I’m so excited – it’s another Virtual Vegan Potluck! It’s like most other recipe link-ups in that it is all really good and unique food recipes, but this one is all vegan! And, it’s also different in that it’s not just one place to go and look at things – oh no. Each site lets you click to the next recipe – so it will go on for awhile. All these recipes make me go mmmmm. And what’s mine this year? The name my make you scratch your head a little, but wow – it turned out good. Here’s my VVP side-dish recipe, Fruity Sweet Potatoes.

I wanted to make a sweet potato recipe that was not overly sugary and a little different. Normally the sweet potatoes on people’s holiday tables are all gooed up with marshmallows and tons of sugar (or at least at our table), but I wanted to make something that I could eat. Since tons of sugar does bad things to my blood sugar levels I wanted something I could eat and enjoy and not fear low-levels at the holiday table. And this is it! Roasted apples and sweet potatoes with a little brown sugar, vanilla almond milk, and orange juice sauce with raisins? Oh wow – this was good. A perfect healthier version of the old sugar-loaded classic – no mallows needed!

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Wash apples and scrub sweet potatoes then chop into like sizes. Dump on a non-stick pan that is sprayed with non-stick spray. Drizzle a little grapeseed oil and cinnamon and roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. While they are roasting wash oranges then slice in half and squeeze juice into a small bowl – just want to make sure you don’t have seeds or any pith gets in. In a small pot add browned bananas and almond extract and turn on low heat and mash banana. Add brown sugar, spices, orange juice, and almond milk. Use a spoon to mix and continue to mash and blend in banana. Add raisins and turn heat up until it boils – you want to thicken the mixture up a little, but don’t let it smoke or burn. Stand there and stir and turn down if boiling too much. Take out apples and sweet potatoes and turn down oven temp to 350. Scrape carefully into a large bowl and add about 2/3s sugary mixture and mix to coat. Spoon a little of the mixture onto the bottom of the baking dish, pour in sweet potato apple mix, then pour rest of sugar mix over top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Enjoy!

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Fruity Sweet Potatoes,

3 Large Sweet Potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
3 Granny Smith Apples, washed and chopped
Grapeseed Oil
2 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Brown Bananas, mashed
3 Oranges, washed and juiced
1 Tsp All-Natural Frontier Almond Extract
1/3 C Brown Sugar
1 C Silk Light Vanilla Almond Milk
1/8 Tsp Cloves
1/4 Tsp Ginger
1 C Raisins

1. Set oven to 450 degrees.
2. Wash apples and scrub sweet potatoes and chop into like-sizes. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and dump chopped chunks. Sprinkle with a little oil and about one teaspoon cinnamon and mix with hands. Roast for 20 minutes.
3. Wash and slice oranges in half then squeeze juice into a small bowl using a fork to get all juice.
4. In a small pot add bananas and almond extract and mash over low heat.
5. Add spices, orange juice, brown sugar, and almond milk and mix. Add raisins and mix.
6. Turn up heat and stand there and mix while it boils, turning heat down a little so it doesn’t burn.
7. Take out apples and sweet potatoes and dump into a large bowl; turn oven down to 350 degrees.
8. Pour a couple spoonfuls of sauce onto bottom of baking dish. Pour about 2/3s over apple/potato chunks and mix.
9. Dump into baking dish then spoon rest of sweet mixture over apples and potatoes.
10. Bake for 25 minutes.
11. Enjoy!