Two Easy, Healthy, Budget Friendly Meals With Sweet Potato & Mince

Today’s post is a guest post from the lovely Vicky from Boiled Eggs & Soldiers.
You can read more about her and her fabulous blog at the end of this post.

What does 2 Kg Sweet Potato & 1 Kg mince make?

Two easy, healthy & budget friendly meals (plus left overs for a third!)

Do you plan out your weeks meals? I’m putting my hand up to saying, as boring as it may be, I’m a complete convert, it’s made my life in the kitchen soooo much easier.  But this post isn’t about meal planning as such, just how I recently used 2 kgs of sweet potato and 1 kg of mince to make 3 different meals all at once.  Spiced Sweet Potato Cottage Pie, Pasta Bake and Sweet Potato & Chinese 5 Spice Muffins. Done, dusted, out of the kitchen and on to more fun things!

Spiced Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

A Cottage (or Shepherds) Pie is the ultimate winter warming comfort food don’t you think?  To change it up a little bit this version is a Spiced Sweet Potato Cottage Pie which gives it added flavour (it’s a gentle spice rather than a kick) and made it a winner at BE&S HQ.  The spice is actually in the mince not the sweet potato mash.  I make mine in the Thermomix but the regular way is very easy too.

I used the same mince recipe for both the cottage pie and the pasta bake and just divided it up once cooked.  Each meal serves 4 people (2 adults, 2 children) so you can add extra if you need to feed more.

Ingredients

• 2kg sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 brown onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly chopped
• optional 2 C extra veggies of your choice, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1kgg beef mince (or lamb if you want to make it a Shepherds Pie)
• 2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup of beef stock
• 2 cups sourdough breadcrumbs (or Panko)
• 1/2 c grated parmesan
• sea salt, cracked black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Boil the sweet potato in a large saucepan for 10-12 minutes. Drain, mash and set aside 2/3 for this recipe and 1/3 for left overs.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan or deep sided frying pan over high heat. Cook onion and carrot for about 8 minutes, add the garlic and continue stirring for another couple of minutes or until the onion and carrots are soft. Add the spices and mince and cook until the mince is cooked through, breaking up any clumps as you go.
4. Add the tomatoes and stock and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Pour half the meat mixture into a 3 litre capacity baking dish and layer the sweet potato mash on top.  If you are using the breadcrumbs toss salt and pepper through and then sprinkle over the top then top with the parmesan
6. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until golden.

My kids loved the crunchy bread crumbs on top which was also a good way to use up the excess left over bread from the weekend! We also sprinkle them on soups too.

Spiced Sweet Potato Pasta Bake

With the remaining half of the mince mixture you can freeze it for up to a couple of months or if your family aren’t too fussed about having similar meals twice in the same week make it into a pasta bake (which you can also freeze!).

Ingredients

• Left over sweet potato and mince mixture
• 250g Pasta of choice
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Method

1. Boil up 250g of pasta of your choice, we like either penne or spiral pasta.
2. Put the mince in an oven proof dish and once the pasta is cooked just stir it through the then sprinkle 1 cup of grated parmesan on top and bake in an 180 degree oven for 20 – 25 minutes or until parmesan has melted and is golden on top.

For minimal effort you have another hearty, filling and tasty dinner on the table in about half an hour!

So that is two dinners done and you still have ½ kg of sweet potato mash ready and waiting.  You can freeze it, or if there are babies around give it to them. Or, alternatively I’ve got another quick easy sweet potato and 5 spice muffin recipe you could use it in.

Vicki, Mum to two feisty and funny little girls is behind the food & lifestyle blog Boiled Eggs & Soldiers. When she isn’t in the kitchen cooking up simple, mostly healthy families meals & doing lunch boxes (and cake, always cake) she is renovating their home in North Queensland where they have recently moved from Sydney and tries to fit in some exercise, blogging and developing a new business in between the drop offs & picks ups of kids. Because there is always a meal to make Vicki is also co-host of Your Weekly Feed, a foodie link up on Fridays for favourite recipes to help give inspiration to planning the weeks meals. Oh, and the name “Boiled Eggs & Soldiers”? Well, it’s a family favourite although at the moment one child will only eat the yolk and the other only the white!