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

Happy Friday!!  WHOOOOO HOOOOOO.  As I type this post I am stranded in the house as the driveway is completely filled in from a snow drift.  No big deal as our snow removal guy is en route.  This gives me just enough time to share this delicious, quick and easy chicken recipe with you and kick off Friday with a bang.

Ingredients

• 2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
• 1 Cup of Mushrooms ( sliced)
• 1 1/2 Cups Salsa
• Mozzarella cheese
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Black Pepper

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees
2. In a preheated sauce pan add the olive oil and begin to brown the chicken.



3. Add the mushrooms and let cook down for about 3 minutes.



4. Turn the chicken and brown the other side and then transfer to baking pan.



5. Top the chicken and mushrooms with the salsa and top with the cheese.







6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted and cooked through.



7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Over cooking a boneless chicken breast can really turn into a bad experience.  Make sure to just cook it through until no longer pink.  Remember that boneless does not take as long as bone in too cook.

Do you Remember

Remember back when I baked homemade beer bread.  It was very good but had a funny after taste and many of you tried the recipe and some suggested the same problem with the amount of baking powder.  Well I was concerned about that so I made the recipe again last night and tweaked the 4 1/2 Teaspoons of baking powder to 3 Teaspoons.  It was much better.  I also halved the amount of melted butter on top and it was still delicious.

Here are a couple of snapshots of the finished product.

I hope you have a great Friday and I will talk to you on Monday.

Take care

zesty