Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes an Easy Paleo Breakfast

Welcome back to Flawed yet Functional! I am Emily Stauch, a Type 1 Diabetic maintaining stable blood sugar through the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet. Through AIP, I’ve identified sensitivities to gluten, dairy, and eggs. Do you might look at that list of sensitivities and wonder, “Just what DO you eat for breakfast??” Well, friends, today I’d like to show you my fall-back, easy breakfast when I’m at the end of a grocery shopping week: Simple Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

Egg-Free Breakfast

My diet is getting closer to Paleo with every new reintroduction, but eggs have evaded my grasp. Grrr. I love eggs, and I believe them to be completely healthy. A great addition to every diet…unless you are sensitive to them! If I eat any amount of egg, my blood sugar rises and remains elevated (even with additional insulin!) for about 2 weeks. Yes, it takes two weeks for my gut to heal from one exposure to eggs. So I am pretty motivated to keep my diet egg-free.

So what do egg-free breakfasts look like? Here are some ideas:

• Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Kale Chips plus Sausage Patties
• Paleo Breakfast Cereal plus Bacon
• Butternut Squash Hash with Sausage and Mushrooms
• Summer Breakfast Skillet

See, there are many tasty alternatives to wheat, dairy, and egg-filled breakfasts! Now let’s take a look at another addition to my egg-free breakfast rotation: Simple Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

Paleo or AIP Hands-free Breakfast

Like you, breakfast can be a hectic time at our house. Daddy’s getting off to work, and the kids and I are either leaving the house for an activity or working to get to school. And yet, I am committed to healthy, whole-food breakfasts (as I hope you are coming to be too!).

Breakfasts that can be tossed in the oven with little babysitting from me are my go-to most mornings. In the instructions, you’ll see I say to stir after 15 minutes. This is ideal, but I’ve totally made these with no stirring. The bottoms of each cube are blackened, but I love that charred flavor. So if you don’t mind some char, skip the stirring!

The days this meal is fastest for me is when I have odds and ends of protein leftover in the fridge (breakfast sausage, pulled pork, or even chicken…you can eat dinner leftovers for breakfast!). I whip up the sweet potatoes and toss them in the oven then reheat some meat just before everyone sits down to eat. With about 10 minutes of active work, a healthy breakfast is on the table even on a busy morning.

Breakfast Protein

Sweet potatoes are high in carbs, so make sure to pair a good source of protein with these potatoes. A breakfast of only cinnamon roasted sweet potatoes will likely result in a carb-crash a few hours later. Balance out the meal with protein!

In our house, we usually eat sausage or bacon with our veggies in the morning.

Cooking Tip: Maximize cooking spaces by using both the stove-top and the oven. If the vegetable dish is on the stove top, then I bake bacon. If the vegetables are being roasted in the oven, then I toss sausage into a skillet.

Occasionally, we’ll have eggs too (for just my hubby and kids, not me!). Eggs are a perfect addition to these potatoes if your diet allows it. Scrambled, hard-boiled, or even fry up a couple of over-easy eggs and plop them right on top of a pile of potatoes. Delish!

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How to Cook Sweet Potatoes

The roasting process for most vegetables goes something like this:

• Chop vegetables into same-sized pieces
• Toss vegetable chunks in fat and seasoning
• Place on a baking sheet in a single layer
• Roast at 450° for 15 minutes
• Stir vegetables and spread out in a single layer
• Roast again for 10-15 minutes or until soft

Follow this process for these healthy oven-roasted sweet potatoes too! Depending on your oven’s exact temperature (often ovens’ internal temperature is off a bit from the set temperature) and the size of your sweet potato chunks, your veggies should be ready to eat in around 30 minutes. (And remember I permit you to skip the stirring!) Easy peasy!

Recipe Options

Fat or Oil

For a fat, a mellow oil like olive oil or coconut oil works best. The addition of cinnamon to the sweet potatoes will make them seem even sweeter. Coconut or olive oil will not fight with the sweetness of the potato or cinnamon. Avoid using rendered fat, like bacon or lard, as I think they compete with the sweetness of the dish.

Spices

If your diet allows it, feel free to toss in additional dried spices to change up the flavor. Cloves and nutmeg will increase the sweet, Thanksgiving-Esque flavor. If a savory breakfast is more your style, try 1 teaspoon of garlic powder with 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder in place of the cinnamon. So good! Or if your pantry is particularly bare, just use salt & pepper (omit for AIP)! It is delicious!

In my morning routine, I toss the potatoes in the oven before I jump in the shower. When I’m ready for the day, I cook up some sausages or reheat leftover ones and breakfast is ready. Simple Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes are a sweet, easy edition to your breakfast rotation!