Tag Archives: Kitchen

Tasty Tuesday: Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

Sweet potatoes are flippin’ awesome. They are fantastic for digestion, heart health, skin health, and blood sugar levels. Specifically, they are high in Vitamin B6, Vitamin A, Fiber, Potassium, Vitamins C and E, and Manganese.

This recipe was my attempt at making my mom’s amazing shepherds pie but without the starch of potatoes. With that in mind, it was GROSS. But once we stopped thinking of it as Shepherds Pie and started thinking of it as a dish on it’s own, SO DELICIOUS. Isn’t it weird how your brain can trick you like that?

This was incredible easy to make and I just kept it in a crockpot in the fridge and reheated it (on the lowest temperature possible) for 3 nights straight. Thank you bulk-cooking!

Sweet Potato Pot Pie (6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

7 organic sweet potatoes, chopped into small chunks
3/4 cup organic milk (almond, coconut, dairy, whatever)
1 organic yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds organic ground turkey
1 package of organic gravy mix
8oz organic frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, etc)

Instructions:

Boil sweet potato chunks in a large pot until soft. While they are cooking, mix gravy.
Drain water from pot add the milk and mash it all together. Set aside.
In a separate, deep pan, sauté onions and garlic for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
Add turkey to pan and cook until brown.
Add gravy and frozen veggies to pan and mix together.
Either in the large pot or in a crockpot, layer the meat mixture, then the mashed sweet potatoes. Heat in the crockpot or oven on low for 10 minutes. This allows the juices to mix together. YUM
Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday: Winter Soup

1 Reply

We had some friends over for dinner the week before last and it was just starting to get cold out. One of the guests was vegan which I actually love because it’s a challenge! So I made this delicious AND vegan Winter Soup in my slow cooker. Thanks to Oh She Glows for the base recipe!

Don’t be scared! It seems like a lot of ingredients but you just chop them all up and throw them in.

Quick tip: I doubled this recipe and it fed 7 of us at dinner and there were leftovers for another night. Always make enough for leftovers! It means less time cooking.

Winter Soup (serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

1 large carrot

1 cup red quinoa, uncooked

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1 medium zucchini

3 cloves garlic

1 vegetable bouillon cube (not low sodium)

6 cups water

15oz can diced tomatoes

15oz can black beans

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of black pepper

2 cups baby spinach

Instructions

Chop carrot, onion, and zucchini. Heat the oil then sauté onions over low heat until translucent.

Add the carrot, zucchini and garlic and continue to sauté for 5-7 minutes.

While that’s cooking, in separate pot, boil 6 cups of water and add bouillon cube. Stir until dissolved. Combine sautéed veggie, bouillon water, and all other ingredients, except for spinach, in a large pot. Bring to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Chop spinach and add to pot. Simmer for 15+ minutes. The longer the better.

Enjoy!

What’s your favorite Winter Recipe?

“Use This” Monday: High Heat Oil

7 Replies

Canola Oil was originally popularized in the US, in the form of rapeseed oil, to aid in the building of ships during World War 2. When the war ended, demand dropped, and the main producer of the oil (Canada) began to look for a form of rapeseed oil edible by humans. The new invention was lower in erucic acid (which is linked to heart disease). The Canadians came up with the very clever name Canola: Canadian oil, low acid. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CANOLA PLANT.

At the time that Canada was going about inventing Canola Oil, American food manufacturers were looking for a cheap alternative to polyunsaturated oils like olive oil and healthy unsaturated fats like butter and coconut oil. Perfect! Canola Oil fit the bill and the Canadian producers began the expensive road to FDA approval and marketing to manufacturers.

The original Canola Oil was created through basic breeding and selection, however in 1995, there was a massive genetic modification in Canola Oil. The new oil was so genetically different from the original rapeseed oil that it could be patented. The modification succeeded in producing a bacterial DNA in the oil that makes it impervious to the toxic herbicide, RoundUp. This means that the patented oil is regularly doused in RoundUp to combat the growth of other plants. Yummy!

Canola oil is about a third polyunsaturated fat which is incredible unstable in high heat. This means that every time you cook with the oil, then eat whatever you cook (duh), they increase inflammation in your body (ouch) and contribute to heart disease, cancer, weight gain, and other degenerative diseases.

The way your body reacts to Canola Oil is the same with other industrial oils like CORN OIL and SOYBEAN OIL.

In other words:

EAT THIS

– organic and grass-fed is best. Yep, full fat butter is good for you! When shopping, the lesser ingredients the better.

OR THIS

– organic and unrefined is best < MY FAVORITE. More on the amazingness of coconut oil later.

OR THIS

– organic and extra virgin is best (low heat only)

NOT THIS

^ BOOOO!!! HISSS!!!!

This is a very short version of an awesome article by the blogger, Small Footprint Family. See the article here.

So when are you going to make the switch?

HAPPY MONDAY! 🙂

Thriving Thursday: Back to Basics Applesauce

2 Replies

When was the last time you had applesauce? Does anyone remember the blue kind? Why do kids love to eat weird colored food? Scratch that, why do PEOPLE love to eat weird colored food? Anyway! In my quest to get healthy, I’ve started cooking lots of stuff from scratch, in big batches, and then eating it for a week or two. It’s actually amazing how simple some of these recipes are.

So this week I tried to recreate my favorite Trader Joe’s chunky applesauce.

Back to Basics Applesauce (large batch)

Ingredients

8 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped

1 1/2 cups water

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp stevia (optional)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cover and cook on medium for 15-20 minutes or until apples are soft.

Then mash them up with a fork, masher, or in a blender. For chunkier sauce, wait until apples are cool and do not blend.

Enjoy! I even saved my old TJ’s jar and all the sauce fit perfectly 🙂

Ashley Life Update: I have to boast a little, I am a serious BAMF (bad ass mother f’er). A couple of friends (yep friends) and I went on a bike ride on Sunday morning. The winds were about 30 mph and as I was parking to get ready, I realized my shoes were at home, 20 minutes away. So I biked 25 miles in my Crocs with shoe covers on. I usually chicken out when something like this happens so I’m really proud that I stuck it out. And it was even better because I got a great ride in and met a new friend 🙂