Sweet Potato Pie and Grits

I am not sure how it started but one morning I had a slice of left over sweet potato pie from a family holiday meal that tasted a little too sweet. To tone down the sweetness of the pie, I poured some reheated and sticky lumpy grits on the pie. My northern classmates probably ate oatmeal, but in a home like ours, inundated with southern influences, we regularly had grits for breakfast. The taste and texture of hot sweet potato pie and reheated lumpy grits went together perfectly! Don’t knock it until you try it.I’ve been modifying traditional recipes for years, trying to make them healthier. Here’s my own sweet potato pie recipe as best I can describe it.

Fred's Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Ingredients:
4 to 6 large baked organic sweet potatoes (My mother in law taught me that baking the sweet potato makes the pie come out better than boiling them which is what a lot of folks do. Like steaming, baking is also healthier than boiling because it preserves the water soluble vitamins in the sweet potatoes).
2 large eggs or egg substitutes
1 cup of the thickets best tasting vanilla soy milk you can fine (try Silk’s very vanilla, or Vitasoy Vanilla)
1-2 cups unprocessed sugar
2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
Dash of cinnamon and nutmeg
Dash of vanilla extract

Directions:
Mix the ingredients into a sweet potato purée add milk as needed to make a smooth but thick filling. Bake in a pie crust shell (remember add a little fiber to your crust recipe/http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/) at 375 degrees on lowest rack for 50 minutes, until filling has set. Cool on rack for one hour. Then transfer to refrigerator and chill completely.