Tea

Herbal and black tea blend

Cherry-Smoked Salmon

Seasoned salmon smoked with cherry-wood(how I love my stove-top smoker!) with fruit salsa, steamed broccoli, enoki mushrooms, and pan seared plantains.

Red Swiss Chard

Those brilliant red ribs are loaded with belatain, an antioxidant that also gives beets their color. One cup of swiss chard contains 500% of the RDA of Vitamin K, and 200% the RDA of Vitamin A.

Beef Quesadillas

Marinated grilled flank steak, roasted onions, peppers and mushrooms, home-made flour tortilla, pico de gallo, cranberry bean and chick pea casoulet. Couple of cheats: Replace the refried beans with mashed sweet potatoes flavored with cumin, and use broccoli sprouts instead of iceberg lettuce.

Nutty Caramel Apple-Sweet Potato Smoothie

In the continued experiments of using sweet potato in breakfast smoothies, I concocted this recipe, which is loaded with beta carotene, fiber, protien and complex carbs.

Ingredients:

1/2 roasted sweet potato, peeled

1 Fuji, Granny Smith, or your favorite apple, rough chopped(peel is okay if you have a Vitamix), or 1&1/2 cup organic, sugar-free applesauce

1 cup Almond milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons raw organic peanut butter (almond butter works, too, just a different flavor)

1/2 teaspoon organic cinnamon

Ice if you feel you need it, but I didn’t use any in this mixture.

Process:

Toss everything in the blender and puree until smooth.

It took me about 3 minutes to make this from start to finish (not counting roasting the potato which I did the day before), and walking around sipping the nutty, sweet, earthy drink was like being at the midway of the county fair! Yum!

Turkey-Sweet Potato Meatloaf

To make a homey meal like meatloaf (turkey meatloaf no less) more beneficial I adapted my basic recipe a little. I sauteed some garlic and red onions in a pan until just softened, then added in 1 cup of sliced white button mushrooms. Ilet the mushrooms cook until most of the liquid was gone, then added 1/4 cup of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes and some herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage, lots of parsley, and some kale finely minced and snuck in). I let the tomatoes cook down for about 10 minutes and then took the pan off the heat and let the mixture cool.

I used the other half of my roasted sweet potato and put it into a bowl with one egg(my idea was that the sweet potato would take the place of the second egg I would normally use. I don’t think it had the same binding power, however) and some ground turkey. I mooshed the mixture up with my hands, the best kitchen tool for the job. I spooned in the cooled mushroom mixture and mixed it in as well, along with some coriander, cumin, chili powder, black pepper and salt. I formed a meatloaf from the mixture and baked it all in the oven for 40 minutes.

The meatloaf was super-moist and had a slightly orange color, and a sweet taste that didn’t come from ketchup or brown sugar. It held together pretty well, I was able to carve off some nice thick slices. I served it with some tri-colored herb roasted baby potatoes and some sauteed carrots and kale. I thought it was a neat trick to work all my superfoods into one food item.

Sweet Potato-Mango Smoothie

After make much noise about being able to use sweet potatoes in smoothies, I decided I should actually try this and see how it works. Sweet potatoes are a great source of potassium, even more than bananas, and also beta-carotene. I used 1/2 a roasted and peeled sweet potato (cold), 1 and 1/2 cups of mango juice and 1/2 a cup of frozen mango puree, chopped up. I threw it all in the blender and it made a very smooth shake that was very delicious. It had an almost pudding-like consistancy and did not get all loose and watery after I poured it into a glass. The color was richer and more orange than the mango juice. Definitely sweet, lots of mango flavor, just a hint of rich earthiness. It would probably be good frozen into a sorbet, or blending with some yogurt. Anyway, the sweet potato didn’t interfere with the flavor and gave the smoothie the same kind of body (or even better body) than a banana would have.

I can now confidently recommend at least one smoothie recipe using sweet potatoes. The experimenting will continue.