Sweet Potato Topped Chicken

Since I have had to learn how to cook again, I have been scouring for the internet looking for things to cook that fit my dietary requirements and taste good too. I am not a fan of boring food! So, I found this recipe on the Better Homes and Gardens website for Sweet Potato Topped Chicken. This recipe has cream in it, but since I can't have dairy, I had to modify it a little. I didn't buy canned sweet potatoes - I peeled, sliced, and boiled fresh sweet potatoes. I personally think they tasted better. I also didn't add butter to my potatoes. I made the mashed potatoes with my almond milk and some salt and pepper and they were tasty. And I used sweet potatoes, not yams. Yams would be fine, but yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing. In place of the Cream of Mushroom soup, I used some chicken broth and mixed it with some almond milk and some rice flour just to thicken it up. This tasted really well in the recipe! If you like Cream of whatever soup, that would be fine too!

I assembled the recipe in my enamel coated dutch oven. It made the dish yummier and since the dutch oven is over safe, I was able to put it into the oven in the same pot when I was ready to broil it.

After I had assembled the dish, I turned on the broiler and broiled the dish just to kind of give the potatoes a little bit of a crust so this would feel more like a chicken pot pie only without the crust. I will definitely make this again, but I would probably use more almond milk and rice flour in my cream substitution next time so the mixture is a little thicker. I think I will also use rotisserie style chicken next time too. And if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you could easily omit the chicken and just add more vegetables to the mixture and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I always like dishes that can be switched up!

I didn't take a picture of my attempt at this dish, so you will have to be satisfied with a stock photo. Tonight's recipe is called "Lime in the Coconut" Drumsticks! I am looking forward to it!


Sweet Potato Topped Chicken:

Oatmeal Awesomeness!

Sometime ago I cooked up some baked oatmeal as featured in the Amish cookbook called Amish Heritage Cookbook by Beverly Lewis (due to copyright, I cannot post the recipe, but you can buy the book or see if your library has it). The oatmeal was very simple to make -- it basically consisted of rolled oats, brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, and butter. I baked it and then served it up with some dried fruit and milk. This was so good!

I plan to make it again. I think next time I will try it with strawberries and bananas. I also liked this recipe because it freezes well and keeps well in the fridge. All you have to do is re-heat it and add it to some milk and you are good to go.

Because it has been so long since I made this, I don't really have anymore to say about this. But if you are looking for a new oatmeal recipe - this one is it! It doesn't take much longer to prepare than your standard instant oatmeal and it tastes way better!

Baked Oatmeal:

Mmm. . . .Grasshoppers. . .

So, I got your attention, huh? Let me explain. Last night I made and had Shrimp and Rice Bake. Shrimp is like my most favorite food ever, so I was definitely excited to try this dish and also have menial success with cooking rice. My father does not like shrimp and every time I have shrimp for dinner when we go out or I cook it on his grill he always asks me, "How are the grasshoppers?" So, this is why I have titled this post what I have.

This dish was a one pot wonder! My parents got me this enamel coated dutch oven (it looks like a casserole dish, but it is really a dutch over) and this pot worked wonders for this meal. I put the dutch oven on the stop and cooked the bacon and then basically threw in all of the other ingredients on top of that and went from there! This recipe also had rice in it and I was a little hesitant to do rice again after Monday's fiasco, but hey, it turned out! This dish also looked very pretty in the pan!

The only thing I would do different next time is prep the shrimp sooner or put the shrimp in the fridge to thaw! It took me awhile to clean my grasshoppers. There isn't a particular kind of shrimp I recommend. I do recommend that you get whatever is cheapest at the store and make sure you get already deveined shrimp as it makes it easier to peel and clean. Deveining shrimp is not the funnest thing to do, so paying an extra dollar or two for shrimp that has already been deveined is well worth the extra cost!

I liked all of the flavors in this dish. There was zucchini, onions, and tomatos in this dish in addition to the rice, bacon, and shrimp! The recipe also had a little paprika in it which gave it this nice smoky, cajuny flavor! I have a lot of leftovers and I am thinking this will be great in a pita pocket or even mixed with some cheese for a fajita of sorts!

There will be no blog posts on recipes for the next couple of days as I will be off playing and do other wonderful things. I do plan, however, to blog about something. I have decided to add a product review section on here where I will rave about my favorite kitchen gadgets! Have a great rest of the week and remember if you have any ideas on how to make the blog better or on what to try next, let me know!

Shrimp And Rice Bake: