Spiced Sweet Potato Bake

So I have never been a fan of sweet potatoes. I never really had a taste for them and always disliked the kind that was generally made for Thanksgiving with marshmallows on top. However, some years back at my first "alternative" Cali Thanksgiving, my cousin introduced me to these and they were AMAZING!! Kinda mashed like you would with regular potatoes but still had chunks and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. So now years later, I still make these but have recently altered the family recipe to suit my own diet needs and tastes.

Spiced Sweet Potato Bake

4 medium sweet potatoes
4 tbsp butter, no marg (I use a vegan butter, seems to settle better in the tummy)
1 cup sugar (I use a zero calorie sugar replacement but real sugar works too if that's your taste)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup maple syrup (I use Sohgave! Maple Flavor Agave Syrup, it's organic and super low on the glycemic index sitting at 17 where regular maple syrup is 60-80)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (this is optional, I add this because ginger is a good digestive aid and naturally helps nausea)
2 servings liquid ginger (about 50 drops)

Peel and cut sweet potatoes into 1 inch chunks. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter 9x13 baking pan. Put potatoes in saucepan with water and boil until tender. Drain water and combine potatoes, butter, sugar, spices and syrup. Mix with spoon until a few chunks left (or until your preferred consistency). (Taste it at this point and see if the spices are to your liking, the above is really a starting point, I tend to add double or triple depending on how big the potatoes were or how much more of a spice taste I want) Pour in baking pan and bake until brown (about 30 mins). Sprinkle cinnamon on top and serve.

This is one of my most favorite things I have found to date; I could eat it for every meal!! If you like a lighter spice taste than go with the above portions but I much prefer a stronger spice taste so I taste and add, taste and add, and taste some more until the spicing is just right.

Thank you cousin Jenn for this recipe and hope you all enjoy it too!!

Ginger cookies (end up more like ginger snaps)

So in my attempt at adding more ginger things to my diet, my first attempt was at ginger cookies. It took me only two batches to come up with something that I liked. The animal shapes were because I had a 4 year old helper, and well, that's what happens when you let a 4 year old help make cookies. :^)

Recipe was adapted from Crystal Saltrelli
Ginger Snaps/Gingerbread Cookies (this is all gluten and dairy free if you use the right products)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I like King Arthur's gluten free all purpose flour best)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
(if you want more ginger, I added 2 servings of liquid ginger, about 50 drops)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 sugar (up to you what exactly you use but I actually used Sucanat)
1/2-3/4 cup molasses (I like black strap the best and add more for a stronger flavor)
1 egg (I use the equivalent in powder egg replacer, my favorite is Orgran's gluten free, no egg, natural egg replacer)
1/4 cup butter (or your chosen equivalent, I use extra virgin organic coconut oil)

Mix the first grouing of ingedients together. In a separate bowl, mix the butter/oil and sugar/sucanat. Mix your molasses and egg/replacer into the butter/oil and sugar/sucanat mixture. Then mix all together with your dry ingredients. Taste the dough to see if seasoning is to your likening (I tend to add a bit more on the spices to get a stronger gingerbread flavor and to enhance the ginger benefits). Chill dough in the fridge for about an hour (makes it easier to work with the dough). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For ginger "snaps", roll dough into about 1 inch balls and flatten on a cookie sheet (be sure to properly oil/butter/spray your cookie sheet if necessary). Bake for about 8 minutes. For ginger "cutouts" (like my animal shapes above), work with about 1/4 of the dough at a time (or more depending on how big your "cut out" space is (make sure your surface is floured or the dough will stick like crazy!). Roll to your desired thickness, cut out and place on cookie sheet. Don't worry about spacing these too much, they won't spread like sugar cookie cut-outs do. Cook for about 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack nad enjoy!! You can certainly decorate cut-outs if you like but I actually found that I liked them better without frosting (of course that was not the opinion of my 4 year old helper). :^)

Not your average recipe

I have been challenged over the last year in "diet" experimenting, not for purposes of controlling weight but to manage my health. I have found it increasingly difficult to find recipes that are 100% tailored to my restrictions, so I tend to take recipes that are semi-ok and tailor it to things that I can have. I am finding new restrictions every day and tend to only know "what's really ok" after the fact. I have had a number of people ask me about various recipes so I have started to post some of them here. All will be dairy free (I substitute milk products with non-dairy versions of milk, use gluten free egg replacer and other things for eggs, and have found a number of other substitutions). Most recipes will be low sugar, low fiber, and low fat. As well as gluten free and yeast free. Ginger is said to be a natural digestion aid and helps nausea so I make an attempt at including ginger in everything!! I use multiple forms of ginger; ground ginger, fresh ginger (from the root), liquid ginger, candied ginger (this tends to melt when heated so it's easy to use in anything cooked or baked but adds a STRONG ginger flavor to EVERYTHING), and pickled ginger. In most recipes the spice portions are just a "starting point" for what I use. I tend to use way more of the spices than listed, simply beacuse I like the "spice" taste and really,the only way for me to tone down the ginger taste and still maintain a "therapeutic" level of ginger is to add the other spices with it.
Hope you enjoy these and if you have any suggestins, PLEASE let me know. :^)