Dinner at our House - Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I read blogs about home decor, fashion, food...all sorts of things. As you can tell, this blog has no particular focus, and this post will be no different. Joe and I work long days and commute about 40 minutes each way. This leaves us with little motivation to put together decent meals at night. Lucky for our waist bands, we don't live near many restaurants anymore so we try and make sure we eat at home the majority of the time. All of that considered, we tend to stick with some quick and easy meal staples (pizza, pasta, chicken, beans & franks, etc.) but occasionally we will try and spice things up.

I've been wanting to incorporate sweet potatoes into our diet since I've always heard how nutritious they are. Joe is not really a fan of the sweet potato so I attempted to ease him into it. I googled "baked sweet potato fries" recipes and saw that many people commented on how delicious they were and how non-sweet potato eaters even liked them. Bingo! I also agreed to eat steak with them (something I don't agree to very often) so Joe would at least be distracted if the fries were a bust. There are a ton of recipes out there but I decided on one from the blog Sarah's Cucina Bella mainly because I already had these ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 lb sweet potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (preferably the easy release kind).

Peal the sweet potatoes. Cut into strips that are about 1/2 inch wide on each side.

Place the sweet potatoes into a resealable plastic bag. Add oil, salt, paprika and cinnamon. Seal the bag and shake well to thoroughly coat the fries. Spread the potatoes out onto the baking sheet in a single layer.

Cook for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes, until slightly browned. Transfer immediately to a paper towel lined plate and serve warm.

We paired them with petite filets. Joe and I really liked them! I'm not making them again, though, until someone buys me a potato cuter - phew! It's a lot of work to cut the potatoes down to fries with just a knife.

I obviously need some practice taking food pictures! And please note, our plates are huge which makes the scale of the food look a little off here. Regardless, you should give this recipe a try, even if you are a little scared of the sweet potato - we are glad we did!