Father’s Day Best Choice BBQ

Happy Father’s Day!

How does a Vegan Mom prepare a “mans meal” of grilled meat for Father’s Day?

SaferGrillingTips

This info graphic is from Mamavation.com.

With Planning

My shopping list for the day is easy:

fruit (watermelon–classic! and cantaloupe)  Watch my how to cut a watermelon in less than a minute!

green salad

broccoli slaw 

sweet potato salad 

Meat (from our local farmer!) or Niman Ranch hotdogs

Are you new at this sustainable meat idea?

Screen Shot 2014-06-12 at 8.49.07 AM

thank you Christa Sterken for being an awesome photographer!

It can be very confusing!  I wrote this article about the lingo surrounding grass fed, organic, gmo-free.  I hope it begins to shed some light on a topic that has conflicting wording and slight of hand used by food marketers.

But I found this great resource from Mamavation.  The graphic above is from Mamavation–kudos for such a wonderful way to help us make the best choices.  The article in the link above goes into great detail–go read it now!  A phenomenal website that I highly recommend.

This year I have decided to get ALL of my meat from a local CSA that has a meat share available.  I love it–once a month I get a box with enough meat for my family.  It allows them to have meat twice a week in a local and sustainable way.  

[Tweet “Today at Renee’s Kichen I learned the best choice for our summer #bbq. Check out reneebaude.com”]

Celebrate our Father’s, Dads, Brothers, Uncles

How will you celebrate the men in your life?  

My goal is to have an intentional day of showing how much I appreciate my husbands willingness to be a father.  I never want to under estimate the sacrifice it takes for men to be husbands and fathers.  They are a blessing.

Eat with L.O.V.E.,

Renee

Vegan Crockpot Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potatoes!  
IMG_3594

I love the color–I painted my previous kitchen the color of sweet potatoes–a rich, warm, earthy tone.  I love how the plant grows into a flowing vine.  I’ve written about growing sweet potatoes.  I love the texture and versitility, here is my awesome sweet potato muffin recipe!  (you can usually substitute sweet potato in a recipe that calls for pumpkin–a healthy switch.)

 

Crock Pot, Bake, Roast 

This particular recipe I used the crockpot primarily because it didn’t matter how much the sweet potatoes cooked and I needed the oven for other baking.  If they were undercooked I could add more time and if they were a little mushy than I had less to do when I mashed them.  How I cook the sweet potatoes depends on how I want to serve them:

Roasted:  for my incredible roasted sweet potato summer salad!  I took pictures and put it on Instagram and it is on my FB Renee’s Kitchen Page.  (I post my life in food . . . )

Baked:  I bake my sweet potatoes wit the skin on then I usually stuff them.  This is a fun recipe/video that shows how I did it.

Boiled:  my least favorite way to cook but it is quick.  In my opinion when I boil sweet potatoes the depth of the flavor is lost. 

 Nutrition InfoIMG_3595

I searched the web and found this great website for nutritional values.  Here is the sweet potato nutritional information.  What I really like about this site is the visuals–I can see at a glance a wide variety of values.

 

 

[yumprint-recipe id=’11’] 

 

We eat sweet potatoes just as a side dish.  But you could:IMG_3593

  • add a little broth to make a sauce
  • add beans and make potato pancakes
  • use for ravioli filling
  • layer with regular mashed potatoes–it looks really pretty in a glass pan
  • thicken red sauce or chili
  • use as a dip with pita chips

11 more ideas!

Check out this post on 11 ways to prepare sweet potatoes!  

An old wives tale is that sweet potatoes increase fertility . . .

you do with that info what you want!  (and that is eating the sweet potatoes not wearing them or rubbing mashes sweet potatoes on your body . . . although they are so high in Vitamin A–it might make your skin look great.)

Be Blessed.IMG_3596

L.O.V.E.,

Renee

June Giveaway!

My First Giveaway as Renee’s Kitchen

I’m really excited about the super fun mason jar lids and straws that I found!  So of course I bought a few extra . . . 

I want you to have one!

masonjar2

 

This is how you could win the super fun set of 4 straws and 4 lids!  They are a super fun way to keep hydrated and the kids LOVE coming up with new recipes.  Good Luck :-)

 
 a Rafflecopter giveaway