I have been dairy-free for four years now. It was about 5 years ago that I did a complete overhaul of my diet and eliminated all processed foods, meat, and sugar. I felt amazing….Well…maybe not at first. At the beginning I went through a detox period where I was always hungry I had headaches. It wasn’t pleasant but I stuck through it and it payed off. I generally tell people it takes two weeks for your body to adjust to this new way of eating. At that time I was still eating dairy, although infrequently.
I had chronic eczema that would flair up every winter. Even as a young kid I had eczema; it got so bad that at one point that I had strep in my skin. At the time my parents took me to a holistic doctor who took me off gluten, eggs and sugar but I still had no luck. So I used topical creams that kept the rashes at bey. Although looking back at photos I can still see that my arms were always red with a rash.
It wasn’t until four years ago that I completely gave up dairy and eventually I noticed my eczema had completely disappeared. I have always been a firm believer that in the natural order of the world, mothers feed their babies milk. Cows to their calves and human moms to their babies. It just never seemed normal to me that people were drinking cow’s milk. And we wonder why so many people have a dairy intolerance…
That is why I am so excited to partner with So Delicious to share my next recipe. They make a host of products that I use daily – nut milks, coconut yogurts….These days, with companies like So Delicious, I find it so easy to eliminate dairy. And with their products being fortified with vitamin D and calcium you can be sure to get your daily dose of calcium in just one serving of nut milk.
So Delicious is having a 21 Day Dairy Free Challenge that kicks off on January 23rd. They will have tons of resources and recipes to help along the way. I am also sharing this recipe below to help kick off the challenge! A play on the traditional loaded sweet potato!
Sweet potatoes – we all love them, right? If only we could figure out a way to incorporate them into every meal…And now you can! Here is my version of a “Breakfast Loaded Sweet Potato.” I added chia and hemp seeds to the filling for added protein and used So Delicious cashew milk to cook the oats. To top it off, I dolloped on some So Delicious coconut yogurt.
If you’re serving a crowd it’s an awesome crowd pleaser for an afternoon brunch. I used asian sweet potato – my personal favorite kind of sweet potato – which slightly nutty and a bit dryer than your typical sweet potato. But feel free to use any type of sweet potato you like. I topped it with some homemade granola and mixed apple into the oats to sweeten them.
- 1 medium size sweet potato cut in half down the center
- 1 cup So Delicious nut milk
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/2 apple diced
- 2 tablespoons So Delicious coconut yogurt
- 2 tablespoons raisins
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon hemp seeds
- 1 tablespoon coconut
- 1 tablespoon chopped nuts (or granola)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Place sweet potato on a lined tray and cook for one hour or until tender. Cooking time will vary based on how large the potato is.
- In the meantime prepare remaining ingredients. In a small pot combine oats, diced apple, nut milk, raisins and cinnamon. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently for 10-15 minutes. Once the oats are finished cooking stir in the chia and hemp seeds.
- Once sweet potato is finished cooking and is cooled scoop out the center and add it to the oats that are already cooked. Mix the oatmeal and sweet potato filling.
- Place oat mixture into the sweet potato that is scooped out. Place the sweet potato back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
- When the sweet potato is done cooking top each one with coconut yogurt, coconut, nuts or granola and serve.
