Tag: sweet potato

Sweet Potato Burrito Bowls

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The days have truest been flying by and I’m amazed that today is already December 24th! I believe I posted two weeks ago. After that, I went on a day trip to Disneyland which was so much fun! It was colder than we were anticipating but we warmed up by midday. After Disney, I flew from California to New Jersey to spend a few days with my parents, then drove back to my current state, picked up my boyfriend from the airport, and then we drove back to New Jersey a few days later. And now, I’m in Spain!

With all the travel, plus work, plus cooking, it’s actually been difficult to find a few moments to sit down and write a blog post to send an update and a new recipe. Yesterday we busy because we landed in Spain in the morning and then spent the remainder of the day with my boyfriends family. We were both exhausted and so this morning we ended up sleeping in until 1pm (which was about an hour ago).

This week I thought I’d share an oldie, but a goodie. This is recipe from when I was still living in Kansas City, MO which was a little more than a year ago. I wanted to make something filling and work friendly, but also healthy. So I thought a twist on a burrito bowl would be a great option, substituting sweet potato for the ground beef.

These are a great base if you want to then branch off to tacos instead. Simply cut the sweet potato into smaller cubes, and some lettuce, cheese, and other favorite toppings, and you’re all set.

I sued minimal seasoning this time around to try and minimize smell. The site I’m currently at has about 4 microwaves upstairs, more downstairs, and more in the other building. At the Kansas City site, there were only 2 microwaves in the kitchen upstairs and they were in high demand!

Based on that, feel free to adjust based on what works best for you to make this delicious 🙂

Recipe List:

  • Sweet potato
  • 1 pack grapes/cherry tomatoes
  • 1 can sweet corn (or fire roasted corn)
  • 1 can black beans
  • 2 cups white rice
  • 1 pack of fresh cilantro

Recipe Directions:

  • Cook rice based on your preferred method
    • I use an Instant Pot: 2 cups rice, 2 cups water. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes, and let pressure release for 12 minutes.
    • I then let the rice sit in “Keep warm” until I’m ready to use it.
  • Preheat oven to 400° and prepare sweet potatoes.
    • Remove skin from sweet potato*
    • Slice sweet potatoes into thin halves.
    • Cook sweet potato in a single sheet for about 22-30 minutes, until tender.
  • When the rice is completed, chop up cilantro and mix in.*

*The steps are optional depending on preference

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Spiced Sheet-Pan Pork and Vegetables

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Happy Thanksgiving!

On Monday I drove up to San Francisco to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her boyfriend (and their puppy…who is not really a puppy anymore). I’m here for the whole week and it’s been so nice. It’s been a great change of scenery especially since I’ve spent the last two weeks isolating so that I could come up here and know it would be safe. I also took a COVID test just in case, even though I knew I didn’t have it. It was more so for my sister so that she felt comfortable having me come up.

It was a LONG drive, oh my god. I’m currently living in Claremont so it’s about a 6 hour drive.It honestly wasn’t too bad because I had a lot of distractions, but it wasn’t my favorite. About 3 hours into my drive, I had to stop for gas so I wouldn’t have to stop near SF once it was pitch black, but I guess I stopped in a not-so-safe area of southern California, so I had some friends on FaceTime keep an eye on me while I got gas. It was very uncomfortable. But the rest of the drive was smooth, except that it was dark at 4pm and I wasn’t expected to arrive until 9:30pm. But I made it! So all is well.

Normally we have other people over for Thanksgiving, but this year it was just the three of us because of COVID, but it was really nice. I think in general it was a little easier because there wasn’t as much food that had to be prepared, so I think it took off a lot of the usual pressure.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d post a pork tenderloin recipe that I made last week. This was the first time I’ve ever cooked pork, so I was a little nervous and definitely overcooked the pork in an effort to make sure I hadn’t undercooked it. But next time I’ll know and it’ll turn out perfect. Overall I would say that the recipe was really easy to follow and there wasn’t a lot of work done on my part. I think that’s the benefit of one-pan meals. There’s not usually a lot of prep work and there’s also not a lot of clean up. Perfect for when you’re busy. I got this recipe from the magazine Eat This, Not That!, the same magazine where I got the recipe for the Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili (thanks mom and dad for sending the magazine!).

The recipe called for a 20-oz pork tenderloin, and naturally, I don’t know what that means. I think when I went to buy it, it only displayed the amount in pounds, and that’s not a conversion I know how to do in my head an apparently I was too lazy to pull out my phone, so I bought about 2.5 lbs of pork tenderloin. There were only about 3 options and they were all about the same size anyway. But in doing so, I think I should have bought more sweet potatoes and beans because I felt a little low on veggies after cooking.

This is uncooked!

The honey mixture was REALLY GOOD. I loved it and will probably use it in other meals. It was just the right amount of sweet. But I had the same issue here as I did with the veggies. I think I was short on the honey mix. It covered the pork perfectly but I didn’t have enough left over to really get the veggies too. But all in all, I really liked how this turned out and it was just the right amount of food. I think for next time I need to get more potatoes and beans, cut the potatoes thinner, and maybe not buy so much pork.

Heading back to Claremont on Sunday and back to the same heavy school work routine. I’ve got about 3 weeks left until winter break, so at this point I’ve just got to push through. We’ve got a few more project deliverables due this week, then final exams and final presentations. I can’t believe it’s already the end of my first semester of grad school It’s been A LOT of work, but I really feel like I’m gaining the skills and experiences need to do what I want to do with my future career. Looking forward to my spring semester classes and hopefully hearing back soon regarding summer internships!

To be continued…

Gabriela

Sweet Potato-Quinoa Chili

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Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It’s so much fun to decorate for. I, of course, went all out! I found a lot of great stuff on Amazon for pretty cheap and a lot of stuff at Dollar Tree. I didn’t want to spend too much money so these stores ended up being great. I had a mini get together (7 people maximum) for Halloween, just to get some friends together for a post-Finals break. We all live alone or with a roommate and haven’t had much to any interaction since grad school started so I felt comfortable with a small gathering, but definitely made sure everyone who came was also practicing COVID-safe guidelines. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

I was planning on posting this on Wednesday, for it’s usual bi-weekly scheduled posting time. But it’s amazing just how overwhelmingly busy I am. Even the other day, I had a headache all day simply because I was stressed and didn’t know how I was going to get everything done that I needed to get done. I really can’t imagine posting this every week. It doesn’t take very long to make a post, but it is time that is devoted to something other than my studies. Even though I have free time for taking a break, that break time is specific for break time, not blog time. So the two week schedule is really manageable and half the time I’m surprised that it’s already been two weeks, so I can’t imagine how it would be if I posted every week. Plus it gives me a chance to take a break from making recipes when I need to (like I am this week).

For the Halloween season, my friend group and I started watching The Haunting of Bly Manor which is on Netflix. I’m not a big horror person and I’m typically the person that sits there with my eyes closed and my hands covering my ears, but this is actually a really good show. The first few episodes made me nervous, but now that I know what kind of “surprises” are expected to be in store for the rest of the show, I’m okay. Now it’s picking up and getting really good! All of the hidden details and background stories are coming out and everything’s connecting. We have ONE episode left (which we’re hopefully watching tonight) and I CAN’T WAIT.

I ended up making this meal (and next post’s meal) with a friend because we’ve started to watch this show on Netflix called Monsters & Myths, which is a docu-series talking about why certain myths have lasted so long, and what makes them so good/interesting. I highly recommend. It’s actually really good.

This week I made Sweet Potato-Quinoa Chili which is a recipe I found in Eat This, Not That! magazine. It was really easy to make and I (for once) followed the recipe perfectly. I think I was also pressured because someone else was going to be trying my food, so of course it HAD to be good. I only messed up once (with groceries….again). The probably with recipes is that they don’t say “Buy 3 red bell peppers.” They say “Use 3 cups red bell pepper,” but I don’t know how many bell peppers that correlates with! So I typically buy more so that way I know I for sure have enough. It worked out fine, I used the extra stuff for other meals, but still.

The recipe was really straight-forward and the only thing that took time was the chopping. Other than that, everything just sat happily in the pot to cook. The Greek yogurt, green onions and fresh cilantro are actually all toppings to the dish, and are not incorporated in to the actual cooking. I didn’t know this and bought a BIG tub of Greek yogurt, only to use a little scoop. Even though it was a small scoop, the Greek yogurt really balances out the spices and density of the quinoa chili, so even though it’s a small aspect, it really makes the dish come together.

To finish off our (my) hard work, we had the bowls while watching Monsters & Myths. A relaxing weeknight in preparation for a chaotic week. I feel like I’m finally getting into the flow of grad school, so maybe it’ll get easier from here on out? We’ll see. Probably not.

Next time is a rigatoni dish, so stay tuned!

To be continued…

Gabriela

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

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Hello, hello!

I hope everyone is doing well. With certain places opening up again, please remember to still be careful. It can’t hurt to still be smart about your distance with other people and washing your hands. 🙂

On my side, things are going well. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by school. There are a lot more distracting noises at home — neighbors mowing their lawns, dogs barking, young children screaming. So focusing is kinda a joke, and motivation is at an all time low. BUT, graduation is soooo close! Just have to hang in there a little longer.

It’s midterm week and I’ve got quantum chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry coming up. Also found out I have three finals on the same day (love that…). I’ve got a 20 source annotated bibliography due Friday, and yes, my sanity is slowing deteriorating.

But with all of those super fun things going on, the one thing I’m looking forward to is my birthday (yay!). Initially my big birthday celebration was going to be EDC in Las Vegas with some friends. However, with coronavirus, that’s been postponed until October and I’m back home for the time being. The upside is that I do get to spend my birthday with my parents! I haven’t had a birthday celebration with them in 4 years because I’ve always been in California. It’s usually with my sister, but it’ll be nice to celebrate with my parents again!

IMG_7219So anyway. A few weeks ago my roommate emailed me an idea for a recipe swap. Since we can’t all be together, this is a fun way to stay connected and meet new people. The recipe I received for the swap was called Healthy Sweet Potatoes and Black Bean Tacos, which naturally, we added to. We had had steak and veggies the night prior and there was a bit of steak leftover, so we added it into the tacos (it was delicious).

We used the same ingredients as the original recipe. I was a little curious about the sweet potato, but it actually fit so well in the tacos. And the honey! So unexpected but so good!! It was a huge hit with my mom and my dad. For toppings, we added shredded cheese, avocado (which we smashed up to make it easier to put on the tacos), and sour cream. The only other change we made was instead of adding the spice mix to the sweet potatoes, we mixed it in with everything, so all of the goodies had some spice.

This is an easy recipe to follow and a great recipe to convert between vegetarian and non-vegetarian. This could also be an easy vegan meal with just a few changes to the ingredients. I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Thank you roommate and recipe sender for this great recipe! This is probably something I wouldn’t have typically looked for, but I’m so happy I decided to try it!

Stay safe and stay well. Hoping everyone is hanging in there the best they can.

To be continued…

Gabriela