My oldest daughter and I love these sweet potato fries.  I make them every couple of weeks and they are usually gone by the end of the night.  The younger two kids either really love sweet potatoes or they can’t stand them so I usually make them as an extra dish.  They are so easy to make it doesn’t make it seem like I am doing extra work for dinner.  Some nights I start them when the younger kids are eating and then eat them as an after dinner snack instead of dessert.  It was yummy and way healthier than ice cream or cookies.

Wash sweet potatoes thoroughly with a vegetable scrubber.

I used three lovely sweet potatoes today.  We buy a gigantic bag from Costco every month or two and store them in a cool dry place.

Cut the ends off and then cut the sweet potatoes in half.  Stand each half upright on the wider end and cut it in half again.  Then slice each quarter into roughly the same thickness.

Spread your sweet potatoes on a standard cookie sheet. I used a Silpat under mine but you can also use parchment paper.  The sweet potatoes don’t have to be evenly spread and they can be touching since they will shrink as they cook.

Lightly coat your sweet potatoes with olive oil.  Ha ha! There is no actual olive oil on my brush because I didn’t want it to glop on there unevenly while I took a picture but you get the idea.  I love our silicone brush because I can just toss it in the dishwasher afterwards. Don’t ask me where we got it. My husband bought it many years ago and I have no idea where but they have similar ones on Amazon.

Sprinkle your salt and pepper. I don’t use a lot of salt in my cooking and if I add a bunch of pepper to these it is guaranteed that the little kids won’t eat them so I do a very light coat.  They do taste wonderful though if you add lots of pepper and a decent amount of salt so sometimes if I am feeling extra inspired I will make another tray for the grownups with more seasoning.  Turn your sweet potatoes over and repeat the olive oil, salt and pepper. I may forget to repeat the second side if my kids are extra distracting so you can skip this step but they taste way better with coating on both sides.  Put them in the oven for about 20 min, flip them with a fork to check tenderness and put them back into the oven for another 15-20 min.  Check them a second time. There should be a little carmelization on them but if you are feeding them to little ones it is better to leave them soft.

I made these for kids to eat tomorrow so I pulled them a little early to keep them soft  You can see some carmelization on the smaller pieces.

Yummy sweet potato juice coating the cooked fries. Let the fries cool for a few minutes and enjoy!  You could also add a pre-mixed seasoning salt to the fries or just do salt and have them be more like french fries.

I hope your family enjoys these as much as we do!  Happy cooking!

Easy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

May 9, 2017

Servings: 4-6

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 45 min

Total: 55 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Baked sweet potatoes make a great snack or side to any dinner.

By: Oscoey

Ingredients

• 3-4 Sweet Potatoes
• 1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions

• Step 1 Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees and wash your sweet potatoes thoroughly.
• Step 2 Cut off the ends of the sweet potatoes and slice them in half twice. Cut them into roughly the same width (usually 1/4″ or so) to make them fry size. The actual width doesn’t matter, just remember the thicker they are the longer they will need to cook and the softer the fries will be. I usually cut each 1/4 of a sweet potato into 4-5 slices depending on how big it is.
• Step 3 Spread your fries evenly over a standard cookie sheet. I use a Silpat under them so they do not stick.
• Step 4 Lightly coat fries with olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
• Step 5 Flip your fries and repeat olive oil, salt and pepper on the other side.
• Step 6 Bake sweet potatoes for 20 minutes.
• Step 7 Flip the fries with a fork and put them back into the oven for another 20-30 minutes depending on how done they are. If they are already soft put them in for 15 minutes and check them again. If some of them are still a little firm it will probably be closer to 25 or 30 minutes but check every few minutes to make sure.
• Step 8 Fries should be soft on the inside and have a little bit of carmelization on the outside. When I make them for the baby I leave them softer on the outside so he can chew them. Enjoy!

My grandma made fruit salad for us growing up and it was always my favorite because she put a few marshmallows in there.  My mom was always trying to eat healthy so marshmallows were a rare treat in our house.  I made this yummy salad with my three year old today because she ate most of it last time we made it and I needed to use up both rainbow marshmallows (bought by the oldest on a whim) and coconut cream from when I made Cauliflower Coconut Curry earlier in the week.

One of the best ways to save money on groceries is to reduce your wasted food to almost nothing.  So many people forget about food in their pantry/fridge and don’t find it until after it has gone bad.  I always try to use up ingredients by using them in multiple meals throughout the week and to use leftovers from recipes right away.  We also have a smaller fridge in our kitchen so that we can’t store too many leftovers at once and have leftovers for lunch every day and a couple of nights a week for dinner.  We have gotten way better about reducing our food waste over the years using these strategies.

I had my daughter help me make the salad because she loves to cook and this recipe is great for kids to help with. There really isn’t a way to mess it up and mixing is my daughter’s favorite cooking task right now so it was right up her alley.  Since the baby can’t help I found something for him to do while we made fruit salad.  He has gotten better at using a spoon over the last month so I set him up with some sensory play using dried beans, dried peas, a couple of bowls and a spoon.  This sort of activity requires that the kid does not put the small pieces in their mouths so it is important to wait until they are able to keep things out of their mouth without constant supervision if you are giving it to them while you are preoccupied.  My son just turned 14 months and I am just starting to be able to do these types of things with him.  He loved it and didn’t start throwing beans on the floor until near the end so it worked out perfectly. I have reused these beans and peas many times with my daughter so there were a few paper clips in there. Ha! I also gave him one of these scoopers  because he wanted to be like his sister but he was a little young for it.

I opened the can of fruit cocktail and drained it over a bowl so that my daughter could drink the juice.

Next I had her practice scooping by transferring the fruit cocktail into a mixing bowl with a large spoon.  She loved doing scooping with her brother!

Next we added the marshmallows and my daughter stirred.

I scooped about a half cup of the coconut cream into the bowl and had her stir.  Make sure to mix the coconut cream first so it isn’t lumpy. I was a little sleepy so I also put some in my coffee which is a great dairy-free substitute for cream.

Then we added a bit more coconut cream and stirred it really well to complete the fruit salad.

It was lunch time so I made wraps with leftover pork loin sliced thin, lettuce, mayo and mustard.  The fruit salad was a refreshing end of the week treat to go with our lunch.  To change things up you could also use cool whip/whip cream if you can do dairy. You could also add some coconut flakes or fresh cut fruit to the salad.  I made it with fruit cocktail because it was fast and easy and my daughter didn’t have to wait for me to cut up a bunch of fruit.  Having a bit of canned fruit on hand is also great for an emergency kit or for if you can’t make it to the store but be sure to use it before it goes bad or it will just be money down the drain!

Happy cooking!

Grandma's Fruit Salad

April 15, 2017

Servings: 4

Prep: 15 min

Cook:

Total: 15 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Fruit salad like my grandma used to make, only dairy-free!

By: Oscoey

Ingredients

• 1 can of fruit cocktail
• 1/2 to 1 c coconut cream
• 1/2 c rainbow mini marshmallows

Directions

• Step 1 Open the can of fruit cocktail and drain for about 10 minutes.
• Step 2 Transfer fruit cocktail to a medium sized bowl and add the marshmallows.
• Step 3 * Optional * Using a hand mixer, mix the coconut cream until smooth. This should only take a couple of minutes.
• Step 4 Stir in about 1/2 cup of the coconut cream, add more until all of the fruit cocktail is covered but it isn’t soupy.
• Step 5 Serve immediately. If you want your salad a little colder you can always pop the can of fruit cocktail into the fridge ahead of time to cool it down but you may need to drain it longer if you do this step. Alternately you could drain the fruit cocktail in the fridge if you have room!
• Step 6 Enjoy!

Today I decided to make some of my easy pear sauce.  My kids devour it as soon as I make it. Luckily it only takes a little bit of work to make and is easy to make ahead.

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We do most of our shopping at Costco to save money. Our kids work and play hard and even though two of them are under four they still eat a lot of food. I started making pear sauce in place of apple because the younger two kids were not big fans of applesauce as babies. Now they will eat applesauce but they still love my pear sauce and when I make it they get very excited. I buy a bag of D’Anjou pears from Costco and let them ripen for a week or two, sometimes three.  I try to leave the bag as flat as I can on the counter so that the pears do not develop bruises in the areas where they are resting on each other.  When I am feeling the need to cook ahead I will buy two bags of pears and make a double batch and freeze some of it. I have tried Bartlett pears and they work in a pinch but the D’Anjou pears make a more flavorful sauce. I am very excited for a few years from now when our pear tree is producing and we will be able to make pear sauce from our own trees!

The earliest I will wait to make the pear sauce is when the spot under the stem gives in slightly when pressed. The pears can still be green and slightly firm at this point but that is ok.  I will also wait until the pears are yellow and almost overripe if I run out of time to make it.  These D’Anjou pears work well for this because when life gets busy (as it often does in our house) you have a couple of weeks of leeway before you have a bag of rotten pears instead of delicious pear sauce.  You can also pop the pears into the fridge if you look ahead and realize you won’t get to making the sauce for a few weeks.

Whether you peel the pears or not, depends on your preference and how much time you have.  It takes me 15 min to cut the pears and get the sauce on the stove if I leave the peels on so when I am in a time crunch that is what I do. I was in a time crunch today so I did not peel my pears. They are also heading towards overripe since I did not get around to making pear sauce last week but that is the beauty of these particular pears, they are meant to be stored for a while so they will still taste yummy!

On to the sauce. You will need 7-8 pears, vanilla, cinnamon and a large pot.  I use our 3.5 quart pot for this.

Wash the pears. Make sure to remove the stickers if you aren’t peeling them.

Cut them into roughly one inch square pieces (Quarter, take out core, slice each quarter a few times) and place into pot.

Add vanilla and cinnamon to the pot.  I don’t measure this but I add about 1-2 tsp of vanilla and probably 1-2 tsp of cinnamon (I love cinnamon!). At this point you can add a little water to the pot depending on if the pears are juicy or what you are using it for. If it is for baby food you may want to add a little water (1 Tbsp or so) to make it thinner.  If I am making pouches I will add about 1 Tbsp so that the pear sauce will be thin enough to go through the opening. You can also add water at the blending stage if you want to wait and see how thick it will be.

Place pot onto stove at medium heat and bring to a simmer.  Stir frequently at first to make sure none of the pears stick to the bottom of the pot, Let simmer for about 25 min or until pears are soft and squishy.

Let cool.  I usually cook the pear sauce during nap and let it cool for a couple of hours. This gives me time to clean up.  Today while the pear sauce cooked I played with the puppy.

After the pear sauce has cooled put about half of it in the blender and use the pulse setting to make it smooth. Repeat with the other half of the sauce.

At this point I will either put it into the fridge, portion it into resealable pouches and freeze for the kids or dole it out to waiting children. Today I put it into a large container (reused from lunch meat). We ate some of it for dinner and I will put about half of it into reusable pouches tomorrow and freeze all but two of them. We use these reusable pouches and they work wonderfully! I fill them about 2/3 full and stick them in the freezer for up to a couple of months, but honestly they usually get eaten within a week.  My kids get one pouch a day and I just pull them out as needed.

Some variations you could do are to cook a mix of apples and pears, steam vegetables and add them to the blender with the cooked pears to make baby food and to add nutmeg to the pear sauce.

Enjoy!

Links:

Squoosh Reusable Pouches

Blendtec Blender

All-Clad 3qt Pot