Grilled Sweet Potatoes with a Sweet and Spicy Yogurt, by Cheryl

We were visiting our friends' house a couple of weekends ago and as always they made us a delicious lunch while we hung out at their pool. I'm always so impressed with people that can just make up their own recipes routinely... I rarely can do that! I made this again when we got home. This yogurt sauce is the perfect compliment to grilled sweet potatoes and is just what we needed on a hot day! Yum!

Ingredients:

Several large sweet potatoes. sliced long ways

Olive oil

A large tub of plain Greek yogurt

Lemon juice from 2 lemons

Paprika

Hot honey, drizzles here and there

Scallions, sliced

Directions:

1) Brush the sweet potatoes with olive oil. Put on the grill and cook until softened. 

2) Meanwhile, combine all of the ingredients except the scallions. Mix well. Place a dollop of sauce on top of the sweet potatoes, topped with the scallions and a a drizzle of the hot honey. 

"Breakfast Friends" (French Toast), by Cheryl

Back when I did my little MLM stint as a Barefoot Books ambassador, I purchased a large deck of healthy and easy kid recipes that the kids can help with. That was five years ago and we finally dove into them the other day. Julia chose about 20 recipes she wants to make, and so for day 1 of winter break by myself with both kids all day we tackled one of these recipes this morning. So basically, this is French toast, lol. But I'm posting it because it included things in the mix that I don't usually put in my French toast. I usually just use eggs, milk, and cinnamon. Maybe some brown sugar if I'm feeling it that day. This mix includes yogurt and honey and I think it really gave it a slightly different flavor which I thought was great! Yum!

Ingredients:

4 slices of thick whole-grain bread
2 eggs
3 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tsp honey
1/3 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
Toppings

Directions:

1) Use cookie cutters to stamp out some shapes from the bread.

2) Crack eggs into a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs.

3) Add the yogurt and beat again.

4) Beat in the honey and cinnamon.

5) Dip the shapes, one at a time, into the egg mixture. Thoroughly coat the pieces.

6) Heat butter in a frying pan and when it is hot, add some bread shapes. Cook each one for 1-2 minutes and then flip onto the other side and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Use toppings for eyes or designs as desired.

Granola with Honey-Scented Yogurt and Baked Figs

Wow- it's been a while since we've posted on here! I've been a bit lazy about it during the summer, but I made a recipe tonight I HAD to post. It involves two of my favorite things- figs, and greek yogurt. Plus, I've always wanted to know how to make homemade healthy granola, since it's usually so fattening and laden with sugar. This recipe was easy enough to follow (I got it from the latest issue of Cooking Light), and it was really good and filling.
My only complaint is that the article doesn't tell you how to make sure the figs are fresh or what the different colors mean, so I had a lot of research to do before I bought them! Soft figs are ripe regardless of skin color, but it's still hard to know when they are overripe. Plus, it's really hard to find good figs here in the US (esp. around the east coast), so that made things a bit trickier and I'm sure it would have tasted MUCH better if you were somewhere else in the world (maybe, ITALY!).

ps- this clearly is not a photo taken by me, and is totally and shamelessly stolen from the CL mag. My camera is on the fritz, and we all know how our cell phone pics turn out on this blog...

Ingredients:

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1 large egg white
1 1/8 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons honey, divided
9 firm, fresh dark-skinned figs, stemmed and quartered
3 cups plain fat-free Greek yogurt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°.
2. Combine oats and pecans in a small bowl. Combine egg white and 1/8 teaspoon vanilla in a medium bowl; beat egg mixture with a mixer at medium speed until foamy. Fold oat mixture into egg white mixture. Combine brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and nutmeg; fold the sugar mixture into oat mixture. Fold in maple syrup.
3. Spread granola evenly on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 300° for 25 minutes, stirring once. Remove granola from oven; stir to loosen granola from foil. Cool on a wire rack.
4. Increase the oven temperature to 350°.
5. Combine 2 teaspoons honey and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large bowl, and add figs, stirring gently to coat the fruit. Arrange the figs, cut sides up, in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle figs evenly with the remaining 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt.
6. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until the fig juices begin to bubble. Remove from oven, and cool completely. Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons honey and yogurt in a small bowl. Spoon 1/2 cup yogurt mixture into each of 6 bowls; top each serving with about 2 1/2 tablespoons granola and 6 fig quarters.