Sweet Potato Rounds with Cranberry, Feta and Hazelnuts

Sweet potato rounds are like crostinis that you load up with goodness, but it’s all on top of roasted sweet potatoes making them a totally delicious and healthy side dish.

Years ago I started making little sweet potato rounds for our Christmas dinner. We did the gruyere sweet potato stacks the most but then with leftover cranberry sauce I started to experiment and eventually that led me to an adapted version of sweet potato rounds by Tidy Mom. I absolutely love making these and they are surprisingly very easy.

I love that I can use leftover cranberry sauce or fig spread. The cheese is also easy to swap and mix up. But most of all, I love that they taste absolutely scrumptious while looking stunning. Sometimes the best food is the ugliest, but that is not the case here!!

What Do I Need to Make Sweet Potato Rounds?

Just wait until you read all the delicious ingredients that go into this recipe! So much flavor in every bite…this is what you will need:

• Sweet Potatoes – you can peel the sweet potatoes if you want but I like to leave the skins on
• Olive Oil – used to roast the sweet potato rounds
• Fresh Orange Zest – you can’t beat the flavor of fresh citrus and it plays so well with the flavor of the toppings
• Kosher Salt – adds so much flavor
• Black Pepper – adds flavor and a teeny tiny kick
• Cranberry Sauce – you can use our recipe or make your own, but definitely make it from scratch
• Crumbled Feta – buy the brick of feta and crumble it yourself

For the Nuts

• Hazelnuts – easily swapped out for other nuts if you want, but roasted hazelnuts are so perfect for the holidays!
• Butter – helps roast the nuts and adds richness and flavor
• Cinnamon – adds flavor and warmth

For the Drizzle

• Honey – acts as the base for the drizzle and adds natural sweetness
• Balsamic Vinegar – adds a sweet tangy punch to the drizzle
• Fresh Thyme – adds a bright pop of flavor and freshness

Cheese Substitutes

If you aren’t a feta fan or want to change things up a little, then these are my suggestions for some possible cheese substitutes:

• Gorgonzola
• Bleu Cheese
• Gruyere
• Goats Cheese
• Parmesan Aged White Cheddar
• Manchego

Nut Substitutes

Hazelnuts can be a little harder to find than other nuts so if you have a hard time finding them or aren’t a fan, then try swapping them with any of these:

• Hazelnuts
• Pecans
• Walnuts
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Sautéed Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes

Harvest the last of your green beans and cherry tomatoes and make this quick and simple side dish that is both healthy and appetizing!

I literally make this dish every month all year long. Snapping beans and the “thunk” of each pod hitting the bottom of a large, white bucket is burned into my childhood memory . We’d busily snap beans for my mom to can during the summer in Washington and then enjoy them all year long.

Nowadays I’ve leaned away from canning a bit and instead savor those summery flavors every month but keeping two basic ingredients in hand, just cherry tomatoes and green beans. So simple and budget friendly!

Recommended Equipment

• Wusthof Knives
• Tongs

Before You Begin…

You’ll want to get started by washing and trimming your green beans and giving them a quick blanch. See section below for how to blanch green beans.

What Do I Need for Sautéed Green Beans and Tomatoes?

You only need a few simple ingredients to make this tasty vegetable side dish.

• Green Beans: fresh is best, either from the garden or grocery store
• Kosher Salt: adds flavor to the water that you boil the green beans in
• Water: used to boil the green beans
• Olive Oil: helps sauté the shallots and vegetables
• Shallot: adds a mild onion flavor
• Garlic: adds flavor
• Cherry Tomatoes: different varieties are best, grape tomatoes also work great
• Salt and Pepper: adds flavor
• Lemon: adds a bright citrusy flavor
• Fresh Herbs: You can use any combination you want. We like to use herbs such as thyme, parsley, dill or oregano.
• Feta: or cotija works too…and the cheese is totally optional

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Blanch Green Beans So They Actually Stay Crisp

Blanching is the process of cooking a fruit or vegetable by quickly scalding them in boiling water then moving them to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. For this recipe, you will only leave the green beans in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes. This is just enough time to cook the green beans until tender but still crisp.

If you let them go much longer, they will start to get soggy and lose their bright green color. By transferring the cooked green beans to a bowl of ice water, they stop cooking and stay crisp for the next step of the recipe.

Do You Have to Trim Green Beans?

You should remove the top end of the green bean. This is the end that was once connected to the plant. It can be quite hard and chewy, so you wouldn’t want to eat it. Some people like to also remove t

Classic Margherita Pizza Recipe

My go-to pizza at all pizza restaurants is a margherita. It’s my favorite…hands down. Logically I had to create my own classic margherita pizza recipe that rivals the pies I had in Italy.

I honestly feel like you can judge how legit a pizza place is on how good their margherita is. If they can’t make a good marg…pizza in it’s most simple, pure form…then I have little hope for any of their other ‘zas. Might be harsh, but it has worked for me so far!

The crust in this recipe is a Neopolitan crust which means that it is thin. We love it thin and chewy. This pizza crust recipe is flawless and the perfect compliment to the simple and delicate but bold flavor of a margherita pizza.

Ingredients for a Margherita Pizza Recipe

Recipes that are amazing have to be complicated and have a grocery list a mile long, right? Wrong! The crust has just 5 ingredients, the sauce has 2, and for the toppings, there are 3. It really couldn’t be more simple! Here is what you will need:

Dough:

• Baker’s flour (or 00 flour): essential to getting that chewy crust you want in a pizza, see section below for more details
• Water: it needs to be warm (105-115 degrees F) to activate the yeast properly
• Sea Salt: go for fine grain, adds flavor to the crust
• Sugar: feeds the yeast
• Instant Yeast: don’t use active dry yeast

Sauce:

• San Marzano Tomatoes: you can use crushed, whole, diced…whatever you can find…it all ends up in the blender
• Sea Salt: adds flavor to the sauce

Toppings:

• Fresh Mozzarella: you can use as much or as little of the cheese as you want
• Fresh Basil: I like to leave the leaves whole and scatter them over th

Four Cheese Margherita Pizza

This Four Cheese Margherita Pizza recipe is so easy and so delicious! Actually, this is our favorite. We pretty much only eat margherita lately and while we love a classic margherita, this one is packed with so much flavor it’s hard to not make it.

There’s something especially wonderful about how the cheeses work together. The first time we made the pizza and I threw that feta on top I thought, this could be pushing it, that may be too much cheese.

But is there ever too much cheese?

Or bread?

Or pizza? I mean, come on.

The dough is a Neopolitan crust which means super thin. We prefer thin, crispy and chewy crust. And we loooove the marinated tomatoes. It makes the pizza even more awesome! They only take a quick soak, and if you leave them too long they will start to break down too much, but trust me, they are totally awesome.

In the end it’s a dang good four cheese margherita pizza so what more can I say other than, just trust me on this one and make it for your family asap!

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