Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Potatoes Are a Snack Food

Side note: I'm watching Man vs. Food and it's making me gag a little big. This guy is eating 5 pounds of nachos.  Who does that?!

This afternoon on Day 3 of the Vegan Challenge, after a particularly stressful situation at work in which I worked through 'lunch', I realized that I had only eaten the first part of my lunch (a salad with a black bean burger if you care) and was hungry about 2 hours later. 

Luckily I had more food with me in my enormous bag of food but my typical poor planning left me with a sweet potato.  I'm sure my Eastern European ancestors were proud of me for eating a potato for a snack, but I just went for it and it was really good, unconventional but good.  It was sweet, salty, filling, and warm.  Kind of like a chocolate chip cookie, but in potato form ;)

Onto other things- I wanted to share another grain with you- buckwheat.  Does anyone else think of The Little Rascals when they hear 'buckwheat'? (picture source)
Buckwheat (the grain) is a great source of manganese, fiber (~5 grams per cup), and flavanoids, making it really good for the heart.  It also helps to prevent diabetes and gallstones, and is great for those avoiding wheat or gluten.  It's also a fruit seed, rather than a grain and is eaten throughout the world.  (picture source)

I've been cooking up the fruit seed (?) for the last 3 weeks for hubby's breakfast.  He heats it up and drowns it in almond milk- a twist on the traditional serving of buckwheat in Russia minus the full fat milk.  It can also be eaten as a savory food in place of rice or quinoa.


Do you ever have unconventional snacks?  I think a sweet potato tops my list.

16 comments:

MelissaNibbles said...

I love sweet potatoes. I don't think their unconventional, well not to blogs. I guess you're right...nevermind!

Anonymous said...

I love sweet potatoes! Can't say I've ever had one for a snack, but it's definitely an idea! I guess the only unconventional snack I can think of is yogurt with pb. Does that count even a little bit?

Mo Diva said...

im starvin. Id totally eat a sweet potato right now... and a bag of buckwheat.

Felicia said...

Sweet potatoes are quite possibly my favorite food in the world. Have you ever had a purple sweet potato? So delicious!

Anonymous said...

I think I'll try that black bean burger. This is my first day of the Vegan Challenge.

Angela (the diet book junkie) said...

did you know february is like national sweet potato month?? just a bit of trivia for ya. :)

Julie said...

oh your black bean burgers look SO good!!

sweet potatoes are so amazing haha and the combos of them are just crazy endless! people outside of the blog world always look at me weird when i suggest random things to do with sweet taters

Michelle @ Housewife in the Raw said...

Unconventional to 'normal folk' equals conventional to food bloggers. So, unconventional to food bloggers must be really odd.... I'd say my oddest snacks are when I decided to saute some collard greens because I want a warm snack and I want greens.

Breville BJE200XL said...

i love eating sweet potatoes! :D
Great post!

anna said...

just found your blog, awesome!!!! sweet potatoes are the best thing on earth as a snack, to bake with, breakfast, dinner, bla bla bla yummy :-)

Alicia@ eco friendly homemaking said...

I like buckwheat and yes I always think of the little rascals!I really like sweet potatoes but have never really thought of it as a snack food but I think that it is a great idea!I really like your blog. You have some great posts.

Unknown said...

I really need to buy some sweet potatoes. Why haven't I!?!
By the way, I watch Man V Food all the time! I love how sometimes it makes me hungry and other times it makes me sick. :)

Erica said...

Sweet potatoes rock! As a snack or as a part of a meal! I've been eating egg whites as a snack lately (I need my protein!). A little odd but tasty!Hope you have a great weekend :)

RunEatRepeat said...

I have considered eating a sweet potato for breakfast before and talked myself out of it for some reason...

Simply Life said...

oooh I love sweet potatoes!

...and wow, russian?! What a fun fact!!!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

I think a lot of my snacks are unconventional - hehe. Sometimes I snack on scrambled eggs ... or mini banana oat cakes.