Day 18: Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I'm behind once again, but I have a really good excuse this time :). Last night my husband and I got to go on a date! Well, it wasn't really a date because we just went and watched a movie, but we don't get out often. My sister in-law and her boyfriend came over for dinner and then they stayed to watch the boys. We saw Mission Impossible and it was pretty good. I even indulged in a lot of popcorn, but I figured that I deserved it because I ran 3 miles!

Here was what I ate:

Breakfast:
Kale, cheese, avocado, and tomato omelet
Toast with butter
Tea with honey

Lunch:
I didn't specify this in the blog, but I was really hoping to not eat ANY fastfood for this challenge. I only really ever eat at In-N-Out. We sometimes eat at El Pollo Loco & only when we are on long road trips (two times a year) do we eat at Taco Bell. It is very rare for us and we try to avoid it. With that said, we had a lot of errands to do and it was just really convenient for us to eat at Subway. I think that Subway is one of the healthier ff joints and I didn't go overboard.

6" Turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and mustard
Maui onion potato chips (I couldn't resist and I only had about 1/3 of the bag).

Dinner:
Spinach, Fontina & Roasted Garlic Sausage
Broccoli
Baked Butternut Squash Fries (see recipe below)

Snacks:
Light MinuteMaid (at the theater)
Movie theater popcorn
Healthy Cupcake

Recipe: Baked Butternut Squash Fries

Lately, I have been on a butternut squash kick (as you can see from some of the past posts). I really like the taste and I didn't think that it was so versatile to go in a lot of dishes. I mostly just thought of Butternut Squash soup as the only use for it (maybe that recipe will be a future post because it is REALLY good!). I came across this recipe from Can You Stay For Dinner and thought that I had to try it out. I would have never though to use butternut squash as fries. I've used sweet potatoes as fries. These turned out delicious and I will definitely be making them again!

Ingredients:
2 lbs butternut squash, sliced (on the original recipe she calls for a 2lb butternut squash and I know that it ends up weighing less after you cut it up and slice it, so I just did a total of 2 lbs butternut squash fries.
1 tbsp canola oil
salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400º. Peel and cut the squash into long, thin french fry shapes (roughly 1/3″ thick). Hers looked much better than mine.

2. In a large bowl, toss the squash with oil, using your hands to evenly coat each one.

3. Lay them on a wire rack set on top of a baking sheet and salt them generously. Bake for about 40 minutes, flipping halfway for even crispness (I didn't flip mine because they were falling through the wire rack and I didn't want to touch them!). Serve immediately.

*Oops! I posted this without putting the nutritional information! Here it is:

Nutritional Info:
Serving: 1/4 of the recipe
Calories: 132 (I do have to mention that I am not positive on the actual calorie count for the butternut squash)
Carbs: 27
Fat: 3.5
Protein: 2


p.s. I will be posting today's post tomorrow, but hopefully I can get all caught up tomorrow!