Recipes

Sweet Potato Shepherd Pie

Because it’s tasty, hearty and nutritious, this is a regular fall dinner at our house. It can be made a day or two early for those busy weeknights.

Variations:

  • Use only with sweet potatoes or only with butternut squash.
  • Use ground turkey, beef or bison instead of turkey sausage
  • Make it spicy, adding a chopped jalapeño or two
  • Give it a Southwest twist When preparing the sausage filling, add 1 teaspoon chili 1 teaspoon paprika 1 1/2 cup corn kernels (I used defrosted frozen corn) Instead of bell pepper, use a poblano pepper
  • Make it vegan by using cooked lentils instead of turkey sausage.

It’s a great way to use leftover Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Puree after Thanksgiving. Layer it over the leftover Wild Rice, Turkey Sausage and Leek Stuffing.  If no stuffing is left, make the filling with leftover turkey instead of turkey sausage.

Serve it with Kale, Apple and Cranberry Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread

This is quite popular in our house—either as muffins or a loaf of bread. I make a double recipe to freeze some for week days. Before freezing the bread loaf, I slice it and place pieces of parchment paper between the slices; making it easy to pull out a frozen slice and pop into the toaster.

Sweet potatoes pack a powerful nutritional punch. They have over 400% of your daily needs for vitamin A in one medium spud, as well as loads of fiber and potassium. More about sweet potatoes here.

I also like the high fiber content in these muffins (slices); high fiber breakfasts help promote regularity for a healthy digestive tract.