Minty Green Smoothies and Sweet Potato Pub Chips

Today I'm discovering that holidays are very important in the world of food blogs. Anything goes, as long as it's green. Green drinks, green pies, green cookies, green pizza, green eggs...I guess it makes sense, though, because, I mean, what's a party without the food? Just a bunch of people, shuffling around, talking about the weather or what they heard on NPR this morning...lame-o. At least today they'd be shuffling around wearing green, but they'd be HUNGRY and wouldn't know what to do with their hands! Food definitely makes the fiesta more festive. So here it goes...

Chocolate Peppermint Green Smoothie. I got the idea from Katie, but I didn't have all the ingredients she used, so I threw together this stuff:

It wasn't too bad, but next time, I'd brew the peppermint tea stronger and pour it into an ice cube tray to make the drink icier and thicker. I might also freeze the avocado first for the same reason.

Lovely green foods...


I grated some Baker's chocolate into the smoothie and on top to make it pretty. Chocolate always makes things better.

Now onto a non-green, semi-Irish related food...

Beer and potatoes are the most important parts of an Irish diet (I'm no expert on this, but I am 1/4 Irish, so we'll go with it). I wish I could write about all the amazing beer that I've been tasting these days, what my favorite dark beer is, what pub in Nashville serves the best Guinness, and so forth. Unfortunately, sadly, lamentably...beer is not on my list of "ok" foods. :(

And neither are white potatoes. So, I'll go with the next closest thing: sweet potatoes! I can eat these in moderation right now, so the other night I tried this recipe from Natalie's blog, but with sweet potatoes. They were yummy.

The tricky part is slicing them thin enough to get crispy, but not so thin that they'll burn. I used olive oil and I didn't have a spray, so I think I had too much oil. At first they were crispy, but it didn't take long for them to soften. They still tasted great though...with a little sea salt on top. If any of you have made baked sweet potato chips/fries successfully, please share your knowledge with me. :)

So that's it for my St. Paddy's Day foods. One more thing before you go, though.

If you are in Nashville, you have to promise me that you'll try something ASAP. My favorite GREEN food meal ever.

First, go here (yes, that's a double-wide trailer with a porch built on...don't hate). Then, order this (you can order it sugar free). You will not be disappointed. I guarantee I will dedicate an entire post to this at some point, so stay tuned...