This past Friday night, B and I were having a difficult time figuring out what to make for dinner. To be honest, I was being a bit fussy and kept saying that, "I just want a little bit of this" without actually wanting to make a whole meal. We were both feeling a bit lazy so we looked in our fridge, freezer and pantry to take stock of our available ingredients. We didn't have enough ingredients to make an actual meal but enough to make little nibbles of food.
We first started out by making very simple sweet potato chips. B scrubbed one large sweet potato and thinly sliced it. I tossed the sliced sweet potatoes in extra virgin olive oil, coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper.
The sweet potato slices were evenly laid out on a baking sheet that was covered in aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray. I put the sweet potato chips in the oven to bake on the top shelf at 375 degrees.
In addition to our sweet potato chips, we decided to make little meatballs for dinner. We only had about one pound of ground beef on hand but we did have some garlic and green onions, which we chopped and added to the meat.
We decided to jazz the meatball up a little bit and added half a packet of taco seasoning we had on hand. Whenever we buy one of those taco kits, we never use the packaged taco seasoning since we usually make our own but at the same time we never can seem to throw the seasoning out. In addition to half the taco seasoning packet, we also added about a tablespoon of spicy chili rub to the meat. B mixed the meat together without overworking it. I cut up some cheddar cheese into small cubes we had on hand in the fridge. I initially thought we would shred a little cheese on top of the meatballs but B suggested that we put a small cube in the center of the meatball for a melted cheese center.
We laid the meatballs out on another baking sheet (lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray). B turned the oven heat up to 425 and let the meatballs bake for about ten minutes on the lower oven rack. When we put the meatballs in, I flipped the sweet potato chips over and allowed them to continue cooking at the higher temperature on the higher rack.
While the sweet potato chips and the taco meatballs were in the oven we got to work on the dipping sauce. Since the chips would be sweet, I wanted to contrast it with a spicy dipping sauce. I put together a quick and simply sauce made of Sriracha and light mayo. For the meatballs, B decided to make a quick avocado cream that we had used on some chicken burgers the previous weekend. B mashed up one ripe avocado and added light sour cream to make it creamy.
Our meal was perfect. The sweet potato chips were definitely crisp and went well with the spicy Sriracha mayo. I absolutely love the color of sweet potato chips and they are so much healthier than using ordinary white potatoes.
And the meatballs were oozing with cheesy goodness. They were a bit on the salty side with the taco seasoning and the cheddar cheese so perhaps a milder mozzarella would have been better. But the saltiness was definitely mellowed out by the creamy avocado dipping sauce.
Sometimes you don't have to go out to have your favorite party food. I know I was happy noshing on these little nibbles Friday night for dinner with no makeup and sweatpants on.
What's your favorite party food?
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