Sweet Potatoe & Beef Keema Crock Pot Variation

lean ground beef, grass fed ,or use bison where available for a healthy meat choice. (Of course you can substitute ground turkey, or soy bits, or any other red meat substitute you can tolerate and the spices will at least give it some taste. )
carrots, half a pound or so is 225 grams;
1 large sweet potatoe, or two medium, peeled and cubed (the smaller the cubes the quicker they cook ) mine weighed in at 264 grams after peeling; I used the closest calorie equivalent in the menu options;
1.5 cups of chopped onion or so
1 lbs fresh tomatoes diced, with juice, or one 14.5 oz. canned, petite diced all natural like Hunt's.
Spices to suit your tastes: e.g. 1.5 Tbsp curry powder,
1.5 tsp. each ground cinnamon, ginger and tumeric. Since nobody ever follows a recipe on SP even to try it, I warn you that I don't like hot and spicy and I do love cinnamon and ginger. These give this stew a sweet taste, but not spicy. Dink around with it once the stew is bubbling. At the very end add frozen petite peas, 1 cup, rinsed under running water to defrost and added to cooked stew just to warm up before serving for color and more veggie.

Makes five 370 calorie meals of about 1-1/4 cups per serving. Add a green salad and you're done. Sweet potatoes rank in the top five as a vegetable, and with carrots, tomatoes, onions and peas your are getting a lot of vegetable bang for the buck. At five servings the meat allowance is 3 oz per serving ,well in line with most diets.

Chop the onions and also tomatoes if you are using fresh. Brown the meat in a non-stick skillet, and add the chopped onions as soon as the meat juices are released. Brown the meat and tender cook the onions. Add tomatoes and spices, cover and set on low to simmer.
While that mix simmers, peel and cube the sweet potato and slice the carrots into coins. If finishing in a crock pot mix the vegetables (except peas) and meat mixture together into the crock pot and leave on low for 4 to 6 hours. If finishing in the skillet, add chopped vegetables to meat mixture, cover and simmer on low, keeping an eye on the liquids and adding beef broth or tomatoe juice or V-8 if needed. (I used canned tomatoes and the crock pot stew was done in 4.5 hours with a nice juicy but not soupy consistancy. Can't be more specific about the skillet option but if the potatoes are diced small it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.) Just before serving run warm water over the peas to defrost and remove ice, and toss into the stew just long enough to warm up so the color stays bright. Salt and pepper at table if desired.

Number of Servings: 5

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user TREKFAN.