Benefits of the Foods We Eat: Sweet Potatoes

I'm not doing as much research during this experiment as I hoped I would be. Most of my "free" time is spent finding recipes to try, but I've found myself wondering what makes the foods I eat healthy. So, I thought I could at least spend a few minutes every now and then reading about different foods and posting my findings here.

Maybe it's because I just had that delicious sweet potato minestrone last night and I have sweet potatoes on my mind, or maybe it's just because I love sweet potatoes, but that's what I'm going to start with. I've always heard sweet potatoes referred to as a super food, so I figured that meant it was good for me, but I now can say I know why. Here's what I've learned about sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potatoes are abundant in vitamin A (with one medium sweet potato containing more than your daily requirement. Vitamin A helps to boost your immune system, brings health to your vision by "feeding" your retinas, helps with the reproduction that goes on within your body and in your skin (helping you have smooth skin), it also helps you to fight infection and can help protect against certain types of cancer and disease. A deficiency in vitamin a is believed to be an accomplice to smoking in causing Emphysema.

Sweet potatoes also contain vitamin c, which we all know helps to strengthen our immune system. Did you also know it's known to help improve skin health and may prevent some wrinkling?

Sweet potatoes have manganese which is also great for the immune system and can help improve energy. Manganese can strengthen your bones, collagen, and ligaments- so it's good for athletes, and aids in nerve function. It can also help nursing mothers with production of breast milk and (for adults' eyes only) is good for sexual health as well.

Sweet potatoes are also high in fiber which is great for regulating the digestive system. Here's where I came across the one and only warning about eating sweet potatoes. If you have health problems related to your gallbladder or kidneys, you should speak with your health care provider about how much or if sweet potatoes should be included in your diet because they contain a small amount of oxalates which can cause kidney damage if the body cannot process it efficiently.

Vitamin B also joins the list of vitamins contained in sweet potatoes. Vitamin b, I've learned, is a vitamin we need to continually replenish because our bodies cannot store it. It's good for so many things too, such as fetal development in pregnant women, metabolizing fats, and keeping your skin, hair, and eyes healthy.

Sweet potatoes also contain iron. I'll be honest, I didn't expect that. I guess I've always just associated iron with meat. Iron helps your body to transport oxygen and, once again, helps you to have healthy skin, hair, and nails.

Wow! I love sweet potatoes even more now knowing that they do so much for me while also being so delicious. Thank you sweet potatoes!

Recipe: Sweet Potato Minestrone Soup

Minestrone soup is my favorite cool weather food. Yesterday it was rainy, windy, and cool all day, so I decided to make something tasty to compliment the weather. I had sweet potatoes on hand and searched on Allrecipes.com for recipes that have sweet potatoes in them and came across one for Sweet Potato Minestrone, yum! Of course I made a few changes, so here's the recipe I made that my family and I absolutely loved.

*I didn't this time around, but you can also add a 16 oz. package of cooked mini shells pasta to this soup

Sweet Potato Minestrone Soup
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 large stalks celery, chopped
1-2 Tbs. oregano (or to taste)
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes (use Italian-style for flavor, or plain if you prefer)- do not drain
1 (15 oz) can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (32 oz) box of vegetable broth, or 4-5 cups
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced in a food processor
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1 can of cut green beans
5 cloves garlic, minced

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion, celery, oregano, red pepper, salt, and pepper until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, beans, broth, vinegar, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and garlic. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. If adding pasta, add cooked pasta 5 minutes before serving.

Monday Menu Week #2

Here's what I ate last week.

Week 2

Monday
Breakfast- Apples & Cinnamon Oatmeal
Lunch- Pasta Salad
Dinner- NVM
Tuesday
Breakfast- Raisin Bran with Almond Milk
Lunch- Toast with Raspberry Preserves
Dinner- Black Beans with Brown Rice and Veggies
Wednesday
Breakfast- Oatmeal and Pineapple slices
Lunch- Whole Wheat Crackers with Raspberry Preserves and Green Salad
Dinner- Couscous with Tomatoes and Green Onions
Thursday
Breakfast- Vegan Bread with Raspberry Preserves
Lunch- Black Beans with Brown Rice and Veggies
Dinner- Alphabet Soup with Lentils, Veggies, and Tofu
Friday
Breakfast-Vegan Bread with Raspberry Preserves
Lunch-NONE
Dinner- DATE NIGHT NVM
Saturday
Breakfast- Vegan Bread with Raspberry Preserves
Lunch- Black Beans with Brown Rice and Veggies
Dinner- NONE
Sunday
Breakfast- Vegan Bread with Raspberry Preserves
Lunch- Black Beans with Brown Rice and Veggies
Dinner-NVM

I wasn't feeling well for some of the week. We all loved the couscous, and the alphabet soup with the tofu was a fun little experiment that went really well.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Vegan Bread

This is the simplest whole wheat bread recipe I have ever made and, after making it a couple of times, I have to say it is the tastiest I've ever made too. The original recipe, which you can see here, called for 1/2 cup of molasses, but even with mild flavor molasses, it was too much for me, it also used too much white flour for my liking. Below, I have the recipe with my tweaks.

Whole Wheat Vegan Bread
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons active yeast
1 Tbs. mild flavor molasses
3 cups whole wheat flour
a little less than 1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup nondairy milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 cups each unbleached white flour and whole wheat flour (this is in addition to the 3 cups listed above)

In a large bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and molasses, stir until well mixed. Add 3 cups whole wheat flour and stir until it begins to form a dough. Cover mixture and let rise in a dry place for 20 minutes- up to 1 day.

Once it has had time to rise, add agave nectar, vegetable oil, milk, and salt, stir until combined.

Begin adding remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, alternating between whole wheat and white flour. After adding the first 2 cups of flour, it should be difficult to stir using a spoon, so place it on a lightly floured surface and kneed in the remaining dough- do not add in excess of 4 cups of flour. Dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Split dough as desired. This recipe can make 2 loaves or 48 dinner rolls. Place split dough in greased pans or on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

For loaves, bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool in bread pans on a wire wrack for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool another 15-20 minutes before slicing to serve or store.

For dinner rolls, bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Cool for about five minutes before serving so it has time to soften.

*I froze the dinner rolls and thawed them to serve at a later time and they were still soft and delicious, we just heated them up in the microwave.

Wednesday's Weigh-In

The second week of Veganstein started on Monday. I had a cheeseburger at our Labor Day BBQ and, although it was delicious, my stomach was not a fan. It's amazing how quickly a person's body can adapt to dietary changes. I'm finding it difficult this week to stick to my experiment, I don't know if it's because I crammed last weeks NVMs into two days and then started this week off with another NVM or if it's for some other reason. Toward the end of the week last week, I was having trouble sleeping. Then, over the weekend, my husband started feeling sick and has kept me up the last few nights, so I'm feeling a bit sluggish. I know that when I'm tired and lazy feeling, I often eat more than I would normally, so that could be why Veganstein is more of a challenge this week. Either way, I've been sticking with it and have kept up with my exercises each day. It feels good to exercise and stick to a goal especially when I really don't want to, it makes me feel like I have better control over every aspect in my life. Of course it doesn't really change how much control I have in everything, it just makes me feel stronger and more capable of handling things. I think good health can do that. Have you ever overheard people talk about a mutual friend who is struggling with various things in his/her life and one of them says, "Well, at least she has her health"? That was always such a weird thing to me, but I think I'm beginning to understand that expression. As my husband has been working toward leading a healthier life, I've observed him playing with our kids more, helping around the house more, and facing challenges at work with less frustration. For myself, I feel as though I've developed more patience and energy to handle day-to-day things as I've began focusing on my own health and trying to improve it. There are a lot of things we can't control; people around us will make foolish decisions that upset us, financial problems will come, etc., but one thing we can control is how we take care of our bodies. True, we may take excellent care of our bodies and still become ill or get injured, but if our bodies are strong, so is our will, and if our will is strong, we can push through any challenge before us with both strength and grace- even if the outcome is different than we would hope. If all we have is our health, we still have hope, and some times that's all we need to carry on. Now that I'm realizing this, that good health will benefit me in every aspect of my life, I don't think I can ever go back to how I was before, not super unhealthy, but not really doing anything to be healthy. I'm glad for that.

I haven't lost or gained any weight since last week. I'm seeing more definition in my muscles though, which I like. I now understand a little better why gyms have so many mirrors in them, I love seeing my leg muscles working when I exercise.

Recipe: Vegan Enough For Me Banana Bread

Here's a recipe I made for Vegan Banana Bread. If you want it to be truly vegan, use raw sugar instead of white sugar. I love banana bread and this is one of the best recipes I've made. You could add another banana to give it more banana flavor if you want.

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup Splenda

1/2 cup sugar (or omit Splenda and just do 1 cup of sugar)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 - 3/4 cup pecans diced, or crushed (use some in with mix and sprinkle remaining on top before baking)

Bread, bake 350 for 50 min, then 325 15 minutes longer

Muffins bake 350 for 20-30 min

Monday Menu Week 1

Last week was the first full week of Veganstein. I think it went well, although all of my Non Vegan Meals (NVMs) got clumped together at the end of the week because of a birthday party and other things. Today is Labor Day, so it looks like I'm starting off the week with a NVM since we're going to be having a BBQ later on in the day. That's okay though, because even when I had my NVMs last week, I found myself making healthier choices; a second helping of salad instead of another hot dog, brown rice with my grilled chicken instead of putting it on a bun, etc. I think my overall attitude is that I'm working hard to be healthier every day, why ruin it with bad choices while sitting down for one meal? Here's what I ate last week:

Week 1

Monday

Breakfast- Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal, with glass of vanilla almond milk

Lunch- Brown Rice with Marinara sauce

Snack- Vegan dinner roll with Peanut butter and a pear

Dinner- Lentil and Veggies (I added more spices to this, I love lentils, but with lots of seasoning) with a vegan dinner roll

Tuesday

Breakfast- Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal

Snack- a glass of vanilla almond milk, pretzels

Lunch- PB&J on vegan rolls, grapes

Dinner- Black Bean Burgers with Green Beans

Wednesday

Breakfast- 1/2 banana and Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal

Lunch- Brown Rice with Lentils and Veggies

Snack- Almond Milk, Pretzels

Dinner- Curried Tofu (I found this recipe to be a little too bland, I added onion salt to the tofu before the other ingredients. Next time I think I'll add diced red peppers and onion to it for more flavor. Also, we ate this with brown rice and we chopped our own carrots.)

Thursday

Breakfast- Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Toasters and a pear with a glass of vanilla almond milk

Lunch- Black Bean Burger with a banana

Dinner- Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Marinara sauce and green beans

Friday

Breakfast- Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Toasters

Lunch- Black Bean Burger with grapes

Dinner- NVM

Saturday

Breakfast- Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Toasters

Lunch- NVM (Birthday Party, but the cupcakes were vegan and delicious!)

Dinner- NVM

Sunday

No Breakfast or Lunch for Fasting

Dinner- Leftovers- Lentils with Brown Rice, Pasta Salad, Green Salad, and Sweet Potato French Fries

Family Night Snack- Vegan Whole Wheat Banana Bread

 

I came across some surprises with our meals last week. First, my baby loves tofu! He is generally a good eater, but he ate the curried tofu meal we had Wednesday up like it was candy. The second surprise I had was just how filling these meals were, especially the dinners, I could hardly eat what I had always thought to be a full serving, and I didn't wake up starving as I usually do. I made a big pot of brown rice for this week and tonight I'll be making some black beans, so those will be great to have on hand throughout the week. Week 2 starts today!