A couple weeks ago (yes, I’m behind on posting this!) I had my friend Janan over for dinner. Janan is also a dietitian, so whenever she comes over we try to make healthy meals together. It’s always fun cooking as we sip on wine (or in my case, a cold beer!) and catch up on life. When Janan came over the last time I felt incredibly lazy. She got to work making her 4-Spice Smashed Sweet Potatoes, and I just….watched. You know that feeling of just wanting to watch someone cook…right? I mean, the Food Network is popular for a reason.
4-Spice Smashed Sweet Potatoes
(Serves ~ 6)
Ingredients
2 sweet potatoes
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 T cilantro, chopped
4-5 shakes of Red Hot
2 cloves garlic, chopped (we omitted this)
1/4 t pepper
Directions
- Boil the sweet potatoes until nice and soft (~ 5-10 minutes)
- MASH those babies (with the skin on)
- Add all the cilantro, garlic, yogurt, Red Hot, and mix well.
Eventually I decided not to be lazy, and I got off my butt and grabbed the cod I had thawed in the fridge. It was wild-caught cod, but I completely forget where it was from. Anyway, I rolled the three cod fillets in one egg white and then sprinkled about 2 tablespoons (on each) of whole wheat Italian bread crumbs on the cod.
The final meal was a breaded cod filet served with sauteed spinach and 4-spice smashed sweet potatoes. We all agree it was perfect (Nick was with us).
Which picture looks better, top or bottom? I know neither of them look great, but I’m working on getting better lighting with my photos. This night was one of those “red sky at night” evenings, which make for poor photo lighting.
After Janan left I asked Nick to get out the grill to cook some chicken I had thawed. I was going to cook it inside and then use it for weekly meals, but then I thought “I’m feeling so lazy, wouldn’t it be great if Nick could just grill this?!”. Since Nick is the best, he agreed to get out the grill around 8:30pm to appease me and grill the chicken.
At this time we had never used the grill before (this was about two weeks ago, and since then we’ve only used it two other times), and I should have made something special, but I had no desire (again, I was lazzzzy). Either way, here is what I did;
- Got out 3 chicken breasts (Antibiotic and Hormone Free, although just an FYI, all chicken is hormone free)
- Coated the raw chicken with 2 T EVOO (to add juiciness and to protect from AGEs)
- Once grilled, I vovered the grilled chicken with BBQ sauce
Last step: Put in fridge or freezer for weekly meals
(lazy prep for some meals for upcoming week; complete)
Question: What’s your favorite thing to grill in the summer? I won’t lie, I’m excited for some Italian sausages and bratwursts!
