Buffalo Chicken over Sweet Potatoes

I’m not exaggerating when I say that this combo is one of the best I’ve ever had. It checks all the nutrient boxes (carb, fat, protein) while packing a ton of flavor into a healthy punch. It feels indulgent, but isn’t.

I was inspired by a Facebook photo of a friend’s takeout meal from a downtown restaurant: buffalo chicken over roasted sweet potatoes. I wondered by she was having it on sweet potatoes instead of a bun–was she gluten-free or paleo, or did the restaurant just serve it that way. We may never know. But, more importantly, why hadn’t I thought of that?

I’d purchased a container of blue cheese as a post-Whole30 indulgence (only to be put back on an elimination diet by my doctor for unrelated reasons–grrr), and decided to go ahead and use-up the container by adding it to this dish. In all honesty, it doesn’t need the blue cheese, whether you use the included mayo-based dressing or not…it’s THAT flavorful.

(Excuse the poor photo–snapped while eating lunch at my desk at the hospital.)

I adapted a recipe from Well Fed 2, by Melissa Joulwan. She includes a recipe for Buffalo Chicken Salad that begins with cooking chicken breasts, but I went with a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for convenience.

Here’s what I did:

1 rotisserie chicken, breasts only, shredded

2-4 oz blue cheese crumbles

4 small sweet potatoes, halved

1/4 C hot sauce (any brand)

2 T butter or ghee

Dressing: mix together 1/4 C homemade mayo, 1/2 T cider vinegar, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 1 T chives, 1/8 tsp paprika

Roast sweet potatoes cut-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet for approx 45 minutes, or until soft. Let cool.
Melt 2 T butter (or ghee, if you’re paleo) and mix with 1/4 C hot sauce in a bowl. Add shredded chicken and stir to coat.
Place 2 sweet potato halves cut-side up in a container (or on a plate) and top with 1/4 of the buffalo chicken mixture.
Top each with some blue cheese and a drizzle of your homemade dressing.
Enjoy!

Tuna with Sauerkraut

The other day, I received an email from Safe Catch, a canned tuna company that uses higher-than-industry-standards for mercury testing (they test every single fish!) and buys only from sea captains using sustainable fishing methods. In the email, a recipe mentioned using sauerkraut in tuna salad. Hmmm. It got me thinking. I like sauerkraut, and I had some in my fridge, and some canned tuna in the pantry (not Safe Catch, as this email was the first I’d heard of them, but after reading up on their company, I decided to grab a couple cans last time I was at Wegmans). And I try to eat something fermented every day (probiotics, man!), so why not?

Here’s my spin on the tuna-sauerkraut recipe:

1 can tuna (approx 6 oz)

1/3 C sauerkraut

1 small apple, chopped

1 tsp caraway seeds

dressing: 2 T homemade mayo, 1 T dijion mustard, a dash of apple cider vinegar

1 T toasted pistachios

Mix mayo, djion and vinegar; add a pinch of salt. Drain tuna and mix all ingredients together, stir with dressing. Serve over greens and top with pistachios, or with really good rye bread.

St. Louis-style Pizza

Here’s something I whipped-up for dinner a few nights ago:

St. Louis-Style Pizza! (Who knew they had their own kind?!)

I found the recipe on Facebook via King Arthur Flour…such a dangerous page to Like. Seriously. That, and Kara Goucher’s page…she’s a elite runner who keeps making yummy things from #runningonveggies. I just made some ‘pre-workout energy’ muffins using oat flour, almond milk and blueberries (and some other ingredients). Yum!

Back to the pizza.

It’s a baking-powder crust (or use self-rising flour), so no wait time! It’s also topped with a variety of non-traditional cheeses, like white cheddar, swiss and smoked provolone. The crust comes out very thin and cracker-like, but not at all like Marion’s (a famous Ohio pizza I liked to describe as a ‘cracker crust with pre-chewed toppings’) since it’s not yeast-y. The cheeses melt down and get ooey-gooey, and while you could definitely throw a couple more toppings on there, I wouldn’t overdo it. The crust barely browned on the bottom–I used both a pizza stone and parchment on a cookie sheet–so you don’t want to overload it. With it’s slightly smokey taste, I think I bit of ground sausage would be a nice addition, maybe some onion?

Anyway, you could literally whip the pizza up in about 30 minutes total, which makes it ideal for last-minute dinner or appetizer ideas. It’s so light, it really could be an appetizer! I served it for dinner with salads and we ate BOTH pizzas. I had been a little nervous Andrew wouldn’t like the cheese combo, but it was fine. I’m sure he could tell it wasn’t mozzarella, but I didn’t think there was a strong smokey flavor.

Definitely going to keep this one in mind for times I need a quick flatbread dough! I could see it as an appetizer; I’m thinking friends over, light pizza pieces on which to nibble with a light rose or red wine, followed by something ‘Italian’ like a veggie lasagna with green salads…followed by tiramisu. Of course.