Happy Wednesday! Check out these individually topped beef nachos with guacamole, sour cream, green onion, tomato some strip loin beef and a little old cheddar cheese. WOW as I type that I remember eating this plate of nachos and loving every bite.

Pretty simple to make with just a little tedious action of topping each nacho individually. I like to do this so each nacho has the same toppings and flavor and I find my biggest pet peeve with nachos is when they get SOGGY.

Check the photos below to see what you think of these nachos.

Ingredients

• Whole grain nachos
• Strip loin steak
• Guacamole
• Tomatoes
• Green onion
• Sour cream

Method

1. Prepare steak to you either on the grill or in the pan until cooked medium.
2. Let rest for 5 minutes and then slice thinly.
3. Assemble nachos on baking sheet
4. Add steak and cheese toppings and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted
5. Remove from oven and top with remaining ingredients
6. ENJOY!

Have a super Wednesday. I am slowly catching up with consulting work. If you have a job in with me – thanks so much for being patient. I finally have the back log just under 10 now so I hope to knock this off in a timely fashion over the next few days. I am in Virginia and the weather is so nice!!! 31 Degrees Celcius which for me is HOT! Anyway I shouldl get back to the grind and go have some hotel breakfast. Talk to you on Friday.

Take care

zesty

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I cannot really believe I wrote that as a title and actually prepared this dish with these ingredients. part of me thinks it is genius and the other part of me thinks that maybe I just ruined a perfectly healthy vegetable and moved it to the dark side. Either way – these sweet potatoes were amazing!

Let me know what you think of stuffed sweet potatoes?  Taking the original stuffed potato to a new level – you cannot go wrong.  Throw whatever flavors in you like and experiment.  Let the power of the sweet potato carry the dish.

Ingredients

• Sweet Potatoes ( medium-large )
• 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
• 1/4 Tsp. Paprika
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 Cup Shredded Cheese ( cheddar/mozzarella )
• 4 Slices Bacon (Fried and crumbled)
• 3 Green Onions (Chopped for Garnish)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400, place sweet potatoes on a sheet and rub with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake for 30-35 minutes.
2. Half sweet potatoes length wise and scoop out most of the flesh into a mixing bowl.
3. Mash until smooth; add nutmeg, salt, pepper and paprika.
4. Stuff sweet potatoes will filling and top with shredded cheese
5. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake until lightly brown around the edges and the cheese is melted at 400 degrees (about 25-30 minutes).
6. Garnish with bacon, sour cream and green onion.
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: In step one, we don’t want to bake the sweet potatoes to much.  We want the sweet potato to still be somewhat firm and you must allow them to cool before cutting and scooping out the flesh.  This will ensure the case ( peel)  will stay in tact.

I hope you have a great Wednesday and for all that it is worth – you have to give this recipe a try.  I am more than confident that you will be happy with the results.  The combination of flavors really enhances the sweet potato and the bacon gives it a nice crunch and saltiness to balance the sweetness.

Along the same lines, here is another post on stuffed baked potatoes.

Take care

zesty

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Hi ZestyCook readers!  I’m Kristen over at Simply Savor.  I’m thrilled to be Zesty’s guest while he’s away…also a little intimidated because his recipes are always so mouthwatering and appealing.

On the menu today is one of my favorite sweet treats:  Lowfat Whole Wheat Sour Cream Coffee Cake.

A year ago, the threat of Hurricane Gustav forced me to temporarily evacuate New Orleans (where I was attending school at the time).  I stayed with my roommate’s mom, and she introduced me to her delicious homemade sour cream coffee cake.  This recipe was both decadent and comforting, but not what many would consider “diet-friendly” (although that didn’t stop me from enjoying every bite).

Over in the Simply Savor kitchen, I believe that simple changes can yield significant results.  Here, I’ve healthified the original recipe without sacrificing flavor by subbing applesauce for butter, cutting the sugar in half, adding egg whites, using whole wheat flour and switching to low fat sour cream.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

• ½ Cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ Cup sugar (or sweetener of your choice)
• ¼ Cup honey
• 1 egg, 2 egg whites
• ½ Tsp. vanilla
• 2 Cup whole wheat flour
• 1 Tsp. baking powder
• ¼ Tsp. salt
• 1 ½ Cup low fat sour cream or plain lowfat Greek yogurt

Crumbs

• ½ Cup. chopped pecans (or any nut of choice),
• ½ Tsp. cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp. brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, honey, and applesauce together;
3. Add eggs one at a time.







4. Stir together flour, salt, baking powder.  Add flour mixture gradually to first mixture, alternating with sour cream (or yogurt) and ending with vanilla extract.









5. Mix ingredients for crumb mixture together and spray loaf pan/Bundt pan/angel food cake pan with cooking spray.



6. Put half of mixture in pan and sprinkle half of crumb mixture on top.



7. Pour rest of cake batter and top with crumb mixture.





8. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Cool before removing from pan.  Cut yourself a delicious slice and simply savor!

Nutrition Info per slice: Serves 18.
Calories: 110 kcal  Fat: 2 g (0g sat/trans) Carbs: 20 g Fiber: 2 g Protein: 4 g

Thanks so much for a great recipe Kristen (Simply Savor).  Have a great Thursday everyone!

Take care

zesty

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As this week is catering week, another recipe that I served was super simple yet dazzling sweet potatoes.  Instead of the traditional potato skin I thought I would attempt a slight twist to kick it up a notch.  I used flavorful sweet potatoes which were baked twice, drizzled with sour cream and crumbled bacon.  Sound alright?  They were quite delicious.

Getting back to the tips from yesterday’s post with regards to catering, I prepared the sweet potatoes the day before by baking them.  I then made the filling and stuffing for the big day.  This was really simple as you will see further down in the steps below.  This offers the guests something a little different with a bit of color.  I am one of those people – “If it looks great, I am all over it”

Check out the ingredients and instructions for these Sizzling Sweet Potato Skins.

Ingredients

• 4 Medium Sweet Potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/4 Cup Low fat Buttermilk
• 1/4 Tsp. Paprika
• 1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg
• 4 Slices Bacon (Fried and crumbled)
• 3 Green Onions (Chopped for Garnish)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400, place sweet potatoes on a sheet and rub with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake for 45 minutes.
2. Half sweet potatoes length wise and scoop out most of the flesh into a mixing bowl.
3. Mash until smooth; add buttermilk, nutmeg and paprika.
4. Stuff sweet potatoes will filling.
5. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake until lightly brown around the edges at 400 degrees (about 15-20 minutes).
6. Garnish with bacon, sour cream and green onion.
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When baking the sweet potatoes the first time, it is a good idea to keep them somewhat firm and not over cook them.  They will soften up the second time around as well as with the butter milk.

Stay tuned for another catering dish coming up tomorrow…. Have a great day!

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty