Sweet Potato Chili Fries

I stole this recipe from PaleOMG, although I suppose since I'm telling you this it's sharing, not stealing? Anyway, I made these tonight and they are delicious. What they lack in the crispiness of real fries they make up for in flavour.

EDIT: did you know there are sweet potatos that aren't bright orange?? I got some various brands of sweet potato from the farmers market this week, and some were purple, while some were red on the outside and white inside! These non orange sorts seemed to crisp much better (sometimes the orange ones are a bit soggy).

They don't even have any gluten in them which, since it's Wheat Month, is actually a problem right now. Which brings me to the real reason Wheat Month is going to make me fat, aside from the wheat. It's because my thought process, when I'm allowed to run about consuming wheat products at my leisure, goes like this: "Hm....what shall I have for dinner? I know, paleOMG's chili fries. Oh shoot, there's no gluten in those...." at which point I wandered around the grocery store looking for a gluten product worth consuming and left with a box of President's Choice Decadent Peanut Butter Icecream Sandwiches. I won't tell you how delicious they were because that would be mean.

NOTE: Nick points out I did not have to buy junk food to get my gluten, I could have thickened my chili with flour like a normal person. Touche. I'll remember that.....once the cookies are gone....

paleOMG's Sweet Potato Chili Fries

I did mine slightly differently than Juli (i.e., I did less work because I'm lazy). Also she somehow has sweet potatoes that aren't bright orange....dunno where to get those.

Ingredients

• One large sweet potato. Pick one that's stout and round not long and warped for optimum fry size
• Ground beef or sausage
• 2-3 tomatoes, diced
• seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, garlic/onion powder, a dash of cayenne pepper)
• half a sliced avacado

1.  Start browning your ground beef or sausage
2. Slice your potato into fries (cut in half and quarters lengthwise, etc, until you have somewhat even fry sized strips.
3. Dust the fries lightly with olive oil. If you put too much they won't crisp.
4. Salt the fries and bake on ~400 until squishy (cooked) and then broil for a few minutes (to crisp) until your smoke detector tells you they're done.
5. Meanwhile, add diced tomatoes to the meat and season. Simmer until the tomatoes are all juiced and the chili starts to thicken again.
6. Make a nest with your fries and plop the chili in the middle. Serve with a sliced avocado to cut the heat of the cayenne and get some tasty fats.

Tangy Orange Chicken

I stole the idea for this sauce from Ashley B's thanksgiving cranberry sauce. Mine is more orange and less cranberry so the effect is totally different. It's just the right amount of tart and sweet, and satisfies the craving for orange chicken from Manchu Wok. Crazy thought....would lemon juice instead of orange juice somehow make me some lemon chicken? I miss lemon chicken. Filing that idea for later.

The dish pictured below is the second iteration of this recipe, tried with pork instead of chicken. There weren't any fresh cranberries so I used dried. It was still tasty (although not quite as awesome), and slightly less paleo for the sugar in the dried fruit. Alas. I ate it with roasted sweet potato chips, which is my favourite side dish, and is good for when you're a bit too hungry to be totally satisfied by meat and greens. The first time I also made kale, which would have made the picture less ORANGE, but I was lazy this time. And I didn't have any Kale.

Orange Chicken

Ingredients
~1/2 can of orange juice concentrate, unsweetened (I'm quite sure actual orange juice or freshly squeezed oranges would be as good if not better)
- cranberries (fresh if you can, dried works too)
- 1 or 2 apples, peeled and diced
- boneless chicken breasts (or porkchops)

1. Heat the orange juice (diluted with equal parts water), cranberries, and diced apple in a pan that's large enough for your meat to fit in as well, and let simmer.
2. Sear the chicken in some olive oil in a separate pan. I have no idea if this is necessary, but I did this with the intention of keeping the juices in. The chicken was very juicy, perhaps the searing was responsible.
3. Add the chicken to the pan with the sauce and cover. I flipped the chicken repeatedly to cook both sides and to keep the top from drying out.

The time needed will depend on how thick your meat is. The chicken took probably 30 minutes or so, and the thinner porkchops were quicker. You're done when the meat is cooked, and the apples and cranberries are all squishy. The first time, the sauce reduced too much before the chicken was done, so I added more water as needed. The second time the pork cooked before the sauce was reduced, so I will reduce the sauce a bit more before adding the pork next time.

Roasted Sweet Potato Chips

1. Thinly slice a sweet potato. You can peel it but I never bother (although I do remove any sprouting roots or funky looking spots!).
2. Spread out on a cookie tray, and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.
3. Season with sea salt and cracked pepper. Sometimes I also use garlic powder, and once I even used ginger!
4. Bake for about 20 minutes, flipping half way. If the potatoes are cooked but still too squishy, broil for a few minutes to crisp. I bake them until the thinnest parts start to burn.