Basket Case Ep. 1

Honey Oat Dinner Roll BBQ Sliders, Sweet Potato Fries, Collard Greens & a Bloody Mary too!

Last week one of my sisters suggested to me that I do a sort of “CHOPPED” challenge where I post a couple of “baskets” to be voted on by my readers and then take the winning basket and make a meal or dish for my family. With all of the randomness in my kitchen, I thought this was a great idea! I posted these four baskets online and then today I made the meal you see below. Take a look and tell me what you think in the comments below!

1st Basket: Leftover Shredded Pork BBQ, 1 Can Petite Diced Tomatoes, 1 Cup Dried Instant Oats, 1 Lime, 1 Sweet Potato, & Collard Greens.

2nd Basket: 1 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, Sour Cream, 1 can large Black Olives Whole, 1 Zucchini, & Strawberries.

3rd Basket: 1 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, Leftover Garlic Mashed Potatoes, 1 Can of Artichoke Hearts, Leftover Sliced Jalapenos, 2 over-ripened Bananas, 1 head of cauliflower.

4th Basket: Pretzels, 1 head of cabbage, 2 cans of Garbanzo Beans, Crumbled Goat Cheese, leftover Easter Ham slices.

The Winning Basket: Basket No. 1!

I wanna use the oats to make dinner roll sliders and I LOVE a good honey oat bread. I haven’t made honey oat bread since my professional baking course back in college. So, I took to Pinterest to see what I could find! I came across this great Oatmeal Honey Whole Wheat Rolls recipe from A Hint of Honey. The only problem was that I didn’t have any whole wheat flour, no worries though, I just replaced it with AP flour and kept going! They turned out great! Very light and fluffy!

What about those canned tomatoes?

Well, I could use them to puree and make homemade ketchup…. or, I could puree them, add some vodka and make myself a bloody mary… HMMM…. decisions… decisions…

The Bloody Mary

Ingredients

1 can of diced tomatoes
garlic cloves
shredded carrots
celery
juice from 1 lime
hot sauce
worchestershire sauce
3 oz Vodka (not pictured)

Method to My Madness

Not gonna lie, I didn’t measure anything for this one. I just eyed it all. But it looks like:

1 clove of garlic
6, 3in pieces of celery
1/4 cup shredded carrots
juice of 1 lime
splash of hot sauce
1/8 cup worchestershire sauce
garnished with 5 green olives

I put it all in my food processor and blended thoroughly, strained through a fine-mesh sieve and then poured into a drink and garnished. Simple and delicious. Also: you’ll notice I didn’t add the vodka here… I ran out… look it’s been a tough couple of weeks… we don’t judge here.

The Sweet Potato

This one is simple: peel it, cut it and fry it. I’m a firm believer in the the K.I.S.S. method.

The Collard Greens

There’s also a K.I.S.S method to apply to cooking greens too! In a small batch I just use a medium sauce pot and layer in the ingredients:

Step 1: heat 2 TBSP olive oil in medium sauce pan, add red onions and sweat lightly, add 1 thinly sliced garlic clove and continue to sweat.

Step 2: Add 1/3 cup cooking sherry, collards and Humble Spice Blend (to taste), stir and cover with lid. Simmer on low for 4-5 mins stirring occasionally. Enjoy!