Starving Artist

With life being so hectic lately, I decided this Saturday morning I would just relax with my favorite Food Network shows (Barefoot Contessa, obviously) and a warm comforting breakfast. I knew I had some yam stragglers in my vegetable crisper, and I suddenly developed the biggest craving for some yam homefries.

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And what goes best with homefries? Eggs of course! The goat cheese I had left over from the squash and beet salad was definitely finding its way into a spinach scramble. A little of this, a little of that… and this is what I came up with…

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So good! Very satisfying, yet so healthy and full of protein, fiber, and vitamins to get me going this morning. If you haven’t made breakfast yet this morning, try it out! These recipes are portioned for 1, but can easily be multiplied to feed more people :) Also, thanks to Sparkpeople.com, I’m going to start listing the calorie, carb, fat, and protein count of my recipes. I hope you find that information useful!

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Yam Homefries

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Ingredients:

• 1 small yam
• 2 tbsp chopped onion
• 1 tsp olive oil
• rosemary
• thyme
• salt + pepper

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Directions:

1. Peel and chop the yam into small cubes.
2. Toss with the olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper on a baking sheet and roast at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
3. On the stovetop, saute the onion in a frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil until translucent.
4. Add in the homefries and saute until the flavors are combined, and the fries are slightly crispy.
5. Plate and serve!

Calories: 122  Carbs: 7 g  Fat: 5 g Protein: 1 g

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Spinach and Goat Cheese Scramble

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Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup of cooked spinach
• 2 tbsp fat free half and half
• 1 1/2 tsp goat cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

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Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the egg whites, half & half, salt and pepper. Whisk until frothy.
2. Stir in the spinach.
3. Coat a pan with olive oil spray, and pour in the eggs.
4. Scramble the eggs and cook for a few minutes.
5. Once the eggs are cooked, remove the pan from the heat and add in the goat cheese.
6. Plate and enjoy!

Calories: 103  Carbs: 7 g  Fat: 1 g  Protein: 19 g

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Happy weekend! :)

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How appetizing! I set out on Sunday to make myself a batch of “lumps”. Yum. My friend Maggie had emailed me a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi that I thought sounded really delicious (which is odd since I don’t like sweet potatoes. Go figure!). With the crisp Autumn air starting to move in, I thought this would be the perfect first Fall dish to make of the season. I made some slight recipe modifications, and voile! I had myself one healthy batch of gnocchi.

The sweet potatoes were a great substitute for your everyday Idaho-variety. They’re extremely rich in complex carbs, fiber, beta carotene, and vitamins C & B6. I cooked the potatoes before mashing, and then added in the ricotta, cinnamon, S + P.

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An easy substitute of King Arthur Whole Wheat flour (my favorite) was made.

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Now that’s a nice looking ball o’dough.

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I ended up needing to add a bit more flour than the recipe called for, but was then able to roll out the dough without creating a horribly sticky mess. I divided the dough into 6 balls, and then rolled out each one into a log and cut 1-inch wide pieces.

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This was my first ever attempt at making gnocchi, so my technique definitely has much room for improvement (then again, if you’re making “lumps”, do they even really need a form? ;-)  ). Towards the end of the batch I started to pick up speed.  Here’s my gnocchi making skillzzz…

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I decided to serve the gnocchi with a maple brown butter sauce – so amazing!! I was wishing I had some sage for the sauce… next time!

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Here are the healthy ingredients that I swapped in:

GNOCCHI -

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2/3 cup part skim ricotta
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

MAPLE BROWN BUTTER SAUCE -

• 1/2 cup Smart Balance Light Butter Spread (or something similar)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons light maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Follow Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe here, just make sure to make the healthy ingredient swaps listed above!

Enjoy : )

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