Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Sweet Potato and Carrot Bake

Sweet Potato and Carrot Bake

Please make this for your family. It is filled with good-for-you stuff and it is so tasty. We scraped the pan on this one. There was not a single bite left. So good.

(The original recipe for this dish came from Cook Once, Eat for a Week, but I made enough changes that I am comfortable calling this recipe my own.)

Amounts need not be exact.

1 (16 oz) bag frozen carrots, or a pound of fresh carrots, sliced.
3 medium sweet potatoes, baked**
1 egg
2 Tbsp sour cream (regular, low-fat, or fat-free will work)
¾ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp pepper
Your favorite shredded cheese

Steam the carrots until they are soft enough to mash, probably 8-10 minutes. (Steaming keeps more of the nutrients than boiling.) Scoop the flesh out of the sweet potatoes. Mash the potatoes and carrots together. (I mashed by hand. They can be lumpy.) Add the egg, sour cream, onion powder, and pepper, and blend. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan, coated with cooking spray. Top with shredded cheese. (You can also stir in the cheese, if you wish. Since I added ff cheddar to one corner for me and fiesta blend for everyone else, I kept it on top.)

At this point, you can cover and refrigerate to cook later in the day, or freeze for later. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

*I was not sure how this would work since we are used to sweet potato casseroles having brown sugar. It’s really tasty, though. This would work as a main dish on vegetable night or as a side dish. I served it with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and spinach. I also made tuna patties (see post below).

**About baking the sweet potatoes. My friend Deb taught me years ago that you can bake potatoes in the crockpot. Just wash really well and poke a few holes in them. You do not need to wrap them or add water to the crockpot. Bake on low for 6 hours, or until the potatoes are nice and soft. We had baked sweet potatoes for dinner last week, so I made some extra and froze the flesh to use for this dish.

Enjoy!

Bev

2 comments:

Andrew said...

I gave you an award! You can see it at my blog.
Blessings!

momtofivekids said...

oops I think I posted under my son Andrew's name.