KidMitts

Let’s cut to the chase here. Vegetables are damn expensive! Healthy food in general is expensive. Every time I walk into a grocery store with good intentions of stocking up on meat and vegetables I get discouraged by the outrageous prices.  Take for example, cauliflower – Why is it so expensive!?  Holy cow, that better be one amazing cauliflower!

To be honest, I’m just using cauliflower as an example because it has been all over the news lately.  Personally, I only like cauliflower cold or when made into a soup so we rarely buy it.  But, lots of vegetables are expensive right now and this blog post is about saving money when buying groceries.

Root vegetables are fairly decent in price and definitely under utilized in the kitchen.  We all have potatoes and carrots laying around but for many, this is where it ends.   Some of the more widely available root vegetables are: yams, potatoes, carrots, sweet potato, turnip, shallots, arrowroot, kohlrabi, parsnip, beets,  and ginger. Some of these fall under the “stem vegetable” category, but I’m not going to get too technical with this.

When I started researching recipes, my inner 5 year old came out.  I said “ewwwww” a lot! I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to eat massive chunks of veggies in my stew or eat something the consistency of baby food.  If this appeals to you, that’s great! I’m sure you are already eating root vegetables on a regular basis.  I’m a five year old stuck in a 30 something’s body  and this is foreign territory for me. Check out Pinterest for lots of great root vegetable recipes.

I do have a recipe I would like to share. It’s mildly healthy and big on taste.  My brother makes it every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I always rave about it.  It is my brother’s recipe for Mashed Turnip, Carrots and Too Much Sugar. It has so much sugar in it that it actually has to be in the recipe name 🙂

 

Mashed Turnip, Carrot & Too Much Sugar

1 Turnip peeled and cubed

5 fair sized Carrots, peeled, and cut

3/4 cup of brown sugar (this is approximate because my brother just starts dumping it in)

1/3 cup butter

Instructions:

Boil the turnip, and carrots until softened with 1/2 a cup of brown sugar.  Drain water, and mash it all up with the other 1/4 cup sugar and 1/3 cup butter.

Wow that was easy and it tastes great! You can add as much or as little sugar to this recipe as you like but it really does taste best when it requires a diabetic disclaimer.