Tag Archives: sweet potatoes

Roasted Kielbasa and Potato Casserole: An Easy Meat and Potatoes Dinner You Can Feel Good About

I very much grew up in a meat and potatoes household. Our dinner menus were as predictable as the negotiating was to get out of doing dishes. Every night there was a meat entree — ground beef made into burgers, meatloaf, sloppy joes — with some form of potato — be it baked, mashed, or frozen fries. A side of canned green beans or corn would round out our plates. And for dessert we never received more than two small sandwich cookies.

This is my comfort food. This is what I fall back to when I’m homesick, too exhausted to think through a meal plan, or just want to keep things really simple.

So many of my recipes are fresh takes on old favorites, and that’s exactly what I’m serving up here. There’s nothing new with this recipe, it’s been served out of casserole dishes for decades. What is new is the realization that you can make it a little more wholesome, but just as savory, familiar, and comforting. (more…)

Posted on March 9, 2024 by Natalie K

Fall for Kale and White Bean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes for Dinner

As fall approaches, I can’t get enough of nutrient dense root vegetables. Most notably: the sweet potato. While some prefer variety in their diet, I could eat some form of sweet potato every day: mashed for breakfast, fried for lunch, and stuffed for dinner.

Stuffed sweet potato, you ask? Yes. My multiple experiments in the kitchen to include as much sweet potato as possible has led to one of my staple year-round dinners –the kale & white bean stuffed sweet potato. Who needs to wait for fall to have a hearty, yet surprisingly light, dinner? Not me!

Sweet potatoes are an all-star source of beta-carotene, vitamin A, and the purple sweet potatoes are even thought to have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Just as the recipe name implies, you simply bake the sweet potatoes, choose your green and your white bean, prepare as directed, then stuff the greens & beans into the sweet potato for a healthy and satisfying edible boat! It’s truly delicious. (more…)

Posted on September 15, 2024 by Katie McGrath

Chips Made With “Healthier” Ingredients May Not Be as Healthy as You Think

When the snack time munchies strike, you know that a handful of potato chips isn’t the way to go. Instead you reach for chips made out of quinoa, sweet potatoes, or veggies. But are they really a better option?

Unfortunately, just because a chip is made out of something traditionally considered healthy, it isn’t a guaranteed healthy snack choice. The process used to make chips, no matter what they’re made out of, can strip many of the foods’ natural health benefits.

When looking for the perfect crunchy snack, it’s important to pay close attention to what’s on the nutrition label and in the ingredients list. For example, our friends over at Shape Magazine found a chip made from quinoa (a normally fiber-rich food) that contained essentially no fiber per serving. However, the chips did have 9 grams of protein and just 12 grams of carbohydrates per 20-chip serving. (more…)

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Elizabeth

Parmesan Orange Sweet Potato Hash Browns: A 68-Calorie Breakfast Side Dish with Big Flavor

While preparing breakfast for my family one Sunday morning I realized we had only sweet potatoes and not any red skin potatoes — my go-to for a hearty weekend meal. I thought our hopes for hash browns were dashed. However, I decided to give the sweet potatoes a whirl and venture beyond our typical baked sweet potato comfort zone.

They shredded easily, and I dressed them up with just a little freshly grated Parmesan and orange zest before browning on the stove top. What I got was a gift from the breakfast Gods and a perfectly crisp, wonderfully flavored complement to an otherwise ordinary meal. (more…)

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Natalie K

Balsamic and Rosemary Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Honey Thyme Mashed Sweet Potato Will Happily Feed a Crowd

Today, I’m not just giving you the entree, I’m giving you the side to go with it. Because otherwise, this meal would be like giving you the macaroni without the cheese, or the Thanksgiving turkey without the stuffing; they are just meant to be together!

No where near as complicated as it may sound, after this Rosemary and Balsamic Grilled Pork Tenderloin you aren’t going to want to eat anything else ever again. But when you pair a bite of the tenderloin with a bite of the Honey Thyme Mashed Sweet Potatoes, you will reach a level of mouth-feel, flavor euphoria you didn’t even know possible. Food shouldn’t make us happy, but this will.

I love cooking with pork tenderloins. This cut of meat cooks quickly, has tons of flavor, and makes plenty of leftovers. At least in our house with a family of three, one tenderloin will cover dinner and a few lunches, too! One added bonus, the tenderloin is leaner than a skinless chicken breast! For real. A three-ounce serving of pork tenderloin has 120 calories compared to 139 calories in the same serving of chicken breast. The chicken has .1 grams more fat than the pork, and 11 grams more cholesterol than the pork.

And tender. Oh me, oh my, oh mama. It’s right there in the name, and it’s not a misnomer. (more…)

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Natalie K

Food Blogger Spotlight: Liesl from Lieslicious

At Diets In Review, one of my responsibilities is to seek out food bloggers who are interesting, have a great voice and create healthy recipes. This week, Liesl Maggiore from Lieslicious, made my job easy.

Lieslicious is not cluttered or fussy. The header is a close-up picture of a paper towel, for heaven’s sake, but once you dig in, you realize that Liesl approached her website creation the same way she approaches food – clean, simplistic and lovely.

We asked this wife, mama, animal-enthusiast and self-described, “booty-shaker,” a few questions about her blog, and she was kind enough to share.

Why did you start your food blog? Working as a food stylist, I have been exposed to amazing recipes and surrounded by inspiring, creative people for years. I guess they rubbed off on me and I realized I have my own stories to tell through food. I wanted to share the foods I was making every night in my own home, and hopefully inspire other families to get cooking!

(more…)

Posted on November 10, 2024 by Dani Stone

Food Blogger Spotlight: Kathryne Taylor of Cookie and Kate

I’m not quite sure how Kathryne Taylor of Cookie and Kate and I crossed paths, but I can’t express how happy I am that we did. Kate and her adorable pooch, Cookie, never cease to make me smile when I visit their site. Obviously Kate holds more creative control, but Cookie is there to catch all the crumbs, which is a noble duty if you ask me.

If you visit Kate’s blog expect to find some of the most creative, whole foods recipes on the web. Every time she publishes a post it feels like Christmas in my heart and I bookmark the recipe for later use. In fact, of all the bloggers I follow, I’ve made more of Kate’s recipes than anyone else’s and they’ve all been delicious! Especially her no cook fudge – simply a must.

We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kate about her blog and her approach to health. Here’s what she had to say. (more…)

Posted on March 10, 2024 by Dana

Sweet Potatoes Are Saving Lives – Will You Help?

Food is the one thing that always unites us – be it a celebration, a mourning, or charitable cause. Today, One.org is using food to unite the blogging community to help a cause we should all be hungry to fight – malnutrition. They’ve banded 25 food bloggers to share the sweet potato love today, and in doing so, help raise awareness of chronic malnutrition, which they say is, “a hidden killer of nearly 2 million children around the world.”

It’s something that mothers around the globe face for their children. We tend to immediately think of poor, underdeveloped countries – those scenes are stark and real and very much deserving of our efforts. It’s very much a domestic issue, too, but one we think isn’t possible right here in our own neighborhoods.

According to CharitySub.org, which made hunger its charitable focus last winter, one in seven American homes is considered food insecure, with one in four children living in food insecure homes.

One.org thinks we can reverse this trend with one little super food – the sweet potato. “We’re on a mission to make the sweet potato famous. Why? Because it packs a huge vitamin A punch, and it’s saving lives in Africa today.” (more…)

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Natalie K

The Ultimate Sweet Potato Chip Taste Off Names Terra Chips and Kroger’s Simple Truth the Best

Chips are my biggest food vice. I like them salty, cheesy, with salsa, corn, potato, popped, fried, baked, and everything in between. And lately, I like the sweet potato version. In fact, because of these crunchy finds I’ve pretty much given up on any other chip (which I ate pretty sparingly anyway, to be honest). I’ve had a go-to favorite for a while, but every week at the store I keep noticing more and more new bags of sweet potato chips popping up. Of course, I decided to put them to the test.

I brought six bags of sweet potato chips back to the office for the ultimate sweet potato taste off. No one minded, of course!

It was a blind taste test and participants were asked to vote for the one they thought tasted the best. We ended up with a dead heat. Five votes a piece went to Terra Chips and Kroger’s new Simple Truth brand.

We found the sweet potato Terra Chips to be thin, light, and crisp – perfect for complementing a sandwich. Just a great snack that wasn’t too filling. The Simple Truth natural sweet potato chips are much thicker and sturdier with ridges. We believe these were made for scooping things like guacamole and our Guiltless Spinach and Artichoke Dip. Each had the big sweet potato flavor that we were after. (more…)

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Natalie K

Dig In to Our Most Pinned Recipes of 2024

This has been one delicious year for Diets In Review. Since joining the team in March I’ve had a blast both making over and dreaming up new recipes for our readers and have enjoyed every sample bite along the way.

As a way to look back on all of those delicious bites, we’ve rounded up our eight most pinned recipes of 2024. Though Pinterest isn’t the only indicator of our most-loved recipes, it’s certainly a good place to start for gauging popularity. Let’s get things rolling with our top breakfast pick. (more…)

Posted on December 18, 2024 by Dana

How to Cook with Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are one of my absolute favorite foods. I rarely go to the grocery store without picking a few up to have on hand for a quick lunch, side dish or healthy snack throughout the week; but it hasn’t always been that way. Only in recent years have I let the sweet, orange variety reign supreme in my heart over traditional white potatoes. But since making the switch I’ve reaped some serious health benefits, and not to mention satisfied my sweet tooth.

Health benefits: Sweet potatoes are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals like vitamins C, B6 and D, which help promote overall health, prevent such serious health risks as heart attacks and bone decay, and also ensure proper immune system function.

They’re also high in fiber, which helps promote proper digestion and the body’s ability to maintain a healthy weight. A lesser known health benefit of sweet potatoes is that they are loaded with iron, which is essential for white blood cell production, stress management, optimum immune health and the metabolizing of protein. They’re also a great source of magnesium, potassium, and carotenoids like beta carotene, which help strengthen eyesight, boost immunity to disease and even ward off cancer.

Nutritional statistics: One cup of cooked sweet potato with skin contains approximately 180 calories, 0 g fat, 41 g carbohydrates, 7 grams fiber, 13 grams sugar and 4 grams of protein. (more…)

Posted on December 16, 2024 by Dana

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