Curried Sweet Potatoes

My good friend Kendall and I made this dish for a birthday pot-luck a few months back which mostly had vegetarians and vegans in attendance (we also made some vegan jalapeno corn bread with a spicy mango-ginger chutney, which I'll hopefully post the recipe for soon). Unfortunately, Kendall and I don't get to see each other as often as we'd like to since we live kind of far away from each other and are both incredibly busy folks. Making this dish doesn't require a lot of prep time, and you have to wait around 40 minutes for these to finish in the oven. This leaves ample time to catch up and commune with your friends, which is exactly what Kendall and I did before heading to the party. Our dishes were gone minutes after we placed them on the table, and folks lamented that they couldn't come back for seconds. As the demi-god Charlie Sheen would say: winning.

I re-made this dish after dumpstering sweet potatoes the other day, and it was just as good (and easy) as the first time. This time, I ended up hanging out with my housemate (who was about to move to NY) while I waited for the sweet potatoes to cook. I got a little engrossed in the conversation, so the potatoes got left in the oven a bit too long, which is why they look a little TOO crispy in the photo above. In the end, they still tasted yummy and I got to have a great time talking to my roommate (and friend) before he left.

CURRIED SWEET POTATOES

Ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes
- Around 1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil (I'm pretty sure we used olive oil both times)
- Juice from 1/2-1 lemon
- Yellow curry powder (a LOT of it)
- A butt-ton of rosemary
- A healthy dose of nutmeg
- An equally healthy dose of cinnamon
- Salt & pepper to taste (I put on a lot)

Wash and cut your sweet potatoes into cubes - maybe around 1"x1". Leave the skins on for extra nutrients.
Throw everything else on your sweet potatoes and toss so the potatoes are covered.
Put them on a baking sheet covered in tin foil.
Bake in an oven at 350-400 (the higher the temperature, the crispier the outside of the sweet potatoes will get).
Take them out and turn them over a bit around half way through.
40 minutes later, and you're done. You can tell they're done if a fork goes into them easily.

Items not dumpstered or donated: Honey, spices (rosemary was from the garden)

Skurvy Killer Smoothie

So, my current roommate, Ryan, has an interesting diet...he only eats red meat (burgers & steak), bacon, cake, and vanilla whey protein shakes with milk. I have also seen him eat plain pizza a few times.

He takes multivitamins (I hope), because otherwise I think he'd get scurvy.

What is scurvy, you say?

It's "a disease marked by swollen and bleeding gums, livid spots on the skin, prostration, etc. due to a diet lacking in vitamin c." It was most commonly seen among sailors who were out at sea for long periods of time before the era of refrigeration.

So, basically it's disgusting.

One of my favorite breakfast treats is a perfect remedy for Ryan the Roommate: THE SKURVY KILLER SMOOTHIE (too bad he hates all fruit and would never drink this even though it's amazing):

SKURVY KILLER SMOOTHIE

Ingredients:

An ever-changing line-up of:
- Any berries
- Bananas
- Pineapple
- Mango
- Papaya
- Orange juice (freshly squeezed or otherwise)
- Apples
- Etc.
- Plain or vanilla yogurt (which can be left out if you're vegan)
- A tinge of honey (which can be left out if you're vegan)

It's a super-refreshing way to start your day. I like to drink mine on our porch's picnic table in the sun. I usually will freshly juice some oranges if I have them, then put a mixture of fresh fruit recently picked from the dumpster and frozen fruit as a replacement for ice (since ice just waters down your smoothie) into a blender. It never gets old, because you can continually change the ingredients based on what's in season, your mood, and what the dumpster has to offer.

It literally takes 5 min. or less, and it's also a healthy snack in between meals. NOMZ.
The smoothie pictured above included strawberries, mango, banana, pineapple (both fresh & frozen), kiwi (previously frozen), freshly squeezed orange juice, blueberries (previously frozen), and a drizzle of honey.

Items not dumpstered or donated: Honey