Holiday Noms: Whipped Maple Syrup Sweet Potatoes

Yum yum yummm!!!

This is actually a recipe my cousin's husband gets down with with that I've borrowed and tweaked...

It turned out incredible. A few of S's cousins are 100% anti-sweet potato and I 100% converted them to the dark side... muahahahaha

Maple-Syrup Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar-Pecan Topping

(serves 8)

Sweet Potatoes:

22 oz. sweet potatoes or yams (~2 large); peeled, cut into 1 inch pieces

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature (or in microwave 10-15 secs)

1 large egg

6 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Pinch of salt

1/4 to 1/2 cup pure maple syrup

Topping:

1 1/2 cups cornflakes, crushed

1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Make Sweet Potatoes:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Cook sweet potatoes in large pot of boiling water until tender, 15 minutes.

Drain; transfer potatoes to large bowl, add butter and maple syrup.

Using electric mixer, beat until smooth.

Ad egg, sugar, spice and salt; beat to blend.

Transfer mixture to 8x8 baking dish (can be made 1 day ahead; cover and chill, bring to room temp before cont'g).

Bake potatoes until beginning to brown around edges, about 25 min.

Meanwhile, Prep Topping:

Mix together all ingredients in medium bowl.

Spoon topping over potatoes.

Bake until golden brown and crisp - about 10 to 15 min longer.

Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Recap...

I just wanted to share how amazing our Thanksgiving was...

Since I am leaving for L.A. on Friday, I decided to stay on the East Coast for Thanksgiving... this is the first time in a few years I've been able to stay put in the city for more than a few months since my last job required I travel so I'm really enjoying it.

We went to my dude's parent's house for the weekend... it's right on the water and super beautiful and cozy in general. Was a super amazing place to spend the holiday.

*view from the house in Bayville in the Spring

We...

Fried a turkey!

Made mulled wine!

Drank mulled wine!

Devoured his Nonna's unbelievably delicious Italian bread-of-my-dreams... twisted salumi-and-cheese-bread amazingness....

and ate and ate and aaaate...

Holiday Noms: Punkin Pie

* I know it doesn't look that good but my oh my it was yummy!!

I've been meaning to post since Thanksgiving! I have a bunch of awesome Holiday recipes and projects for you guys, so stay tuned.

First up, my Grandma's Pumpkin Pie recipe. Her maiden name was Alice Cooper, so I've renamed "Punkin Pie" in her honor ;)

PUNKIN' PIE:

Don't tell anyone, but my Gramma's Pumpkin Pie recipe is basically Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe, straight from the back of the can - but I switched it up and used Organic ingredients 'cause that's how I roll.

Enjoy!!!

Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) unbaked whole wheat deep dish pie crust

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 (15 oz) can Whole Foods Organic 100% Pure Pumpkin

1 (12 oz) can Organic Evaporated Milk

Spices:

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 ground cloves

OR:

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix + 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F

Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a small bowl.

Beat eggs lightly large bowl.

Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir evaporated milk.

Place empty pie shell on top of baking sheet before pouring in pie mixture.

- this is cruuuuccciiaallll unless you want a huge mess in your oven :)

Pour mix into pie shell.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 350 F; bake for 40 to 50 min or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.

Serve immediately or refrigerate.

* Do not freeze as this will cause crust to separate from the filling.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 283 | Total Fat: 12.1g | Cholesterol: 65mg

Maybe it's the weather...

NICK CAVE & PJ HARVEY - Henry Lee from Gerri Sferrazza on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving!!!

I love love love the Fall.

Everyone is always stoked on Summer, but I'm all about the Fall, yellow-red-orange trees and pumpkins and apple picking and delicious food and mulled wine and Christmas tree-hunting and Holiday shopping. I love being a little chilly, cozying up on the couch with a blanket and a book or a project of some sort.

In general, I'm all about the coze. I love the thought of busy new york city roosting away in our respective nooks and bundling up to face the morning chill.

Now for things I don't like: I know it's only our second week into Sprout & Spoon, but there is no Menu/Shopping List this week! Don't hate/give up on me! I am spending Thanksgiving with my man's familia and I need to get all my ducks turkeys in a row before Wednesday when we head out.

I do, however, have some pretty amazing passed-down-from-my-all-american-grandma recipes to share with you guys.

Also, a sweet mulled wine project for all you vinos out there.

Besos,

VV

Try This! Sprout & Spoon's Favorite Workouts

Let's get real: one of the reasons I love cooking and making things and bettering my body and mind is because they are all things I have control over. I never used to be this boring - and yeah I do think it's all a little boring. But I think for a lot of people, focusing ones attention on things we can manipulate makes it a little easier to breathe and know that even if a million things go wrong in any single day, at least we can run a mile or make a delicious pie.

I go to the gym between three and four times a week. The usual suspects are the elliptical, the treadmill, weights, PowerYoga (an amazing class at Equinox here in New York taught by Stephanie Cullen, an amazing teacher), and Pilates.

I try really hard not to be too strict or hard on myself about working out because in order to keep up the motivation, I have to remember I don't HAVE to be there for two hours or even go at all. Sometimes I'll just do 30 minutes on the elliptical and I'm out of there, but most of the time I like to be doing an hour of solid work.

Here is a an awesome treadmill routine I do when I really don't feel like working out. Like the turkey recipe I posted, it is based around a routine I found in a magazine (Self). But I made it a little harder!

It starts off super slow and takes 65 minutes, but when you are done you have burned around 400-500 calories and your tooshie and legs feel rockin.

INCLINE: RPE: TIME:

0 3.0 5

0 3.2 5

0 3.5 5

0 4.0 5

0 4.5/5.0 5 (or a comfortable RPE for fast walk / slow jog to you)

5 3.2 5

5 3.5 5

5 4.0 5

5 4.5/5.0 5 (or a comfortable RPE for fast walk / slow jog to you)

10 3.2 5

10 3.5 5

10 4.0 5

15 3.2 5

15 3.5 5

If you try it out let me know what you think in the comments xx

Sprout & Spoon's Turkey Chili Recipe

I made this last night and it was super yummy!

Low in fat (well, before adding the cheese and sour cream at least :D), high in protein and a crowd pleaser for sure.

The original recipe came from Real Simple, but my man and I like our food spppiiiicyyyyy and meaty (and in this case cheesy) so we made some tweaks.

Ie: I doubled the meat, halved the kidney beans so it was a little juicier, added a handful of diced pickled jalepenos and a handful of shakes of cayenne pepper. And, when it was in our bowls we added a couple pinches of shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese and a dollop of reduced fat sour cream.

This is the link to the original recipe:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/turkey-bean-chili-00000000027199/index.html

Follow the recipe as instructed, but for a meatier, spicier, cheesier add these steps:

1. Add about 3/4 - 1 lb of turkey instead of 1/2 lb.

2. Remove 8-10 slices of hot pickled jalepenos and dice to your preference.

3. Add jalepenos and about 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or spice to taste) during The Real Simple Recipe's step 3, along with tomato paste, cumin & chili pepper.

4. Scoop chili into bowl, top with shredded cheddar and dollop of reduced fat sour cream.

Voila!! DELICIOSO!

Besos xx

VV

Weekly Shopping List

This shopping list should have everything you need to make the weeks worth of recipes mentioned in the post below (6 days, actually - i don't think its realistic to expect people to eat every single meal at home on every day of the week).

Everything is portioned to serve two people, so buy accordingly. Last week when I purchased all of these items at Whole Foods, my total came out to around $86.

Here goes:

VEGGIES:

bagged spinach

basil (1 bunch)

sweet potato

idaho potato (2)

tomato (1)

onion (1)

beets (2-3)

green pepper (1)

garlic (1)

olives

DAIRY:

eggs

monterey jack (1/2 lb)

fresh mozzarella (around $6 worth)

goat cheese (plain)

reduced fat sour cream

MEAT:

1.5 lb ground turkey

.35 lbs prosciutto di parma

BREAD:

ezekial english muffins

ezekial sprouted grain bread

(both are in frozen foods)

PACKAGED:

hot jalepeno peppers

kidney beans

28 oz diced tomato

tomato paste

whole wheat mac & cheese

paper packaged tomato soup

chickpeas

olive oil

Weekly Menu & Shopping List!

Alright!

Pretty much every week I put together a weekly menu and a shopping list to match the menu so that I can a. stick to some sort of budget, b. not eat take out or be tempted to eat like crap, c. try out new recipes, and d. because I have a really sensitive belly so I try to "Eat Right For My Blood Type"...

I'm B-, so while a lot of these recipes are catered to my blood type, they are really yummy for everyone and generally low-fat and healthy.

For those of you new to the blood-type diet, the basic theory is that some foods act as medicine in people with certain types of blood types while others act as toxins. To learn more about eating right for your blood type refer to Dr. Peter D'adamo's website http://www.dadamo.com/, and to check out what kind of foods are good for you & your blood type, check out the link below:

http://pages.uoregon.edu/sshapiro/ER4YT/FoodLists_TOC.html.

A big reason I wanted to start this blog was to share these weekly menus and shopping lists with people because it is hugely time consuming to put them together.

With no further ado, I present to you Sprout & Spoon's first Menu Of The Week!

Monday:

Breakfast: 1 yolk omelet w/ goat cheese and basil and Ezekial Toast

Lunch: Whole Wheat Mac'n'Cheese

Dinner: Spinach Turkey Burger with Monterey Jack on Ezekial English Muffin with Sweet Potato Fries.

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Baked Eggs w/ Spinach and Ezekial English Muffins

Lunch: Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese Toasts

Dinner: Ham & Cheese Quesadillas

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Non-fat Greek Yogurt (I like Fage) with Meusli or Granola

Lunch: Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese and Beets

Dinner: Mozzarella, Basil & Tomato Panini

Thursday:

Breakfast: Eggs in a Basket

Lunch: Tapas: Prosciutto, marinated chickpeas, goat cheese, olives, toasted ezekial bread

Dinner: Turkey & Bean Chili From Real Simple Recipes

Friday:

Breakfast: 1 Yolk Scrambled Eggs & Toast

Lunch: Leftover Chili

Dinner: Turkey Burger on Ezekial English Muffin with Baked Potato

Saturday:

Breakfast: Baked Eggs Topped w/ Cheese and English Muffin

Lunch: Caprese Salad

Dinner: Spinach-Tomato Soup with Mini-Grilled Cheese Toasts

Hello!

Hi guys! Welcome to Sprout & Spoon!

I wanted a place to post recipes, inspirational pictures, craft ideas, and musings on healthy eating, working out, things in the news, and things on my mind... I'm hoping that by putting all of this stuff out there - sort of an impromptu instructional guide to self-improvement and self empowerment - other people will share and we can create a little community. I figure I can't be the only one who has no idea what the hell I am doing or supposed to be doing with myself, and maybe putting my thoughts and ideas out there will bring people on a similar wave-length together.

We'll see!

Besos,

VV