Thursday, May 27, 2010

Suh-weeet Potatoes!


I am having a super sweet day because my favorite blog, Ohdeedoh, just blogged US! Can you stinkin' believe it?! So yay for that!

So since I'm feeling so sweet I thought we'd go with that theme. So today we're talking sweet potatoes. Today's research comes from the good folks at Wiki, and states that:
Besides simple starches, sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene (a vitamin A equivalent nutrient), vitamin C, and vitamin B6. Pink and yellow varieties are high in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A.
In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables. Considering fibre content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value. According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato.(NCSPC)

If you feel like reading more, just click the above link and you'll discover in that very article that Oprah wants us to eat more sweet potatoes. And who are we to question Oprah?

Today I was in a bind and went to my freezer and found some frozen sweet potatoes and baked those up. I'm sorry to say that those particular fries were totally sick. They had apparently already been fried, and to get them to taste any kind of decent you'd want to fry them again. I didn't. I baked them. And they were gross. So you'll want to pay attention when you buy them in the freezer. Make sure they haven't been fried and you're going to want to bake them. They're great if you do. Of course, you get bonus mommy points if you make them yourself. It's actually not that hard, and doesn't take long. I won't lie, I'm lazy as can be when it comes to complicated snack prep. This is not complicated.

And now, some recipes...
Coconut Ginger Sweet Potatoes, I'm freaking out just reading this one. This will happen.
Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Mayo Dip
Sweet Potato and Bean Soup. This sounds great, though not extremely spring-ish. But we talked beans last week, so what the heck. Bookmark it.
Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes. Spicy, maybe just for mom and dad if your kiddos aren't into spicy. Mine are. So we'll try these. But it's a twist on the original Crash Hot Potatoes. My Canadian friend, Matt K, said these were the best potatoes he'd ever had. And this guy eats some gooooood food often. He would know.

4 comments:

  1. I just found your blog from Ohdeedoh and I am enjoying your older posts. Hope you don't mind my comments after the fact.

    The coconut ginger sweet potatoes look awesome and think that at least some of my family might eat them!

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  2. I'm so glad you were featured on Ohdeedoh today or I might have never found your blog and that would be so sad..seriously! I love what you are doing and the pictures are fun and cute. And that recipe for sweet potato fries with chipotle mayo dip..yes please!

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  3. Ha- I found you from Ohdeedoh! Thanks for the great blog- and my 4 year old son LOVES sweet potatoes cooked the easy and mostly healthy way- cut them into about 1 inch chunks (peeled), toss in a baking dish with a bit of olive oil and a mixture of brown sugar (1-2 tsp), cinnamon (1/4 tsp) and nutmeg (1/8 tsp)- measurements for about 5-6 sweet potatoes. But really, just season to taste. Bake in the oven at around 375 for roughly 45 minutes- and they come out wonderful. Obviously this is a pretty flexible way to cook them- just adjust your oven or spices or cooking time to taste (sometimes we cook them at higher or lower temperatures based on whatever else is in the oven!).

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  4. Oh, Tiffany. That sounds crazy good. I'm going to try it!

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