Sweet Potato Biscuits

Motivated by Rem's request for sweet potato biscuits, I turned to the blog world and found several different recipes out there that looked worth a try.  PaleOMG always has great paleo recipes, so I adapted her sweet potato biscuit recipe a bit to fit what sounded good to us!  The resulting biscuits were soft and doughy on the inside but firm on the outside.  They have a good balance of sweet (from the coconut flour and sweet potato) and savory (from the rosemary and garlic).  You could make these with endless combinations of spices to suit whatever flavors sound good to you!  Next time I may have to try the original recipe with bacon and chives... yum.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Adapted from PaleOMG

2 cups cooked sweet potato, cooled (I used 4 small/medium sweet potatoes)
3 eggs, whisked
1/4 c coconut oil, melted
3 T coconut flour
1 T dried rosemary, chopped (or use 2 T fresh rosemary, chopped)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp coarse salt or 1/4 tsp fine salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Microwave or bake the sweet potatoes until they are cooked through.  Once they are cool, scoop out the flesh into a large bowl (and eat the skins!)  In a small microwave safe bowl, heat the coconut oil until melted.  Add oil to sweet potatoes and mix with a fork.  In the small bowl, whisk the eggs, then add those to the sweet potato and oil mixture, mixing again.  Next add coconut flour, rosemary, garlic powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper.  Mix all ingredients with a fork until well combined.  Scoop onto baking sheet with large cookie scoop (1/4 cup size).  This should make about 10-12 biscuits.  Bake for 25-27 minutes or until they are beginning to turn golden brown and become a little crisp on the outside.  Enjoy!  These store well in the refrigerator and are good cold or reheated in the microwave or toaster oven.  

Sweet Potato Almond Butter Fries

The other day we were thinking about what to make for a snack and Rem commented that something with sweet potatoes and almond butter (some of our favorite foods) would be good.  He quickly found a recipe for sweet potato almond butter fries and we made them immediately.  They were addicting and crazy good, the perfect combination of sweet and salty.  We have already made them 3 times in the past 2 weeks... yeh, they're that yummy.  We found the recipe at The Paleo Project, which has a lot of other great paleo recipes as well.  

We took these to a party where they were enjoyed by everyone!  They're a little messy to make but don't take too much time at all.  I see many more batches of these sweet potato fries in our future...

Before baking.

Baked and ready to serve!

Sweet Potato Almond Butter Fries

Originally from The Paleo Project

2 large sweet potatoes, washed and cut into 1/4 in thick "fries"
2-3 T coconut oil
1/4 c almond butter (we used Trader Joe's raw, unsalted crunchy almond butter)
coarse salt (sea salt or kosher salt)

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut potatoes and then toss with melted coconut oil.  Next, coat the potatoes in almond butter.  You will need to use your hands and it will get messy... just go with it.  Place potatoes onto parchment lined baking sheets and sprinkle liberally with coarse salt.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until potatoes begin to brown and get a bit crispy.  Enjoy!  Try not to eat them all in one sitting!

Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

As I thought about what to make this weekend and browsed around the internet for recipe inspiration, I saw several Shepherd's Pies that looked really tasty.  Shepherd's Pie is traditionally made with a layer of ground lamb covered with a gravy, a layer of potatoes, and sometimes cheese.  I took the inspiration and thought about how I could make it with ingredients we love.  I decided to create a version with ground beef (the substitution which actually makes this a Cottage Pie rather than the Shepherd's Pie), a tomato sauce with rosemary and thyme, and a sweet potato layer on the top.  

I shot from the hip with this one and used Rem's cooking method: use ingredients you know you love and season liberally.  Well, it worked!  This turned out incredibly delicious!!!  You've got to try it.  

Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

Meat mixture:
3 lb. grass fed ground beef
1 onion, diced
4 celery ribs, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
handful baby carrots, diced
16 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms
1 T dried thyme
1 T dried rosemary
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper

Sweet Potato mixture:
3 enormous (that's what I used) or 6 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 T grass fed butter
1 egg

Directions:
1. Peel and cube sweet potatoes.  Place in a large pot of water.  Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are soft.  
2. Meanwhile, in a large dutch oven, brown the ground beef.  As it browns, chop the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery.
3. After the meat has browned, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon.  Also remove most of the fat in the pot, leaving about 1 T behind to cook the veggies in.  It's also time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Add onion and celery to the pot, cooking about 5 minutes or until it gets some color.  Then add garlic, rosemary, thyme, and some salt and pepper.  Stir untiil fragrant, about 1 minute.  
5. Add tomato sauce to deglaze the pan a bit.  Then add tomato paste, mushrooms, and carrots.  Add the ground beef back in as well.  Cook over medium heat 5-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, as you finish cooking and mashing the potatoes. Just make sure the ground beef mixture doesn't stick to the pot.  If it does, add a little water.  
6. Once the potatoes are soft, drain them, then put them back in the pot and add garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, butter, and egg.  Beat with an electric mixer until mostly smooth.
7. Spread the meat mixture so it is flat on top. Then spread the sweet potato mixture on top of the meat mixture and smooth it out.  
8.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, uncovered.
9. Enjoy!

Rem's Chili, Two Ways

Today I bring you two chili recipes that are very easy and make a lot of food.  Version 1 is a more traditional meat and bean chili.  Version 2 is a paleo meat, sweet potato, and mushroom chili.  Both are delicious and use the same set of spices. 

Rem created the meat and bean version when he was living alone in his apartment.  He would make one pot to last him the whole week!  Now it doesn’t last us quite as long, but still makes a whole lot of chili.  It’s great for serving a crowd, too.  

We created the meat, sweet potato and mushroom version a few weeks ago because I was craving a bean-less chili.  I like beans but try not to eat them very often because they don't agree with me.  I LOVED this bean-less version and have been craving it ever since.  I like to serve it on top of spinach, so the hot soup wilts the spinach a bit.  Yum!

Both chilis are pretty spicy, so if you don’t like heat, leave out the serranos, the jalapenos, the cayenne pepper, or some combination of those hot ingredients.  If you love heat, definitely add all three!  An important tip when working with hot peppers like serranos: use rubber gloves or some type of covering over your hands before you work with them!!!!  The oils from the hot pepper can cause an extremely uncomfortable burning sensation on any part of your body they come in contact with. (Also, keep the gloves on as you wash the knife and cutting board that you used to chop the serranos.  Or you could just leave the serranos out if you don't want to deal with the hassle).  The first time I chopped serranos, I did not know this tip and my hands literally burned for 24 hours afterward.  I looked online and tried several remedies for relieving the burning sensation, but nothing worked.  I could hardly fall asleep that night my hands burned so bad!  So, don't make the same mistake I did.  Seriously.  It hurts.  Wear gloves. 

The spice mixture is adapted from several different recipes Rem found online.  It is cheaper, easier, and has no questionable ingredients like some chili seasoning packets you can buy at the store.  I know spices can be very expensive, so here are some secrets to finding inexpensive ones:

-At Giant Eagle, there is a section in the "Mexican" aisle with BADIA brand spices.  You can find garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, and several other spices from this brand.  They are always at least half as expensive as the McCormick and other name brand spices.  

-Kroger has Kroger brand $1.00 spices, including garlic powder, chili powder, oregano, cinnamon, and several others.

-Sam's Club sells HUGE containers of spices like chili powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, and several others.  We have started buying those 3 spices at Sam's because we use them all the time and are sure to go through that whole container before it goes bad. 

Let me know if you try either version of these chilis, or share your own chili recipe in the comments section!  I would love to know what you like to put in your chili! 

Rem’s Chili (Meat and Bean Version)

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2-15 oz. cans organic pinto beans, drained and rinsed

2-15 oz. cans organic black beans, drained and rinsed

2-15 oz. cans organic dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1-64 oz. bottle tomato juice (they make a version in a plastic bottle at Kroger and Giant Eagle; make sure it's just plain tomato juice, no added ingredients)

Handful of jarred jalapenos, chopped

1-32 oz. can organic diced tomatoes, with the juice

6-8 serrano chiles, diced with the seeds in (for less heat, discard the membrane and the seeds and just use the outer part of the chiles)

Spice mix:

3 T chili powder

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp salt (we use coarse ground salt)

2 tsp pepper

In a large stock pot, brown the ground beef with the onion.  Dump in all other ingredients.  Bring to a simmer, then turn to low and simmer for at least 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally during this time. You can certainly cook it longer!  The long it cooks, the more flavor will develop, but it is delicious even after just 30 minutes.  Alternatively, you could brown the meat and onion, then dump everything (including the meat and onion) into a crockpot and cook on low for however long you want.  At that point you’re just heating everything until it’s nice and hot.  Makes... a lot! (at least 10 servings)

Rem’s Chili (Paleo Version, with sweet potatoes and mushrooms)

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2 lb. sliced mushrooms

2-3 lb. sweet potatoes, skin on, cubed

1-64 oz. bottle tomato juice (they make a version in a plastic bottle at Kroger and Giant Eagle; make sure it’s just plain tomato juice, no added ingredients)

Handful of jarred jalapenos, chopped

1-32 oz. can organic diced tomatoes, with the juice

6-8 serrano chiles, diced with the seeds in (for less heat, discard the membrane and the seeds and just use the outer part of the chiles)

Spice mix:

3 T chili powder

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp salt (we use coarse ground salt)

2 tsp pepper

In a large stock pot, brown the ground beef and onion.  Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms have some color.  Dump in all of the other ingredients.  Bring to a simmer then turn to low and simmer until sweet potatoes are soft and cooked to your desired doneness (just test them occasionally during the cooking process).  To speed up the cooking process, you can microwave the sweet potato pieces before putting them in the chili so they’re already a bit soft.  Makes... a lot! (at least 10 servings) 

Sweet Potato Chicken Salad: Paleo Version

Last night I made a paleo version of our Tzatziki Chicken Sweet Potato Salad.  Instead of the yogurt based-dressing, I used the follow combination:
1/2 c olive oil
2-3 T dijon mustard
1 T lemon juice
salt, pepper, and dried parsley to taste

Depending on how "saucy" you want the salad to be, you might want to double the amount of dressing.  It's funny to think that not long ago I hated all types of mustard, but lately I've been adding dijon to a lot of my recipes.  I particularly enjoyed the zing the dijon gave to this dish.  It was also well received by some fellow CrossFitters!  For those of you who are vegetarians, you could leave out the chicken and add 1/2-1 cup of sunflower kernels, or even tofu.  Enjoy, and let me know if you try any new variations!

Tzatziki Chicken Sweet Potato Salad

We have a new favorite mid-afternoon/post-workout/whenever you’re hungry snack at our house - another weekend concoction that ended up being mighty tasty.  We have other sweet potato salads we like to make (if you still don’t know, we eat LOTS of sweet potatoes), but this one is refreshingly light with the tzatziki dressing and big chunks of veggies.  Also, the chicken adds enough protein to make it the perfect, well-rounded snack.  When Rem or I take it out of the fridge to eat, the other one usually sneaks over and steals a couple bites.  That’s usually how we tell a recipe is a keeper.

One tip when you make it: don’t cut the pieces too small.  Just smaller than bite size for each piece is good, so you can still eat the components together, but can enjoy each individually too (plus it maintains a nice texture that way).

Tzatziki Chicken Sweet Potato Salad

**Note: this was another one of our throw together recipes, so all measurements are approximate.  We went with the “that looks like a good amount” method of measuring.

2-3 lbs chicken (we use the frozen chicken thighs from Trader Joe’s)

4 large (2-3 lbs) sweet potatoes (skin on or skin off, your choice)

1 large cucumber

1 lb broccoli florets

Dressing:

1/2 c. plain greek yogurt

1/3 c. olive oil

1/4 c. lemon juice

Salt, pepper, and parsley to taste

Bake the chicken until done (will depend on what type of chicken you use; we just follow the directions on the bag).   Chop sweet potatoes and boil until just tender.  Dice chicken once it’s done cooking, and allow sweet potatoes and chicken to cool.

Chop cucumber and broccoli. Combine with cooled chicken and sweet potatoes.   Combine yogurt, olive oil, and lemon juice with whisk (start with the yogurt, add lemon juice, then continue to add oil until it reaches dressing-like consistency).  Pour dressing onto mixture and season to taste.

Pork and Sauerkraut with Sweet Potatoes

I have another very tasty fall recipe for you today.  I used to make pork and sauerkraut with white potatoes, but I have since found out that my body does not digest them very well.  I have discovered that sweet potatoes are a great alternative to white potatoes in many recipes (and have more vitamins and fiber!), but had never tried them with pork and sauerkraut.  They added sweetness and richness to this recipe and became extremely tender and delicious.  In fact, this is my new favorite way to make pork and sauerkraut.  I think I could literally eat it every day… 

Pork and Sauerkraut with Sweet Potatoes

3-4 lb. pork loin, trimmed of fat and cut into 2 or more large pieces

3 large sweet potatoes

1 large onion

1 jar (2 lb.) sauerkraut

½ c unsweetened applesauce

Freshly ground black pepper

Celery seed

Wash and cut sweet potatoes into large chunks (1 cut them into 1 inch thick rounds, then in quarters).  Place in a layer on the bottom of a large crockpot.  Dice onion and put on top of sweet potatoes.  Put the pork in next and season with lots of pepper and celery seed.  Pour sauerkraut on top and tuck into open spaces on the sides of the pork.  Pour applesauce on top.  Turn crockpot on HIGH and cook for 6 hours.  

Sweet Potato Salad

Happy Fourth of July!  I hope everyone has a great day and takes some time to honor the men and women who have fought for our country to give us the freedoms we enjoy every day. 

The recipe for today features a favorite food in our household: sweet potatoes.  They didn’t used to be a staple in our pantry (we used to eat mainly white potatoes) but over the past few months we have started to cook with them often!  We eat them baked, steamed, grilled, in chili, and in a variety of cold sweet potato dishes, including this sweet potato salad.  We also love the fact that they are full of nutrients, supplying high amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin B6, potassium, and fiber. 

This is definitely not a “traditional” potato salad recipe in any way, but it does fit the bill for a great summer side dish that is perfect for a cookout or picnic.  Although you’ve probably already planned what you’re making for any Fourth of July parties today, this would be a great option if you haven’t decided!  This salad has quickly become one of our favorite dishes with its great blend of texture and flavors.  The combination of sweet and spicy with smooth and crunchy makes it delicious!  If you’re not a huge fan of spicy, just leave the cayenne pepper out, but do try the combination of cumin and cinnamon.  It is the perfect spice set for sweet potatoes. 

 Fair warning, this recipe requires a LOT of chopping, so enlist some help when you go to make it.  It will save you tons of time if you have two people prepping instead of one!  Also, when we made this the first time, we added about 6 chopped hardboiled eggs to the mix to add more protein.  It was good, but I prefer it without the eggs. 

Sweet Potato Salad

8 large sweet potatoes

8 slices bacon (I use applewood smoked turkey bacon from Trader Joe’s)

2 granny smith apples

1 green pepper

6 green onions

5 celery ribs

1 tsp coarse salt

A few shakes cayenne pepper

Liberal amounts of: ground cumin, cinnamon, freshly ground pepper

Lemon juice

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes.  Place in large pot of water and bring to a boil.  Once the water starts to boil, cover the pot and cook until potatoes can be easily mashed with a fork.  Drain and leave in colander to cool.  As the potatoes are boiling, cook bacon however you like it best (baked, broiled, cooked in a skillet, etc.)  When the bacon is done cooking and cool enough to handle, chop it into small pieces.  Meanwhile, dice apples, green pepper, green onions, and celery.  Combine cooked sweet potatoes, bacon, apples, green pepper, green onions, and celery.  Add spices and stir everything together.  Drizzle with some lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown.  Refrigerate.  The salad stays good in the fridge for up to 5 days. 

*Note: I’ve never actually measured the spices for this recipe, so go light at first, and add spice until the salad suits your taste.