Sweet Potato Gnocchi ~ Good Intentions

Happy Hump Day All!  Sorry I never made it back yesterday to post this fantastic Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Creamy Mushroom Spinach Sauce Flop.  Ok, well, actually the sauce was AWESOME, but, my Sweet Potato Gnocchi gets a needs improvement.  Let’s get into how my Tuesday went down…..

First, I just have to give a QUICK Bachelor Tell All statement ~ I LOVE that ABC didn’t cut out all the good stuff and they actually let some of the FANTASTIC comments by Roslyn come through ~ that girl has some cahones :D  It totally made for a great show 🙂

I knew I had to eat something before my dentist appointment, but, I wasn’t really hungry.  I opted for a 2 point Perfectly Hard Boiled Egg because I figured the protein would hold me over the longest.

After getting my mouth all sawed on (0k, just a cleaning plus having a filling replaced since it made my tooth break), I treated myself to a 3 point “dirty latte” (Grande, NF, Decaf, 2 pumps of Mocha).  I figured I’d earned it and since I couldn’t eat for 3 hours…..

 

On my way back, I had to make a quick stop and look what I found ~ BAGEL THINS!!!! Just like the Sandwich Thins, but, 1 point of CHEWY, BAGELNESS!  I picked up the Everything Bagels and the Whole Wheat.

Check the stats ~ awesome!!! I may just LOVE these more than Western Alternative Bagels.

You know lunch HAD to involve my new find, plus I wanted something I didn’t involve too much chewing.

I steamed up my immunity blend of Green Giant Veggies while I heated my Amy’s Tomato Bisque soup.  I LOVE adding veggies to my soup because it just makes it more satisfying.  I LOVE so many of Amy’s Soups, but, this, well ~ it was just too sweet.  I sorta felt like I was eating spaghetti sauce and I totally missed any hint of herbs :(  4 points for the soup and 1 point for the veggies.

Bagel thin plus 1 Laughing Cow Lite Wedge = LOVE!!! (2 pts)

Two HUGE Glasses of Soda Stream Fizzy Water….I honestly think over half of my water intake each day comes from bubbly water 🙂

I did have a few croutons to put in my soup too.

Another one of these 4 point eggs may or may not have appeared as my afternoon snack.  I LOVE the eggs more than the regular version because like Alison says…they contain so much more salty peanut buttery goodness!  Totally a great justification to buy a holiday shaped candy 😀

I was hungry again an hour later so I snacked on a 1 point cheese while I whipped up dinner.

I have totally been wanting to try to make Gnocchi ever since I first tried them for our Holiday Party Celebration a few months back.  I would’ve LOVED to have tried the pumpkin gnocchi but seeing as I’ve never made it and only had it one time, I went with a traditional recipe that I could find online for Sweet Potato Gnocchi.  However, I decided to put my own spin on it and create a Creamy Mushroom Spinach Alfredo sauce in an attempt to recreate the dish I had at the party.

Here are the steps I took to make my Sweet Potato Gnocchi.

I peeled and chopped up 5 small sweet potatoes.

Since I didn’t have time to bake them in the oven, I added them to my microwave steamer with a little water and steamed them for about 10 minutes.

Using my potato smasher, I smooshed them into a puree.

You could easily use a food processor or blender, but, this was super easy to make the pulp since them were super soft.

I measured out 1 1/2 cups of my Sweet Potato Pulp and saved the rest for some cinnamon sugar smashed sweet potatoes another day.

Plus, I measured out 1 cup of Low-Fat Ricotta and 1/4 c shredded parmesan.  I went with a low-fat cheese and less parmesan to help lighten up the calorie/fat content.

1 Tbsp of Brown sugar for extra sweetness 🙂

Stir to combine all of the above ingredients you just measured out.

One thing I LOVE about this recipe is that is allows you use measuring cups or your super cool food scale to measure everything out.  I used my Eat Smart Precisions Pro Scale ~ don’t forget, you have ONE more day to get this scale 15% off 😀

After I turned my scale on and toggled to grams, I placed my bowl on top ~ pretty cool to know that my bowl weighs 372 grams LOL.

I hit the TARE button one time and it automatically makes the scale go to 0 with my bowl on there ~ I LOVE that TARE feature!

I measured out 75 g of Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Flour (mistake #1 ~ don’t use Whole Wheat Flour to make Gnocchi ~ it makes it gritty, versus smooth). 

Stir your dough until it dough holds together but is still very soft and light.  Place it on a floured surface (making sure to leave your spoon in your flour bag because you will need more).

Divide it into 3 equal dough balls.  Don’t forget to have two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper at this point as you will be placing your finished Gnocchi on it.

Slowly roll each ball into a nice long strip until it’s about 1 inch thick.

I honestly have NO clue what it means to roll the gnocchi on the tines of the fork to give them ridges.  So, I just flattened them peanut butter cookie style and fluffed them up a little 🙂

Bring a big pot of salted water to a rolling boil and add 15 gnocchi at a time.  They sink to the bottom.

When they float to the top, they are done and you can remove them placing them on a your parchment paper.

While the Gnocchi were cooking in batches I sautéed some mushrooms in a little butter.  Then, I wilted in a few handfuls of spinach adding a little tomato and basil after it was done cooking.  I also slow cooked my Low Fat Alfredo Sauce (recipe coming up soon) too.

I let my Sweet Potato Gnocchi cool and get firm.  Then, I scooped up about 8 of them, topped them with a little of the veggie mixture and a scoop of my Low Fat Alfredo Sauce.  Looks good huh?  The sauce is AWESOME ~ totally thick, creamy, garlicky and peppery.

It doesn’t look so pretty all mixed up LOL….

But, it looks better with each bite.  Sweet potato doughy balls of goodnes ~ sounds bad lol!

Ok ~ so here is what I learned:

1.   Gnocchi is actually pretty easy to make, but, buying it may be easier than making it 😀

2.  Don’t use Whole Wheat Flour because it doesn’t allow the gnocchi to have the smooth doughy consistency. 

3.  Make your Gnocchi into small bites, like 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch ~ mine were way too big so it made them feel like you were eating HUGE dough balls.

4.  There is a reason that all the Sweet Potato Ricotta Recipes I found involved frying them in a butter sauce ~ the ricotta makes them extra soft so they “need” the frying to make them firmer.  If you are not using a butter sauce, then, opt for a Gnocchi recipe that doesn’t involved ricotta.

5.  Not all recipes will work perfectly the 1st time ~ even Julia Child had recipe fails….I am bummed this was just ok since I put so much LOVE into it.  However, I did learn from  it and will definitely try again.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO SCORE ANY OF THE TRAIN LIKE AN OLYMPIAN ITEMS AT 15% OFF WITH FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $25.  DON’T MISS OUT!

Have an awesome day all ~ I will see you all tonight!