Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I've always been a sucker for both mashed potatoes and a good sweet potato casserole.  But what about straight up mashed sweet potatoes?  When my sister and I were planning a dinner menu for my parents' 30th anniversary celebration she suggested just that.

My main concern was that they would be bland.  I can eat a sweet potato plain without any dressings, but most people like that combination of cinnamon, butter and brown sugar that's often added.  You know, the kind they give you at Longhorn?  It's kind of like making a dessert out of your dinner by the time you add all that sugar. 

The recipe below lists what I added, but to be honest it's pretty hard to mess these up.  If you taste them and find there isn't enough flavor you can definitely add additional brown sugar or cinnamon.  Or butter :)

Considering that a sweet potato casserole calls for a cup or more of sugar I thought that this was kept relatively healthy.  Therefore, that means two servings are okay, right???

Homemade Sweet Potato Chips

Last weekend the hubs and I opted to cookout at home versus heading out for dinner.  Those nights are my absolute favorite.  Don't get me wrong...I definitely enjoy eating out, especially at local restaurants, but there's just something about the smell of the grill and spending the afternoon chopping and dicing away to prep a delicious dinner that night.

Sweet potatoes were on special that particular Saturday, so we decided to try our hand at some homemade sweet potato chips.  We received a deep fryer as a wedding gift that I have been DYING to use, and this proved to be the perfect opportunity.

I pulled out my vintage mandoline slicer that I had picked up a few weeks ago at an antique store and started slicing away.  I wish I had been able to slice the chips more evenly, but for my first go at it I didn't think it was too shabby of a job.  Plus, this thing is a few decades old so it probably wasn't all my fault, right?

*Make sure you have a mandoline slicer on hand for this task.  It's practically impossibly to slice these thin enough with a knife.

These chips were so bright and vibrant in color...

loved them!

I also whipped up a Zaxby's style sauce that we used for both the chips and the burgers.  I'll post the sauce recipe on Wednesday, so make sure to check back!

Sweet Potato Scones

I hope everyone had a great 4th!  I sure did.  Lots of good food.  LOTS of it.

The hubby's 27th birthday was Tuesday and we have celebrated with 3 birthday dinners and no less than 3 birthday cakes.  Yes, you read that right.  Three.  Two ice cream cakes and one caramel cake.  Sugar detox anyone??

These babies might help do the trick.  Well, minus the brown sugar glaze.  Okay, so maybe they won't do the trick.  But they are yummy.  And I guess you could reason that the sweet potato in them makes it a healthy option.  Maybe.

These scones were incredibly tasty, but I will admit they were incredibly frustrating to make.  My dough wasn't anywhere near firm enough so I had to keep adding more flour.  I almost didn't post these because of this, but everyone else who rated the recipe raved about it, so maybe it was something I did wrong.  I'm going to try them again sometime soon and see if they turn out better.  The taste was phenomenal, but I just had a hard time shaping the dough because of the texture.  The measurements for the original recipe were first given in grams, so maybe when they converted everything something got messed up.  I'll investigate and will be sure to post a follow up.

So if you make these know that you may need to add more flour.

Can we take a moment and talk about how I'd love to 

scoop up that little pool of glaze right there??

If you're looking for a healthier option you could always opt out of the brown sugar glaze.  But it's so yummy I wouldn't recommend it :)  Delish!!

Vegan Sweet Potato Burger

Before you write this recipe off and don't even take a gander, let me say that I promise that vegan dishes can be yummy.  Swear.  I get that when you think "burger" you're thinking meat, be that beef, turkey or bison.  But this sweet potato burger was just divine in my humble opinion.  I even got the thumbs up from my meat-loving hubby too!

They are a bit frustrating to make because you're working with a much softer base that falls apart easily, but as long as you're not shy with the breadcrumbs (bring em on!), then they turn out great.  They still tend to fall apart as you eat them, but that's okay with me because they are so tasty that I was perfectly fine finishing my burger with a fork.  

You can top these burgers with anything you like, but I chose avocado and onion based on the suggestions from the original blog that posted this recipe.  Healthy Happy Life is linked up below in the recipe, so make sure to mosey on over and check them out if you're even remotely interested in other vegan dishes.

PS Can we just talk about how hot these past few days have been?  Yikes! I think I may use some leftover chocolate cookies I have to make a milkshake this afternoon....check back for the recipe!

Savory Sweet Potato Fries

I recently had some A-mazing sweet potato fries at Recess, a local restaurant in Gainesville.  I've had them a few times before in other settings and enjoyed them, but these were sprinkled with what tasted like a combination of cinnamon and brown sugar.

I know, I know.....coating them in such delicious things kind of takes the healthy factor out and basically negates the whole point of using sweet potatoes versus baked potatoes.  But I promise that if you just could have tasted them you wouldn't have cared either.

I wanted to re-create these little guys, but I knew I wanted to bake them versus frying them.  These fries turned out to be easy to prepare, and they have both a sweet and savory component.  The sweet potatoes let you count them as a veggie, while the brown sugar and cinnamon makes you feel like you're indulging a little.

The only changes I would make next time would be that I would make the fries slightly bigger and I would have spaced them further apart on the baking sheet.  When they get too crowded they end up soggy instead of crisp.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

One Saturday about a little over a year ago, my then-fiance and I stopped by the famed Highlands Bakery in Atlanta, GA for brunch.  I ordered their breakfast plate and opted for the sweet potato biscuit in place of their classic whole wheat one.  And my life was forever changed.

No, I'm only kidding.  Just a little.  Have you ever eaten one of those biscuits?  I absolutely love sweet potatoes and all things carbs (especially nice, fluffy biscuits), so it's not surprising to me that I took a quick liking to these.

I've been looking around the internet for some time trying to find a recipe that I thought might compare, and I settled on Martha Stewart's version.  This recipe is fairly straightforward, and the only time consuming aspect of it is the baking of a sweet potato.  I'm sure you could use canned sweet potato puree though if you were in a pinch.

Even though biscuits are typically a breakfast/brunch food, I made these the other night for dinner along with eggs (over easy for me, scrambled for the hubs) and turkey bacon.  I'm sure these would also go well as a dinner bread too.

*I whipped up some brown sugar cinnamon butter to go with these biscuits.  Just add some cinnamon and brown sugar to some softened butter and you're good to go.  If it gets too soft just stick it back in the fridge for a bit.

Sweet Potato Biscuits from Martha Stewart

• 1 3/4 C all purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar (I substituted with sugar in the raw)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tsbp melted butter
• 3/4 C sweet potato puree, chilled
• 1/3 C buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place baking rack on lower shelf.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. 

Dry ingredients mixture

With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. 

*Make sure you don't forget the melted butter too.  I added this in AFTER I had cut in the chilled butter and it worked well for me.  If you forget it the dough will be incredibly dry and impossible to knead.

I had to call a time-out and give you an "above" view of my

amazing new apron.  Not only is it incredibly stylish, but it also has a button

there on my right side for you to attach the dish towel.  Perfect for keeping your hands 

free in the kitchen!  One of my fave shower gifts :)

Now back to the recipe at hand....In small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).

For the puree, I simply baked a sweet potato, chilled it in the fridge,

and then mixed it with a hand mixer.

Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface.  Knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. 

With floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).

Butter/Grease an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.

I didn't have an 8-inch round cake pan, so I divided the biscuits up

among 2 pans.  In hindsight I would have gone

with the round cake pan because it would have allowed me to

place the biscuits closer together.  The closer together they are the softer

the edges of each biscuit will be.