Sweet & Spicy Sweet Potatoes

I decided it's time to eat more vegetables. Last night, I was looking to make a sweet potato side dish. Looking through Allrecipes, most sweet potato dishes were of the candied variety - not what I was looking for. Then I came upon this awesome recipe. I think I could eat it everyday.

Here's my version:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

olive oil

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1.5 T paprika

0.5 t black pepper

0.5 t onion powder

0.5 t garlic powder

0.5 t chili powder

pinch of cayenne pepper

salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Coat the potatoes in a little oil (or a lot of if you're not trying to be healthy). Cook in the microwave. Mix up the spices. After the potatoes are mostly cooked, toss them in the spices. And bake on a cookie sheet coated with oil or cooking spray for about 15-20 minutes til they are a little crunchy. Enjoy!

Skip the microwave step, if you're not in a hurry. With the microwave, it took me 25 minutes, start to dinner.

I ate these for dinner with pork last night and again this morning with eggs for breakfast. Delicious!

Sweet Potato Gratin

Am I happy? Of course I'm happy! It was THANKSGIVING my favorite day of the year! The other week we had a pre-Thanksgiving potluck and it was awesome! Everyone brought a traditional Thanksgiving dish. I signed up for sweet potatoes :D

I found this recipe on the Whole Foods website, but they've since deleted it....good thing I printed it!

Sweet Potato Gratin
Serves 10

2 tsp unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Barbados molasses
2 large eggs
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
1/2 small red onion, peeled and sliced into 1/8-inch rounds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2-quartcasserole dish with the butter. Whisk cream, molasses, eggs,salt, pepper, and thyme in a bowl. Added sweet potatoes and onions and toss to coat. Pour into the buttered casserole so that they're mostly covered with sauce. Place in the over and bake for 45 minutes or until custard is set. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes or so before serving.

Notes: I don't know what Barbados molasses is, but I just used regular molasses. I added a quarter stick of butter to the sauce :D And I used half a sweet onion, not red :D

It turned out well - recipe recommended!