I would consider sweet potato fries to be one of those things that people are 100% down with or just haven’t bothered trying. I remember one of the first times having them at a restaurant and if I’m being honest, I was not the biggest fan. Looking back, they were so FRIED. They should have been called fried sweet potato fries on the menu – it was too much for me!
That tends to be a theme at restaurants, especially chain ones – that old oil taste from a fryer lingers a little longer in your mouth than you’d like. After many years since this not so grand experience, I can say sweet potato fries are one of my favorite things now that I’ve learned how to make them myself. I also like to switch things up from the usual, so I perfected a tasty spicy sweet potato fry recipe with minimal oil and lots of flavor.
🌶️🌶️
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
2 medium sized sweet potatoes
1 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 tbsp of hot pepper flakes
3 finely chopped sprigs of rosemary (or 2 tbsp dried)
1 1/2 tbsp of honey of your choice (maple syrup as an alternative too!)
1/2 tbsp of water (to thin honey)
1 tsp of salt
THE STEPS
Preheat oven to 375°
While oven preheats, slice the potatoes in half, length wise and repeat the entire time to ensure that the small wedges maintain that long fry look. Continue to chop until the potatoes are fully sliced.
Create a mixture of remaining olive oil, hot pepper flakes, rosemary, and salt.
Toss the fries in the mixture in a large bowl to coat evenly.
Evenly distribute the fries on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
Mix water and honey together to create a thinner sweet sauce that will be easier to distribute.
Baste the fries with honey and let bake for 8-10 more minutes. (They may need a little bit more time depending on how thick you cut them)
Bonus tip: Broil for 2-4 minutes for an extra hit of crispiness!
Enjoy these sweet and spicy fries alongside a veggie burger, or any burger really – they are a staple for BBQ night at home!
If you make this recipe, feel free to share on Instagram by tagging me @savoryservingswithsav or #savoryservingswithsav Have a question about this recipe? Head on over to my contact page and fill out the form with the title of the recipe in the message section. Thank you! ♡
Nothing beats vegetables cooked in some way and serving them with a rice, quinoa, or pasta base. So filling, so warm, so simple! I eat a mash up of ingredients in this fashion maybe three times a week. Therefore, this type of meal is a staple in my life and I love to switch up the base and toppings every time I eat it. I have a recipe you need to add to your weekly cooking plan! I hit the jackpot on this creative and tasty meal, plus – I kept track of the recipe so you can make it too.
I picked up a new harvest grains blend from Trader Joe’s that is really similar to the Celebrating the Chef Quinoa + Couscous Medley, which I love. I may love this stuff even more since it’s cheaper! Follow the recipe below to see how I used this grain base!
Vegetarian + Soy Free Goodness Bowl
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
1 cup of TJ’s Harvest Grains blend (or any grain base really!)
1 head of chopped broccoli
1/2 orange pepper, sliced thin
1-2 cups of de-stemmed kale (I love greens so I use a ton)
1/2 cup of northern beans
1 tbsp of curry powder
1 tbsp of minced garlic
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tbsp of lime juice
1/2 tbsp of lemon juice
1/2 tbsp of butter for grains blend
*may need more salt for taste, optional sesame seeds for slight crunchiness*
THE STEPS
Coat pan with oil and begin sautéing garlic and chopped broccoli. At this time, also begin boiling water in a separate pot for grain mixture.
Add in all spices to really season the broccoli, as the flavors will spend the most time getting cooked into this hearty vegetable which takes the longest to cook to completion. Add in beans, peppers, kale, lemon and lime juices.
Let all of this simmer for 10-15 minutes so softness and even a little bit of crisping occurs.
Once grains mixture is done cooking, add in a pinch of salt and butter to it. Place mixture in bowl first, topping with the vegetables. As simple as that!
If you make this recipe, feel free to share on Instagram by tagging me @savoryservingswithsav or #savoryservingswithsav Have a question about this recipe? Head on over to my contact page and fill out the form with the title of the recipe in the message section. Thank you! ♡
Hello! I’m so excited to share some food and friendship goodness in this post. I have a sweet friend who I met at the summer camp we both have attended twice now, Camp Gritty, and her name is Kelly! She is a ray of light, based out of Boston but representing New York with her cute as heck accent and is truly such a joy to be around. Kelly and I wanted to make it a point to keep the Gritty magic alive by planning an afternoon in Portland when we both had some free time. She shot north on the Amtrak and I picked her up just after 12pm. I told her we’d eat that day, and boy did we!
I’m calling this part one because I live relatively close to Portland and pass through on a daily basis via the highway. I can see myself taking numerous days in the future, spending time eating delicious foods this city has to offer (I’ve been eating my way through it for years). It should be a blast as time goes by to see where I end up when I do multiple stops in one day, like I did with Kelly. I am now letting this be the beginning of a developed series – hooray! Let’s get into it.
We started off at Rose Foods, one of the best little bagel shops Portland has to offer. Look at their menu below to see what can be crafted with the help of their delicious bagels made in house.
I wanted to keep things simple and went with a sesame seed bagel with plain cream cheese, capers, and fresh dill. *chefs kiss* Kelly got a decked out bagel sandwich that was so beautiful to look at – vegan cream cheese, lox, tomatoes, and cucumber slices on a cajun bagel. So good!
We then ventured to the Portland Headlight and walked around a bit to break up the afternoon! It was the perfect fall day for this activity and a necessary place to go to when in this area for someone who hasn’t ever been prior. We wanted to continue walking around, so I parked in the Old Port where we found our way into many cute shops. The Holy Donut and Cabot Cheese store caught our attention too. The Holy Donut is a must visit place for anyone who comes to Portland as they are vital part of Maine’s donut culture. We got pomegranate and dark chocolate sea salt donuts to eat right then, and toasted coconut chocolate and fresh lemon ones for the road. Look at these potato based doughy boys!
Let me let you in on a little secret about the Cabot Cheese store – THEY HAVE SO MANY SAMPLES. It was a fun time in our adventure mixing and matching cheese flavors!
After more wandering and the evening fast approaching, we knew we would have to eat dinner – of course. I had tried to go to The Green Elephant on my birthday but there was quite a long wait so I didn’t end up eating dinner there. I felt like there would be better luck on a Sunday night to get into the well known Thai vegetarian restaurant so we went for it. Sure enough we got right in!
We started off with the fresh rolls and vegetable dumplings to share and I had to get the Thai basil fried rice with soy meat as the option to add in, as it’s one of my favorite dishes of theirs. Kelly got the hot and sour soup to end on a warm note before her train ride on home. The Green Elephant has the perfect portioned meals, enough for a plentiful amount at the time of being served and for leftovers! Cannot recommend them enough.
I have realized since living in the Greater Portland area for three years now (where has the time gone?!), there are just too many food options to keep track of – which is a good ”problem” to have! The tourist season seems to be the cause of the floods of people down in the Old Port, more locally owned spots are popping up, I cannot complain about this increase in good quality eats. It brings wonderful economic growth to the city itself and gives this city and the people that work so hard in it the attention it deserves. Maybe all of these changes have something to do with it being named, Restaurant City of the Year in 2018? Either way, I’m happy to have the opportunity to live in an area with so many options and to be able to show someone else those tasty spots as well!
If you want to keep up with what’s new in Portland for food, here are a few of my favorite resources that I check regularly:
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this little write up about our awesome day. Check out @savoryservingswithsav on Instagram to see my occasional local updates that consist mostly of bagels, coffee and freshly made goods.
When I was eighteen, after a year off from the long years of primary education had come to a close – I had to decide what I wanted to major in as my first year at the University of Southern Maine was fast approaching. The first major I settled with was Art and Entrepreneurial Studies, very quickly changing to Liberal Studies – Humanities, and then once more to Social Work.
After a year of changing my mind, I felt incredibly settled once I landed in the Social Work program, felt like I had finally “figured it out.” Little did I know, two semesters later I would quit college altogether, but it’s important to mention something about my time in that major specifically.
Once I took my first class in the program, I felt this fire within me ignite. We had open discussion and long reading assignments around topics like poverty, homelessness and it’s effects on physical and mental health from a generational standpoint, lack of access minorities have to proper healthcare, and the list of systemic misfortunes unfortunately goes on and on. Sure, I knew there was a lot of corruption that takes place, but I did not see it as much as I thought I did or felt really affected by it. I was completely side swiped by the cold hard fact that I was a privileged person in society.
I had the opportunity to expand my learning with higher education.
I lived on my own and supported myself with all of my bills and more.
I had a working vehicle that allowed me to drive 40 minutes to work and 40 minutes back home.
I lived within walking distance from a grocery store.
Really good food was as accessible to me at all times.
After realizing these things, I knew I needed to step out of my comfortable place and learn more. I have thought about my privilege in this world every day since I sat present on the course’s first day. How could I get involved with these people that were affected so drastically by the structure that was implemented to be deliberately used against them? Could I fix everything? I sat with these brain rattling thoughts for a while and continued to find interest in the material we covered.
One day while I was heading into my second semester, I saw a flyer on a bulletin board that was advertising the newly created Food Studies Program. With an interest around food in general, I inquired for more information. I read up on what the first introductory course was all about. I signed up as soon as I could.
I started the following semester taking Introduction to Food Systems and boy, were my eyes opened wide or WHAT. In this class, we read extensively about numerous heavy topics like corruption in food systems in the United States, how agriculture works, where your food really comes from, the effects mass meat lots have on the environment, and the food insecurity that takes place right here in Maine – Maine being the number one food insecure state in New England. (BDN) Food insecurity really stuck out to me during this course, and I found the reading material on this topic provoked interest, anger and sadness within me.
What does it mean to be food insecure?The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion defines it as “the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money and other resources.” Other factors that affect one’s ability to obtain nourishing food can include but are not limited to “income, employment, race/ethnicity, and disability.” Food insecurity is inclusive of the populations that have low and very low food security as well.
Low food secure households have “enough food to avoid substantially disrupting their eating patterns or reducing food intake by using a variety of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in Federal food assistance programs, or getting emergency food from community food pantries.” (USDA)
In very low food secure households “normal eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake was reduced at times during the year because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.” (USDA)
The map below shows the percentage of the population per state from a 2016-2018 average of homes that were of food insecure status. I encourage you to click here to interact with the map yourself to see your state’s average.
Map provided by Food Research and Action Center
So now that we know what food insecurity is, what can we do to help this large problem?
First: Ask questions, get curious, get educated. You do not have to take a course in the Food Studies Program at your school to learn about this. I encourage you to reach out to your local food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and non-profit organizations that see families and individuals that experience this issue first hand. They are open to questions and interest in you making an effort to help, it’s in your hands if you want to ask. Second: Volunteer. I have volunteered a few times at the Preble Street kitchen in Portland and it gave me a reality check and massive appreciation for work in this field. You do not really know how much work goes into feeding hundreds of people multiple times a day until you spend a shift in a kitchen like Preble Street’s. If you have three free hours on Saturday afternoon once a month, I encourage you to use them to help out. Third: Donate. Whether it be money, starting a food drive for your kid’s birthday, or donating food from your own cupboards – it all makes a difference. Fourth: Contact your elected officials specifically about food policy related issues. If this issue is important to you, utilize that passion and make an impact by reaching out and encourage helpful actions towards proper legislation that gets a grip on the topic of food insecurity in your state.
If I had continued my path with social work, I could have seen myself heading down the road of advocacy for accessibility for families to have food security at all times. This topic still hits my heart in all the places and my efforts to make a difference are not at a dead end. I encourage myself frequently to get back into volunteering which after researching for this post, I am aiming to do just that and more. I hope you learned a little something from this. I feel like this is something I could talk about endlessly. I barely scratched the surface of the causes of this issue, this is more of an introductory post to get the thoughts churning. I would certainly appreciate your feedback in the comments section and if you want a more in depth look at this, let me know!
love, Sav
look into the resources below to see where I found my information and how you can help
With a busy week behind me and a pretty full week ahead, I wanted make a hefty meal that would allow me to recover from the past few days, but still give me that feeling of warmth and nourishment for days to follow. Fall is really happening, comfort food is a must. I knew curry was the move to make since it brings the heat both in temperature and spice. I created this recipe as I went, keeping track of measurements and all – something to be proud of! Doesn’t just looking at it make your mouth water?
As theatrical as it sounds, this meal made me so excited be alive. I felt so many feelings while eating, like it’s soul filling goodness and overall satisfaction from the perfect combination of the spiciness and creaminess. If this is your first go at curry, just trust the process and taste as it continues to simmer over heat for about twenty minutes, you can’t really mess it up!
🌶️🌶️🌶️
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
2 tbsp of minced garlic
1/3 cup of diced vidalia onion
5 small peeled and diced red potatoes
32 oz carton of vegetable broth
1 cup of tomato sauce (I use Trader Joe’s tomato basil sauce)
3/4 cup of diced portobello mushrooms
1 cup of chickpeas
2 cups of shredded spinach
3 tbsp of curry powder
pinch of smoked paprika
1/2 tbsp of red pepper flakes
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 can of reduced fat coconut milk (I use the ones from Trader Joe’s)
1 cup of all purpose flour
4 cups of basmati rice
(ditch one tbsp of curry powder and the red pepper flakes if you don’t want the extra kick that this recipe has)
THE STEPS
Begin by peeling and dicing up your potatoes. Bring a small pot of water to a boil for potatoes and another small pot of water for the rice. Start the cooking process by parboiling your potatoes, that way a majority of the cook time is done once they make their way into the curry. Adding rice to water when ready also.
In a larger pot, add in minced garlic and onion in a small amount of oil so they begin to cook. 2-4 minutes.
Add in vegetable broth, tomato sauce, mushrooms, chickpeas, and all spices into the pot.
Once potatoes are cooking for about four minutes, drain and rise, adding them to the mixture as well.
In a small mixing bowl, add in coconut milk and flour and whisk together until a thickened mixture forms.
Add in coconut milk mixture and shredded spinach to the pot.
Let simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes, mixing every so often.
Serve over rice and enjoy!
This makes roughly five good sized servings, you’ll be stoked to be eating this all week and can freeze some too!
If you make this recipe, feel free to share on Instagram by tagging me @savoryservingswithsav or #savoryservingswithsav Have a question about this recipe? Head on over to my contact page and fill out the form with the title of the recipe in the message section. Thank you! ♡
Since the announcement of this site was yesterday, I felt like making muffins was just the way to celebrate last night! The amount of blueberries combined with heat in this recipe will ensure some bursting of the blueberries inside the muffins, giving an authentically tart and fresh flavor. The batches of muffins I make typically only yield nine, so if you’re aiming for the over a dozen mark – double the recipe!
I give you wonderfully delicious and refined sugar free blueberry muffins.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
1 1/4 cup of unbleached flour (I use the flour from Trader Joe’s)
1 cup of quick oats
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
3/4 cup of creamed honey (regular honey works or organic maple syrup)
1/2 cup of Earth Balance Vegan Butter (or butter of your choice)
1 tbsp of cinnamon
1 cup of almond milk
1 egg (or flax egg to make this recipe vegan)
1 pint of fresh blueberries
you can add vanilla extract, chia seeds, lemon zest or other berries to this recipe if you want to try something different!
THE STEPS
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon by mixing thoroughly so all dry ingredients are evenly distributed.
In a microwave safe bowl (this butter melts fast and makes the bowl hot!) melt the 1/2 cup of butter. Once melted, reserve 1 tbsp for later.
Add in the egg, butter, almond milk and honey.
Mix ingredients until a consistently sticky batter forms (it will look like runny oatmeal!)
Wash blueberries and add them into the bowl while continuing to mix.
Grease a muffin tin with your choice of greasing material and place dollops of mixture into tin.
Add a few more blueberries and shake of cinnamon on top of each muffin.
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
Take muffins out and add butter that was set aside with a basting brush to the tops of the muffins to add extra moisture and encourage a light browning to them as they finish baking.
Bake for another 3-5 minutes.
Enjoy!
If you make this recipe, feel free to share on Instagram by tagging me @savoryservingswithsav or #savoryservingswithsav
Have a question about this recipe? Head on over to my contact page and fill out the form with the title of the recipe in the message section. Thank you! ♡
“You were born to create regardless of the outcome. You will never lose trust in the creative process, even when you don’t understand the outcome.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic
(4 min read)
I have been working on having a website for quite some time now. Most of the time I’ve spent on it was resisting it though. The journey to get here was not as pretty as you’d think.
I have struggled for countless years on having the confidence and power within myself to try to stand out. Sure – I was rather artistic and kind, but that’s pretty much all I thought I had going for me. I was never athletic enough, talented enough, smart enough, blah blah blah. These things are of course not true, but I was just getting down on myself and really being the block that was feeding the narrative that being hidden from the world was better.
Suddenly, about a year ago – something in me changed. A traumatic event and a lot of time to just sit and think catapulted me into this large concept that had no end goal – I needed to do something that showcased what I really thrived in. A food SOMETHING. Something bigger than the SSWS Instagram, since I already had that started up by this point. An e-book? Sure! I drew up plans on what the pages could look like. I began mulling over format, consistency, themes and other things that I really had no experience with. It did not feel right. A recipe-less cookbook? Now that’s what I’m talking about! After a conversation with a friend, who was upfront saying that a majority of people need recipes and are not as go with the flow at cooking like I am – I put that idea to the side. A restaurant? Not attainable in my life right now and that is just a fact.
Listen, I have a lot of ideas. My brain doesn’t shut off ever (long run history with anxiety and overthinking – it’s something I’m working on, I promise) and I love to overwhelm myself and say yes to everything. I wanted to make this all work somehow: an e-book that was easily accessible, a recipe-free inspiring cooking experience that would also impact people. I work two jobs, still want to pursue visual art, have a lot going on in my life personally and can’t say yes to everything. Burn out is real and I’m in my early 20s, I needed to be logical in my approach. So on a car ride home, I thought a little bit.
Here is what I knew to be true: – I can articulate the relationship of words, thoughts and feelings rather well. – I can cook. – I can give a really in-depth detail filled description about cooking with no issues. – I have all of the modern tools to make a blog run. – I was willing to put all of the 15 other ideas I had in mind away in a box in the back of my mind somewhere for now. – I felt ready.
After some self compromising and committing to one thing (okay two technically since I run an Instagram for SSWS too…), I started this website. I threw my lack of confidence and desire to not be seen out the window, and just WENT for it.
Here we are. The first post. Live and here for you to see. As soon as I decided to do this, I created this whole website in two days. I’m so excited just thinking about making this public, that I’m writing this first post days before I intend on sharing it. My goal is to pick a topic and release a standard blog post on that topic once a week. My other content will consist of behind the scenes of my cooking, a full on recipe, a product review or some other fun idea that I will share with you at leasttwice a week. I’m hoping that isn’t too ambitious but once I decide what schedule works for me, I’ll let you friends know.
Thank you for those who encouraged me to start a blog. To those that encouraged me to push through the creative road blocks and not be attached to an outcome. To those that had no idea I was going to do this but are still super stoked about it. I can’t wait for us to have some fun.
SAVORY SERVINGS WITH SAV 