Foodie Friday

After getting Rachel's blessing last night that it is ok eat leftovers as breakfast (within reason), I feel better about gorging myself every morning with sweet potato casserole. Sick?  Well, the thought of eating eggs, cereal, oatmeal, or any other predictable breakfast food in the morning is enough to trigger my gag reflex.  Don't judge.

Don't Miss This:

If you're interested in nutrition, you need to visit nutiritiondata.com. On this website, you can look up any food  imaginable, and the website gives you its full nutrition profile. Best of all, it's free! I registered for an account and input my recipe (below) into the website, where it analyzed the ingredients and gave me a nutrition label for my custom recipe, which you'll see below.  Cool, huh?

At Thanksgiving, my mom made this amazing sweet potato casserole. It was low in sugar, had heart-healthy walnuts in it, and contained only a few tablespoons of butter -- compare that to the buttery, marshmallow-y kinds you normally see during the holidays. Confession: I've eaten through at least 4 of these in the past 2 weeks - all on my own. I hate sweet potatoes too! But this is so good, you just have to make it to experience it!!

Why are sweet potatoes healthy? They're high in fiber, rich in vitamins A & C, and good source of potassium. Sweet potatoes are good for you because they're low on the glycemic index, which means that by eating them, you won't suffer a blood sugar soar and crash. They're great for mashing or snacking - try sweet potato fries (with cinnamon greek yogurt dipping sauce!) or a casserole like the one below.

RECIPE:
Sweet Potato Casserole
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients

• 4 cups sweet potato, cubed
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, 3 tbsp brown sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

Here's the nutritional breakdown for my current breakfast obsession.  Of course, if you're concerned about the sugar, you could tweak the recipes, but overall this isn't a bad way to start the day. One serving is about 90% of your daily recommended value for Vitamin A!