Easy Cinnamon Apple Baby Sweet Potato Bake
By Dennis Linden
Children in this country consume an estimated 12 percent of their calories from fast food and 20 percent of all American meals are eaten in the car! The consequences are predictably unhealthy. Competing schedules in the day-to-day lives of a busy modern family make it difficult to share a home-cooked meal together, but not impossible. In fact, with a little planning, cooking together can become a fun family event and learning opportunity. This feature will focus on providing a child or a group of children, working together under the supervision of an adult, with one uncomplicated, healthy and delicious side dish recipe. The dishes will be centered on seasonal fresh produce items; the recipes will always contain tasks will allow even the youngest kitchen helper to contribute to the family meal. Parents should always read through each recipe carefully to judge the division of labor based on age and ability as well as to identify where adult attention might be especially needed.
Many of the recipes presented here will seem very basic, this is by design. It is hoped that these simple preparations will provide the culinary foundation and confidence to inspire kids to try more challenging recipes as their experience and confidence in the kitchen develops. Melissa’s encourages parents to find the time to gather as a family unit at least once a week for a dinner that everyone pitches in to prepare. It’s a wonderful way to teach a child some basic culinary skills and, more importantly, cooking with your children will build memories in all your hearts forever. Enjoy your kids in the kitchen, they will be grown & gone before you know it! “No one is born a great cook; one learns by doing” – Julia Child.
The December holiday season presents another great culinary learning experience for young kids to share in preparing one of those special dishes enjoyed once a year at the family’s holiday table or one of the many celebratory events centered around this season. Here is the perfect fall side dish that your kitchen helpers can make under supervision using just two fresh ingredients out of the Melissa’s pantry from the fall harvest combined with a few other flavor supporters processed from fresh products.
This sweet and savory casserole takes advantage of the abundance of the season’s fresh apple varieties paired with the comfort food texture and goodness of Melissa’s Jewel Sweet Potatoes. Coated with cinnamon to celebrate the holidays and laced with a hint of the mildly spicy, buttery nut taste of Melissa’s Hatch Pepper Pecans, each bite is full of multi-colored flavors that will please the palate from all sides. Plus, the dish is quick to construct and can be made a few days in advance.
There are cooking lessons within this recipe for an older child with knife experience as well as a young sous chef who wants to be involved too. Still, prep is uncomplicated, being comprised of simply slicing, dicing, peeling and measuring each of the seven components, then combining those ingredients and baking. Under careful supervision by the adult in the room, all can be done by the kids up to when the casserole pan is ready to go and come out of the oven. That bake can be done immediately and refrigerated for a few days, or frozen until the final cook.
Many of the recipes in the blog require little in the way of precision knifework to take the pressure off a child just learning those skills. However, the success of this dish depends a lot on the cuts needed and needs to be emphasized before prep even starts. It is time to apply all that practice to specific types and sizes of cuts. The baby yams, just right for small hands, should be about ¼-inch thick; slice a sample prototype for your helper to copy. The Medjool dates replace the empty calories of brown sugar in the original recipe, so in that role they must be very fine-diced. The Hatch Pecans should be small enough not to dominate each bite yet large enough to be a recognizable topping as attention to appearance is also teachable. Each apple must be cut into 8 wedges—let your helper figure that out! Tip: cut up the apples last and dip in lemon juice to avoid browning.
Have a younger child, who knows his or her numbers, wanting to participate in all the fun? The butter, water and cinnamon need measuring out. Also, a mini-assembly line can be set up for the other two: one child does the knifework for the dates and nuts, the second helper measures out the proceeds according to the recipe. Combining all the cold ingredients together before the bake also needs no kitchen experience; mixing in the nuts to the half-baked casserole should probably be done by an older child under scrutiny or by the supervising adult if judged safer. Happy Holidays!
Cinnamon Apple-Baby Sweet Potato Bake
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
3-4 Gala Apples, sliced into 8 wedges each (option: Fuji or Honeycrisp work well too)
4 Melissa’s Baby Jewel Sweet Potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
½ cup Melissa’s Medjool dates, dice small (for sweetness try Melissa’s Agave Syrup)
3 tablespoons butter, melted & divided
2 oz. cup water
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup Melissa’s Hatch pecans, chopped & divided
What the kids can do:
Slice the apples and sweet potatoes; measure out the rest of the ingredients.
In a casserole dish, combine all ingredients, except the pecans, plus 2 tablespoons of the butter. Mix until all are evenly coated. Cover dish with foil and hand off the supervising adult for baking.
What the supervising adult should do:
Bake 375 F minutes for 40 minutes, then remove foil, supervise a helper carefully stirring in the pecans. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until sweet potatoes are cooked through.
Remove from the oven, closely oversee the gentle tossing with remaining butter and another dash of cinnamon, then top with remaining pecans. Serve.
The December holiday season presents another great culinary learning experience for young kids to share in preparing one of those special dishes enjoyed once a year at the family’s holiday table or one of the many celebratory events centered around this season. Here is the perfect fall side dish that your kitchen helpers can make under supervision using just two fresh ingredients out of the Melissa’s pantry from the fall harvest combined with a few other flavor supporters processed from fresh products.
This sweet and savory casserole takes advantage of the abundance of the season’s fresh apple varieties paired with the comfort food texture and goodness of Melissa’s Jewel Sweet Potatoes. Coated with cinnamon to celebrate the holidays and laced with a hint of the mildly spicy, buttery nut taste of Melissa’s Hatch Pepper Pecans, each bite is full of multi-colored flavors that will please the palate from all sides. Plus, the dish is quick to construct and can be made a few days in advance.
There are cooking lessons within this recipe for an older child with knife experience as well as a young sous chef who wants to be involved too. Still, prep is uncomplicated, being comprised of simply slicing, dicing, peeling and measuring each of the seven components, then combining those ingredients and baking. Under careful supervision by the adult in the room, all can be done by the kids up to when the casserole pan is ready to go and come out of the oven. That bake can be done immediately and refrigerated for a few days, or frozen until the final cook.
Many of the recipes in the blog require little in the way of precision knifework to take the pressure off a child just learning those skills. However, the success of this dish depends a lot on the cuts needed and needs to be emphasized before prep even starts. It is time to apply all that practice to specific types and sizes of cuts. The baby yams, just right for small hands, should be about ¼-inch thick; slice a sample prototype for your helper to copy. The Medjool dates replace the empty calories of brown sugar in the original recipe, so in that role they must be very fine-diced. The Hatch Pecans should be small enough not to dominate each bite yet large enough to be a recognizable topping as attention to appearance is also teachable. Each apple must be cut into 8 wedges—let your helper figure that out! Tip: cut up the apples last and dip in lemon juice to avoid browning.
Have a younger child, who knows his or her numbers, wanting to participate in all the fun? The butter, water and cinnamon need measuring out. Also, a mini-assembly line can be set up for the other two: one child does the knifework for the dates and nuts, the second helper measures out the proceeds according to the recipe. Combining all the cold ingredients together before the bake also needs no kitchen experience; mixing in the nuts to the half-baked casserole should probably be done by an older child under scrutiny or by the supervising adult if judged safer. Happy Holidays!
Cinnamon Apple-Baby Sweet Potato Bake
Serves 4-6
3-4 Gala Apples, sliced into 8 wedges each (option: Fuji or Honeycrisp work well too)
4 Melissa’s Baby Jewel Sweet Potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
½ cup Melissa’s Medjool dates, dice small (for sweetness try Melissa’s Agave Syrup)
3 tablespoons butter, melted & divided
2 oz. cup water
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup Melissa’s Hatch pecans, chopped & divided
What the kids can do:
What the supervising adult should do:
