Yummy Seasoned Oven Fries

Good Morning, everyone!

Just popping in on a Monday to say hello and share this delicious recipe for fries!!!  Fries are the best, especially when they are healthier and full of flavor.  

I was watching Next Food Network Star (love that show!) and they were doing a challenge where they had to describe food in a way that would make the viewer understand the flavor of a dish, without just simply saying "delicious" or "tasty."

I'm gonna try that now.  These fries are slightly spiced and perfectly soft and pillowy on the inside with a lovely crisp on the outer edges.  They hit you with just the right amount of salt, followed with a tiny bit of heat.  I didn't even use ketchup (and I really like ketchup)!

I could eat one million of these fries.

Luckily, I had other people there to share with, so I was not forced to eat it all ;)

I used russet potatoes here, but sweet potatoes would be ah-maze-ing!  Definitely trying those next!

Seasoned Oven Fries

serves 4

5 medium (smaller than a fist) sized potatoes 

drizzle extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp Creole seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/2 tbsp paprika

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Wash the potatoes & pat them dry.  Cut them lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Turn each slice flat and slice again lengthwise into even 1/2-inch-thick fries. 

Place the potatoes in a mixing bowl and add the olive oil, all seasonings and Parmesan. Toss well to combine, then transfer the fries to a large oiled baking sheet and arrange them in one even layer. 

Bake for 30 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Emeril

Have a Wonderful Day!

Cajun Corn Chowder with Crab

What's this?  Oh, another soup.  

Predictable?  Yes.  

Worth it?  Oh yeah.

This light chowder is super rich and creamy with chunks of pepper, corn, potato and crab.  Perfect for those lingering winter days.

Cajun Corn Chowder with Crab

serves 4-6

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic (I used the pre-made, refrigerated kind)

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2-3 carrots, diced (or 1/2 a bag of baby carrots, diced)

2-2 1/2 cups of corn (You can use frozen if you want.  I used fresh.)

1/2 tbsp (or more to taste) of Cajun seasoning (I used Creole seasoning)

4 cups of broth (I used chicken broth)

12 fingerling potatoes, chopped

1/4-1/2 cup of fat free sour cream

small bag of crab meat (I used imitation crab)

In a large stockpot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add garlic, onion and green pepper and saute until softened, about 4 minutes.  Add corn and seasonings and reduce heat to medium.  Cook until corn is soft, about 2 minutes.  Pour broth into pot and increase heat to high to bring to a boil.

Add chopped potatoes to boiling soup, cover and cook for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to low and put about 3-4 cups of the soup in the blender & puree.  Add the puree back into the soup and stir.  Stir in the sour cream.  Ladle into serving bowls and top with a bit of crab.  Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Eighty Twenty

Fabulous Fall Fridays: Potato Soup

I love soup. I basically live on soup in the colder months. Well, that's not true. I don't eat soup for breakfast. Or dessert. But lunch and dinner are all about soups.

This potato soup is super vegified making it healthy and filling. I was going to say that this was a vegan dish, but I used chicken broth, so it's not. If you want to make it vegan, use vegetable broth.

Here's how easy this was:

Renee's Potato Soup

4 medium sized yellow potatoes
1/2 smallish bag of baby carrots
1 head of broccoli
1 box of chicken broth
garlic
salt + pepper
olive oil
*celery would be good in this, but I did not have any

Reserve one potato and cut up your other veggies. I cut up the carrots first. I cooked the extra potato in plastic in the microwave until done (about 4 minutes), then pureed it with a little broth in my food processor to add a thickness to the soup without using flour.

Get your pot hot and throw in some oil to coat the bottom. Then toss in your chopped carrots and let them cook while you chop your other vegetables. Put the potatoes in as you cut them. Once the potatoes and carrots are in, season them with garlic, salt and pepper and put a lid on the pot and let them cook for about 10 minutes (that seemed like a run on sentence-oh well). Add the broth and the chopped broccoli and bring to a boil. Simmer until the veggies are tender, and stir in your pureed potato to thicken.

This soup is great with some cheese and bacon on top and a side of crusty bread.

So colorful!

Potato Pizza

I was in the mood for a veggie pizza, but we had no veggies suitable for a pizza. I scoured the pantry and came up with potatoes and thought, "Why not?"

I wouldn't normally post something so haphazardly thrown together, but this turned out so good, I had to share it.

The crust is thin and crispy, but not too thin and crispy and the flavors were spot on.

Anyways, make it you must.

I think I was channeling Yoda just then. Crazy delicious pizza will scramble your mind like that.

Perfect Potato Pizza

For the dough:
1 cup flour
1/2 packet of yeast
1/2 cup warm water
pinch salt
pinch sugar

For the pizza toppings:
1 cooked medium yellow potato (I cooked mine in plastic for 4 min. in the microwave)
3 pieces of precooked bacon
grated parmesan
shredded parmesan
feta cheese
herb mix
garlic salt

Stir together your flour and salt. In a separate container (I used a measuring cup) mix warm water, sugar and yeast. Mix all the dough ingredients together and let it sit in a bowl sprayed with non-stick spray for about 30 minutes. It won't rise much.

After your cooked potato is cool enough to handle, slice it into thin discs. Cut or tear your bacon into pieces.

Roll out your dough or just kind of stretch it and pat it with your hands onto your sprayed baking sheet.

Top with grated parmesan, sliced potatoes, salt, herb mix, bacon, shredded parm and feta.

Cook at 500 degrees for 12 minutes.

This recipe makes one medium sized pizza that would feed 2 hungry people. Double it if you want to make 2 pizzas.



Seriously good.



I had to pair my pizza slices with a salad to justify the carb on carb action going on with this pizza.

Speedy, Weeknight Potato Salad

At least once a day every day this week, I thought to myself, “Oh is tomorrow Friday?” Yeah, I’ve been disappointed every day when I realize that no, tomorrow is not Friday. But, you know what? Today it is true—tomorrow is FINALLY FRIDAY. Whew. It has been a long, dull week. I’m ready to celebrate with a super quick and easy recipe for something I almost never make—potato salad. I almost never make it because there is so much prep and chilling time that I don’t have the patience or forethought required to prepare this dish.
Well, last night I wanted potato salad to go with our burgers and veggies, so I speeded things up.

Here’s what you need:




1 bag of prewashed little potatoes (I used all but a handful)
¼ c mayo (I used fat free)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
4 slices precooked bacon
2 Eggs
½ c of pickle chips

Oh and some of this:



Sriracha (or other hot sauce), to taste
Seasoning salt, to taste
¼ c shredded cheese (I used parmesan)
And ice. You need some ice.

1. Get your eggs boiling in some water. Boil for 10-12 minutes.
2. Cut up your little potatoes (I quartered them for big chunks)
3. Put them in a microwave safe bowl with a little water and cover with cling wrap. Microwave until fork tender (5-7 minutes).
4. After your eggs have cooked, prepare a bowl of cold water with a sprinkle of baking soda (this makes it easier to peel the eggs. Dump 2 handfuls of ice in the water. Then add your eggs
5. Then you need to shock your potatoes. I just put the bowl of cooked potatoes under some cold water and dumped in some ice. Shocking, right?
6. While eggs and potatoes are cooling in their ice baths, zap your bacon in the microwave (I do mine for 45 seconds), then chop it and the pickles.
7. After eggs are cooled, peel and chop those, too.
8. Put everything in a bowl and admire all the pretty colors



9. Mix it up and serve or chill until ready to serve.



I know everyone likes their potato salad a certain way, so just adjust these ingredients and you can make some quick, weeknight potato salad. I get that my combo of ingredients is kind of weird—my husband commented that he had never seen potato salad like this before (I think he’s used to that light yellow grocery store potato salad). But this turned out creamy, tangy and potato-y. Yum!