Quick Dinner/Quick Blog...gotta get to a meeting!

Here's something yummy for you to chew on, while I zip off for the evening to quote on a new project:

Sesame and ginger make sweet potatoes sing in your supper.

My friend Cat is in love with this meal.  In fact, she loves it so much, she has asked me to cook nothing else but this for her.  She even sent me an email asking if she brought the ingredients on her next visit, would I Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaasssssssse cook it for her.  I'm not exaggerating the please.  That's what she said.  Now, if she didn't regularly take second helpings of other things I cook, I might think this is the first thing I've fed her that she likes, but Cat follows rules, and we have two rules here at Belle Ami:  1.  Leave your shoes on, or your socks will get dirty, and I'll be embarrassed.  and 2.  Do not eat anything you don't like, or I'm likely to serve it to you again.  She reeeeeeaaaaaaaallllly likes this.

She doesn't have to bring ingredients.  It's one of my favorites, too, and I always have these things on hand:



1 skillet of veggies + 1 pot of noodles = 1 happy tummy.  I actually use an extra large skillet for this, because I'm too lazy to get the wok out of the stack of things on the high shelf in the pantry.  My big skillet isn't as photogenic though.

Sweet Potato Stir Fry Pre-cook your brown rice, or start your pasta boiling just as you start the stir fry, so noodles will be done at about the same time.

In about 1 Tbsp peanut (or other) oil,
saute
1/2 onion halved again and sliced in strips
1 sweet potato or yam, cut in sticks (julienned)
and 1/3 small head cabbage coarsely sliced.
8 mushrooms, sliced
I start the onion cooking, then slice the sweet potatoes and add them, and so on down the list

When those are just about as soft as you like them, which takes almost no time, add...
about 1 tsp minced garlic
about 1-2 Tbsp sesame oil
about 2 Tbsp fresh minced ginger
and saute about a minute.

You can add hot sauce or hot pepper flakes if you like.
Toasted sesame seeds are fabulous.
I use salt, but most people add soy sauce to taste.
If you want protein, add cooked pork, chicken, beef, or scrambled egg.  The meat is, of course, tastiest if you stir fry it just before the veggies, seasoned with some of the same yumminess.

Serve over brown rice or brown rice pasta.  If you haven't tried brown rice pasta, you can sometimes find it in the Asian aisle of the grocery store, but more often it's in the gluten-free aisle.  The brand pictured is my favorite, so far.  It is really good, and not at all like whole wheat pasta, which though I grew up on it, I still think tastes like munching on a hay bale.  Don't ask me how I know what that tastes like.

Serves 2-4, depending on appetites, and how much meat you add.

While you are enjoying your happy tummy with a little ginger glow, pop on over to my website, theartofthehome.com, to see some of the delicious paint treatments I cook up, when I'm not feeding my friends here at Belle Ami.

If you have comments or questions, leave them below, or feel free to email me at dawnmariedelara@gmail.com