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Remember I went on a month-long vegetarian diet at around this time last year? Well, I’m at it again. Gosh, I hate to say this but I’m constantly hungry because my poor tummy has no meat to grind. The vegetables hardly fill me up at all. Clearly I’m not your salad kind of girl. Now even if I don’t go to the gym, I won’t be needing corsets to fit into anything tighter than a potato sack.

Friday’s has this Southwest Adobo Chicken on their new menu. What’s got us excited are the sweet potato fries it comes with! How cool is that!

But here it is – a healthier, naturally sweeter contender to the French fry we know and love so well. As you can see, this portion of sweet potato fries is way small for something that tastes so good.

So I went home and made a huge batch of it myself the next day. This is a recipe that came straight off the top of my head. I used to have a pretty good tempura batter recipe sitting around somewhere but I wasn’t about to go digging for it. So I improvised and came up with this.

• sweet potatoes, cut lengthwise French-fry style
• 3-4 tablespoons cornflour
• 1 tablespoon flour
• iced water
• pinch of salt and pepper, if desired

Combine flours and iced water into a batter. Feel free to add more water to achieve the desired batter consistency. Dredge the sweet potatoes through the batter and drop carefully into a pot of boiling oil on high heat.

Keep the heat on high throughout the process. Fish out the fries when they turn light golden brown. The cooking process will cause the fries to darken a little more after they’re removed from the oil.

It’s so simple, you should try this. Makes a great appetizer or finger food for guests. If you’re too lazy to make this yourself, go try it at Friday’s where baby strollers are welcome and kids get to eat for free if you order a main meal. No, I’m not getting paid to advertise for them.

Vegetarian day is frequently a headache for me. The kids are not huge fans of veggie stir-fries which is standard fare for me on vegetarian days. These days, it’s been raining elephants and llamas, so going out to grab a veggie pizza or burger is out of the question.

If we stay home, I have to get creative and this recipe is one I concocted recently. Ta-da! Loaded potato slices.

These are very easy to make. Of course, it’s not as easy as swiping a bag of frozen french fries through a Honeywell Barcode Scanner, but these taste so good that my picky eaters called for an encore and I ended up making a second batch.

Here’s what you need:

• 4 large potatoes, skinned and sliced 1″ thick lengthwise
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 stalk cilantro, finely chopped
• 2-3 teaspoons lime juice
• pinch of salt
• grated mozzarella cheese

Yes, there’s quite a bit of cutting involved. Combine the tomato, onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt in a bowl. Leave aside for a while, then drain off excess juices. You don’t want that.

First I microwave the potato slices on high for about 2 minutes. Transfer them to a tray and space them out nicely. Spoon the tomato mixture onto each slice and top with grated mozzarella cheese.

Then I just pop the tray into my toaster oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese and potato edges brown slightly, and they’re ready to serve.

These loaded potato slices make a very yummy, very healthy meal as there’s no oil added and all the ingredients are fresh. With its vibrant colors, it’s also very presentable and you can serve it as an hor d’oeuvre. Try it, I’m sure you’re going to love it as much as we do .

One of my favorite things to whip up on a busy day is my easy-peasy potato salad. I just put a pot of water to boil with a pinch of salt as I peel a bunch of potatoes and then cut them into irregular shapes.

I like to overboil my potatoes so that when I stir in the other ingredients later, the texture is something like some of the best eye creams you see in magazine ads. The softness gives it a melt-in-the-mouth effect and is perfect for younger children and older folks too.

After the potatoes are cooked, I scoop them into a big bowl, then add my lightly fried bacon bits, a pinch of salt and pepper, a good sprinkle of dried parsley and enough light mayonnaise to make it all come together. If I have Dijon mustard, I would add some too.

Simple though it may sound, this potato salad makes a very delicious accompaniment to any meat dish or lightly fried Bratwurst sausages which is what I usually pair this with. Of course, if you’re cooking this potato salad for very young kids or as a vegetarian dish, you can always leave out the bacon bits.

During the days of my vegetarian diet, I cooked green pea soup several times. It was a great way to fulfill those hunger pangs I was experiencing. And it’s a sweet dessert that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Green pea soup is a tong sui, or dessert soup, that is commonly eaten for its cooling properties which help reduce heatiness that causes fevers, sore throats, acne breakouts, etc  during hot spells. I cooked this again today because the weather’s been unbearably hot lately.

In the days when I was working on of those exhausting jobs in IT, I never had the luxury of tending over soups like this. But it’s really simple to make, just that you have to watch the fire.

I don’t use exact measurements so these are just estimates. To make a big pot, I just throw two cups of dried green peas (they’re sold in small packets) into a pot with 6 cups of water.

When the water comes to a boil, turn it down to medium/low and simmer for 2 hours till soft. Add 1 cup sugar or enough sugar to taste. Again the time here is just an estimate depending on how soft you want to peas to end up. I like the peas to be really soft, almost of porridge texture, so I let the soup bubble on for a while longer, checking every now and then. So it’s completely up to you.