I have a tendency to go to the grocery store or farmer’s market each weekend and buy veggies just because they are so beautiful and I have the best intentions to go home and make wonderful meals with them right away. Well, as I’ve mentioned before, time to cook is really hard to come by some days and my beautiful veggies often sit there until I realize that I have to use them lickety-split or they will go bad. Such was the case with the veggies I used in last night’s dinner. The sweet potatoes I used were so on their last legs, but I managed to make something delicious out of them. Here’s what the dinner looked like:

I marinated the zucchini slices in red wine vinaigrette for an hour or so and then placed them on a baking sheet and roasted them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes. I imagine that is longer than normal, but I was roasting them at the same time as the sweet potatoes. The crust on the sweet potatoes is similar to the crust mixture I used on the tofu I made a few weeks ago, but I didn’t spice it up as much because I really wanted the sweetness of the potatoes to come through. I simply put ~1 1/2 cups of corn flakes and ~1/2 cup of Trader Joe’s O’s in my food processor along with a few tablespoons of cornmeal, a teaspoon or two of brown sugar, some garlic powder, some salt, and some paprika and ground it all up together. I sliced the sweet potatoes and marinated them in salad dressing (I used a tahini dressing, but any creamy dressing or sauce will probably work) and then dipped both sides in the crust mixture until covered. I laid them out on some parchment paper (I really need to get more baking sheets) and roasted them along with the zucchini. In the meantime, I made this tofu cheddar recipe. When all the veggies had finished roasting, I just put the zucchini and cheddar on sprouted grain bread for a sandwich and placed the sweet potato “coins” on the side. I had tasted the tofu cheddar when I was making it and I really didn’t like how it tasted and thought it was a strange substitution for cheddar (I thought, “How could curry + thyme + cumin + turmeric = cheddar?”). After I tasted it on my sandwich, though, I was so surprised! It really did taste like cheddar! It was tangy and salty and SO GOOD! I will definitely use this soon in things like burritos and wraps. Also, if you’ve never checked out the Real Food Daily Cookbook, I highly recommend it. It is not only gorgeous, but I want to make EVERY RECIPE IN IT!

Whereas I was more a fan of the zucchini & cheddar sandwich, my husband LOVED the crusted sweet potatoes. I’m more of a “taste” person when it comes to food, but he is absolutely a “texture” person. His favorite texture combination is crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, so these sweet potatoes made his day. Although I think I will make the sweet potatoes again, I really only liked (but didn’t love) them. I ate 4 or 5 of the “coins”, but my husband ate about 20 (He complained to me later about eating too much. He basically couldn’t stop himself!).

Tonight I’m only making dinner for myself and my daughter, so it will probably be something easy, but I’m going to bake something up tonight after she goes to bed, so I’ll have something to share with all of you tomorrow! :-)