Sweet Potato Gratin

This recipe comes from the ABC's The Chew


The recipe with the modifications that I made is as follows:

Ingredients:

• 2 Sweet Potatoes
• 1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese (plus some extra to sprinkle on top)
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 1 Jalapeno - Minced
• Pepper - To Taste
• 1 Garlic Cloves - Minced
• 1/3 Cup Scallions -  Chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Cut sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch slices.
3. Bring heavy cream to a simmer.  Add scallions, garlic, jalapeno, and 1/3 cup parmesan.
4. Add a layer of potatoes to a pan.  Pour some of the cream mixture over the potatoes.  Continue layering until all the potatoes and cream have been used.
5. Top potatoes with a bit of extra parmesan.
6. Cover pan and bake for 40 minutes.  Uncover for the last 10 minutes.

Thoughts About The Dish:

We liked this dish, but not enough to make it an all-the-time feature of our menu. We will be making it again, but it will probably be a little while. When we do make it again, we will probably keep most or all of the jalapeno seeds in the mixture, and/or add another jalapeno. As it was, the cream and sweetness of the sweet potato over shadowed any taste of spiciness in the dish.

The other thing  worth noting here is that if you, like us, are big fans of au gratin potatoes, it will pay to keep in mind that this is a dish from sweet potatoes (that's why it's paleo!), and sweet potatoes have a very different flavor than normal potatoes - they are MUCH sweeter, so this dish will have a lot of different flavors than your typical gratin. It is still tasty, but it's different than you may initially expect when you think of a gratin.

Turkey Parmesan Meatballs

This recipe comes from the Wellsphere Blog

The recipe with the modifications that I made is as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Ground Turkey
• 2 Tbsp. Marinara Sauce
• 1/4 Cup Parmesan - Grated
• 3 Tbsp. Parsley
• 3 Tbsp. Garlic - Minced
• 1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
• Pepper - To Taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine  ground turkey, 2 Tbs. marinara sauce, Parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, Italian seasoning, onion powder, and black pepper.
3. Form into equal-sized meatballs.  Bake for 30 minutes, on middle rack in an 8 x 11 glass baking dish.

Thoughts About The Dish:

Note: we used mozzarella instead of parmesan, and used extra marinara sauce. The result  here wasn't as big a hit in our house as some dishes have been. One complaint was that the texture of the ground turkey didn't seem quite right for meatballs. Another thought we all shared was that the overall taste would probably have been improved by browning the meatballs before baking. We specifically wanted to try them without browning, and the conclusion we came away with is that browning is worthwhile!

Almond Butter

This recipe comes from the Je Suis Alimentageuse Blog

The recipe with the modifications that I made is as follows:

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups unsalted almonds

Directions:

1. In a food processor, blitz the almonds until it turns into a runny paste. Be patient! You may need to scrape down the sides a bit but it will turn into beautiful almond butter if you keep on processing it.
2. Transfer to a clean container and keep stored in the fridge. It should stay good for about 2-3 weeks.

Thoughts About The Dish:

This recipe was a hit. It provides a tasty alternative to the sugar-based peanut butters that you can buy in the store. However, there are a few major differences that you should keep in mind to avoid disappointment:

1. Peanut butter normally has a pretty high amount of sugar in it. So an alternative (like almond butter) is not going to taste the same as a store-bought peanut butter, as it will never have the same sweetness. This can make it even better as a balance with sweet fruits (like the right kind of apples).
2. The use of unsalted almonds is going to produce a butter that is less salty than most peanut butters. In our household, we tend to prefer low-salt dishes. If you regularly salt your food, you will probably want to mix in some salt with this dish, to get it to match your taste preferences.
3. The resulting butter from using almonds is on the dry side. If you prefer moister, gooey peanut butter, you might want to mix in a small amount of oil. You could also follow our line of thinking and try a different nut -- this seems like it would be awesome with cashews!