Purple.... Sweet Potatoes!?

At the grocery this week I was so excited to see PURPLE sweet potatoes for sale!!  I didn't even know they existed until the moment I saw the glorious full bin of purpleness before my eyes...

I grabbed some up, along with some orange ones!  We go through lots of sweet potatoes these days.  R gobbles them up either in a puree or just cooked and mushed together so he can pick them up!  We have also been enjoying them in yummy fall soups!  This is pretty much my favorite soup of all time: Apple-Cheddar-Squash Soup, I use a sweet potato instead of the white potato!

If you want to enjoy some delicious baked sweet potato, here's what I did: Preheat the oven to 410 degrees. Scrubbed each potato under running water to remove the dirt, then poked holes in them and run them under water again for some extra moisture to aid the cooking process.  Wrap each potato in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet on the second to the bottom oven rack.  The smaller ones cooked in 45 minutes and the large one took 1 hour.  They are done when the sides are soft when squeezed (with an oven mitt, of course!) 

After baking, remove the foil (again best with an oven mitt!) and then slice them down the middle.  Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then remove the skins if you want!

I just turned these pretty purple ones into a mash to freeze up for R!  Here's my other post on another way to make homemade Baby Sweetie Potatoes.

PUUUURRRPLEEEE!!!!!!!!  What a beautiful, rich color!!

You can imagine how fun it was feeding R a purple lunch!  This is turkey/butternut squash/purple sweet potato!

R also enjoys eating them as finger food!!

Oh boy!  He's growing so fast!

Halloween Wreath

This isn't so much of a tutorial as it is just a wreath idea post!  If you've done any wreath making before you know that it is a fun and simple way to add a little creativity to your front door!  All you need are some different pieces that you like and think will look good together and... a HOT GLUE GUN!  Which is the best part, of course!  I get my supplies at Michael's because they always have interesting stuff that is really easy to work with.

My idea for a Halloween wreath was something black and spooky... wow, big surprise there!  I wasn't able to find a black wreath base at the store, so I was hoping that I could just get by with the black leaf vine stuff I picked out.  However it ended up not being sturdy enough.  So, what I ended up doing was grabbing some foam board that my husband had leftover from a project and cut a circle out of it!  It definitely didn't come out perfect but it doesn't need to be.  I had some floral wire on hand and so I placed it on various points of the circle to secure the leaf stuff to.  I hope these pictures help, because I think my explanation is not going so well....

That is what I'm talking about ^  Then I laid the vine around it and secured it with the wires.  Like this:

The point is... if you can't find a pre-made wreath base... it's not hard to come up with something yourself!

If you find you want to stand the wreath up... use a recipe book holder to prop up the wreath while you glue things on!  This was really helpful I can't believe I haven't done this before!

Here area a few pics of the completed project!  I love the green, sparkly, glowing Jack-O-Lantern!

I will show the rest of our porch once we get it completely decorated... there are still a few touches that need to be added!

Since it won't be long now... here are the Thanksgiving and Christmas wreaths, too!

Happy wreath making!!

It's a BreakSnack!

So, what happened was... I was STARVING.  (...ah, gonna be a good story, haha!)

But really, I was so hungry.  Thankfully I had been to the grocery just yesterday so I had lots of yumminess in the house, whew!  I believe that this would be correctly called a tostada.  However, I'm calling it a BreakSnack!  Beeecause you could have it for breakfast!  Or for a SNACK!  Also, it's good for you so it's a HealthyBreakSnack... but lets not get to technical!

It went down like this:

2 corn tortillas

2 eggs (or whites + a yolk)

1/2 avocado

salsa

shredded monterey jack/mild cheddar

salt&pepper

Scramble your eggs with salt and pepper to your liking.  Warm the tortillas through either on a skillet or in the microwave.  They do not take long to heat so sprinkle the cheese on pretty quickly so you don't burn the tortillas.  (heating directions come on the package) Then assemble!  Eggs, slice the avocado, and pour some salsa on top!  Roll up and devour!  (remember... I was so hungry)

And of course you could do all kinds of variations on this.  I just like the avocado for the Omega 3's & 6's and the egg for protein!  This thing will keep you feeling full for hours.