yams | Wellness With Joanna

All Posts Tagged ‘yams’

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Meatloaf with Whipped Yams

April 24, 2015

I made this last night and my husband ate more than half of the loaf in one sitting because he enjoyed it so much! As always, there’s as many vegetables as I can fit in a meal without it falling apart and without my kids noticing too much.

This recipe is large and yields three meatloaves. One for you, one for a friend who needs a pick-me-up, and one for your freezer. It does take some time (about 1 hour and 40 minutes cooking time) so be aware of that before you start.

Ingredients:

-3 lbs grass fed ground beef

-2 eggs

-1 large sweet onion, diced small

-6 cloves of garlic, divided, diced small (4 for meatloaves, 2 for yam topping)

-4 strips of pastured, sugar free bacon, diced

-2 large bell peppers, any colour, diced small

-6 large crimini mushrooms, diced small

-3/4 cup of kale, diced small

-4 large yams, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces

-2 tbsp sugar free dijon mustard (I really like the Organic Simply Natural brand)

-1 tbsp gluten free Worcestershire sauce (omit for Whole30 unless you can find a brand without any sweeteners)

-2 tbsp tomato paste

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.

2) Fry your diced bacon in a pan over medium heat. Once it’s cooked through, remove the bacon and set it aside.

3) Scoop out the leftover bacon fat from the pan and toss it with the chopped yams and 2 of the diced garlic cloves in a large bowl.

4) Spread your yams out onto a lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Place in the oven and roast for approximately 40 minutes, or until yams are soft when pierced with a fork. Once they are soft, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Leave your oven on at 400 degrees.

5) While the yams are roasting, mix your ground beef, bacon pieces, eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, kale, and peppers in a large bowl. It is best to do this with your hands to get everything fully combined and mixed well.

6) Add the tomato paste, dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce and mix again with your hands.

7) When everything is mixed well, divide the meatloaf mixture evenly into 3 loaf pans.

One for you, one for a friend, and one for your freezer.

8) Once the yams have cooled, take them from the pan and blend them in a blender, NutriBullet, Vitamix, or whatever machine you have. You may need to do this in two batches to make sure everything gets whipped smoothly enough.

9) Evenly spread the whipped yams over top of your meatloaves. (In my photo, I only put the yams on two of the meatloaves and left the freezer loaf bare. I haven’t tried freezing whipped yams yet so wasn’t sure how well it would work, plus I was short on yams anyway.)

10) Place two of your meatloaves into the oven and bake for approximately 1 hour. Wrap the remaining loaf in tinfoil or saran wrap and place in the freezer.

11) When meatloaves are cooked through, remove them from the oven and allow them to rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

I’m big on community and loving each other. You’ll probably hear (or read) me talk about my “village” a lot. When my children were born early and in the NICU for weeks, our community showered us with love by regularly bringing us meals to help get us through the rough time. I can still remember how incredibly loved and taken care of we felt, and I strive to pass that on now. If you know someone who could use a hand, drop this meal off for them. They will never forget it.

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Chorizo and Yam Soup with Rosemary Sea Salt Biscuits

December 30, 2014

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My local butcher shop sells the most amazing chorizo sausage. I pick up a pack each week and try to find something new to do with it because it is just so delicious and packed full of flavour! Tonight I used it to top my pureed soup and give it a kick. Mission accomplished.

Chorizo and Yam Soup (with Kale Chips)

(My husband and I polished this off in one sitting with no leftovers. Double it if you are feeding more than two very hungry adults.)

Ingredients:

1 pack of chorizo sausage (about 5 links)

1 leek, chopped

1 orange bell pepper, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

4 yams, peeled and chopped

1 apple, chopped

1.5 tsp of ground sage

2 cups of beef bone broth

1 bunch of kale, washed and roughly torn

1-2 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 tbsp coconut oil

Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1) Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2) Combine your chopped leek, pepper, garlic, yams, and apple in a large bowl. Toss with the olive oil, then sprinkle with the sage and a pinch of sea salt and toss again.

3) Spread your mixture onto a lined baking sheet and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until yams are soft.

4) About 15 minutes before your roasting time is up, toss your kale pieces in some olive oil and spread on a lined baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and throw in the oven for 15 minutes while your vegetables finish roasting.

5) While your vegetables are roasting, melt your coconut oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Remove the casing from your chorizo sausage and crumble the sausage into your pan.

6) Fry the sausage until it’s cooked through and then transfer it to a serving dish.

7) When your vegetables and kale are finished roasting, remove both pans from the oven. Let the kale chips cool and then transfer to a serving dish.

8) When the vegetables have cooled, transfer them to a blender, add the beef bone broth, and puree until smooth. Pour into a large soup pot and simmer on the stove for 5-10 minutes. Alternatively, throw the roasted vegetables and bone broth into the soup pot and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.

9) Once the soup has been simmering for 5-10 minutes, ladle it into your bowls and top with kale chips and chorizo sausage. Enjoy!

Rosemary Sea Salt Biscuits

(Note: These biscuits are NOT Whole30 approved. No biscuits are!)

Ingredients:

4 large eggs, whites and yolks divided

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 tsp sea salt

1.5 tsp rosemary

4 tbsp cold grass fed butter

1 tsp raw honey (optional)

I really wanted to add some sharp raw cheese to these biscuits, but I don’t tolerate it well. If you are able to tolerate raw dairy, then I think it would be delicious in these biscuits.

Directions:

1) Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2) Separate your egg whites and yolks into two bowls. Beat your egg whites until they are foamy and begin to form soft peaks.

3) Add your honey to the egg yolks and mix to combine well.

3) Fold your yolks and honey into your egg whites and mix softly until combined.

4) Combine all your dry ingredients into a bowl and then cut your butter into the dry mixture, using a fork or pastry cutter until it is crumbled.

5) Gently combine your egg and honey mixture with your dry ingredients until mixed well. Wait a few minutes for the coconut flour to absorb the excess liquid.

6) Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop your biscuits onto a lined baking sheet, leaving an inch in-between. Depending on the size of your scoop, the recipe should yield about 6-8 biscuits.

7) Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Allow to cool and then slice and enjoy with grass fed butter on top.

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Chorizo Egg Muffins

December 23, 2014

Brussels Sprouts Breakfast Skillet

December 18, 2014

4 comments

A few years ago I would have never imagined eating brussels sprouts for breakfast. When I adopted the grain free, sugar free, dairy free lifestyle, one of my biggest struggles was figuring out what to eat for breakfast. I got sick of scrambled eggs pretty quickly and so started combining meat and veggies and now breakfast has become my favourite meal. I love starting off the day with a full stomach and tons of energy.

I use ground pork for this recipe because it’s relatively cheap. Our family only buys pastured, hormone free, antibiotic free, and humanely raised meats and that really adds up over time and makes a huge dent in our budget. Pork is a cheaper option than chicken, beef or turkey and works well for a meal like this.

As for the brussels sprouts…just try it! My kids won’t touch them on their own, but they’ll gobble them up mixed into this skillet without even noticing. Victory!

This recipe is enough for 3 breakfast meals for myself, or you can stretch it farther by adding 2 eggs to each portion.

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp of coconut oil

1 lb ground pork (pastured, hormone and antibiotic free, humanely treated)

1 large yam (or 2 smaller yams), diced

10 brussels sprouts, quartered

1 large apple, diced

2 bell peppers, diced

1 bunch kale, roughly torn into bite size pieces (stems removed)

1-2 tbsp of rosemary

1-2 tbsp of sage

Sea salt to taste

Directions:

1) Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over medium.

2) Crumble your ground pork into the pan and season with sage and rosemary. Sprinkle with salt.

3) Once the pork begins to brown, add the diced yams and brussels sprouts. Mix to combine and continue cooking until yams being to soften to your liking, about 10 minutes.

4) Add your diced apple and peppers. Mix to combine and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes.

5) Lastly, add your torn kale. Mix to combine, fry for approximately 3 minutes, and then serve and enjoy.

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Whole 30 – Week 2 – Meal Plan

September 6, 2014

1 comment

Hey there! Wow, this no caffeine thing has been ROUGH. For the first 3 days I had a non stop pounding headache, was exhausted during the day, and awake in the middle of the night. By day 4 I was feeling way better though, and I’m excited to see how things improve even more over the next few weeks.

Here’s my meal plan for this week. A few breakfasts that I will double, and leftovers for lunch every day.

Breakfast:

Yams and Eggs (There isn’t much to this “recipe” but it’s one of my favourites. I chop the yams into cubes and fry them in coconut oil and steak spice until cooked through. I remove them from the pan and cover them to keep them hot. Then I quickly fry 2 eggs and put them on top of the yams. You could partially boil the yams at the beginning of the week to make them quick and easy to fry up in the morning.)

Sweet Potato Breakfast Skillet

Potatoes with Kale and Bacon

Crustless Quiche

Dinner:

Mexican Meatza

Chocolate Chili on spaghetti squash

Spicy Coconut Shrimp Bisque (skip the corn)

Sweet Pineapple Ginger Meatballs

Lemon Garlic Chicken on Zoodles and Kale

Italian Sausage and Zoodles

Moroccan Spiced Salmon

I suggest tripling the Chocolate Chili and Spicy Coconut Shrimp Bisque and freezing them for Whole30 emergencies. Those are two of my favourite recipes…you won’t be sorry!

Enjoy!

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Balsamic Beef Stew

July 23, 2014

1 comment

I woke up to the sound of pouring rain this morning and immediately thought to myself that today is a good day for stew. A couple of hours later I got a text from my sister in law asking if I had any good stew recipes. Great minds think alike! There’s just something comforting about curling up with a bowl of hot stew while the rain comes down outside….

Ha! Who am I kidding? No mom ever gets to eat their stew while it’s still hot. I’m usually scarfing down my dinner as fast as I can while simultaneously doing the airplane move, trying to shovel food into my 1 year old’s mouth and chanting “You can do it!” to my 3 year old, desperately trying to convince her to eat her carrots. Bonus points if I can get the dirty dishes loaded before the 1 year old climbs out of his high chair and starts climbing right into the dishwasher. What is it with babies and dishwashers? Good thing he’s so cute!

Back to the stew. It takes some time, but the end result is completely worth it. Serve it with a side salad and enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb stewing beef (grass fed and local if possible)

1 tbsp steak spice (sugar free)

1 tbsp coconut oil

4 cups of yams, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks

2 cups of parsnips, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks

2 cups of carrot, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 tbsp of fresh rosemary, chopped (dried will work just fine but fresh is always better!)

1 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves

2 cups beef bone broth (sugar free)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (sugar free)

Directions

1) Preheat your oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.

2) Dry the stewing beef by blotting it with paper towel. Toss it in the steak spice to coat it evenly.

3) Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat and melt the coconut oil in it. Working in batches if necessary, brown all sides of the beef in the pan. Don’t crowd the beef, give it lots of wriggle room to properly brown the sides. Remove the beef to a dutch oven or large, deep casserole dish with a lid.

4) Pile the yams, carrots and parsnips on top of the beef.

5) Return to the same saucepan and add your onion, rosemary and thyme. Saute for a few minutes to soften. Add the bone broth and balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil, all the while scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to get all the juicy beefy bits.

6) Pour the contents of the saucepan into your dutch oven or casserole dish, put the lid on, and place it in the oven for three hours, if you can wait that long. The delicious aroma will drive you crazy while you wait! Enjoy.