Stuffed Twice-Baked Yams

I seriously doubt the nutrition information I've been able to find online about yams. There's a difference between yams and sweet potatoes - yams have the bright orange flesh and sweet potatoes have a whiter flesh. Yams are my favorite, though. So much flavor. I could just mash them up and eat them plain. The info I've been able to find online just seems too low. But it's consistently lower than I would expect, and if it's consistent, it's got to be right. Right? I guess that's just a double win for me because I could eat these suckers all day long.

By the way, yoga is my favorite thing in the world. I started doing it a couple of weeks ago. I started with Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown. Holy crap, so amazing! I got a few new yoga DVD's from the library tonight. One of them is from GAIAM, who is apparently a pretty big name in yoga. They have their own line of yoga equipment, plus it seems they put out a bunch of videos.

The thing I love about yoga is that it really challenges your muscles without making you overly sore or feeling like you want to die. You're not going to get a crazy caloric burn from it (unless you're working out with Jillian, of course), but the way it makes you feel is just amazing. Especially if you get one that has one of those zen cool down things - relax, release the tension - oh em gee, so amazing.

Anyway, enough about yoga. Just try it.

Tonight I made these loosely based on a version of stuffed sweet potatoes I found on one of my go-to Paleo websites. Maybe it's the zen yoga feeling talking, but holy Moses, seriously so good. You simply must try these. I kept adding more spices so I can't tell you exactly how much of everything I ended up with, but just know that since it's cooking and not baking, you can play around with it until it tastes right.

Ingredients:
2 yams, scrubbed well (we're keeping the skins on)
1 T. olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
1 lb ground turkey
1 T. chili powder
20 dashes Worcestershire sauce
15-20 dashes liquid smoke
Sea salt & ground black pepper
2 T. nutritional yeast

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray.

Cut yams in half crosswise and again lengthwise. Arrange in baking dish, cut side down, and bake until soft. Mine took about 35 minutes and probably could have used another 5 on the bigger pieces, but I was afraid of burning the smaller ones. Just make sure they're tender enough that you can scoop the flesh out. 

While yams are baking, drizzle olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook until just starting to caramelize. Add ground turkey and break it up with a wooden spoon.

Add chili powder, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, salt & pepper. Stir well and cook until turkey is no longer pink. The turkey I use is 90/10, and there always seems to be some liquid left over. This is okay. Stir in the nutritional yeast and check the seasonings. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer, stirring frequently, until yams are done. Most of the moisture from the turkey will reduce away.

When yams are tender, remove them from the oven (but keep it on). Use a spoon to scoop out some of the flesh, leaving just a little around the skin. Transfer scooped out flesh to a medium mixing bowl. Use a fork to smash the yams up as best you can.

Put yam skins (the shells) back into the baking dish, cut side up. Stir the yam flesh into the meat mixture, using the wooden spoon to break up any big pieces. Spoon the meat into the shells. Stack it high - you'll need to stuff these puppies to get it all in there.

Return to the oven and bake until heated through, about five minutes.

Makes 4 servings, 2 pieces each.