2013 began strangely.
That’s a good thing in my book.
First of all, I woke up in a bed that wasn’t my own. No… it wasn’t because I had a lucky start to the year. I stayed with a friend avoid having to drive with all the drunks on the road. And I’d had more than 2 myself.
The good part was that a) my friend’s bed was like sleeping on a marshmallow and b) she sent me home with black-eyed peas and collard greens. In the South people say that you should start the year with black-eyed peas for luck and collards for wealth.
The 2nd day of the year I had a strange and not-so-good surprise. This is what happens when you forget about a spaghetti squash for a few months:
The seeds sprouted. I debated cooking it anyway, but was too creeped out. Into the garbage it went. Fail.
It turned out to be a good thing because I baked a sweet potato instead… and that ‘tater made for a strange but absolutely delicious lunch.
A little sweet, a little spicy and fantastically creamy. The traditional mayo-based version of chicken salad will never be satisfactory again.
2 meals later I made it with pumpkin puree and curry. Also strange, but still good.
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Sweet Potato Chicken Salad
- 4 oz shredded chicken
- 1/4 C mashed sweet potato
- 2-3 tsp fresh lime juice
- 2 tsp unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 diced cucumber
- 1 T red onion, chopped
- Fresh dill, to taste
Place shredded chicken in a bowl. Set aside.
In another small bowl, combine sweet potato, milk, lime juice, and spices.
Add sweet potato mixture to chicken and stir to combine. Add veggies and mix until incorporated.
Serves 1.
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Before we get to the link up… I know you want a winner! The $100 h.h. gregg gift card giveaway winner is…
Congratulations, Kate @ Kit Kat Kate!
Send me an email with your address and I’ll get the card out to you ASAP.
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Now for the link up! The rules can be found here or by clicking on “Strange But Good” in the menu bar above.
In short, I want to see what concoctions have earned you weird looks from co-workers, family and friends! Post your Strange But Good creations, grab the logo below for your blog, and link up here.
Remember to use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instragrams of your creations. 🙂
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Junk-Free January is off to a good start! I navigated dinner at a restaurant with my family Wednesday night by ordering a delicious grilled trout (without butter or salt) and steamed cabbage (topped with sriracha). They all enjoyed drinks, but rather than feeling left out (I can’t stand not to try new things) I tried a sip and then enjoyed my water.
Have you ever heard of the black-eyed pea and collard tradition?
Would you have eaten that squash?
While I would normally leave no squash uneaten, that one would make me a little nervous too!
I’ll have to make that tomorrow!
Yay! Did you do it?!
Sorry it took me so long! I actually did but had to sub some of the veggies! I’ll post it up soon!
Awesome! I hope you liked it. 🙂
“not because I had a lucky start to the year” – tee hee. Jason and I rarely go out, we actually like to stay in on NYE, we make tamales and drink bubbly and chill (and this year’s tamales had black eyed peas in them!).
I LOVE the idea of sweet potato instead of mayo – while I don’t eat chicken, I do make a mean faux chick salad. I WILL be doing this!
happy weekend!
I’m inviting myself over next year. Those tamales looked divine!
Let me know how it works with the faux chicken! Great idea. 🙂
Hmm, I’ve eaten sprouted potatoes before! As long as it wasn’t mushy or smelled funky, I would have eaten it! Guts of STEEL I tell ya! 😉
Love the sweet potato/chicken salad! I’ve had so many dinners featuring the two, but WHY have I never thought to mix them together? And of course, I LOVE the cool/spicy thing you’ve got going with it! Yum!
I’m SO bummed! Here it is almost a week into the new year and I’ve yet to have any black eyed peas OR collard greens! I grew up on the tradition of having peas on the first…and I absolutely HATED it as a kid! I used to call them “dirt beans”, but my mom would INSIST that I had to eat at least ONE every year! Lol
I should have saved it for you… haha!
This is actually the firs time I’ve had them on NY. Hopefully it works. I’d like to win the lotto this year… I’d take you on my foodie travels, of course. 😉
I never knew what happened to uncooked spaghetti squash after a month or so.. thank you for today’s lesson =)
Good call on not eating the squash! When it has different color wormy things coming out of it, I think it’s safe to say it’s done. 🙂
I’ll bet we see a lot of black eyed peas on this week’s link up, Laura! Have a great weekend.
MMMMM delicious recipe! ABSOLUTELY MEG
i think i need to meet your friend. and sprouting squash? ok i kinda would have roasted in to see. I know, creepy but i would.
You would LOVE her!
Now I kind of wish i’d tried it… but it was SO creepy looking.
I definitely would NOT have eaten that squash. Umm, ewww!
That sweet potato chicken combo sounds amazing! I had no idea spaghetti squash seeds will sprout if you wait to long to cook it! Good way to tell whether it’s not good anymore or not cause I never knew how to tell before!
Mashed sweet potatoes for the salad, brilliant! That is too funny that the seeds started to sprout inside the squash… I’ve never seen that happen. I would have been bummed, too… I hate wasting food! Have a great weekend, Laura!
Hmmm you know you eat strange foods when you don’t find the above recipe too out of the box…in other words, I sure would eat that :)!
I love black eyed peas & collards, but I decided one of those (probably the collards) make my tummy uncomfortable. 🙂 I don’t usually have issues with veggies, but apparently that puts me over the top! 🙂
I’ve heard of the black eyed peas tradition, but I’ve never tried it. My favorite (maybe I’m biased) New Year’s tradition is from the Greeks. We break pomegranates on our doors to ring in the new year. The seeds symbolize good luck. (Secretly, I think we just like breaking things! Plates, pomegranates, the EU’s economic stability…) The neighborhoods look like a blood bath on New Year’s! A bit messy, but definitely an awesome tradition.
AND, your sweet potato chicken salad looks AWESOME! I am starting the Whole30 this weekend, and that recipe fits right into my plans! I can’t wait to try it! Thanks!
That sounds MUCH more fun that collards and black-eyed peas. Leave it to the Greeks. 😉
Let me know if you try out the recipe! Good luck with the Whole 30!
Ohhhhhhhhhh yummm! This I would like for sure!
Hmmm . . . I’m curious to know if the squash would really have been bad . . . I’ll have to google that to find out. I probably would have been apprehensive, but I also hate wasting food. I might have made an attempt. 🙂
The sweet potato chicken salad is genius! That sounds so good–I’ll have to try it out.
The consensus in Instagram is that it would be sour/bitter… I just couldn’t get bast the alien growth enough to experiment. 🙂
Haha fab start of this post 😛 I’ve never tried collared greens or black eyed peas but I’ve heard that you either love ’em or hate ’em… I know that I’d def love that sweet potato chicken salad, yum!
They are an acquired taste… I never cared for either until this year.
oh man that looks good. I have never seen a squash do that, creeeeepy little thing.
I am gonna make that sweet potato salad for sure! Awesome idea. Thanks.
That chicken salad looks incredible!! Your strange but goods are always impressive. Linking up soon! :]
Strange but good sounds good to me! BTW, I can totally tell you live in the South with the Black Eyed Peas 🙂 No one eats those in the Midwest! (or maybe a few, just no one I know!)
Omigosh the inside of that squash looks like it’s harboring alien life 😯 Definitely wouldn’t have eaten it. And I’ve heard of the BEP and collards tradition, but never actually partook in it myself. I blame Polish/Canadian roots…
That’s exactly what I thought! I jumped a bit when I opened it.
Your sweet tater chicken salad sounds delish! I wish I lived in the south so I could have collards and black eyed peas… yum!! I laughed at you saying your friend’s bed was like sleeping on a marshmallow!
Interesting salad 🙂 You just have to love sweet potatoes. My grandpa used to frequently make French Fries, but now he only makes these delish pan fried sweet potato wedges. Much better and tastier alternative 😛
I love sweet potato fries. And chips. With lavendar. Mmmm…
Laura- Happy Happy New Year to you!! Sounds like you had a great NYE and I also had some collards and black eyed peas. The only way to start off the year. Any trips to Southern Cali in 2013? We have to meet one of these days.
PS.. That sweet potato salad looks insanely deeelish. 🙂
I’m really shocked you had them in Califronia!
No trips planned as of now… but I’m always on the lookout. I love it out there!!
Ohhh, how I’m loving this recipe big time! I’m happy there’s no eggs or dairy, since I have to avoid them for now ha. I swear most recipes I’ve come across lately have them. I’ve had that happen to my spaghetti squash too and it really freaked me out! I think it’s probably the best it was thrown out.
I feel like eggs have been more prevalent lately too… I wonder what that’s about? Dairy is so easy to replace, but eggs are harder.
I’m glad you threw that squash away! I would NOT have eaten it. But I do get grossed out pretty quickly with things like that! And that sweet potato sauce sounds fantastic. I may try making that for Vishnu this weekend!
So, I got so excited about posting and joining in, I forgot that I didn’t actually comment. But I did in my head. It was early in the morning, I’ll use that excuse. I pondered the southern classic for New Year’s Day…but wow, I’m STILL burnt out on collard greens, haha. And squash will internally sprout? I, I’m just not sure how I feel about that.
Haha – I do that ALL the time! I can’t comment on your blog from my iPhone, so I sometimes do it in my head and miss it. Boo.
YES! I am definitely familiar with the black-eyed-peas and collards tradition. Hoppin’ John. 🙂 [I think I made a Hoppin’ JANE in Austin…I’ll have to look back in my posts. I imagine it involved the lack of ham, which I believe it also supposed to bring some sort of luck.]
Dude. I probably would have scraped out the innards, stared at it for awhile, thought, “If I were not alone right now, would I still be OK with doing this?” and then cooked it anyway. 🙂
I have never had Hoppin’ John. Or Jane, for that matter. It seems like it would be god though.
I had no doubts you’d try that squash. Thought of you when I opened it, actually. LOL!
we are not fans of spaghetti squash not sure why just prefer other squashes better
Really?! I can’t talk… I’ve never been abole to get into acron squash and everyone seems to love it.
DELICIOUS! The Captain loved it too and he is not a sweet potato fan. I used a can of the lovely white chunk chicken – the Kirkland brand from Costco.
I am SO glad you both liked it! Great idea to use canned… I bet it would be good with tuna too!
What do you mean you did not get lucky! 😉
OMG, that recipe sounds DELISH!!!! I think it is easy enough for me to make! 😉 THANK YOU!!!!!
Hee hee… I’ll try to do better about the easier stuff. 🙂
Loving that sweet potato and chicken salad. I love eveything with sweet potatoes I think. SO good. And I would definitely be creeped out by that spaghetti squash too. I wonder if it’s safe to eat though. Probably. I’d still throw it out too. I’m so paranoid about that kind of stuff.
I think it would be safe since there wasn’t any mold, but I hear that old squash turn bitter.
I always make the black eyed peas and collards for New Year’s but I’m pretty sure I’m making the collards wrong bc the “wealth” hasn’t yet happened. haha
Ditto. *sigh*
I love black eyed peas and collards for New Years!! 🙂 I completely forgot to do that this year! I probably would have eaten that squash just to test it out. Probably not the smartest…
LOL at the sprouted spaghetti squash. I think I would have been too creeped out to eat it, too.
You know, I’ve never had black eyed peas! That meal looks pretty tasty though – lucky or not 🙂
Black-eyed peas are good, but I find them to be a little starchier than beans.
Yeah, if I saw my spaghetti squash looked like that, I would definitely have thrown it away. Even if it was still fine….I just don’t think I could do that. But when a door closes, a window definitely opens and that sweet potato salad is one hell of a window! Talk about strange but AWESOME!! Can’t wait to try that soon. 🙂
I feel like I’m the only one that forgot about black eyed peas for new years!
And whoa to the sprouted spaghetti squash seeds- that is WILD! Probably a good call to throw it away. 🙂