Tagged: recipe

Low-sodium garlic paprika roasted potatoes

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The boyfriend and I frequently have tuna salad sandwiches for dinner, and we used to have them with French fries (the frozen kind you bake in the oven). But we are trying to eat less salt, and started making our own roasted potatoes instead. It turns out they are way more delicious anyway. :)

Like most stuff I cook, this is not a recipe that demands precision. If you want to use more or less of something, do it!

Ingredients:
3 pounds of potatoes, chopped in 1 inch to half-inch pieces (I’ve used red and gold potatoes with equal success)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika

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Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes and mix to coat. Then sprinkle the spices on the potatoes and again mix to coat.

Put the potatoes on baking sheets, making sure they don’t overlap too much, and bake for about 35 minutes.

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They are good with ketchup, with salsa or by themselves!

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Low-sodium roasted green beans recipe

I’ve been looking for healthier recipes in the past few weeks. Green beans are one of favorite veggies — possibly my very favorite. But the canned kind have a lot of sodium, and I eat too much sodium as it is. (French fries are my second favorite vegetable.) So I decided to try making roasted greens beans. Many of the roasted veggie recipes I saw on the Internets included salt; I skipped that and the results were delish.

The recipe is not complicated, though I didn’t measure any of the ingredients because I don’t like to have my food creativity stifled.

Take bunch of fresh green beans (I had about 12 ounces), drizzle a spoonful or so of olive oil on them and shuffle them around to coat them. Sprinkle the beans with toppings of some sort (I used a Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning that has been chilling unused in my kitchen cabinet for a while), and shuffle them around some more to evenly distribute the seasoning.

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Put them in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, shake them around a bit so they don’t stick and put them back in the oven for five more minutes.

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They come out a bit crispy on the outside and squishy on the inside. I like the little burnt bits the best. :D

The first time I made these, I used a lot of seasoning — perhaps too much. They were very peppery and the boyfriend was not thrilled with their serious pepperiness. (I actually rather liked them that way!) The second time, less seasoning was used and we were both happy.

Making layered pumpkin cake for Thanksgiving

The sugar and butter in the last layer make a delicious crumbly crust.

I came across this recipe a few years ago while working in Lynchburg. It was published in the Danville Register & Bee, a paper my department designed. It was a reader-submitted recipe, so credit must go to Mary Jenkins.

I brought this over to my parents’ house for our Thanksgiving celebration. My little brother, Paul, finished his piece in about 2.5 seconds and began looking around furtively hoping someone would offer him another (they did).

Layered Pumpkin Cake

Layer 1

1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg

Take 1 cup of cake mix and set aside. Mix remaining ingredients together and press into bottom of pan.

Layer 2

2 cups canned pumpkin (just plain pumpkin, not pie filling)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/4 tsp cloves)
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk

Beat until smooth and pour over cake crust.

Layer 3

1 cup dry cake mix, which had been set aside
1/4 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup if you want the top layer crispier)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

Cut together with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is lumpy. Sprinkle over the filling and bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Serve warm or chilled. Also yummy covered in whipped cream. :)