Maple Sweet Potato Casserole

With a vegetarian/clean eating mom and four kids who like all different things, dinner can quickly turn in to a debacle. We are just thankful that dad comes from a family of eight kids and will eat whatever is on the plate before him. We're working on getting the kids there, but realistically it may not happen for a few years with the littlest of our littles. I'm trying to keep track of all the kid friendly meals I've been making lately, but I wanted to record this recipe before I forget what I did to create it. :) It will come in handy for Thanksgiving, too, if you need an extra dish to bring.

I love sweet potato casserole and I always feel like mine never comes out quite right. You know, a lot of times it comes out like this.

But this time...gracious. It was SO good. I think I've finally cracked the code on sweet potato casserole mastery. 

Here's what I did. 

First things first. It's not because I'm lazy, it's because I'm left-handed. I don't like peeling sweet potatoes. It's a huge pain and I usually end up slicing my hand in one way or another or dropping a potato down the garbage disposal. So, I didn't peel the potatoes. I baked (four of) them in the oven (pierced and wrapped in foil - 400 degrees for like an hour or hour and a half). 

Once the potatoes were nice and tender (and only slightly scalding hot), I sliced them in half and scooped the potato out into my baking dish. Instead of egg (remember my irrational salmonella fear?) I added half a cup of Greek Yogurt (I didn't really measure it, but I was aiming for half a cup). Then I seasoned the tar out of all of it with cinnamon. After I cinnamonized it, I came to the moment of truth. Do I lace this sucker with brown sugar or try a "clean" alternative. I just so happened to have pure, local, maple syrup. I would say I used 1/4-1/2 cup of maple syrup and stirred to combine. Omgosh. So good. I added about 1/2 tsp of sea salt as well. Next, I scooped in the rest of the butter in the butter dish (about 2T and then added 1T of coconut oil). Mmm..... I stirred all well to combine and baked at 325 for about 30min or so. Once my salmon patties were about done, I added some mini marshmallows and allowed those to burn and set off the smoke detector melt beautifully on top of the casserole. 

It was SO delicious. I have to think the maple syrup and coconut oil had something to do with it. I hope you'll try this recipe. It was seriously the best ever...after I removed the charred marshmallows and made a second attempt. 

Here's what you need: 

• 4 big sweet potatoes
• 1/4c pure maple syrup
• Cinnamon
• 1/2tsp tea salt
• 1/2c plain greek yogurt
• 2T butter
• 1T coconut oil
• Tons of mini marshmallows

Now, go make it and enjoy!!! :)

Clean Eating Yum Alert: Broccoli bites, revisited.

Last month, I did a post on these fancy little things called broccoli bites. When I made the recipe initially, they were good, but lacked a little flavor. A friend from church joined us for lunch today, so I thought we'd give these another try with some modifications. These little darlings were SO much better this time that I thought a follow-up post was in order. Let me tell you how to do broccoli bites the right way!

Here's what you need:

• 2 cups - broccoli florets (this time I used raw ready-to-eat broccoli and chopped it up in the ninja)
• 3 eggs
• A handful of shredded cheese - I used a medium sharp cheddar and some mozzarella. (I think my cheese choice made a huge difference this time!)
• Minced garlic (about 1/2 tablespoon) - this was a key ingredient, too. The garlic made these things extra awesome!
• Seasoned salt (a generous dash or two)
• Cayenne pepper (just a quick dash)
  
  

Here's what you do:

• Put your broccoli in the food processor and blast it into a million bajillion pieces (or chop it up super fine if you don't have a food processor). Transfer broccoli to a mixing bowl.
• Add eggs, cheese, garlic, seasonings. Stir until fully incorporated.
• Drop, by spoonfuls, into a mini-muffin tin (greased or filled with muffin liners)
• I baked these adorable green muffins at 375 for about 20-25 minutes - just watch them, though. They smelled super good while cooking in the oven (thank you garlic!!).

And, while I was at it, I made some quesadillas (that's plain greek yogurt for dipping the quesadilla and fruit) and chia fruit salad (not as fancy as it sounds). It's just the fruit of your choice sprinkled with a little stevia and chia seeds! I'll be posting more about chia seeds later, after I have time to do more experimenting. For now, I know they're good on fruit and good in pudding. :) Standby for more.

PS. I'm sorry my dash of this, pinch of that directions aren't, you know, clear here. Exact measurements aren't super crucial in this recipe, just make sure the consistency is nice - not to runny or dry. Oh, and, don't over-do the cayenne! Also, don't use cayenne pepper then immediately rub your eyeballs. Ouch.

That is all (for now).

Enjoy!

Here's to not smoking up the kitchen! Broccoli Bites

I hope you guys had an awesome weekend! We sure did. Our weekend included all kinds of work, random errands, dinner at our favorite Italian place (a treat meal that ended with two awesome donuts) church, more food and of course, some football. It went by too fast, as usual. I wanted to let you know about a new recipe I tried over the weekend that I think you'll love. In fact, this would have been good, clean Super Bowl food if I had been thinking. But, when am I ever thinking?

Let me rewind a couple weeks and give you a little back story. My gluten-free, new-to-clean-eating friend Jenny berated me suggested that I make these veggie pancakes she found on Pinterest. As soon as I had the Ninja pitcher clean for half a second, I though - what the heck - let's dirty it up. So, I made the pancakes.

They were really delicious. However, I suck at at browning pretty much anything in oil without filling the house with smoke. So, while the pancakes were good, my kids were a little troubled by the limited visibility they had in our family room while I was cooking and for an hour after. I did really enjoy the veggie cakes though, so I tried to think of some alternatives that would be just as good (and clean) with less hassle. After throwing another few hours of my life away researching a little more on Pinterest, I found broccoli bites!

Of course, none of the recipes were shaking out exactly how I wanted (I basically needed them to conform to the ingredients I had on-hand), so I did a little experiement. Here's how it went:

• Broccoli florets, steamed (I used like two smaller bunches - I have no idea what that equates to...use your eyeballs on this one).
• 3 eggs
• A bunch of cheese - maybe a cup or something (here's where I went wrong. I grated some Irish Cheddar I had on hand. I think some regular cheddar or colby would have been better here - these needed a little more flavor Irish Cheddar is more sharp than flavorful).
• Seasonings - you pick! I did garlic powder, salt, basil, and that's it. They needed a little more. Next time I will add in a modest dash of cayenne pepper and a bit more salt.

Here's the hard part (insert sarcasm):

• Put your broccoli in the food processor and blast it into a million bajillion pieces (or chop it up super fine if you don't have a food processor). Transfer broccoli to a mixing bowl.
• Add eggs, cheese, seasonings. Stir until thoroughly incorporated.
• Drop, by spoonfuls, into a greased mini-muffin tin. I filled exactly 24 mini muffin cups with this recipe. No, I didn't use liners. I despise liners and dont' use them unless I have to.

I baked these adorable green muffins at 375 for about 20-25 minutes - just watch them, though. They smelled super good while cooking in the oven and - bonus - this cooking method didn't fill the house with smoke! I can't wait to make them again with the modifications I listed above. 

These are clean and husband and kid approved. Enjoy!