Hassel back potatoes, sweet potato fries, quinoa chili bowl + pumpkin streusel loaf

A couple of my best friends came over for dinner the other night and here’s what ended up being on the menu!

First up was my go-to appetizer dish for ALL dinners I make…roasted sweet potatoes! Usually I like to cut the sweet potatoes into cubes but we wanted them to resemble fries so I cut them into strips instead. I also tried soaking the sweet potatoes in water for an hour before putting them in the oven in hopes that they would turn out crispier…but that didn’t really work out for me. Any tips on how to get super crispy oven baked fries my lovelies?

Next up we had hasselback potatoes! This was my first time making it and I think they were a total hit! So here’s how you make these little guys…

1. Wash your potatoes. Place chopsticks or wooden spoon handles on both horizontal sides of the potato. Use a knife and cut 1/2 cm thick slices into the potato. The chopsticks/wooden spoon will prevent the knife from cutting all the way through to the bottom of the potato so that the slices stay intact and you don’t end up with slices of potatoes instead.

2. Soak the potatoes in water for 1 hour. This helps remove some of the starch so that they get crispy when you bake them.

3. Dry your potatoes with a paper towel. Combine 1/4 cup melted butter (or oil) in a small bowl and add in your seasonings. I decided to use garlic powder, Parmesan cheese and Italian herbs. Coat the potatoes with 2/3 of the seasoned butter/oil.

4. Bake potatoes on a lined baking sheet at 425F for 40 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the oven and brush the remaining herbed butter/oil on top. Stuff slices of cheddar cheese between the potato slices. I decided to put it between every other slice because I didn’t want to go too crazy. Return the potatoes back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until the potato slices are tender.

5.  Sprinkle shredded cheese on top and enjoy!

I know I know, we had not one, but two potato dishes! But we are all potato junkies and it just HAD to be done. Plus, I couldn’t decide which one to make because they are both SO yummy! Hehe, No worries though…we didn’t just have potatoes for dinner, we had this Mexican quinoa chili bowl too!

Pintrest inspired me to make this one (follow me here). All I did was cook a big ol’ batch of my vegetarian chili and added quinoa into it while it was simmering so that the quinoa would cook. Then I let the chili simmer uncovered on low heat until most of the liquid was absorbed. I guess it was a little like Mexican rice except with quinoa.

For dessert Oracle made lemon meringue tarts and I made my pumpkin coffee cake but in loaf form. I followed my recipe and instead of putting the batter in a baking pan, I just put it in a loaf pan instead. I ended up baking it for 50 – 60 minutes at 350F.

I was so glad that I managed to snap a photo of it BEFORE I took it out of the loaf pan because…while I was taking it out, part of the loaf was still stuck to the pan and it fell apart on me 😦 Oh well, it still tasted amazing, and like Neko said, if it’s unappealing to everyone else, that means more for me to eat! 😛

Hope this little girls night dinner menu inspired you in one way or another. What do you like to have for your weeknight dinners? I’m always looking for new ideas!

Keep eating, munching, and loving darlings,

-Cynthia

This post was created for Fiesta Friday, a weekly foodie link-up party. Please feel free to come join the fun, I promise you won’t regret it!

Tags: appetizer, chili, dinner, entree, Fiesta Friday, hasselback, Loaf, potatoes, pumpkin, quinoa, vegetarian