Sweet fry

Irish and I made homemade fries tonight for dinner.  Two sweet potatoes for me, two russets for him.

Homemade fries are a beautiful thing.  They are baked, not fried.  They are salt-free if you make them that way, which we do.  They pack a lot more flavor than any I've had at a restaurant or commercially made, especially my sweet potato fries.  They're a pretty guilt-free indulgence into a traditionally guilty food.

So here's the skinny on making them for yourself.

Sweet Potato Fries

• 2 average size sweet potatoes, cleaned and peeled
• Lots of your fave spices.  We used savory all-purpose, garlic pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and dried basil flakes.  Some were also dusted with nutritional yeast (nooch).

Heat oven to 450*F.  Slice potatoes into wedges and lay onto a baking sheet.  Sprinkle spices over the tray.  Cook for 10 minutes at a time.  The cook time varies based on the thickness of the fries; thicker fries take longer to cook.  In our experience, you'll need at least 25 minutes, but it's wise to check in frequently unless you like burned fries.

The regular fries are pretty much the same recipe.  We added some red chili pepper flakes and spread the nooch on a little thicker.  In hindsight, we would probably cook the regular fries on a lower heat for longer to get the right crunchiness.

They were very yummy to munch our way through.  We have a few left to eat with dinner tomorrow too.

Other updates for this weekend:

We took a lazy approach to today since it's been a killer busy week.  Then we took a nice long family walk through the neighborhood.  It was so energizing!  I think I get the winter blah's because it's cold, gets dark early, and all I can do is bundle under blankets and wait it out.  Getting out in the sunlight in short sleeves was so awesome!  I came home feeling so much more energetic.  The pup had a little spring in her step too.

We also tried a food puzzle with BB for dinner tonight.  She doesn't really like playing with toys because she would rather be with people.  She seemed to love the exercise so much during our walk, though, that I figured it might be fun for her to work for her food a little. 

"Where's my food mommy??"

So I put her food inside a Kong-style toy, let her smell it, and then made her figure out the rest.  At first she pouted, but she really loves her food so eventually she started working to get the food.  She ended up loving it and got so excited about playing around.  It was awesome to see her having so much fun.


Do you like healthifying traditional foods?  Do you get the winter blues?  If you have a dog, do you take absolute joy in them? Without a doubt I have the best dog on earth and can't get enough of her!

P.S. Averie's got a cookbook giveaway going.