Cardio and Cooking: "No Thanks" to Turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving, all~

I decided not to have turkey tonight for dinner. I knowwww... But honestly. My mom made a turkey on Thursday, I had turkey last night at a friend's house, and I have another Thanksgiving dinner to go to tomorrow. Talk about tryptophan overload.

Tonight was a lovely, quiet steak dinner. Mmm...

Things I have learned today about sweet potatoes:
- The "yams" at Sobey's are actually sweet potatoes. The flesh of yams are white to yellow to purple. Sweet potatoes have orange flesh but can have various coloured peels.
- Either they are difficult to peel and cut, or I just suck at it.
- They are low in calories and good sources of antioxidants (i.e. beta carotene), fibre, and potassium.
- They make you fart more. For those of you who immaturely "teehee" about farts like I do, I have a fun link for you :D

Medium-rare filet mignon with garlic toast, broccoli, sweet potato fries, and a cup of chrysanthemum tea. :)
FYI: I am not going to die from E. coli poisoning. My beef was purchased from a local butcher, therefore not impacted by XL Foods.

Garlic Toast
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp margarine
2 tbsp olive oil
3 ciabatta buns (You can use other kinds of bread or buns for this. It was just enough to cover 3 ciabatta buns from Sobey's.)

1. Use a cleaver or wide bladed knife to whack each clove of garlic so that the skin is easy to remove. Then, chop finely.
2. Add margarine and olive oil and mix with a spoon until combined.
3. Slice open the buns, and evenly distribute and spread the garlic butter on them.
4. Place under broiler for about 6-7 minutes, but keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.
5. Remove from oven and enjoy immediately!

Sweet Potato Fries
*Makes 1 baking sheet*
1/2 of a sweet potato (Full potato was about 20 cm x 7 cm.)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp of Mrs. Dash
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel and rinse sweet potato.
2. Cut into strips about 1.5 cm wide and 0.5 cm to 0.75 cm thick. I had to use a cleaver.
3. Soak strips in a bowl of water for 20 minutes to remove some of the starch.
4. Turn on the broiler and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Drain the water and add oil and seasonings into bowl. Toss until evenly distributed on the fries.
6. Spread out the fries on the baking sheet. Place under broiler for 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and quickly flip the fries with a metal spatula before returning the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes. Watch to make sure they don't burn.
8. Remove from oven joy immediately!

It was my first time both for making homemade garlic butter and sweet potato fries! The garlic toast turned out quite well - the butter was nice and garlicky and the toast was nice and toasty. The fries were softer than I had hoped for though :( I've read that you can use an egg white in place of olive oil to make them crispier. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. I still have half of a sweet potato!

-M