Simple Eats: Thanksgiving Edition

In case you’re in need of a simple recipe to bring to your family’s Thanksgiving feast, I thought I’d share a recipe for Candied Sweet Potatoes, which I make every year for my family! This particular recipe can be found on the Pillsbury website. Luckily, since I’ve tried it I can vouch for its deliciousness! Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

1. 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
2. 2 tablespoons butter
3. 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
4. 1 tablespoon vanilla
5. 3 1/2 lbs of sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
6. 2 cups mini marshmallows

Directions:

1. Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray. Or you can use a slow cooker liner like I do, barely any mess to clean up, just take the liner out and toss it!
2. In a large microwave safe bowl, mix your brown sugar, butter, pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of water. Microwave the mixture uncovered on high for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring it once in between. Then stir in your vanilla and add the sweet potatoes to the bowl, stirring to coat thoroughly.
3. Pour your mixture into the slow cooker, cover, and cook on high for 3 1/2 to 4 hours or until the sweet potatoes are fork tender. Reduce the slow cooker to warm until you are ready to serve your dish.
4. When ready to serve, stir the mixture and top with the mini marshmallows. Cover for 1 to 2 minutes or until the marshmallows start to melt slightly. You don’t want to leave it covered for too long or the marshmallows will completely melt into the dish and you’ll lose that gooey goodness!
5. Serve and Enjoy!

Sweet potatoes can be quite pricey, especially here in Hawaii, so try to see if any stores are having sales on their produce. They are also very popular during the Thanksgiving season so don’t wait until the last minute to buy them, or they may not have any for you! (I’ve learned this the hard way.) The most time consuming part of the recipe is peeling and cutting the sweet potatoes. Be sure to factor the time it takes for you to do this in the overall cooking time of your dish, to make sure it’s ready in time for your meal.

If you are hosting Thanksgiving for your family or friends, don’t forget one important thing….clean out your fridge! As people start to show up and ask to put their dish/drinks in your fridge, you’ll be extra glad you took the time to clean out all the expired goods so you have plenty of space for Thanksgiving meal necessities. If after you clean out the fridge you think it might still be tight on space, try having a cooler with ice on hand for some added room.