I Had a Dream About A Purple Sweet Potato

I am obsessed with Okinawa Purple Sweet Potatoes and I have been ever since I discovered them two years ago. All of their starchy goodness makes me have oralgasms (orgasms of the salivary glands). If I could I would be buried with cooked purple sweet potatoes in a bath tub and eat my out. Not only are they visually exquisite, but so much sweeter than any other potato.

I use the these potatoes for everything, I make muffins, I make popsicles, and I eat them as they are. Here are some of my favorite recipes I have come up with using purple sweet potatoes. I actually have never made hash browns or french fries or mashed potatoes out of them because that to me is boring.

Purple Sweet Potato Protein Muffins

-40 g cooked purple sweet potatoes, mashed

-3 TBSP coconut milk

-1 whole egg ( I use jumbos, they are more satisfying)

-7g/1 TBSP coconut flour

-5 g protein powder (I use Lifetime's Basics with Greens)

-1/4 tsp non-aluminum baking powder

optional: vanilla or maple extract

Makes 3 small muffins. Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then pour into a muffin pan that is lined with muffin cups. Bake until slightly brown.

Purple Sweet Potato Protein FuckMe-sicles

-30 g cooked purple sweet potato, mashed

-1/3 c coconut milk

-10 g Lifetime's Basics Plant Protein With Greens

-10 g Chocolate egg white Protein

-1 tsp cocoa powder

Mix all ingredients and put into freezer pop molds. Freeze for at least 24 hours. I like to drop things in right before putting the stick in, such as dark chocolate, or these or this. So yummy. Sometimes I even put in my own "pumpkin pie" filling muffins

Purple Sweet Potato Bagels

-40g purple sweet potato, mashed

-28g coconut flour

-3g guar gum

-1 egg white

-1/2 tsp non-aluminum baking powder

Makes 2 small bagels. Preheat oven to 400 F and bring some water to a boil in a pot. Mix all ingredients, add water as needed to make a dough. Separate into two even portions, roll into balls, flatten and poke a hole in the center. Boil for 35 sec per side in water and then place on a greased baking sheet and slide into the oven. Bake until slightly browned.

Per bagel: 99 calories, 4.7g protein, 15.3g carbs, 2.1g fat, 6.6 g fiber, 2.7g sugar

Paleo/Primal Jew, I'm Kvetching, What to Do? Paleo/Primal Challah/Bagels

So listen up, I am pretty much Paleo/ Primal. There is one vice that is holding me back, which I won’t go into detail about right now. I am extremely active and so I freely enjoy eating Okinawa purple sweet potatoes and pumpkin. One thing I miss being a gluten free, primal Jew is all the food. I sometimes long for the days when I freely enjoyed Challah bread with honey, along with Matzoh at Passover and so forth. I have hypothyroidism and I avoid gluten because of this, my under active thyroid is the main reason why I turned to the paleo/primal diet in the first place. I also don’t think grains are essential, but when I want a bagel with lox or some matzoh ball soup, grains start looking a lot more essential.

Naturally I had to come up with an alternative. A way to have my bagel and eat it too. A way to have some challah. Most of the baked goods I make are visually unappealing. They look like something you would build a house out of (aka a brick), not something edible by any means, but they still taste good. I often look at traditional Jewish recipes and try and find a different way and a better way. Below are my recipes for Challah style bagels and Everything Bagels, which are perfect substitutes. The Challah style bagel is pretty much Paleo friendly, but the Everything Bagels do contain Millet and Garbanzo bean flour. I live alone so all of my recipes yield 2-3 servings at the most.

As far as categorizing myself as Paleo or Primal, I really don't care much for doing that either. I think there a lot of people out there that feel their way of eating is the only way and is the most right way and I disagree. I feel that putting grains in my body is like putting poison in my body, but I will never expect anyone to feel the same way. Everything in life is about balance and I too am beginning to learn that. 

Mock Challah (In Bagel Form), makes two small bagels

-1 jumbo egg

-31g (1/4c)  coconut flour

-1 tsp guar gum

-1 tsp chia seeds

-1 1/2 packets stevia

-1 tsp sesame and poppy seeds

-3 TBSP coconut milk

-2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

-1/2 tsp non aluminum baking powder

-water (as needed)

-Coconut oil spray

-Foil

Preheat oven to 400 F and boil a large pot of water with salt. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with coconut oil cooking spray. In a bowl mix all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine the egg and coconut milk. Combine with the dry ingredients, add the apple cider vinegar and water as needed. If the mixture is too dry add more water. The consistency should be doughy. Spray your hands with the coconut oil cooking spray and separate the dough into two even balls. Roll the dough into balls, put them on the pan and insert finger to make a hole. Drop the bagels into the boiling water, boiling for 15-30 sec per side. Put them back on the pan, sprinkle each bagel with sesame and poppy seeds. Bake until hard on the outside and slightly browned.

Sun dried Tomato Everything Bagels

-1 TBSP coconut flour

-35g millet flour

-2 TBSP garbanzo bean flour

-1 TBSP artichoke flour (optional)

-1 tsp guar gum

-3 TBSP coconut milk

-1 tsp golden flaxseed meal

-1 jumbo egg white

-1 packet stevia

-1tsp each sesame, poppy seeds, caraway seeds

-1 tsp each garlic and onion powder

-2 pcs sun dried tomatoes, sliced into small pcs

-1/2 ounce artichoke hearts (optional)

-2 roasted garlic cloves, diced

-Water, as needed

Same exact directions as the Mock Challah, except mix in the caraway seeds and leave the sesame and poppy seeds for the end