Sweet Potato Oatcakes: Stealthy-Healthy Treats

The other day, I was craving sweets in the worst way, but darn if I was going to go after those chocolate chip cookies that were sitting on the counter staring at me temptingly... Not a chance. So, I consulted my stash of random ingredients. Welp, there was that lovely big tub of dates from Costco (great value by the way), some assorted cans of fruit, and a couple sweet potatoes that needed to be used before they made friends with mold. I always have oatmeal or scotch mix (I'll wax poetic on scotch mix at a later date) on hand... et voila! Sweet potato and tropical fruit oatcakes. Sweets without feeling too horribly guilty!

The goods:
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 can sliced peaches, drained & rinsed
1 can chunk pineapple, drained & rinsed
1 large mango
1 cup dates
1 1/2 cups oatmeal or scotch mix
4 egg whites
1 tbsp + 1 tsp vanilla extract



Make it happen:
Preheat oven to 350

Peel & dice the sweet potatoes, put in a 2qt saucepot with just enough water to cover, boil until soft
While the sweet potatoes are cooking, dice the peaches, pineapple and mango, combine in a bowl. Mince the dates and set aside.
Once the sweet potatoes are done, drain them well and put in a second bowl. 
In the same pot, bring 1 3/4 cups water to a boil, add 1 cup of the oats, the chopped dates and 1tsp vanilla extract. Cook until the oats are soft and dates are blended. Add to the mashed sweet potato and allow to cool.
Once cool, add the fruit and 1/2 cup dry oats to the mixture. Lightly beat the egg whites with 1tbsp vanilla extract, add to ingredients. Mix well. 
Drop 1/4 cup at a time onto parchment paper (I used an ice cream scoop) and form into cakes. Bake for 45 minutes or until set and the oats begin to brown. Cool and enjoy 

It Begins, or my entrance into the world of food blogging

Growing up, I always loved experimenting in the kitchen. Never really used recipes, just threw together stuff that seemed like it might taste good together. As I got older and life got crazier and more complicated, I kind of fell out of the habit, with the exception of baking and cooking a bit more when the weather turned nippy, aka "the winter domesticity".

Well, this year, the winter domesticity has spawned a return to my love of cooking, and this time, I don't think it's just the usual winter episode. No, this goes deeper in returning to my kitchen experimentalism, this time with a healthy twist that my more recent lifestyle changes have brought. Does having space to spread and the use of industrial ovens at the firehouse have something to do with it? Probably...

As a kid, most meals included milk, cream, butter, cheese or all of the above. Over the past couple of years, I've become completely intolerant of *all* dairy products, so I'm now enjoying the adventure that is making all my childhood favorites and beyond dairy-free, or as I refer to it, death-free

When I post about something that has materialized in the kitchen, people have been asking for the recipe. Well friends, I still don't really use recipes except as springboards or inspiration... BUT I'll try to write down something that resembles a recipe for all y'all. Oh yeah, and I'll attempt to take a reasonable number of pictures in the process of making stuff too for what it's worth.

So welcome to my food blog adventure. It'll be fun to see where this goes!