Beet and sweet potato fries, and a quick dinner idea

Around our house, we make french fries out of any kind of vegetable. Squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and now... beets! I am not normally a beet fan. I think they smell funny, and they turn your pee a shocking pink. But... they make really good fries!

So, here is a simple dinner that we whipped up. In total it took about 30 minutes and is super easy!

First off: The beets and sweets fries:
Skin 1 beet and 1 sweet potato. Slice into french fries. Toss with olive oil, garlic powder, italian seasoning and a sprinkle of chili powder. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Make sure to flip with spatula about half way through.

Next up: Cod
We get the bag of frozen cod from Sams Club. We put the pieces in the fridge the night before to thaw them. After you put the fries into the oven, take a large piece of foil, and add 1-2 pieces of cod with some sliced mushrooms, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and some olive oil. Make a pouch out of the foil, and place the pouches on a cookie sheet. Add to the oven about 1/2 way through the cooking of the fries. These take 15-20 minutes to cook. They are done when the fish easily flakes with a fork.

Next up: Broccoli 

We are big fans of broccoli at the Grenell house. It makes a regular appearance. We buy this in bulk at Sams Club too. I think we once bought 3 huge bags of the frozen broccoli at Sams and it lasted us 3 weeks. Yum. Basically, about 10 minutes before the fish and fries are ready, you can start the broccoli. Just put the frozen broccoli in a pan with a little water and steam on the stovetop over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Drain and add to the plate. 

Squash, and a word on food prep:

I added a little mashed squash to the plate. I made this ahead of time, and just microwaved a large spoonful just before plating the rest of the meal. 

Food prep makes eating paleo easy. Basically, part of Sunday's food prep is baking one whole squash in the oven for about 1 hour. Just put it in the oven. Any sort of squash works. I usually use butternut or acorn because they mash up well. They make a nice alternative to mashed potatoes. After you cook the squash, cut it in half to remove the seeds and scoop out the squash. Add the squash to the food processor with some garlic, a tiny bit of chicken stock, and a tablespoon of butter. Puree, and then store in tupperware. I do this with carrots and parsnips too. There is another blog post on this: http://cfppaleo.blogspot.com/2013/01/carrot-and-parsnip-puree.html