Sweet potato and pork stew - WOW!

 The other morning, I thought I had taken out two pork chops to thaw for dinner. To my surprise, I had taken out  three baby back ribs by mistake. Three ribs? Really? What could I do with only three ribs? I had bought five pounds of sweet potatoes that morning to make our son some yummy sweet potatoes (his favorite, I might add). Since I usually make sweet potatoes when we eat pork, I thought why not put it all together and make it go a little further by making some kind of stew? I made this up as I went along, but knew in the back of my head that I had seen this before in some form. I wound up using baby food in the dish, too. I have apples galore in my freezer, but my son just doesn't like them, so I used them as a base here. The plan worked! Not only did I clear some space by using some unwanted pureed apples, but I also used something I was sure I was going to throw out! Way to save, girl! However, if you don't happen to have 6 ounces of frozen baby apples, I am sure a 50-50 mix of apple sauce and apple juice would work just fine.
NOTE: I know this is an ugly dish. The color is horrible and looks like something that came out of a small child (not in that cute way either). However, this tastes wonderful and ugly or not, I would serve this to company.

Makes four servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 2 hours
Total cost: about $5, or $1.25 a serving

1 very large sweet potato, peeled and chopped large
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic
6 ounces of baby apples (or 50-50 pureed apples and juice)
1 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
3 pork ribs (a little less than one pound)
1 spring of rosemary
1/2 teaspoon sage
2 cups beef broth (I used "Better than Bullion" beef flavor with 2 cups of water)
Soy sauce to taste
fresh pepper
olive oil
2 large carrots

In a large sauce pan or stew pot, add oil, enough to lightly cover the bottom, over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and carrots. Saute for about five minutes, or until onions become transparent and begin to stick. While onions are cooking, cut meat from the bone into bite sized pieces. Leave some meat on the bone. Add meat and bones to the onion, garlic and carrot mix. Allow meat to brown lightly and then add baby apples. Cook for a few more minutes, or until the meat is sticking. Add all remaining ingredients except soy sauce. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cover and allow to simmer for about an hour. Stir periodically. After an hour, add soy sauce to taste (I used about 20 shakes). Simmer for another hour. The potatoes should break down some to make the stew thick.

I think I would like to try adding chick peas to it next time to make it go further. Yum!!