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Storing Potatoes Properly + Shepherd’s Pie Recipe #SaveItSunday

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Glad in conjunction with their #SAVEITSUNDAY program. With #SAVEITSUNDAY, Glad hopes to educate the public about the consequences of food waste, and I am proud they’ve asked me to be a part of the program. I am being compensated to share my #SAVEITSUNDAY experiences; all opinions are 100% my own.

Potatoes!

My family loves them and I buy them a lot. The best way to store them has always been a bit of a mystery to me, though…I’ve never been sure whether or not you are supposed to keep them in the refrigerator.

I’m really learning a lot since I started doing these monthly posts in conjunction with Glad. According to the food storage experts over there, potatoes should not be kept in the refrigerator. And once they’ve been peeled and/or cut, they should be placed into a large bowl and fully submerged in water, then covered with plastic wrap, like Glad ClingWrap, or perhaps a tea towel. (To learn more about the best ways to prep and store your foods, see Glad’s Protection Pointers.)

Prepping and protecting potatoes means they’ll stay fresher longer. This is good news, because it means less chance of food waste! And now that your potatoes are going to last longer, you can enjoy them in many different ways: bake them, dice and pan-fry them, roast them, mash them. You get the picture…you can do so much with potatoes.

One of my favorite things to do with potatoes lately is to use them in this easy and delicious Shepherd’s Pie Recipe.

Shepherd’s Pie may be one of those classic, basic recipes that everyone already knows how to make…but maybe not? You see, somehow I got to be 43 years old I had never made Shepherd’s Pie before a few months ago, when I happened on this recipe from Simply Recipes. Just FYI: true Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb (or mutton), while Cottage Pie is made with beef. So technically this recipe is for a Cottage Pie when made with beef…but, use ground lamb and it’s a Shepherd’s Pie.

Got it? Ok, here’s the recipe.

Holy cow you guys. People are reading my book and I still can’t believe it. I don’t know what I expected, but I certainly did not expect the first printing of the book to sell out so fast. It was a small print run, but still…not what I expected. Just five days after the release, there were no more copies left on Amazon.com. None. Again…I can’t believe it.

(My publisher is printing more books and they will be back in stock at Amazon.com soon. In the meantime, you can buy the kindle version…you may use the kindle app to read it on your ipad, computer or phone if you don’t have a kindle. You may also order it online from Barnes and Noble or search by your zip code for local bookshops that carry One Simple Change on Indiebound.)

So many people talked up the book the first week it was out and I am so grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has posted on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc…you’re all so awesome! I also want to give a special shout out to the following folks:

MindBodyGreen: for featuring the book in their 7 Best Books of 2013 list.

Alta from Tasty Eats at Home: for writing a lovely review and doing a giveaway.

Cathy aka Mrs. Wheelbarrow for posting an incredible review.

Gail from A Healthy Hunger for for writing lovely things.

Jenny from Nourished Kitchen for bowling me over with this fantastic feature.

Melissa of Soul on a Platter for mentioning the book in this heartfelt post.

Kelly of A Girl Worth Saving for her terrific review.

Beth from Tasty Yummies for putting the book in her beautiful holiday gift guide.

Gina from Running to the Kitchen for including the book in her wonderful gift guide.

Ella for generously adding my book to her lovely list of gifty books.

Laura from Glutton For Life for including the book in her amazing gift guide.

You all rock for helping me to spread the word about One Simple Change. Thank you SO much!

And now for the Kimchi recipe :)

I devoted a whole chapter in my book to the health benefits of cultured foods: I love and eat all sorts of cultured foods and kimchi is one of my favorites. This recipe is adapted from Mastering Fermentation: Recipes for Making and Cooking with Fermented Foods. I also have a couple more kimchi recipes on my blog (here’s one).

Roasted Carrot Salad from www.healthygreenkitchen.com

Over the past few months, I’ve been able to have lunch a few times with my new buddy Gina of the fabulous blog Running to the Kitchen. I am very lucky Gina lives near me, and that she generously offered to guest post for me while I am away. Please welcome her and this gorgeous Coconut Roasted Carrot Salad to Healthy Green Kitchen!

This is a post I’m writing for Winnie with clenched teeth and a bit of a sneer on my face. Jealous doesn’t even do justice for how I feel about her little rendezvous in Peru right now. After reading the book “Three Weeks with My Brother” by Nicholas Sparks (the only one in his collection worth actually reading) where he and, well, his brother (shocker) travel around the world including Peru, I’ve had this fierce desire to hike every square inch of Machu Picchu. I tried to finagle my way into her suitcase with the bribe of my (almost 10 yr. old) Spanish degree but somehow it didn’t work. My verb conjugation isn’t what it used to be. So I’ll just curse her under my breath, live vicariously through her until my time comes and talk about carrot salad with you guys instead. Deal?

This is actually a salad I made exactly 2.5 weeks into my blog “career” (it’s totally not my career, but what else do you call it?). It’s a delicious recipe hiding behind some hideous pre-DSLR, pre-I sorta know what I’m doing with my camera pictures. Don’t believe me? Go see for yourself. Woah, right? I know…

So I felt bad for it and decided to give it a second chance. I mean who the heck is going to pin something that looks like that? And to be un-pinworthy these days is probably the highest offense in the world of food photos. Poor thing.

There’s a bunch of stuff going on in this salad…the sweetness from the roasted carrots, the crunch of the coconut flakes and the brightness of the mint to name a few. In the original recipe there’s feta too but I live with a man who takes his Greek heritage quite seriously and polishes off a BJ’s sized container of feta in about 2 days flat. So it’s scarce commodity around here and didn’t make it into this rendition. Regardless, this salad makes my mouth happy.

And now my eyes can be too, not having to look at underexposed close-ups of mush. Hope you guys enjoy!

I generally have a lot to say, but this week has been different. Since last Friday’s horrific events, I have sat down to write something here a number of times, but I haven’t been able to string words together in any sort of meaningful way. I hope it goes without saying that my thoughts are with everyone touched by the tragedy in Newtown, though. I am so very sorry for your loss; I am also amazed and inspired by your strength and grace.

It’s never been more clear to me than now that when the world scares and saddens me, I retreat to my kitchen. It’s a place where things make sense. It’s where I feel happy and safe.

As you can probably imagine, and maybe like many of you, I’ve busied myself more than ever in the kitchen this week. I’ve made batch after batch of this toffee, as well as a slew of cookies. These were gifts for teachers and others who make a difference in my family’s world…they are small tokens, but they’re infused with love…love I hope the recipients will feel this year more than ever before.

As for this lentil soup (that I adapted from the wonderful Nourished Kitchen), I believe meals built around foods like this provide vital nutrition and much needed comfort during trying times. Many of us surely need that right now…

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Discover Endive. I have received two complimentary shipments of California endive over the last few months, and I am being compensated for my efforts to promote California endive; all opinions are 100% mine. Since becoming an “OnDiva” a few months back, I’ve explored many … Read more

Storing Potatoes Properly + Shepherd’s Pie Recipe #SaveItSunday

One Simple Change News + A Recipe for Kimchi

Gina’s Coconut Roasted Carrot Salad

Nourishing Lentil Soup

Chicken, Endive, and Root Vegetable Soup with Endive Parsley Pesto