For the last several days, David has been asking me if he could guest post on Amy Burns the Recipe Book. March is Colorectal Cancer awareness month, and since David has Ulcerative Colitis, he has an increased cancer risk. You can read more about it on David’s About page. David has come to feel strongly that what eats has a profound impact on how he feels, and as such, has taken a proactive approach to staying healthy by eating (and cooking) whole, natural foods. Read on to learn more about why he’s motivated to eat healthy and follow him as he takes on new culinary challenges in the kitchen – Amy
Hi everyone!! Thank you for giving me this opportunity. As I explain in my About Me page, I believe that what we eat matters. For me, a drastic change in my diet has changed my colitis from a debilitating disease into a once every two years nuisance. Unfortunately, I still have to have a colonoscopy every two years because the colitis puts me at a higher risk for cancer. The good news is that’s it! No more prescription drugs and no more over the counter medications (not that any of those ever worked for me anyways), and best of all, no more horribly sick days.
So how did I do it?? Well, I had some help. Ok, that’s an understatement, I had a ton of help!! Amy had been researching for a while, we read through some books including Dr. Amy Myers’ “The Autoimmune Solution”, and we came up with a meal plan that we thought would work. Amazingly, it did work!! Luckily for me, Amy made each of my meals for a whole month just to test out our theory. That’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner for thirty days. Ninety meals!!
We opted for a pretty simple formula for my diet. Rule 1, breakfast consists of fruit only, lots of it, organic for the most part, and a mixture of what’s in season. Rule 2, lunch and dinner consist of one serving of meat and two servings of vegetables. I will go back through the historical ABRB posts and tag recipes with David’s Diet so that you can see what worked best for me. Rule 3, only drink water (no caffeine, no alcohol, no juice). I’m to the point now where I feel like my body can handle the occasional cheat, but I was super strict for the first month to see what the actual effects would be.
Because of Amy, it’s really easy for me to say that everyone should change the way that they eat. However, not everyone knows how to cook. Even the basics can be difficult if you’ve spent more time in the drive through than in the kitchen like I used to. If you’re like I used to be, you have two options. Option number one is to marry a food blogger or other person that loves to cook. If that’s not possible for you, there’s always option number two, learning to cook. That’s why I’m here posting on ABRB! I’m going to try to help with the super basics. Quite often, I watch what Amy is doing in the kitchen, suggest that she blog about it, and she responds with “that’s too easy” or “everyone knows that”. But I don’t!! So maybe there are other people that want to learn with me. If so, please post in the comments below.
My first attempt is Baked Sweet Potatoes. They are a great addition to any meal. For example, pair them with Five Minute Chicken and Brussel Sprouts and you’re good to go.
A few pointers before we get to the recipe. Potatoes, in all their forms, come to us dirty. Use a good scrubber and wash them off before cooking. Alternatively, you could peel them, but the skins have lots of good nutrients so we typically keep the skin on. Although I haven’t tested it, I’m told that potatoes could pop if you don’t make holes in them before cooking, so we’re going to puncture them a few times with a fork. The ends can be yucky to eat, so we cut them off, but don’t cut off too much because we don’t want all of the sugars seeping out. Sugar seeps out of sweet potatoes when cooking which makes a mess of the baking pan. Prevent the mess by lining your baking pan with aluminum foil. And with that, on to the good stuff!!
Are you ready to get started making this recipe? Head over to our shop page to make sure you have all of the necessary prep tools. Then watch this short video and print a copy of the recipe below to try it out in your kitchen. Enjoy!
Great with any meal, these baked sweet potatoes are as easy as it gets!
- 2 sweet potatoes we like Japanese sweet potatoes for baking
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
-
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil and then add a baking rack.
-
Cut off the ends of the sweet potatoes, then poke some holes into each potato. Rub olive oil on each potato, then season both sides with salt and pepper.
-
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
-
Rotate the sweet potatoes and continue baking at 350 for another 30 minutes.
-
Remove from oven. Test for doneness by poking with a knife. The sweet potatoes should be soft and there shouldn't be any resistance to the knife.
Top any way you want. We topped this version with a little bacon fat, bacon pieces, salt and pepper. For a vegetarian option, top with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Leave a Reply