Sunday Night Feast

It's tradition in my family to have a big meal together every Sunday evening. It's really fun for me as I know this will be a guaranteed time to try out new recipes. I love that I get to head to Whole Foods on Sundays and browse all of the amazing foods, try the samples and chat up the staff to learn about the different seafoods, cheeses, etc.

Tonight I decided to try out Pesto Mussels recipe from Real Simple Magazine that my friend Julie recommended. Real Simple does a great job of creating quick and delicious recipes with relatively few ingredients. I stuck to their mussels recipe (see below) but wanted to make sweet potato fries rather than the garlic fries (which I'm sure are great too). I can't get enough of sweet potatoes right now and thought they would be fun to incorporate. I tried two variations detailed below!

Lastly I felt like we needed another veggie in our meal so I roasted asparagus in the oven as well. It was a nice, light side and paired with the mussels and fries well.

Pesto Mussels Recipe
(From Real Simple)

1 cup dry white wine
2 pounds mussels, scrubbed
1/2 cup pesto (store bought or homemade if you are feeling ambitious!)

Directions:
Bring the wine to a boil in a large pot. Add the mussels and simmer, covered, until they open (about 3-4 minutes). Mix the pesto into the cooking liquid and let simmer for another minute or so. Serve with fries or bread.



Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

2-4 sweet potatoes (depending on how many you are serving or the amount you would like)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Italian seasoning

Directions:
Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into wedges/stripes. You can create whatever size fries you like, just try to keep them consistent so that they require the same amount of time to bake. Arrange the wedges flat on a baking pan or cookie tray. I coated all of the wedges with olive oil and then sprinkled half with salt and pepper and the other half with salt and Italian seasoning to try out different flavors (both were delicious). From there bake the fries at 425° F for about 30-35 minutes depending how crispy you want them (remember to flip and move them around about half way through).



Roasted Asparagus
2 bunches of asparagus
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Wash and trim the ends off of the asparagus. Arrange on a cookie tray and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper (make sure to get both sides). Bake at 425° F for about 15 minutes or until they start to brown and are tender.



My family really enjoyed this whole meal! Tell me about your Sunday night dinners!