Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:
1. 4 sweet potatoes cut into fries (approx. 500g)
2. 2 TBS olive oil

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree celsius.
2. In an oven proof dish, toss sweet potatoes with just enough oil to coat (1-2 TBS olive oil)
3. Place in oven and bak for 45 minutes or until golden.

Tips:
You can also bake it for 20 mins under 220 degree celsius, but some parts gets burn easily quite quickly. I prefer to bake it at a lower temperature, so that I don't have to watch them so often.

Additional Information:
Baby FECS loves this. Our Little FECS and Daddy FECS love it too. You don't have to add any salt, as sweet potatoes are by nature sweet. Just baking it on its own brings out the sweetness without any seasoning. Sweet potato is a known super food, so I am so happy that it is so easy to make, yet so tasty and nutritious :-)

Crispy Sweet Potato Chips

The yield is more than this, but a mouse (J) at home came and stole it :-)

Makes 3 trays

Preparation & Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
1. 3 sweet potatoes
2. 2 TBS olive oil (optional)

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree celsius.
2. Wash, peel and pat dry sweet potatoes with a fresh kitchen towel.
3. Slice sweet potatoes thinly using a mandolin.
4. In a mixing bowl, toss and mix them well with olive oil (or you can brush them with olive oil after spreading them out on the baking tray).
5. Lay them without overlapping on a baking tray laid with baking paper.
6. Bake for 10 mins. Check after 10 mins. Remove the smaller ones that are done and put the tray back into the oven. 
7. If needed, bake for another 2-5 mins or until golden and crispy, but not brown. Keep an eye to prevent burnt.
8. Remove from oven and serve :-)

Additional Information:
For it to be crispy, it is important that it is very thin and dry. For each sweet potato, I use 2 teaspoons of olive oil. One sweet potato fill one baking tray.

We made this for the first time today. J really loved it. It is very easy and nutritious. If you are making for babies or toddlers, you can also bake it without the olive oil. It is still delicious, though without the shinning oiled look.

I had made potato chips before. Just yesterday, I was thinking if I could use the same method to make sweet potato chips. But a search on the internet turned out zero. We had our FECS day today, and we went to the recently opened West Market in Copenhagen. We tried sweet potato chips for the first time at Laboca restaurant and it tasted very delicious. The chef told us that he made it himself by deep-frying the sweet potato slices himself. We have two packets of sweet potatoes sitting at home, so I thought I will go home and try it, but I will try it in the oven instead.

The sweet potato chips we tried today at Laboca at West Market :-)

 Add 1 TBS olive oil, toss and mix well with a spoon or

 Brush them with olive oil

 Bake for 10-15 mins. Check after 10 mins. Remove the smaller ones that are done and put the tray back into the oven.

Enjoy :-)

The Underrated Sweet Potato/Sød Kartoffel/番薯[fān shǔ]

For babies from 6 months.

Directions:
1. Wash, peel and chop 600g of sweet potatoes into pieces

2. Steam for 15 minutes or until tender

3. Add 6 teaspoons of powder milk and 6 teaspoons of olive oil (optional but recommended)

4. Puree with fork (for babies from 7 months to teach them how to eat lumpy food) or with blender (for babies 6 months and younger)

OR

Bake whole sweet potatoes in oven at 200°C (400°F) for 45 minutes, then puree them.

Storage:
1. Cool down, pour into ice cube tray and freeze.

2. Once frozen, knock the cubes out and store them in freezer bags (makes 2-3 ice cube trays, can store up to 8 weeks)

Nutritional Value:
Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene) and a very good source of vitamin C and manganese, a good source of vitamin B6, potassium, iron, copper, dietary fiber and manganese.

Sweet potato contains unique root storage proteins that have been observed to have significant antioxidant capacities. In one study, these proteins had about one-third the antioxidant activity of glutathione-one of the body's most impressive internally produced antioxidants.

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Additional information:

Sweet potato is superior to potato in terms of nutrients, but it is not readily available in Denmark and is very expensive. But if it is widely available where you live, it is a better choice than potato.

Some danes ask me if sweet potatoes are potatoes sweetened with sugar. The answer is no. Sweet potatoes are a type of root vegetable that look like potatoes, but the flesh inside is orange in colour and they are naturally sweet when cooked, steamed or baked. The picture above show how they look like. They can be purchased in Irma supermakets.

Cooked Sweet Potato as Finger Food

For babies from 8 months old.

Directions:
1. Wash, peel and chop sweet potatoes into bite size pieces

2. Steam for 15 minutes or until tender and serve

OR

3. Bake whole sweet potatoes in oven at 200°C (400°F) for 45 minutes, then cut into bite size cubes.

Storage:
1. Cool down, pour into portion size small container and freeze (can store up to 8 weeks).

2. Thaw overnight in the fridge and serve cold or warm.

Nutritional Value:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107425&id=705043347&saved#/photo.php?
pid=2580250&id=705043347

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Additional Information:
Making home-made finger food is actually very easy and fast, but I must admit that it takes practice and lot of planning to fit it into a busy everyday life. In preparation for going back to work, I am now practicing it and trying to make a mock-working day schedule. I prefer to give home-cooked food to J than ready-made commercial finger food such as Cheerios which is processed.

My plan is to thaw a portion overnight in the fridge and include it in the lunch pack for J. It will be ready for him to eat at the child care during lunch time.