So Tasty and Still So Good For You!!

 

Our recent contest entries really show how versatile and delicious Sweet Potatoes can be, but there is another great reason to pile your plate full of our Sassy Sweets.  Did you know that ounce for ounce, Sweet Potatoes pack more nutritional punch that most of the veggies that show up on your plate. Just check out some of these amazing statistics.

Sweet Potatoes are a complex carbohydrate with a low glycemic index.  So they provide long lasting energy that helps you stay full.


One medium Sweet Potato has only 90 - 150 calories while delivering:

• 3-4 times the RDA of beta carotene and Vitamin A. 
• Half of your RDA of Vitamin C
• High amounts of Potassium, minerals and dietary fiber

Diets high in antioxidant and beta-carotene rich foods, like the sweet potato, have been linked with reduced risk for certain cancers.  Sweet Potatoes really are a Super-Food!!  And to top it all off, they taste delicious.  Try this weeks super yummy and amazingly healthy fruit cup recipe.   Your body will thank you and so will your taste buds.

Fruited Sweet Potato Cups

8 oranges
6 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 stick lowfat margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 small can crushed pineapple, canned in own juice
1 small bottle maraschino cherries, chopped
1/4 cup cherry juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Small marshmallows

Cut oranges in half. Juice, saving part of juice for potatoes. Remove pulp and white membrane by scraping with spoon. Scallop or flute edges with scissors. Bake or boil sweet potatoes. Remove skins while hot, and mash. Add margarine, sugar, orange and cherry juices and beat well.  Do not scrape beaters; the fibers have matted together on the beaters. Fold in pineapple and juice, cherries, flavorings, salt and pecans. Fill orange cups with potato mixture. Top each with 5 marshmallows. Put in hot oven or run under broiler to brown marshmallows.

16 servings. Each serving provides 135 calories, 4 grams fat, 24.8 grams carbohydrates and 946 RE vitamin A.