It's Pinspired Friday! {Sweet Potato Hash Browns}

It's Friday, so that only means two things: the weekend is here...and more importantly, it's time for Pinspired Friday. ;)

The steam made for kind of a crappy picture... but I ate them too fast to retake. ;)

Today, we're making sweet potato hash browns. If you haven't been reading lately (don't break my heart!), we've been following Bob Harper's "The Skinny Rules" as our new way of life/diet. In his book, he has a recipe for sweet potato hash browns. I was looking for something yummy to serve our lovely house guests this weekend for breakfast... and I remembered the recipe for sweet potato hash browns in the book.

Fast forward a little bit... and I'm mildly confused. By reading through the recipe, it's clearly not for hashbrowns, but rather sweet potato home fries if anything... it was just cubed sweet potatoes. And if you've ever cooked sweet potatoes, you know they take a long time to cook. Cue sad face.  A quick search around Pinterest brought me to these actual, sweet potato hash browns.

Sweet Potato Hash Browns from nomnompaleo

Here is the biggest plus about these... other than the fact that they taste amazing and are lower calorie, and paleo diet approved - they take only a few minutes to cook! Because you shred them small, they cook way faster. Like less than ten minutes. That's my kinda food!

Not pictured... an egg (optional!)

So let's make you some! Here's what you'll need.
• 1 sweet potato. I used a really small one (like 2" wide and maybe 6" long) and it is plenty for one person, could be two small portions.
• olive oil
• salt
• black pepper
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• Herbs De Provence - these are the kicker - these give this dish a totally unmatched flavor. Herbs De Provence is a mix of basil, marjoram, thyme, sage, savory, and rosemary.
• An egg (optional)

You'll also want:
• A stovetop
• A frying pan with lid.
• A peeler and a grater or food processor with julienne setting.

First, get some oil to shimmering in a fry pan. I just eyeballed this - I wanted enough to give my sweet potatoes a little crisp and not stick to the pan.

Peel and shred your sweet potato. That little potato made all of this!

Attempt not to maim yourself with the shredder. Nice job.

Now, place your shredded sweet potatoes in the pan, they'll sizzle a little and immediately start turning a different shade of orange. Top them with the salt, pepper, herbs de provence, garlic powder and onion powder. With a spatula, flip them and mix them so they all get a bit of spice and start cooking.

Place your lid on top and let them cook a little. Don't be like me and walk away... otherwise the crispy parts become burnt, and it's not the same.

They'll turn a different shade of orange as they cook, and you want them to cook to the bottom a little so they get crispy but not burnt, so watch them carefully.

Remove some of the burnt pieces and toss them. Whoops. If you want, you can crack an egg at this point in the same pan and mix it in with the sweet potato. OMG. So good.

Remove them to plate when your egg is sufficiently cooked to your liking, or if you're not doing an egg, you can remove them pretty shortly after they turn all the same color and are slightly mushy and slightly crispy.

Aww yeah, so good. Serve them right away, as they get cold quick and they taste best when warm.

Thanks for following along!

I'm linking up to these parties!

Fiesta Stir Fry Recipe

In keeping up with this diet/lifestyle change (we're following Bob Harper's 'The Skinny Rules'), we are supposed to eat quite a bit of stir fry, and it can't be drenched in Panda Express Orange Chicken sauce (bummer).

Well, I am trying so hard to like my veggies... but man, I am just not a fan. The normal "stirfry" bag has water chestnuts (blargh), mushrooms (nope), red pepper (meh), broccoli  carrots, and celery (tolerable). So looking through the other combinations that our Meijer offers, I stumbled upon a "Fiesta" mix.

The Fiesta mix had red beans, white beans, garbanzo beans, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, and red pepper. Sign. me. up. All things that I enjoy. So I grabbed one of those (mistake, should have grabbed more than one... oh well, next time) and decided to make a fiesta stir fry with chicken for lunch one day.

Looks yummy eh? It's low calorie and has just a hint of fiesta flavor when you add the spices and chicken. A great way to get your veg in! :)

Want to make it? You'll need:
• 1 small chicken breast, thawed
• 1 bag of Meijer Fiesta Style Mixed Vegetables
• Cumin
• Onion Powder
• Chili Powder
• Garlic Powder

You'll also want:
• A pot of boiling water
• A little bit of Olive Oil
• A resealable bowl with lid
• A colander

Cut up your chicken breast into small chunks. When your water is boiling, throw in the chicken pieces and let them cook until they are just white. (Isn't chicken cooking attractive?)

Once your chicken is just white, add your bag of veg. I added the whole bag as I was making lunch for Mr. LOC and I, plus leftovers are always good.

Cook your veg and chicken together. I put a lid on and let it boil for about 5-7 minutes. Once the vegetables are just soft (not mush!), remove and drain in a colander into a sink.

Place the vegetables and chicken into a resealable bowl (one with a lid), and drizzle the mix LIGHTLY with some olive oil. This gives the spices something to stick to on the veg. Dash the cumin, chili powder, onion, and garlic in to your taste. I gave just a light dash of each. Now place the lid on tightly, and shake. This will help distribute the spices evenly.

What a beautiful mix, eh?

Serve this one hot - It doesn't taste super awesome cold. If you're not following a low calorie regiment right now, you could definitely add some salsa, add some cheese, put in tortillas or something different. :) We ate it just as you see it.

Hope you enjoyed this simple recipe! :)

P.S. - This post is not affiliated with Bob Harper or Meijer. I'm just featuring things that are working for me! :)

Weight Loss Using Bob Harper's "The Skinny Rules" - Chili Lime Tilapia Recipe

I know I've only touched on weight loss here before once or twice... but it's something I have dealt with for a long time. Who hasn't, really? I think we all struggle with weight loss, even if it's 100's of pounds to lose or just a few to look better in a bikini.

Our good friends embarked on their weight loss journey together and have found success. Mr. LOC and I could not be happier for them, as we know what a struggle it can be. So MAJOR congratulations to them (if they are reading! :). Mr. LOC and I had to know how they did it, and they shared their secret weapon...

Bob Harper "The Skinny Rules" - easy to follow rules for getting skinny, it's chock full of recipes, and has a full month's worth of meal plans, along with advice and things that make you realize it maybe, could be that easy if these rules could be followed.

We decided to get a copy. Yesterday we finished our first full day, and we're past breakfast on the second day. *fistpump*.

Last night's dinner was to be fish, cauliflower, and green beans. One of the benefits of this diet/lifestyle change, which is similar to other lower calorie diets, is that you can have any kind of seasonings/herbs to jazz up your food a little. Well, if you know me, I have a tendency to spice things up by adding a little extra (maybe that's how I got in this situation... whoops), but I realized I could do this the "skinny rules" way.

He has a great recipe for Roasted Fish in his book, but it was pretty basic. Salt, pepper, olive oil, roast and eat. Frowny face. After a quick flip through the rest of the book to make sure lime juice was okay, I rounded up some herbs and seasonings. May I present...

Today, I'm going to touch on the fish, but keep your eyes peeled for a post about the cauliflower!

Let's gather our ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Lime juice
• Garlic powder
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• Sea salt
• Parsley
• Two tilapia fillets, completely thawed (I made this for Mr. LOC and I, and we only had one fillet each... you may want more for your family.)

You'll also want:
• A roasting pan or cookie sheet
• An oven
• Tinfoil

First, preheat your oven to 475. While your oven is preheating, stick your empty cookie sheet in the oven. Obviously, this pan is going to get pretty hot, so be careful when you put your fish on it in a later step.

To avoid extra fat, we're going to coat the tilapia using the lime juice instead of coating it in olive oil.

On one side, drip a little lime juice on the tilapia, or if you want, put the lime juice in your hand and coat the tilapia that way. Remember, that lime juice will have a bit of natural sugar so don't go crazy. Extra points if you use actual limes.

Then, take your garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper flakes, parsley, and sea salt and dash a little of each on the fish. Again, don't go nuts with the sea salt as we're also avoiding a ton of sodium here too.

Flip the fish over and repeat the process. Once your oven has heated to 475, tear a piece of tinfoil and give it a little bit of olive oil. Then place the tilapia on the foil. Carefully move the foil with the tilapia on to the hot cookie sheet in the oven. You can move your oven racks out carefully to make this step easier by sliding them out and then back in.

Roast for about 13-15 minutes. Watch the time on this one, I needed about 13 minutes, but the original calls for 8-10.

Get excited, you just made low calorie chili lime tilapia! :) The key here is to keep your modifications within the rules. Herbs and spices can really take something blah and make it great!

Keep your eyes peeled here for other Skinny Rules recipes and recipe modifications. We'll be back in a few days with roasted parm cauliflower! Thanks for following along!