Curried Sweet Potato and Chick Pea "Burgers"

I'm always on the lookout for new vegetarian meal ideas and this one sounded intriguing. We invited our friends over for dinner on the night we had these as they are vegetarian so I figured they would be good candidates to try it out on!

Curried Sweet Potato and Chick Pea "Burgers"-shared from The Sweets Life
2 cups chick peas
2-3 small sweet potatoes, baked
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped(optional)
salt and pepper to taste
favorite toppings:tomato, lettuce, mayo, ketchup

Scoop potatoes out of skin, place in a bowl. Add in chick peas and mash throughly. Season with curry powder, salt, and pepper, parsley if using. Mix to combine. Scoop out and form patties. (I got 4 big burgers and 6 mini burgers) Place on hot grill or pan and cook for 5-6 mins per side.

**I wasn't sure how these were going to stay together, but they stayed together perfectly! You never would have known they were a bean burger! We all really liked them, even the 3 kids at least tasted them. The curry was a perfect addition and it wasn't to strong. We weren't sure what would be good on them, I really liked it with tomato and mayo, our friend liked his with ketchup and mayo. Overall they were a great hit!

Coconut Chicken and Coconut Curry Sweet Potato Fries

I love anything coconut and then add in curry and I'm REALLY there! I saw these and knew I had everything on hand to make them. I was looking forward to this meal ALL week and it did NOT disappoint!

There is a recipe for the Pineapple Curry Dipping sauce also found in the link, but I decided to leave it out as I didn't think it was needed!

Coconut Chicken -shared from Cooking During Stolen Moments
1 lb chicken, cut into fingers or bite size
1/2 cup flour
salt, pepper, curry powder to taste
2 eggs
2 tsp water
1 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together flour and spices, place on a plate. Beat together eggs and water in a shallow plate or bowl. Mix together coconut and panko and place that into a shallow bowl. Dredge chicken in flour, followed by the egg mixture, and finally the coconut mixture. Press this onto the chicken if needed. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown and cooked through!

**These were delicious! I love the crispy panko with the sweet coconut! I'm not usually a fan of making breaded chicken and I was thinking that as I had 2 kids running around my feet and I was covered in goo, luckily these were very much worth it!

Coconut Curry Sweet Potato Fries

I know I saw this recipe on someone's blog, but I can't remember which one. I did actually combine 2 different recipes I wanted to try.

2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into fries
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp curry powder

Melt coconut oil. Stir in curry. Coat potatoes with mixture and lay on baking sheet. Cook at 400 degrees for about 20 mins. Potatoes should be soft when poked with a fork and crispy on one side.

**These were pretty delicious, but I do think they were missing something. I think next time I'll add just a little salt to the coconut/curry mixture. The coconut flavor was very subtle.

Sweet Potato Soup with Cheddar and Chives

I picked up one of Robin Miller's Cookbooks at the library last week...and shortly after I had quite a few recipes marked off, which my mom made fun of me for! BUT I did have 3 recipes on the menu last week...but I only made one of them after K informed me he didn't want anything spicy. I made this soup on Friday and I wasn't sure about the flavors, but it did WORK! K really enjoyed it and he usually isn't a fan of pureed soups.

I did leave the leeks out because I forgot to pick them up, so I'm sure that would had a bit more bulk to the meal. K also suggested maybe some caramelized onions for next time...not 10 mins before dinner!

Sweet Potato Soup with Cheddar and Chives-Robin Miller's Robin to the Rescue cookbook
2-3 sweet potatos, peeled and cubed
2 leeks (white part only) chopped and rinsed well(omitted)
1 qt vegetable broth
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp sugar
1 can evaporated milk
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese(cheddar, italian blend, smoked)
chives
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Place sweet potatoes in pot of water and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender. Drain and set aside.

Place olive oil in large skillet and heat up. Add in leeks, garlic, and sugar, cook until leeks soften, about 5 mins. Add potatoes and broth and bring to a boil, simmer for 5 mins. Using an immersion blender or a reg. blender puree soup. Add back to the pan and stir in evap. milk. heat through. Serve up soup and garnish with cheese and chives.(I did use dried chives)

**We mixed out cheese into the soup and surprisingly it tasted REALLY good! K used an Italian blend cheese on leftovers and he said that was EVEN better than the cheddar. The recipe did call for smoked cheese(or cheddar) but I wasn't going to pay that much for it.

Cheesy Sweet Potato Corn Chowder

This has been on our to try list for a bit and even made it to my menu plan for 2-3 weeks! I finally got around to making it this week. So glad I did!

Cheesy Sweet Potato Corn Chowder-adapted from Vanilla Sugar
2-3 sweet potatoes, cubed
2 cans of creamed corn
1 cup broth
1 1/2 cups milk
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1-2 tbsp bouillon powder(omitted)
1-2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Peel and cut up sweet potatoes. Place on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast until nice and crispy about 30-45 mins.

Place cream cheese, chicken broth, milk, bouillon, and corn in stock pot. Heat until warmed through.(I did have to whisk in the cream cheese.) Once potatoes are done add to the soup. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper. Add in cheese and stir until melted.


**This got RAVE reviews from K...he told me it was the best vegetarian meal he's ever had! It doesn't make a lot so if I made it again I'd double it. I did not have any bouillon, which the original recipe says it makes the soup, but we thought it was tasty even without it! I love the crunchy outside of the potatoes with the tender insides, but it wasn't overly cheesy. Vanilla Sugar also said it was thick and rich, but I used low fat milk and cream cheese and while it was pretty creamy it wasn't overly thick and rich. It was PERFECT for us!

Sweet Potato Pancakes

 I had some extra sweet potato puree left over so I decided to give these a try. I made it special treat by adding in mini chocolate chips. A had been begging to eat them so I finally gave in!

Sweet Potato Pancakes-shared from Lick the Bowl Good
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup applesauce(or butter melted)
1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans(omitted)

Whisk together all ingredients until well combined. Place on hot griddle and cook until edges are firm. Flip. *If you are adding in chocolate chips sprinkle on top before you flip them.

**These were pretty tasty, but K informed me he likes the pumpkin ones I make better. I think it has to do with the vinegar in that recipe as it makes it lighter and fluffier(like buttermilk would)