Sweet Potato Smoothie

I found a recipe in my healthy foods book for a sweet potato smoothie and blew right past it the first time. And the second, and the third. Really? Sweet potatoes in a smoothie?

Don't knock it till you try it :)

The recipe itself was way too sweet for me, so I've adapted it a little and now I'm sharing it with you. Have I mentioned how amazing sweet potatoes are for your health? Oh, well let me do that first.

What I love about sweet potatoes:
Great source of beta-carotene, which can lower your risk of heart disease and cancer.
Great source of potassium and folate.
Sweet potatoes can lower cholesterol.
Great source of fiber, especially if you leave the skin on.
They just plain taste good!

Beta-carotene is better absorbed when you take in some fat with it, which can also help reduce the um, after-effects of a lot of veggie fiber. I make mashed sweet potato and smash in an avocado with it. It takes the place of butter or sour cream as an added flavor, and the fat from the fruit will help you absorb the beta-carotene and turn it into vitamin A.

Anyway, now on to the smoothie!

Here's what I did:
1. Boil a sweet potato. You'll need about 1 cup of cooked sweet potato, which is about 1/4 of an average sweet potato.
2. Put stuff in the blender:
2 c of your choice of liquid. I use water, but you could use any kind of fruit juice or milk if you want. The recipe calls for apple juice, but when I made it that way it was super sweet, way too sweet for me. So you gauge your own sweet tooth and decide on your liquid.
1 c cooked sweet potato
4-5 pitted dates
1 frozen banana
dash cinammon

3. Blend and enjoy!

I like this because it has a great sugar fix from a very sweet natural source. It's not incredibly filling, though. Not as much as the green smoothies I usually make, at least. But it's a great healthy juice to give to your kids (and yourself!) along with a healthy lunch.