Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Sweet Potato Risotto- Delish.

Happy Hump Day! Considering my record for this week, I'd say it's time for the school year to be over:

Number of Kids I've Made Cry: 3
Number of Parents I've Made Cry: 2
Number of Kids I've Sent to the Principal: 2

So basically successful week all around.
Plus they basically told me that PT that if I don't give my knee "a long time" without running, it's just going to come back when I start running again. I was kind of hoping to start next week or so, but they basically laughed at me. I am going to keep triathlon training (biking and swimming) because those are good for my knee anyway, but I think it's unlikely I'll be able to do the July one. Boo.

In good news, Eric and I decided to take on the 100 Push Up Challenge and 200 Sit Up Challenge. It wasn't too shocking but I was pretty bad at both of these on my initial test. I got 20 Push Ups and 30 Sit Ups. Of course gym teacher Eric made sure I was touching my thighs with my elbows on my sit ups and as a result I was in the "POOR" performance category- go me! I'll keep you updated on how this goes. Has anyone done it? I find it a little hard to believe that I'll ever be doing 100 push ups and 200 sit ups, but hey!

Finally, the Sweet Potato Risotto Recipe, created by Eric!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of Arborio Rice
1 1/2 boxes of chicken stock
1-2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
olive oil
1 tsp garlic
1/2 cup of white wine

Directions:

1. Place 1 ½ boxes of chicken stock or beef stock in a pan and heat over low to medium low heat.

2. Cube 1-2 sweet potatoes into about ½ inch cubes after peeling the potatoes.

3. Finely dice 1 yellow onion finely

4. Coat bottom of large skillet or sauce pan with olive oil

5. Sautee cubed sweet potato until the pieces are caramelized and look a medium golden brown color and add a pinch of salt.

6. Pull potato pieces off and put them in a bowl for later

7. Lightly coat pan again with olive oil and add onions and a pinch of salt at the start. Sautee until they are almost see through

8. Add 1 teaspoon of garlic and cook until golden

9. Add rice on top of garlic and onions and toast until you smell a nutty smell (should not be really brown but maybe a light gold brown color).

10. Pour ½ cup of white wine (I usually use pinot grigio) into the pan and stir into rice onion and garlic mixture.

11. When the wine is absorbed and the rice starts to moisten add 1-2 ladles full of the warm stock and continue stirring.

12. Keep stirring until rice becomes thick enough that it will not run back together when you stir and then add another ladle to a ladle and a half. Keep doing this until all the stock is gone and the rice is plum and has a soft texture with a little bite.

13. The risotto should be thicker than a soup but still runny.


Optional: Add a tablespoon of butter and ½ cup of parmigiano reggiano cheese and stir in until it is melted (I don't do this step).

Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy :)

17 comments:

  1. Kelly what a week! I feel for you regarding the knee. Great that you can still bike and swim. And that's quite a crying record! What a weel!

    Thanks for the recipe - it looks delicious. I kinda overdosed on sweet potato at university so now I'm a little funny around sweet potato and pumpkin, but your recipe looks so yummy, maybe it's time to break the drought!

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  2. Yum, that risotto sounds awesome! Thanks for the recipe.

    Sorry about your knee--I hope it heals up soon so you can get back on the roads (er...sidewalks?).

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  3. LOVE sweet potatoes, thanks for the recipe!

    Glad to know I am not the only one who makes kids cry sometimes....for all the great moments we have, it is always the not so great ones we remember huh?

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  4. So sorry about the knee :( I have an MRI tomorrow for one of mine... I'm crossing my fingers! But of course, with the surgery I'll have an automatic 6 weeks off. So I'm hoping everything will be good by then.

    The risotto looks delicious! Thanks for the recipe :)

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  5. Yum!! That dish looks good... and I don't even like sweet potatoes.

    Congrats on making all those people cry! You really ought to ask for a raise. Especially if you can get parents to cry.

    *I made a couple parents cry at parent/teacher conferences back in the day. I had to tell too many parents that their kids were way below grade level. It's not fun, is it?*

    Too bad about your knee. I can relate. I'm glad you're going to take it easy on the knee and focus on your other sports for now. You'll be glad you did. At least that's what I've heard. :P

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  6. Thanks for the risotto recipe. It looks delicious!
    I'm enjoying the challenges too. I keep thinking that I'm not doing the sit-ups right...they seem to easy. I'm probably screwing them up somehow, but it's still exercise.

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  7. sorry about the bad knee news :(

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  8. Great sweet potato recipe.

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  9. Sorry about the knee. I'm doing my tri Aug. 9th in Lowell, MA. It's the Wild Cat Triathlon and it's fairly flat and the swim is in a river. Maybe by then it would be something do-able. Hopefully you'll be able to get on in this summer.

    P.S. I'm hosting my first giveaway. Hope you can check it out!

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  10. Busy week! And super recipe, thanks. I don't make rissoto a lot, but I like the twist with the sweet potato!

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  11. That risotto looks yummy. So sorry about your knee...just think of how good you'll be at all three things once your knee is fully heeled and you kick butt in a different tri! :)

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  12. Sorry that you didn't get better news from your PT. Hopefully your patience will pay off soon. The good news is you'll be such a strong swimmer and biker!

    Yum - thanks for that recipe!

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  13. What a week so far! You've got 3 against you and 4 up for defense.. I'd say you're in the lead! :)

    Good job on getting to 20 push-ups! I struggle with 10!

    And I love the recipe. Sweet potatoes are my favorite!

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  14. Mmmm love sweet potatoes! Yes, cliques in blog land=NOT COOL!

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  15. I organized a 100 PU Challenge at my office...we all put in $10 and had our actuaries come up with a fancy formula to determine who improved the most. It kicked my tail! But I was super impressed at how well the program works. You'll love it!
    And yum, can't wait to try the sweet potato recipe!

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  16. Sounds like a crazy week!
    I think 20 push-ups is fine for starting out... I think I can do like 8 lol.

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  17. OMG I am so going to try to make this!!! I love anything that has sweet potato in it, AND I love risotto, so this is like the perfect recipe :)

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