Yummy Baskets

Okay, so for those of you who live in the area of the Seagull State, there is this glorious thing called "Bountiful Baskets".

What you do is this:

Make a 'donation' to the co-op on Mondays.  Then, the co-op will take all of the donations to buy a large amount of various fruits and veggies.

On that Saturday, go to the location you donated to and pick up your basket! (bring a laundry basket type thing or reusable grocery bags to carry it all cuz you don't get an actual basket, just what's inside the actual basket).

I did this wonderful thing this past week, and I LOVE it.  I got almost $30 worth of fruits and veggies for less than 20 bucks, and it will be $16.50 from now on for all this goodness.

Here is what was included:
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1 stalk celery
6 yams
5 pears
1 tub mushrooms
4 apples
2 lb black grapes
8 bananas
1 clove garlic
2 avocados
5 on-the-vine tomatoes
9 plums

Holy moly, I love it.  Another thing about this I love is that it is forcing me to get a better variety of veggies and fruits.  I typically buy Mike and I the same kind of food--and use it the same way.  What can I say, I am boring.  But! With this, we got 6 yams--something I have never used before.  Hence, my recipe for tonight!

We made sliders for dinner.  What goes better with sliders than fries???  Not much.

So, first off, for the sliders, we used 1/2 lb ground chicken with maybe 1 T Mrs. Dash seasoning.  I really like ground chicken or turkey better for these than beef.  It is better for you and tastes so much better, in my opinion.  We toasted some small buns and topped it off how we like it.  I had some left-over pico de gallo from Cafe Rio, so I put that on mine and Wowza.  So delicious!  I am going to do that from now on.

Now, for the fries:

I took one medium/small potato and one medium yam and cut them into pieces about the thickness of my pinkie (my pinkie is decently thick, which is how I wanted my fries, so cut them accordingly).

Then, I put them in a bowl with water almost to the top of the pieces.  I covered the top with saran wrap and popped it into the microwave for about 4 minutes.  This helps the fries to be softer on the inside than just cooking them straight out.  If you like them less soft on the outside, I would say to micro them for 2-3 minutes instead.

Have your oven preheated to 450.  Drain the water and lightly coat them in olive oil.  On a cookie sheet, lightly cover the bottom of the sheet with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Put the coated pieces on the sheet and into the oven for 10 minutes.
Flip the pieces so another side gets toasted.  Back into the oven for another 10 minutes.  At this point, it is up to you on how crispy you want them.  I cooked them for 30 minutes and it was a little too long--they blackened up quite a bit.

But, they still tasted really yummy.  The yams made a sweeter taste to the side dish and now I am in love.  I have 5 more yams to play with, and I am looking forward to making some other cool dishes.

I stole this pic from another website where I got the recipe from.  You could also put some italian seasoning and parmesan cheese if you wanted and I think they would be soooo yummy!!!

As for bountiful baskets, I seriously recommend doing it if you live near a location that does it.  Try it out!