Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Casserole

Last night I had the blessing of attending our 2nd Annual Family Thanksgiving Dinner of Friends. I have some quality people in my life and although I am in the process of moving I am so blessed to continue to share life's blessings with these people in small town Kansas. We enjoyed a great feast and have so much to be thankful for during this season of fall and abundance. Although our after dinner viewing of the K-State football game was less than ideal we are proud KSU supporters. EMAW!

I've decided that if I could only have one thing on my plate at Thanksgiving it would have to be something the color orange. I really can't decide whether I like sweet potatoes, butternut squash, or pumpkin the best so as long as I have something orange on the table I am satisfied. I've been eating a lot of pumpkin recently so I decided to go with a sweet potato casserole last night.

Ingredients:

Several large sweet potatoes, baked

Butter

Milk

Pure maple syrup

Salt

Pecans

Unsweetened Coconut

Brown Sugar

More butter

Cinnamon

Candied Ginger pieces

Bake your sweet potatoes until fork tender in the oven. I used a random collection of small and large potatoes so I would guess them to be equivalent of about 4 large potatoes and baked them at 350 for about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly and then peel. Alternately, if you are in a rush you can just microwave them for several minutes although I recommend using the oven over a microwave any day. Mash the sweet potatoes with several tablespoons of butter. Add a splash of whole milk, about a 1/4 cup, and a couple tablespoons of pure maple syrup. I honestly just direct poured about a tablespoon into the bowl. Sprinkle in about a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and taste. Obviously you can tell that I rarely measure while cooking but the measure comes from the taste. It will all depend on the sweetness of your potatoes and don't forget some salt as that also helps bring out the sweetness. If you like it more creamy add more milk or butter or if you like plain and pure sweet potatoes keep it simple with less. Spread this into your greased dish.

For the topping combine 1 cup chopped pecans, or you could use walnuts as well, with 1/2 cup coconut flakes with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Combine  about 3 tablespoons of softened butter into this mixture. Then I added an extra special addition of about 1/4 cup of candied ginger pieces. This is totally optional as I found them in the cupboard and decided they would be a great addition, but it would be great without as well. Add the topping and bake in 350 oven for another 30-45 minutes just until brown on top.

Yum!

Sweet potatoes are rich in Vitamin C and E for healthy skin and hair. They are also rich in manganese which helps regulate blood sugar. They are a super food of beta-carotene, an important antioxidant that can help prevent your skin from sun-damage and is excellent for eye health. They have good fiber content as well. Just eat them!

Happy May Day!

I got my very own May Day basket tonight right in my own little abode. It was so sweet, two of my little neighbor friends pounded hard on my door and stood there with their smiling faces to hand me a May Day bouquet. I am so blessed!

I have been enjoying many wonderful fresh lettuce salads recently. Must eat more greens! Tonight I sauteed sweet potato in coconut oil, added cumin, chili powder, italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. Then I sliced shrimp and put that on top to steam for just a bit and added the leftover of my balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing to the skillet. This went wonderfully on my fresh salad greens. 

Super Stew

I was super excited to try my very first package of grass-fed beef sausage. It went into this amazing pot of Sweet Potato Lentil Stew. 

Start with one onion and 1 lb sausage. Brown.

Add one small can mushrooms and one large sweet potato.

  

Add a can of crushed tomatoes and 1 cup lentils to the mix.
Add about 8 cups of chicken/veggie broth to the pot. Bring to a boil.
Then simmer for 15 minutes until lentils are cooked and potatoes tender.
Don't forget 2t. cumin, 1t. paprika, 1/2t. garlic pwd, 1/2t. pepper,
1/2t. chili pwd & 1/2t. rosemary

Add about 3 cups of chopped kale or other green and let sit for 5 min.

Lookin' good!

Oh so tasty on this cold winter day!

Epic Brunch!

I really love working out in the morning for a number of reasons:

• It wakes me up.
• It gets my body and all its necessary functions going in the morning.
• It jump-starts my metabolism.
• It makes me extra hungry.
• It makes my breakfast sooooo much tastier.

Although my breakfast/brunch today didn't need any help making it tasty, the Billy Blank Tae-Bo workout I did before it made it taste even that much better. I love having a beautiful giant breakfast to start my day. This one is going to keep me satisfied for so long as well because it has plenty of protein with the carbohydrates and even some really great healthy fat! 

I dined on the most amazing sweet potato hash with fresh poached eggs and avocado! This was the first time I've ever made real poached eggs and they were so great! My favorite breakfast food growing up was definitely poached eggs on toast but we used one of those handy microwave poached egg contraptions that really just produces a  microwaved egg. Definitely not poached and ooey gooey runny yolk of a poached egg. We also used to make Velveeta cheese sauce to put on top. Gasp!

This right here is 10 billion times tastier and better for you. Yum Yum Yum.

Magical Turnip Soup

• Turnip - I used about 8 medium to small
• Onion - 1 medium
• Carrot - 1 large
• Sweet potato - 1 small
• Delicata squash - 1/2 cup smashed- this can be left out, I used up some that I had thawed in the fridge
• Chicken stock - roughly 4 cups
• White apple wine - 1/2 cup- once again, apple wine not necessary, just what I found in the fridge
• Curry powder - 1 heaping teaspoon
• Mustard seed - generous sprinkle
• Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste

I chopped the turnip, onion, carrot, and sweet potato and sauteed for about 5 minutes. Then I added the spices for another couple of minutes. Added the squash mash that I had hanging out in the fridge along with the wine and stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes or so covered. Here you can either eat it chunky style or go ahead and blend for a pureed soup. I prefer the pureed version so all the flavors are mingled. This also allowed me to feed it to my father without him freaking out too much about eating turnips and sweet potatoes. I added a dollop of plain yogurt while serving for a delightful magical soup!

This soup is magical because not only is it virtually fat free and full of healthful vegetables, but it contains curry. Curry, according to this not-so-scientific article, helps as an anti-aging agent, fights Alzheimer's, cancer protection, and arthritis treatment. Sounds pretty magical to me!