Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

This is a great dish.
I like to say hearty at times, and my hubster makes fun of me.

As I read the blurb in the Detox Book, Kim says it's a hearty dish.  I am vindicated!
Although the hubster didn't enjoy this dish, I most certainly did.
Maybe I need to put chocolate in his dish next time :)

It looks like a lot of work, but it is very simple.  You are mainly chopping everything up and adding the spices, top it off with sweet potatoes and there you have it.  A pie.

Here are the ingredients:

Coconut oil, for greasing the pan

3 large sweet potatoes, chopped into thirds (you can peel if you'd like)

1/2 cup almond milk

Sea salt, to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

2 tbs + 1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth, divided

1 cup onions

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup celery

1 1/4 cups peeled and diced carrots

1 cup fresh or frozen peas

Kernels from 2 ears of corn (I used frozen)

1 1/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves

2 tsp minced fresh rosemary

1 tbs arrowroot starch

1/4 cup Ener-G egg replacer, mixed with very hot water

Nutmeg, optional 

Directions:

Lightly grease 2-qt glass casserole dish with coconut oil. 

In large saucepan, boil your sweet potatoes. I actually use the individual sweet potatoes to toss in the microwave. Call me a cheater. If you've boiled them, drain and place in a large mixing bowl; mash lightly. I left the skin on, yummy! Add the almond milk and blend with hand mixer on medium, until smooth and fluffy.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Heat 2 tbs of vegetable broth in large skillet over medium heat. I found I needed more as I went along cooking the onions first until translucent. Then add garlic and cook another minute. Add celery, peas, carrots, corn thyme and rosemary. Increase heat to med-high. In a small bowl whisk together the the remaining veggie broth and arrowroot until smooth, and add to the skillet. When the mixture gets close to boiling, immediately reduce heat. Add sea salt and black pepper to season to taste. Remove from heat, stir in the egg replacer mixture. 

Pour veggie mixture into the bottom of the prepared casserole dish, spread evenly across bottom. Spoon sweet potato mix over the vegies, spreading to cover all the way to the edges.  Sprinkle the top with nutmeg, if desired.  

Bake in preheated oven at 375, until the top is slightly brown, about 40 minutes.  Allow to rest 20 minutes before serving.

I really enjoyed this dish.  I used to make it with my faux meat, but this is so much better.  The popping of the corn kernels and peas, with the sweet potatoes is a fulfilling dish! 

Enjoy!

Quinoa, Sweet Potato, Beans, Dish it!

Yum, yum, yummy!  I love me some quinoa!  How many of you, when you saw that name for the first time, spoke it as it looked, quin-no-ah? Oh yes, I see all the hands. Innocent mistake. For those of you who still don't know the pronunciation, it's keen-wah.  Who knew. Anyway, on with it.

                     

This is too delish!  It has a semi-sweet taste due to the currants, but then I added the sweet peas.  A trick I learned with quinoa, is to go at it with a rampant boil rather than a slow simmer. It cooks much faster. I don't cover it, I keep stirring. If you think its drying out before it's thoroughly cooked, add some low-sodium vegetable broth.  Then I add any veggies, fresh or frozen to add to the taste.  Quinoa can be very blah when eaten alone. The sodium is high in this for me, I wouldn't add salt.

I go crazy buying all kinds of quinoa, and this one looked really good to me.  Next time I'll use the same ingredients, but my own fresh stuff.  Prepackaged just has that added salt that my body doesn't like.

                       

   
This dish was heaven for me as dinner!  Do you ever make a dish you just want to eat night after night? This could be one of them for me. I couldn't get enough, but saved some leftovers.  I have to hide it  from my son, or I'll never get to eat it.  Although, he usually finds it :)

                        

The sweet potatoes were scrumptious!  By the time I took the photo, there weren't many left.

Process:  I poked holes into 4-small sweet potatoes, popped them into the microwave for 5-minutes.  Then I peeled the skin off (and I ate it), cut them up and made a sticky little gravy to pour over them and mix.  SO. GOOD.  I can't get enough of sweet potatoes, and they are an excellent healthy treat.

For the sweet potato gravy I took 1/2-cup of honey, 2-TBL of smart balance (butter), fresh ground pepper, 3-TBL of orange juice (because I didn't have orange zest).  Combine all ingredients into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.

                         

The green beans were Trader Joes, and they are yummy all their own. I like to put a little lemon juice on them with just a skinny pat of butter, not even a teaspoon.

I l-o-v-e shopping at Trader Joes!  I walked out with a lot of stuff, even meat for the meat-heads, and still have 4 "large" recycle bags (and you know how big they can be) full, for only $130. I am a happy camper!

I mean, look at this!  Pure health & beauty!

                         

What's on your table lately?