sweet potato and more...

So a couple of weeks ago when I ventured back in to the pintrest realm and found the cauliflower crust to satiate my pizza craving, I stumbled upon a pin for sweet potato hash. I love sweet potatoes! And I don't mean that in the sense that I loved Bon Jovi, Nelson and dare I say it, NKOTB, as a pre-teen and teenager. You know the kind of love I mean, where you profess undying love and then it sours after a week or two. I would honestly take a naked, baked sweet potato over its fully loaded cousin, smothered in butter, sour cream and chives any day of the week.  I will even eat potato chips again, so long as it is the Covered Bridge Sweet Potato chip from New Brunswick. I don't remember not liking sweet potatoes, so when I found this recipe for sweet potato hash I knew that I needed to try it.

I did not follow the recipe, I'll admit it. If there is one thing that my mother dislikes the most about when I cook, it is that I don't always follow a recipe. Sometimes I see multiple ideas and I combine them in my head and then make them and they turn out beautifully. The trouble is though, that if I did not write it down or make notations somewhere then I cannot repeat it or tell people what I have done. I like experimenting though and not having to follow a recipe all the time.

I had a few sweet potatoes from Elmridge Farm in my fridge and since I do not have a food processor, I decided to use my little Kitchen Aid food chopper to chop up the potato. No way was I about to risk my knuckles and bits of skin grating the dense little suckers. So I chopped up two small potatoes and roughly a quarter of  a white onion and I let it sit in the fridge for a bit. I did not use any salt on this and this was my first mistake. I rarely cook with salt. The only time I use salt on anything is if it is for a recipe and a chemical reaction is required. Beyond that I rarely use salt. When it came time to cook it, I heated my pan for the hash and my grandmother's little cast iron pan; perfect for one egg. I added a little olive oil to my big pan and dumped the contents of my chopped sweet potato and onion into the hot pain and listened to it sizzle while I checked the heat on the other pan. I then added some extra spicy Mrs. Dash to the sweet potato mixture, and that was mistake number two. I then cracked the egg into the other pan and sprinkled a little Mrs. Dash there too. I like spicy and I thought it would pair well with the sweetness of the potato; it usually does when I roast veggies in the oven. I did not use my universal lid on my frying pan to allow the sweet potatoes to steam a bit, that was mistake three. I ended up undercooking the sweet potato and it did not brown up as much as I thought it would. So my first attempt at it was not a flaming success but it was not an unmitigated disaster either. It just required a few minor adjustments to the process.

Tonight I decided to try again. I went to the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market today and invested in some more Sweet Potatoes and this time around I decided to add some bacon from Sweet Williams to the mix. Unusual choice for me since I spent most of my childhood avoiding the bacon and egg brunches we would have at least one Sunday a month growing up. The only egg I liked was scrambled and unrecognizable with ham, peppers, onions and cheese added to it. The smell of bacon used to repulse me. However I have grown a new appreciation for bacon and even eggs. It is ironic that the things that I avoided as a kid are now the "safest" things for me to eat. Mind you, it doesn't mean that I gorge myself on them, it just means that I have grown to appreciate them and don't shy away from them as much anymore. Anyhow, tonight's hash was prepared slightly differently. I chopped it the same and added onion but this time I ground a little pink crystal salt and fresh black pepper into the mix before placing in to the fridge. When it was time to cook the mix, I heated the pan a little more because I had to cook the bacon first. I diced it, cooked it, drained the fat and let it rest on paper towel while I cooked the sweet potatoes. I added regular Mrs. Dash to the preparation this time. Much better option as it was not overpowering. I used my lid to allow the sweet potatoes to soften further. It steamed them nicely and I had more browning to the pan. I added the bacon back in towards the end of the cooking time and blended it well. I cooked my egg the same as before but used the regular Mrs. Dash on it as well. It gave it all a much nicer flavour. To top it off, I had some Schoolhouse Gluten Free Bakery English muffins in the freezer, so I toasted one and topped it with Thompson's Strawberry Jam.

I felt bad about not participating in I Love Local Halifax's City Harvest today, but I was not sure who had gluten free options and did not have the heart to traipse around only to be disappointed. So I did my own City Harvest meal today and it was worth it! Will definitely be making it again!

Attempt #1--Good but needed some adjustments

Attempt #2--Far superior!

 

As a kid, you could not pay me to eat cauliflower!

So this past week I made two pizzas, and neither of them contained bread in any form. I decided that I wanted to try a cauliflower crust pizza. I noticed about a year ago on Pintrest that it was becoming the popular gluten free pin and at the time I pinned it, like many other things, with every intention of trying it. Nearly a year went by before I re-entered the foray of pinning; shocking I know! My pin was still there however this time I decided that I was going to give it a go.

I went to the Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market last weekend and I made sure that I bought a good sized cauliflower from Elmridge Farms. It is funny but I would say that cauliflower in the last number of years has become my go to vegetable. I always throw it in a stir fry or steam it with broccoli and carrots or just dip it into hummus. I refused to eat it as kid and would pick the broccoli out from around it and eat the broccoli only if Mom steamed them for roast beef dinner. How times change. Now I want to use it as my pizza crust.

I found this really good recipe on Nutrition Stripped by McKel Hill, a dietician. I had every single ingredient needed and I even had nutritional yeast in my cupboard. I can't believe that I just admitted that but it's true. I needed it for a recipe last year and it called for it. The only thing I didn't have was the cauliflower, so I put it on my list when I went to the market.

When I got home I gave it a rinse and proceeded to grind up my cauliflower as the recipe directed. I put some cheese cloth in a bowl and dumped the cauliflower in as I ground up small batches in my food chopper.

One medium cauliflower ground up



I then let it sit over night and let any water drain out of it. The next day I squeezed off any excess and started to assemble the crust as per the directions in the recipe. As the crust was pre-baking as per the instructions, I chopped the rest of my ingredients. I had decided to make a Margherita-style pizza with fresh Basil from Riverview Herbs, Onion, Plum Tomatoes and Sweet William's Turkey Pepperoni all drizzled with Olive Oil and lactose-free Mozza.



Margherita-style

This pizza gave me four meals at one slice per sitting along side a various salad bought from either Fruition or Little Red Kitsch'n. So midway through the week, I still had cauliflower left and a need for another pizza because the first one was so good. This time, however, I decided to make a regular pizza with tomato sauce, Turkey Pepperoni, Bacon and Onion alongside the lactose-free Mozza. I decided I wanted to make a bigger pizza this time, so I doubled the crust and I had just enough cauliflower left for it. The only adjustment I was that I combine 2 eggs with a 1/2 cup of eggs whites instead of using 4 whole eggs and it worked.

#2 in less than week

 Although you have to pre-bake the crust, it really does stay quite moist but does not become saturated with the sauce to the point of becoming a gooey mess. I have become a fan of this crust in short order. You would never really know that it isn't bread until you bite into it. The nutritional yeast gives it a slightly yeasty smell when you are mixing the "dough." Best of all you are not left with a heavy, weighted down feeling in the pit of your stomach. I find that even a gluten-free crust can sometimes be too much for me. I like the fact that I can have my pizza toppings on a vegetable and I am satisfying my craving for pizza with less carbs than a regular pizza.

A slice paired with Broccoli Salad from Little Red Kitsch'n

All by itself

Finding New Things and Getting Creative

I like finding new things and experiencing new things and food is no exception. I love food! Unfortunately, I have to be very careful with my new food experiences. So I am always on the lookout for things that I can have.

There is one place in Halifax that is a very safe place for me and though I am not Vegan, there is not too much, if anything, that they make that I do not like. Fruition Natural Foods is at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market. I love the fact that their offerings are Raw, Soy Free, Dairy Free and Gluten Free. They currently have a cozy corner of the upstairs at the market. I remember when they first came to the market and had a small little table and had Kale Crisps, Sundried Tomato Pate and Coconut Almond Bars. I had all three of them and I really enjoyed them. As they started to expand their line up, I kept trying things.  I even started to get really creative with their stuff when paring it with my own things or things from the Schoolhouse Gluten Free Bakery, who can also be found at the market.

The only pictures I don't have of things from Fruition are their Coconut Almond Bars, Chia Pudding, Blueberry Mousse and their Mocha "Cheesecake." These items are never around long enough for me to get a picture of them; but trust me when I say that they are awesome!

Beet Salad with a Broiled Chicken Breast, seasoned with Pepper

My favourite lunch of Sundried Tomato Pate with fruit and cheese on Schoolhouse bread.

A veggie burger with cashew mayo on Schoolhouse bread and Sweet Potato chips from Covered Bridge



Another variation on my favourite lunch with added chicken