SORRY for the last 13 hours of NO Zesty.  My hosting account was suspended due to excessive usage!!!  GRRR anyway we are backup and running and I have a post for you.

Happy Wednesday to you!

Before we get on to the most exciting part of your day ( I mean you reading this post) let me mention that Blake from Blake Makes is doing something really cool today.  He is hosting a giveaway but guess what, the giveaway is for a chance to win Zesty’s Blog makeover.  How cool is that?  So everyone that votes enters over at Blake makes will also be entered into the blog makeover contest.  As i write this post, we are so close to getting 200 comments – not too mention all the blog mentions and tweets.  When all is said and done we will be well over 300 entries… so exciting.

On to the Food

What do you get when you have one piece of boneless chicken left, a cup of Jasmine rice, a head of broccoli on it’s last leg, a carrot and one can of Wolfgang Puck’s Organic Vegetable soup on hand?

I give you Zesty’s All in the Pot Goulash.  It tasted quite good actually.  It was not something I h ave ever whipped up before I can honestly admit that.  I used the soup as a sauce almost and added it early after the carrot and chicken sauteed so that it would reduce and thicken without the lid.  It worked like a charm.  I cooked the rice separately to avoid to much complication with measurements and liquid balance ratios.

In the end you have something that looks like this…

Ingredients

• 1 Carrot ( chopped)
• 1 Chicken Breast
• 1 Cup rice
• 1 Head of broccoli
• 1 Can of Wolfgang Puck’s Organic Vegetable soup
• 1/2 can of water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 1 Tsp. red pepper flakes
• Dash of chili powder

Method

1. Preheat pot to medium heat; add olive oil.
2. Toss in carrot, garlic and chicken and let brown about 5-7 minutes
3. Cook rice in a separate pot according to directions
4. Add soup, water, chili powder and red pepper flakes; let simmer for 10 minutes while rice cooks.
5. Toss in broccoli for final 3 minutes; add salt and pepper
6. Once rice is cooked, add rice to the mixture and stir.
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Keep the heat up to medium when you add the soup and the lid off.  This will allow the soup to thicken.  Add your seasonings once the soup has been added.  Do note, add whatever flavors you like…. curry would work well in here as well.

Again – sorry for the delay in posting and all the hiccups I have caused.  Hopefully the issue is solved and we can move on as per usual.  Have a great Wednesday and don’t forget to enter in the makeover.  The final day is Friday.

Take care

zesty

OH CANADA!  Where do I start with today’s post.  Let’s just say yesterday was a pretty exciting day for Canadians.  Not only did we win the Men’s Hockey Gold medal in an exciting game but we won the most gold medals in Olympic history.  All I can say is WOW and now I am not sure what I am going to do without any Olympics on for another couple of years.

Although the Olympics are over, the food lives on forever.  Today I want to share with you another spin on some sweet potatoes.  If you don’t know, I am a large lover of sweet potatoes and I will eat them in any way shape or form.  Here is a few of the ways I have featured them on zesty in the past:

• Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes
• Sizzling Sweet Potato Skins
• Grilled Sweet Potatoes
• Baked Sweet Potato Fries
• Garlic Mashed Sweet Potatoes

It is hard to believe how many times I have feature sweet potatoes but as I am sure you will agree with me…. these little orange babies are tough to beat.  Below is the simple instructions I used to create the Sweet Potato Stack.

Ingredients

• 2 Large sweet potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees and line baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Toss sweet potatoes in olive oil
3. Add salt and pepper
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes  – watching the sweet potatoes caramelize on the top.  Turn the potatoes over and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.



5. Move the sweet potatoes to the top rack and turn the heat down to 250 to let the sweet potatoes dry a little bit and become even crispier.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: The huge tip here is the thickness that you cut the sweet potatoes.  Cutting them too thin will cause them to burn and become inedible and cutting them too thick will almost cause them to be baked.  About an inch thick is the ideal thickness to get the amazing caramelized crust and the soft marshmallow like texture on the inside.

Zesty’s House Cleaning

1. Please Vote for me and Campbell’s.
2. Enter to win the free blog makeover giveaway

Alright Monday is in full wing and things are happening and back to “normal“.  I want everyone to have a great Monday and start the week off with a bang.  How is the weather in your region of the world?  I woke up to heavy rains and high winds… is spring on the way?  Let me know your thoughts on mother nature and I will talk to you soon.

Take care

zesty