Crunchy and Delicious Roasted Potatoes

I looked up a recipe for roasted potatoes online and this was supposed to be a Greek styled roasted potatoes, but I deviated quite a lot from the recipe so it's nothing specific now.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped shallots
• 2 tablespoons thyme
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon paprika
  
• 2 minced garlic
  
• 3 pounds potatoes cut into wedges
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• Salt and pepper

Directions


Preheat oven to 425 °F. Mix together the oil, lemon juice, shallots, thyme, parsley, and garlic to make a vinaigrette.


Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and put half the vinaigrette in. Now pour the chicken stock over the potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Now bake for 45 minutes while turning the potatoes frequently to prevent sticking (although mine still stuck).


This is the finished product:


The fish is the lemon vinaigrette rainbow trout I posted a while back. It was so good I had to make it again. I made these potatoes and some assorted vegetables to serve on the side. Yummy!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are underused in my opinion. It's a lot healthier has a unique taste compared to regular potatoes (it's sweet, duh?). They are rich in carbohydrates, fiber, vitamin C and B (says Wikipedia). My favorite thing to do with potatoes is to mash'em up. Read my old post to see how I make it.


Mashed sweet potatoes have to be made a little different though, as regular potatoes are savory while sweet potatoes are... sweet. Here are a few ideas on what to put in mashed sweet potatoes:

• Sour cream
• Salt and pepper
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Orange Juice

These are the ones I've tried so far, but there's plenty more you can experiment with! Something like cinnamon should taste good with it.

Improv Cream of Chicken Pasta

I was hungry, tired, and in a hurry one day so I made a pasta sauce with random ingredients in the kitchen. I probably broke a lot of "chef" rules making this, but it was easy and it tasted pretty good.

Ingredients:

• 2x Chicken thighs (chicken breasts are preferred, but I didn't have any at the time)
  
• Tomatoes
• Onion
• Garlic
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil
  

Directions:

The chicken thighs were already marinated in the freezer, so I thawed it in the microwave and put it in the oven (375 degrees) for about 20 minutes (check if it's cooked through!). Then cut the meat into bite size pieces. Heat up the olive oil then put onion and garlic in the pan for 10 minutes then mix in the tomatoes and the can of soup. Put the chicken in and let it simmer for 10 minutes or so. Cook any pasta of your choice (I actually used macaroni... weird, I know) and serve. Done!

Meatballs

This is my first attempt at meatballs, using the expiring ground beef as an attempt to make the best of it. Meatballs are easier to make than I thought.

Ingredients

• 1 small (6-ounce) onion, grated
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 16 ounces ground beef
• Mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Take the onions, parsley, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, egg, ketchup, garlic, salt, pepper, and beef and mix them in a large bowl. Mix it gently so it it won't come out too hard. It should look like this.


Next, roll them into 1 1/2 inch balls and put the cheese into the center of each. There's supposed to be 12, but I ended up with 11 (I think I made mine too big).


Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until cooked through. Most people also brown the outside with a skilet before putting them in the oven, it's up to you. You can eat it on its own or make spaghetti and meatballs.