Mantu that turned into chips

I was frustrated yesterday and today by not being able to find ground lamb at any of my local markets.

I could find lamb shanks and other lamb bits but zero ground lamb.

I did buy most of the other ingredients. 

So, until I get the rest of the stuff and I am able to try making mantu - here is a look at the breakfast I made when I was craving potato chips.

I am perpetually confused with the whole sweet potato vs yam business. I will show you what the sweet potato/yam that I used looked like:

I used the whipped egg white technique that worked out well from the recipe I used for my eggplant parmesan and added in some other spices (recipe to follow).

So, here is the downside to disliking sweets and craving the savory: If you are a sweets person you could easily go to the store and buy a big bag of potato chips and eat a handful and be done with it. But I, for one, cannot do that. I would go to the store and buy a large bag of chips and proceed to eat them all in one sitting. 


And for all of you that wondered - I totally get the whole 'I could eat a whole bag of gummy bears' thing - only for me it would be potato chips. 


So, to make sure the 'eat an entire bag of chips, be covered in potato chip bits and have the dogs stare at me like they want to jump me and scavenge off the crumbs' scenario didn't happen, I made my own chips.


And I made a great dip of greek yogurt mixed with dried parsley and Frank's Red Hot sauce for dunking.

 Yes, this turned out incredibly delicious!

Yam or sweet potato oven chips

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/2 of a yam or sweet potato, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

2 Tbsp of nutritional yeast

1 tsp of paprika

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

1/2 tsp of onion powder

a pinch of salt

cracked black pepper to taste

2 egg whites whisked till they are frothy

2 tsp. of olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and brush with olive oil.

Peel and slice the yam or sweet potato. Whisk 2 egg whites until they are frothy (not too much - you don't want it so whipped it creates peaks).

Combine the bread crumbs with the nutritional yeast, paprika,  garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper and place on a plate.

Dip the slices in the egg whites and coat well with the bread crumb mixture.

Cook the slices in the oven for 8 minutes and then turn them over and cook another 4 minutes. Cooking times will vary according to the thickness of the slices but what you are aiming for is for the slices to be golden brown on each side.

When the chips are done, pull them out of the oven and let them cool a bit. Serve in a small bowl lined with paper towels and a second bowl filled with your dip of choice.

Optional: Combine 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of dried parsley and a sprinkle of Frank's Hot Sauce for your dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Salmon patties with (cream-less) creamed peas

Salmon patty over creamed peas.

I still had two cans of salmon on hand from my latest find.

The cans are small (3.25 ounces) so I opened them both and combined them.

The recipe is below so I won't give the blow-by-blow but do know that I pulled out the portion for the dogs treats BEFORE I put in the onions. 


Onions = very bad things for dogs

And those beautiful shots of the salmon patties? Those were pictures of the dog treats. 


Every time I make a dish for myself and make treats for the dogs, the pictures of the dog treats turn out gorgeous. The pictures of my food only come out mediocre.


Odd thing that...


Here is what mine looked like:

While the salmon cakes turned out wonderful but the surprise star of the dish was the creamed peas. 

 










Even the dogs agreed with me on this one. They each carefully cleaned up every last pea and the sauce before moving on to the salmon cake.


I ate mine together and it is shocking how well salmon goes with creamed peas.


Salmon Patties

Serves 3 or 1 person and 2 dogs.

Ingredients:  

6.5 ounces of canned salmon (or a little less than half of a large 16oz can of salmon)

1 egg beaten

1 Tbsp. of fresh chopped parsley

1/4 of a yellow onion, minced fine (I just did a rough chop because I like big pieces of onion)

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

1/2 tsp of Earth Balance spread

Ground black pepper to taste

 

Instructions:

Empty the salmon into a bowl. Beat one egg and add this to the mixture. Chop the parsley and add in 1 Tbsp. Mix in the breadcrumbs. 

If you will be making dog treats - pull out the amount needed for the treats now and set aside.

Add in the chopped onion and mix well. The mixture should be wet enough to form into patties.

Place a skillet on medium heat and add in the Earth Balance spread. Form two large patties with the mixture and cook in the pan until both sides are golden brown. Remove from pan and serve over (cream-less) creamed peas.
 


Cream-less Creamed Peas
 Serves 3 

Ingredients:  

3/4 of a can of peas (15oz)
1 cup of unsweetened soymilk 
1 tsp. of Earth Balance spread
3/4 Tbsp. of All Purpose flour
3 drops of lemon juice (I added this as an afterthought but it really brightened up the sauce)
a pinch of salt

Instructions:

Put a sauce pan on low heat and melt the tsp. of Earth Balance spread. Whisk in the flour until it forms a thick paste. Add in the soymilk and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened. Stir in the lemon juice. Drain the can of peas and add 3/4 of the can to the sauce. When everything is warmed through, plate the peas and top with salmon patties.

Enjoy!