Roasted Sweet Potatoes

With Thanksgiving less than a week away I've got holiday food on my mind. When most people hear "sweet potatoes" I'm sure the image of a casserole with little marshmallows on top pops into their head.... marshmallows are basically candy and my kids don't need candy for dinner. Especially when there are so many other ways to prepare them that are healthier, easier and cheaper! No pecans, no brown sugar, and no marshmallows necessary.

Before we get started, let's discuss the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. If you are shopping in a typical grocery store chances are they are both sweet potatoes! They are just different varieties of sweet potatoes so they have been distinguished by calling one a sweet potato and the other a yam. 

Fun Fact!! 

The one on the left is considered a sweet potato; the one on the right is considered a yam. So what's the difference? The variety called a sweet potato is light colored and tends to be drier, crumbly and not quite as sweet. The variety called a yam has reddish skin with bright orange inside; it tends to be softer and sweeter when cooked. 

True yams are actually not even related to sweet potatoes. They have more of a brownish skin with purple or red insides and are more common in hotter climates such as South America and Africa. 

While we're having a fun fact moment lets compare sweet potatoes with regular potatoes. Regular potatoes have been given a very bad reputation (poor potatoes). They do have a few more calories (110 for a medium potato compared to 100 for a medium sweet potato) and contain slightly fewer vitamins and fiber than sweet potatoes. Regular potatoes raise your blood sugar levels higher than sweet potatoes do. Sweet potatoes have significantly more beta carotene in them (which is what makes them orange) and that special vitamin A helps protect our vision and can boost our immune system. However, regular potatoes contain more potassium than sweet potatoes. 

With that being said, my husband is not a fan of sweet potatoes,  I totally love them, and my kids go back and forth. If you are making sweet potatoes for the first time or are trying to get your family on board with eating them (or heck just trying them!) I suggest making regular potatoes and sweet potatoes together in one big happy potato party. 

The best way to get your family to try new foods is exposure, exposure, exposure!!! The more they see a new food and the more they taste a new food, the less it will be  thought of as something "new" or "weird"; it will just be another food that appears on the dinner table. Think of a baby trying food for the very first time; the first several times they try something they make a strange face and spit it out. But, if you keep offering it to them and having them try it they eventually stop spitting it out and making funny faces and sometimes end up completely loving it! So don't give up hope after 1 attempt, or 2 or 3... :)

Whew! Ok, now that we got all of that out of the way, let's cook! I started with 3 medium regular potatoes and 1 large yam. Wash and scrub them thoroughly and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

As with any cooking, equal size pieces are very important to ensure even cooking. I start by cutting the potato in half, then in quarters, then dicing. 

 I then repeat the same process with the yam. Yams tend to be harder than regular potatoes so make sure you are using a sharp knife to cut them. 

 Once I have them all diced I toss them in a 9x13 pan and add 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings (basil, oregano, thyme, garlic, sage, and rosemary). Stir the potatoes to evenly coat them in the oil and spices.

 Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. You will have a sweet and savory potato mix with no added sugar needed :) Enjoy!! 

Cost Break Down!

I purchased a 5 lb. bag of potatoes for $1.50 and it had about 12 potatoes in it which equals out to about $0.12 a potato; so the 3 potatoes I used cost $0.36. The one yam I bought cost $0.60. My olive oil averages out to about $.20 a Tablespoon so 2 tablespoons is $0.40. I have McCormick's Italian Seasoning which costs $0.32 a teaspoon. So the entire dish cost me $1.68 and it fed myself, my husband, and our 2 older daughters. Not too shabby when compared to a medium french fry at McDonald's that costs $1.79 (and we're not even getting into the health comparison of those!)