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Hey there! I'm Holly. A 40+ year old insurance-nerd wife, mom, beauty lover, and about a million other things in between.
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Tag Archives: Sweet Potatoes
Spicy Taco Brunch Skillet
Ole!
I woke up last Saturday morning wanting to have a fun brunch with Garrett and specifically thinking about Juli’s recipe for a Mexican Hash Egg Bake.
I wanted to make something that would look pretty (I love the way baked eggs look!) but also be seriously delicious since we were skipping the bacon with all of this Whole 30 business going on. I was too lazy to actually look up Juli’s recipe and follow it, but since I make up a huge batch of sweet potato hash just about every week, I used that as inspiration and got to work.
The result was completely satisfying nutritionally, but it also seemed decadent which made it feel a little special.
| Spicy Taco Brunch Skillet |
Ingredients
- 1 TBS Coconut Oil
- 1 Yellow Onion, diced
- 1 Bell Pepper (any color), diced
- 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, diced
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (more if you’re SPICY!)
- 1/2 lb. ground beef
- 1-2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning (to taste)
- 8 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a large heavy bottomed oven proof skillet, melt coconut oil over medium/medium high heat.
- Add diced yellow onions and bell pepper. Saute for 5-10 minutes until softened.
- Add diced sweet potatoes and all seasonings through cayenne pepper and saute until those are softened as well, about another 15 minutes. Be careful to stir often so nothing burns, but the potatoes get some color.
- In the meantime, in a separate pan, crumble up and brown at least 1/2 lb ground beef (I usually cook up a big batch and use the leftovers for Taco Salad!
- Add 1-2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning per 1/2 lb, or to taste.
- When Sweet Potatoes are mostly cooked, add your taco meat into the oven-proof skilled.
- Crack 8 eggs over the top of the potato/onion/meat mixture
- Bake for 6-9 minutes, depending on desired egg done-ness. Keep in mind there will be some carryover cooking once you pull it out of the oven.
- Salt and Pepper your eggs to taste once the baking is finished, garnish with an avocado and enjoy!
Bison Sweet Potato Chili
I realize I have been asking a lot of you lately. I mean first I try and make you love chicken thighs and now I am throwing bison at you? Man, I am just pushing all the scary meat on you lately, aren’t I?
Roll with me for a second though, because remember as part of my 2012 goals I am trying to eat more game.
Here’s the thing about bison though? Is is kind of awesome. It’s ground beef’s leaner and more iron-rich brother. Bison typically graze on grass and most of the time they aren’t fed commercial grains. It is super protein dense and contains tons of nutrients, but the caloric density is lower than beef and even pork. You know I hate counting calories, but I don’t pass up a good caloric bargain when I see it, so bison is a total WIN!
Let’s just say if ground beef is Donnie Wahlberg (who I love, of course, NKOTB forever!), then bison is Mark Wahlberg during the Calvin Klein underwear years.
Have I sold you yet? WHAT MORE CONVINCING COULD YOU POSSIBLY NEED?
If you are interested in having shirtless Mark Wahlberg over bison for dinner it but still a little bit scared, might I suggest trying it in chili? You can’t really go wrong trying a new meat in chili since there are so many other flavors going on, right? I especially like this chili because it is complex and full of vegetables. I originally saw a Bison Sweet Potato chili over on Paleo Girl and that really got my wheels turning. I decided to meld her recipe with my favorite-ever Damn Good Chili and thus, this recipe was born!
| Bison Sweet Potato Chili |
Serves: 4 Adults
Ingredients
- 1 TBS Coconut Oil
- 1 lb Ground Bison
- 1 Large Sweet Potato, peeled and cubed (small-ish bite sized!)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 scallions, diced
- 2 small zucchini, diced
- 2 small yellow squash, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 Jalapeno, seeded and diced (leave the seeds in if you like it HOT!)
- 1 4 oz can green chiles
- 2 TBS Cumin
- 1 TBS Chili Powder
- 1/2 tsp Paprika
- 1 Cup Tomato Sauce
- 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 Cup of Beef Broth
- 1 Bell Pepper (color is your choice) diced
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Melt Coconut Oil in a large heavy bottomed pot (I used my 7 qt Dutch Oven)
- Add your onions, scallions, zucchini, squash and sweet potato and cook until vegetables have some color (about 10 minutes)
- Season layer with salt and pepper
- Add the bison, break up with your spoon and brown meat until it is no longer pink
- Add the garlic, jalapeno and green chiles and cook for another minute or two
- Season layer with salt and pepper and then dump in all your spices
- Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and beef broth and mix it all together
- Bring pot up to a boil and then lower to a simmer
- Simmer pot for 30 minutes, covered
- Uncover, add in diced Bell Pepper and simmer for another 10-15 minutes until desired consistency is reached. (I like a thick chili)
- Dish up and top with scallions, or any other desired toppings
- Enjoy!
See…that doesn’t look too scary, does it?
Paleo* Eggs Benedict Over Spicy Sweet Potato Hash
My Grandma Marian taught me a number of very important life lessons:
*A good hostess always has cookies in her freezer.
*If you keep the empty expensive bottles of booze you can always refill them with the cheap stuff in a pinch. (Which I only did in college, I promise!) And of course,
*A lady never refuses a second serving by saying she is “stuffed,” but rather she delicately reclines and says she’s “had plenty.”
More importantly though, she taught me about the magic of poached eggs in hollandaise.
My family usually chooses to brunch on Easter, forgoing the ham dinner with all the trimmings for a stiff Bloody Mary (or two) and a Hallelujah. As an a non-religious adult, I always kind of forget about Easter (what with the changing dates and all of that) but when I realize it’s coming around I never forget my grandma’s tradition: Eggs Benedict!
Since going Paleo I have definitely come to embrace the egg, but I never take the time to poach them — and for no good reason since it is so much easier than it looks. A pan of simmering water with a splash of vinegar, dropping the egg right in, and then giving it exactly 2 minutes before you rescue and plop it atop various accouterments. This year I skipped the English Muffin and set it on canadian bacon over the world’s most amazing Spicy Sweet Potato Hash.
It was so good, I’m making it again for Garrett this week for dinner since he was in Reno all weekend and missed out.
For the eggs:
This video breaks down poaching eggs quite simply. Plus at the end she puts in on a “nice, tasty crumpet.” And how can you not love that? I like a 2 min egg though, just FYI. I always fear I will ruin the egg, and it always ends up working out just fine. Vinegar is kind of a miracle worker.
For the Hollandaise:
In a blender mix 3 egg yolks, 1 TBS lemon juice, 1/2 tsp of salt, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. Melt 1/2 cup of grassfed butter (That’s why it is Paleo* — but this is a special occasion thing, don’t get freaked out!) and slowly pour in the melted butter as you blend up the other ingredients. This will make enough sauce to coat at least 6 eggs and may change your life.
For the hash:
Cook up 6-8 diced up slices of bacon in a pan. (Dude, just cook 8.) Remove the bacon bits and add one diced red onion and diced red pepper. Saute until softened. Add 3 diced sweet potatos. Mine were small-medium sized. Generously season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and add a dash of chili powder for flavor and cayenne pepper for heat. Cook over high heat until potatoes are at your desired texture (everyone likes their taters a bit different). I did mine for about 20 minutes, tossing them around occasionally so they browned but didn’t burn.
For the entire experience:
Throw the hash on a plate, top with canadian bacon you have warmed in the oven, add your perfectly poached eggs, cover with hollandaise, add some cracked black pepper to the top, and die of happiness.
You will not regret it. But I assure you, after two of those eggs, you will delicately recline and say you’ve had plenty.
It’s a breakfast (or dinner in our case this week) of champions!
