Turkey Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie

Ingredients:
Topping:
1 sweet potato
Parmesan cheese

Filling:
1/2 lb browned ground turkey
1 bunch green onions
1/2 cup mixed vegetables
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves minced garlic

Cook filling ingredients together for a few minutes and put in a loaf pan.

Top with mashed sweet potato and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

2 servings.

Bacon Ranch Sweet Potato Salad

Last night I made Hawaiian BBQ chicken and a side of sweet potato salad.

Boil 1 diced sweet potato. Combine with bacon bits, green onion, ranch dressing and paprika.

Quick and tasty.

Caesar Shrimp Crostini

For dinner last night I made these large caesar shrimp crostini's. These were basically sandwiches, but you could downsize it for a fun appetizer.

Grill the shrimp (seasoned with garlic salt and pepper) and the pieces of bread. Mix up some caesar dressing (I love the Panera kind in the refridgerated section of the grocery store) with some romaine lettuce.

Layer the bread, salad, and shrimp. Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese and enjoy.

Mini Bite Size Chocolate Cheesecakes

I made lemon cookies for work (see other post), but I also wanted to make something rich and chocolatey. I have made a chocolate cheesecake before, but I wanted something people could eat in one bite.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Crust:
2 tablespoons melted butter
10 crushed oreos

Put a thin layer of the crust into the bottom of a small or mini muffin pan. Bake them for about 5 minutes and remove from oven.

Filling:
Combine the following: 8ox cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Melt 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup chocolate chips, and add in to the rest of your filling mixture.

Fill the muffin cups with the filling.

Bake these in a water bath for anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on size. A knife should come out clean.

Let them cool completely (I threw mine in the freezer for 20 min)

To remove, I'd run a knife around the edge and try to pop them out if possible. If they don't come out, try a spoon around the edge to scoop them out.

To make mine a little fancier, I then melted some white chocolate in the microwave, put it in a sandwich bag and cut a tiny corner off, and drizzled them.

Low Calorie Super Cheap/Easy Lemon Cookies

OK so I saw a recipe for a lemon cookie made with a cake mix and was intrigued. I love lemon bars, so I was interested in this lemon cookie. I needed a work treat today, so decided to make my coworkers my guinea pigs. I added fresh lemon to my recipe, and they are very tasty. I estimate them at about 50 calories per cookie, which is pretty darn good.

Ingredients:
1 container cool whip (I used fat free)
1 package lemon cake mix
1 egg
Juice of 1 lemon
Powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Mix all of this together (except powdered sugar) - it will be a very thick paste. Drop little balls into powdered sugar, shape them, and place them on parchment paper (or spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray).

Bake for about 10 min, or until they begin to look slightly brown on the outside. Any more than barely darkening and they will be overdone.

Hawaiian BBQ Marinades

As I wandered through a department store's kitchen section last week, I spotted a small sauce packet called Hawaiian BBQ. The brand is Hawaiian Pride, and there are several different sauces, but the best is the Hawaiian BBQ. Any brand could be delicious, but this is the only one I have tried.

I marinated chicken thighs in this sauce (1 lb per packet) for four hours, and by that time all of the sauce was nearly soaked in to the chicken. I then grilled it and it carmelized wonderfully. I think it was seriously the best chicken I have ever had. Which is kind of frustrating since I have tried elaborate marinades that don't compare.

It is sweet, salty, slightly spicy and DELICIOUS.

I ordered 15 packets online. :-D

I think I also might try to make my own from the ingredients listed and see if I can reproduce it. Here is what it contains: Sugar, Soy Sauce, Hot Pepper Paste, Garlic Puree, Sesame Oil, Salt, Whey Powder, Sake, Spices, Dehydrated Garlic, White Sesame Seed, Yeast Extract, Citric Acid.

You can buy it here: http://www.onlyfromhawaii.com/hawaiianpridehawaiianbbqsauce29oz.aspx or check a local Asian or World food market.

Please try it, you will thank me after.

Grilled Sweet Potato Chips

I decided to try grilling sweet potato slices one day when I had a leftover sweet potato. One potato is plenty for two people. I like these a lot! Don't be fooled, these are not crunchy chips (although I do those in the oven, and will post about them someday). They are crisp on the outside and like mashed sweet potato on the inside. Yum.

Slice a sweet potato into about 1/4 inch chips. I don't peel them, because the skin is supposed to be very good for you.Lay them on a plate and microwave for 1 minute. This will speed the process and prevent burning on the grill.

Let them cool for a few minutes (and dry out), and put them in a plastic bag with about a teaspoon of olive oil.

Then season both sides with a seasoning mixture of your choice. I use the following:
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Grill them on medium heat (or top rack), and flip once they get good grill marks on one side (5ish minutes each side).

Serve them right away with your dipping sauce of choice. I like ranch dressing :)

Asian Marinated Flank Steak

The other day I was reading through an asian cookbook and saw a recipe for a marinade for steak that used italian dressing. I was intrigued because when I think of asian cuisine, I don't even picture any italian dressing being involved.

It basically was equal parts italian dressing and soy sauce and some sugar.

I tweaked it a little, and it turned out very tasty. You'll want to let it marinate overnight, or at least 4 hours.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup italian dressing
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sriracha sauce
2 tablespoons mirin (if you don't have mirin ((can be found in organic section of grocery store or an asian market)) just add some sugar and white wine)

Throw this all in a bag with a flank steak and let it sit. Then grill the flank steak and slice it thinly and serve.

I served this with grilled sweet potatoes (that'll be another post), but you could serve it with anything, maybe even over rice.

Creme De Menthe Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

If you like all things mint and chocolate, this is a great recipe for you.

My favorite dessert: a recipe from my mom called Creme De Menthe Cake. It is generally what we have for my birthday, and I could probably finish off an entire 9x13 in a weekend!

So I decided to try out a cupcake version of the recipe, portion control!

Ingredients:
Creme De Menthe
1 box white cake mix (and whatever it calls for, eggs water etc)
1 tub Cool Whip (I went low fat)
1 jar Hershey's Hot Fudge

This is a really quick recipe. Mix up the cake mix according to the box. Mine called for oil, but I left that out completely and sprayed the muffin cups with cooking spray. Then add between 1/4 and 1/3 cup Creme De Menthe. Fill your muffin cups 2/3 full (mine made 18), and bake as directed on the cake mix box.

When the cupcakes are done, let them cool completely and then top with Hershey's Hot Fudge. I find that stirring it quickly for about 1 minute makes it much easier to spread. It's really important to use a thick fudge, not a chocolate syrup. The Hershey's fudge is in a glass jar. I would suggest not going with a cheap off brand here - it's the best part.

Once they are topped with fudge, put them in the fridge until you're ready to serve. Then stir in 1-2 tablespoons into the cool whip (taste and keep adding until it's your desired strength). Do the cool whip at the last minute, or it will get runny with the alcohol. Top the cupcakes with cool whip and dig in!