A girl's gotta eat

Yes... I LOVE to eat!

I eat out all the time. When I don't eat out, I get my food delivered to my apt. Since I'm about to be unemployed and won't have the cash to dine out, I figured... "why not buy cookbooks and cook something different at least once a week?". Exactly! Why not?? So I took it by the balls and bought 3 cookbooks that will for sure keep me busy for a bit. Best part is that this goes very well with 3 of my new year's resolutions:

(1) Eat healthier
(2) Lose 15 pounds
(3) Cook more

Killing 3 birds with one stone... Can't get any better than that!

Serve me anything latin and I'll devour it!

Easy, fast and healthy!

This one better be good!

Nom nom nom

Monfongo is made by mashing tostones with garlic, and bacon.
Here's what you'll need:

3 or 4 green plantains, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Fresh garlic to taste (chopped)
4 slices of bacon
Salt to taste (or you can use Adobo)
Cooked bacon (crumbled)
Frying oil

Procedure:

Sautee the bacon slices until most of the fat has melted.

Fry the plantain slices over medium to medium-high heat in a deep pan with your favorite frying oil. Remove when the slices begin to turn crisp.

In a large mortar, mash the plantain slices with the pestle, a few at a time, adding the bacon and seasoning mixture (salt (or adobo) and garlic) gradually.

The plantains should form a thick, hard mass.

OR: hollow each ball out in the middle and fill with any tasty dish in a sauce. Some favorites are shrimp (Mofongo Relleno de Camarones), lobster (Mofongo Relleno de Langosta) and stewed chicken (Mofongo Relleno de Pollo).

OR: make little "meatball" size balls and put them in your chicken soup or stick a toothpick on them and serve them as an appetizer at a party or friends get together.

Experiment! It's ok to have fun with your food!

BUEN PROVECHO!

Marshmallow sweet potato casserole

OMG! How many times have I gone to Boston Market and ordered a LARGE size marshmallow sweet potato side. Those sides are a lil expensive when you order them separately. Especially if you order the large one.

Well... F.U. Boston Market! I now have learned how to make that delicious side dish and need you no more!

How, you ask? Well... I have to thank the internet for the recipe.

Marshmallow sweet potato casserole is such a simple dish, that even a man can do it! LOL!

Here's the recipe:
I didn't add milk to the mix, and I'm not a fan of nuts so I didn't add the walnuts. What I also didn't add was the butter, the cinnamon, paprika or the nutmeg. I tried to keep it as simple as possible so MY ingredients were (1) three sweet potatoes, (2) brown sugar, (3) vanilla extract, (4) salt, (5) maple syrup, and (6) mini marshmallows.

Below are the sweet potatoes I bought yesterday. It took me a while to find out what a raw sweet potato looked like (since I've never bought sweet potatoes), to the point where I started taking pictures of anything potato-like produce and sending it to my mom (LOLz). She said these were sweet potatoes... They were actually under "Yams". I thought yams were something different than sweet potatoes but whatevers... thing is... I picked these three.

You will need a big pot full of water. After you peel your sweet potatoes and cut them in lil cubes, dump 'em in the pot and boil them. I placed a bit of salt AND brown sugar in the water but if you don't wanna do that you don't have to.

This was my favorite part of the process! Mashing the soft sweet potatoes! It's GREAT for stress release!

While mashing the sweet potatoes I put 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 table spoon of maple syrup and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Keep mashing until all the ingredients are mixed in.

The pan I had available was a lil messed up, so I covered it with aluminum foil. I didn't grease the pan since I didn't see it necessary.

After all your mashed sweet potatoes are in the pan, sprinkle some more brown sugar. I REALLY have a sweet tooth!!!

Now grab the marshmallows and cover that sucker with them!

Ok so now you place the pan inside the oven. I put the oven at 350 degrees. The sweet potatoes are already cooked so I just put this inside the oven for the marshmallows to melt.

Mouthwatering!

Now THIS is the final product!!!! It's time to dig in!

*SIGH* doesn't this look delicious?!??!?

Nom Nom Nommmmm