When she’s not cooking up new products for her line of organic Mama Jess sauces and garden ketchup, Barrington’s Jessica Grelle is busy being mom to her two growing boys. Jessica is well known for packing as many veggies as possible into her products and, at home, she is also committed to feeding her family the healthiest foods. So we asked her to share a quick recipe in our Heinen’s 4PM Panic series for those nights when you need to whip up a fast family dinner. Jessica says Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatoes are among her go-to dinnertime solutions. They’re prepared with her very own Mama Jess Bien Good pasta & enchilada sauce which you can find on the shelves at – you guessed it – Heinen’s Grocery!
Mama Jess’ Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1 T olive oil
- 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 garlic glove, minced
- 1/2 teas. sea salt
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- 8 oz. black beans
- 3/4 cup Mama Jess Bien Good Pasta & Enchilada Sauce
- Cilantro, chopped
- 0% fat Greek yogurt (optional topping)
Instructions:
- Bake the sweet potatoes in oven at 400˚F for 1 hour (you could microwave if you prefer but I like baking for the carmellic notes!)
- After potatoes are cooked, score the top with a cross and scoop out 3/4 of the insides. place the insides in a bowl. set both aside.
- Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. add the onion, pepper & garlic. sauté for 5-7 minutes. sprinkle with salt.
- Drain & rinse the black beans and and them to pan with veggies. squeeze the lime juice over the beans and then add the Mama Jess BIen Good Sauce. stir all together to cook through (2 minutes).
- Add the insides of the sweet potato back to pan with veggie mixture. stir to cook through.
- Stuff each sweet potato with veggie mixture. top with cilantro.
The idea for the Mama Jess brand was born when Jessica’s son stopped eating carrots at age two. So she started to sneak carrots and sweet potatoes into her pasta sauce recipe, which became the basis for her first sauce, called Garden Good, which she introduced in March of 2011.
“My background is in food science and I have developed hundreds of products that are on grocery store shelves. Once I had children, I started looking at the things I was developing in a different light. Most were processed and had artificial ingredients and I wanted to create something healthier to feed my family. Now, our whole mission is to get people to eat more veggies.”
Today, Jessica offers three sauces AND her Garden Ketchup, all jam packed with veggies and available at Heinen’s. To learn more about the Jessica’s mission and products, CLICK HERE to connect on Facebook and visit MamaJess.com.
Have you heard about Heinen’s Tasteful Rewards™ program? Sign up for free to receive exclusive weekly specials via email and earn Heinen’s rewards. As a Tasteful Rewards™ membership benefit, Heinen’s will donate up to 1% of your qualified purchases made between September and April to a local school of your choice through their Teaming Up for Education Program. CLICK HERE to sign up for Heinen’s Tasteful Rewards™ and, trust me, this is one email that will always please your palate!
Heinen’s Grocery is located at 500 N. Hough Street, between E. Main Street and Route 14 (next to Meatheads) in Barrington, Illinois. They’re open 7 days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit Heinens.com.