Sweet Potatoes and Kids - A Beautiful Thing -

No Utensils Needed!!

For lots of great information on Sweet Potatoes - the Vegetable with Super Food Powers -

visit http://ncsweetpotatoes.com/

Mini Sweet Potato Calzones with

Warm Marinara Dipping Sauce

It is no challenge whatsoever to get the kids I know to eat sweet potatoes. Sweet potato chips, sweet potato fries and sweet potato dip for veggies are always easy winners.

Inspired by this challenge I wanted to create some fresh and new dishes that would use Sweet Potatoes incorporated into the foods that kids love the most.

So, I went directly to the source. . .

I asked every kid I know what their favorite food was and every parent I know what their kids favorite food was.

The answers were not surprising:

Pizza was the clear winner with chicken tenders or nuggets a close second.

Macaroni & Cheese and Ravioli were also popular choices.

A truly great answer, chicken and waffles with honey mustard sauce, was a winner to me and the inspiration for one of my new sweet potato recipes. Thanks Brady (12)!

Digging deeper with my good friend Nico (7) who shouted pizza out before I even finished my question, we talked about sweet potatoes and what he liked to eat them with. Chorizo was his answer and my creative juices started flowing.

Keeping true to the healthy nature of this challege I worked on two recipes that are not only kid friendly, but adult friendly, and they are healthy, delicious, and give sweet potatoes top billing.

Three things I know kids love: individual portions, finger foods, and dipping sauces,

My plan: use the #1 kid rated food and incorporate sweet potatoes, finger food, dipping sauce and remain pretty healthy.

And the recipe was born, sweet potato, italian turkey sausage, spinach, mozarella and parmesan come together quickly with pre-made pizza dough into warm pockets of flavor ready to dip in warm marinara sauce.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher Salt
• 1 shallot chopped fine (optional depending on what your kids like but I find the mild sweet flavors of a shallot as opposed to an onion are fine for serving kids)
• 2 cloves garlic minced (optional depending on kids tastes)
• 1 Sweet Potato peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces (yield should be two cups)
• 2 links Hot or Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage sliced into bite size pieces (I find the hot is a better contrast with the sweet potatoes and is not too much for the little ones)
• 1 1/2 Cups Spinach chopped fine (if too much spinach is added it can overwhelm the dish)
• 1/2 Fresh Mozzarella Cheese grated (freeze it for a few minutes to make grating easier)
• Pre-made or Homemade Pizza Dough (you can make this recipe even healthier by making your own calzone dough with wheat flour)
• 2 Tablespoons freshly shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 cup marinara sauce heated (whatever you have on hand - obviously homemade is better but jarred works great here for the kids)

Directions

(for step by step directions with pictures see below)

• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large saute pan.

  Add shallot and saute until softened, about 3 minutes.

  Add garlic and stir for about a minute.
• Add sliced sausage and incorporate into shallot mixture.
• Add diced sweet potato. Continue to saute without a lid for about 5-7 minutes until sausage no longer looks pink. Add 2 tablespoons water and cover with lid. Continue to simmer for about five minutes or until the sweet potatoes are cooked to your liking.
• Add spinach and cook until slightly wilted, about 1 minute.
• Taste and season to taste with salt.
• Meanwhile. . .Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

  Cover baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
• Roll out pizza dough and with 4 1/2 inch cutter make as many individual rounds as you can.

  Place rounds on prepared baking sheet.
• Gather edges, and reroll dough and cut out additional rounds. (if you are using store bought dough the second batch will be really tough. homemade dough will work better for a reroll).
• If you are using fresh mozzarella be sure to strain it. It has a lot of moisture and you don't want it to make your calzones soggy.
• Place sweet potato filling on one half of the circle making sure to leave some free edge. Don't put too much filling - you don't want dough to stretch when you

  fold it over and make the pastry shell too thin.

  Add fresh strained mozzarella cheese.
• Carefully fold over, press edges closed with your fingers and

  crimp edges with a fork.

  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese.
• Make three small slits in the top of each calzone. (if you don't do this the dough on top won't cook through before the bottom gets crispy so don't skip this step).
• Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden on top with golden brown edges. Allow to cool for five minutes. Serve with warm marinara dipping sauce and enjoy the silence as the kids are too busy eating to talk.

The flavor combinations were a hit with everyone.

Most importantly the kiddos.

I was surprised at how bright and vibrant all the colors stayed.

Yummy Sweet Potatoes!!

If you're an adult watching your bread in take - the sweet potato mixture with a little fresh parmesan on top was absolutely amazing!!!

Step-by-Step Directions with Pictures

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large saute pan.

Add shallot and saute until softened, about 3 minutes.

Add garlic and stir for about a minute.

Add sliced sausage and incorporate into shallot mixture.

Add diced sweet potato.

Continue to saute without a lid for about 5-7 minutes until sausage no longer looks pink.

Add 2 tablespoons water and cover with lid. Continue to simmer for about five minutes or until the sweet potatoes are cooked to your liking.

Add spinach and cook until slightly wilted, about 1 minute.

Taste and add salt if necessary.

Meanwhile. . .Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Cover baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.

Roll out pizza dough and with 4 1/2 inch cutter make as many individual rounds as you can.

Place rounds on prepared baking sheet.

Gather edges, and reroll dough and cut out additional rounds. (if you are using store bought dough the second batch will be really tough. homemade dough will work better for a reroll).

If you are using fresh mozzarella be sure to strain it. It has a lot of moisture

and you don't want it to make your calzones soggy.

Place sweet potato filling on one half of the circle making sure to leave some free edge. Don't put too much filling - you don't want dough to stretch when you

fold it over and become too thin.

Add fresh strained mozzarella cheese.

Carefully fold over, press edges closed with your fingers and

crimp edges with a fork.

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with

fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Make three small slits in the top of each calzone. (if you don't do this the dough on top won't cook through before the bottom gets crispy so don't skip this step).

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for five minutes. Serve with warm marinara dipping sauce and enjoy the silence as the kids are too busy eating to talk.

Stay tuned for my second kid inspired sweet potato recipe:

Sweet Potato Waffle Triangles and

Cinnamon Pecan Crusted Chicken Fingers

with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

For great information and fun kidstuff from the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission click on Spencer the Sweet Potato below.

• Happy Cooking and

• Remember -

• Take Time to Enjoy

• a Little Gourmet Everyday!!