January 7th, 2015 
Oh baby, it’s cold outside! So how ’bout we warm things up with fully flavorful, richly nutritious, and easy to make oven roasted sweet potato fries.
First, a few tips.
- Sweet potatoes are packed with beneficial antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and blood sugar moderating properties. For details, I highly recommend this link to the very comprehensive sweet potato page on the World’s Healthiest Foods site:http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64.
- Adding some fat to cooked sweet potato in the form of a little butter or oil will help your body absorb and process the fat-soluble vitamins found in the vegetable, primarily, vitamin A. (This recipe uses a shot of canola oil cooking spray for roasting, which helps satisfy that need.)
- I prefer not peeling the skin from any potatoes as most of the nutrients reside both in the skin and just below the skin. Instead, I give the potatoes a good dirt cleaning scrub with an abrasive sponge (you can also use a brush or your bare hands) under cold running water as shown below.
Mom had some terrific lines she used to lay on us as kids – and even as adults. “Better safe than sorry.” That one usually prodded me to do something other than what was prescribed. “Always bring a sweater.” Mom knitted us some gorgeous sweaters as kids, and if one of them, like the one shown below, was on me when I walked out the door, great. Otherwise, I’d be ok. “Put a nickel in it!” I never knew where that came from or where the nickel was supposed to go, but my brothers and I sure got the intent whenever we “lallygagged” behind her brisk and purposeful forward stride.
But the one line that stands out most now is, “Wake up and die right!” I found that line a bit odd in my younger years, but I sure get it now. It’s all about living life full-on moment to moment and doing whatever you can to make a positive contributing difference wherever you are.
