Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Sugar

When my children were babies they both used to love sweet potatoes. I would cook huge batches, puree them and freeze in ice cube trays (perfect one ounce portions) to feed them over a few weeks. But lately neither of them will eat, or even try sweet potatoes. Knowing how good sweet potatoes can taste, and especially how good they are for you, I was determined to give it another shot tonight. I remembered how well they were complimented by cinnamon. I baked some sweet potatoes, then chopped them into cubes, tossed them with a bit of butter and cinnamon sugar and they kids loved them. My 3 year old even surprised me by saying "thank you for making this best dinner ever daddy" and then ran into the kitchen to give me a hug! Now that' a good review if I ever heard one. Of course you could get kids to eat just about anything by pouring sugar on it, but the sugar in this was minimum, there is enough natural sweetness in the potatoes that is brought out by the cinnamon and sugar. And lately I'm thrilled to see them eat anything besides cheese, cereal and pasta.

The cinnamon thing was good for the kids, but when it came to dinner for me and my wife we don't need cinnamon sugar to make our potatoes taste good, do we? You bet we did! I just couldn't look at the kids eating it that way and have some, and it really was delicious! I served our sweet potatoes with chicken breast with Jamaican spices, and sauteed spinach and onions (with a splash of sherry) and all of the flavors meshed extremely well.


Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Sugar

sweet potatoes
1 pat of butter per potato
aluminum foil
cinnamon sugar (mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon)
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• Pre-heat the oven to 350º
• Wash sweet potatoes, wrap each potato individually in allunimum foil
• Bake for 45 minutes, or until potato becomes soft
• Remove potatoes from the oven, remove foil and cut in half to let cool for a few minutes
• For kids, cut into bite-sized cubes by making cuts horizontally and vertically (see picture to the right), or cut potato in half, lightly butter the halves and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, or any other toppings you may like.
• If making cubes toss with a bit of butter (to taste) and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, enjoy!

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Sugar

Fun with Apple Pancakes

Last week we got the latest edition of "Relish" magazine, inserted in our local newspaper. I usually browse through it to see what type of recipes they have and this week I was surprised to see gluten-free pancakes right on the cover in an article named "Going without the Grain". They have recipes for gluten-free buttermilk pancakes and chocolate chip cookies listed.

Saturday is pancake day at our house. Our pancake breakfast together is one of the few relaxing meals we eat as a family all week. I like making pancakes but I'm not much for making the same meal every week. So each week I look for ways to make them fun and different. Usually I ask my 3 year old daughter to guess what the "secret ingredient" is, she's a remarkably good guesser! Some of the "secret ingredients" I've used are: bananas, pumpkin, chocolate, strawberries, blueberries, nuts, and apples. I've also made several different types of flavored syrups and even heart shapes pancakes. This week I choose to make apple pancakes, but with a fun twist, I made pancakes in the shape of the first letter of everybody's name, and it was actually pretty easy. I have a great mixing bowl that has a spout for easy pouring that made it much easier to control pouring the batter. I used a spoon dipped lightly in batter to actually trace out each letter before I poured it. Once the batter was poured I was able to use a fork to shape and form the letters. I made the letters nice and big. The only difficult part was flipping the the pancakes without breaking them. I used two spatulas which worked pretty well. I had a few mishaps but was able to get one good letter for everyone, (five of us ate) and the mistakes tasted just as good! I used a recipe I came up with for apple pancakes and added a 1/2 tsp of xanthum gum to give them a bit more binding to hold the letter shapes better. Here is my apple pancake recipe...

Apple Pancakes
Serves 4

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp GF baking soda
2 tsp GF baking powder
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
salt to taste

3 large eggs- beaten
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
1/3 cup applesauce
1/2 of an apple- peeled, skinned and minced
1 cup milk

my 3 year old daughter was thrilled about her "M" pancake!

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• Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl
• pre-heat a skillet or pan (with a non-stick surface if you have it) to medium heat
• Mix in the eggs, melted butter (or vegetable oil) applesauce, and apple
• Next stir in the milk, mixing by hand until all of the ingredients are well blended
• Make sure the pan is fully heated, then coat lightly with cooking spray (or butter)
• Pour out each pancake to the desired size, flip pancakes when bubbles start to appear
• Once flipped cook for about two more minutes each
• Serve hot. (I like to keep my pancakes warm in a 200 degree oven covered with aluminum foil so they stay warm, and we can all eat together)
• Serve with butter, or syrup, or cinnamon sugar, or honey or however you prefer, enjoy!

Fun with Apple Pancakes