Simple, easy meals that make you feel good, that’s what we’re about around here.
Don’t get me wrong, we love a good dinner party, and would rarely pass up a four course meal at a fine dining establishment. But if you were to ask what really revs us up? We’d tell you fresh ingredients and real, whole foods. The stuff everyday menus are made of.
The key to weeknight cooking is stocking your pantry. It just makes it easy, and easy is good when it comes to eating healthy. Hitting the grocery store or farmer’s market over the weekend to grab whatever produce you need is a good habit to get into. That way you’re not scrambling on a weeknight or stopping on the way home and reaching for whatever processed food looks good when you’re hungry.
Sweet potatoes are always on my list, and I eat them in some form every day. I feel like I talk about sweet potatoes a lot (see here, here, here and here), but I just love ’em. Probably because they’re so versatile!
Here’s one of my go-to weeknight sweet potato meals. This recipe makes two halves, and sometimes I have one half for dinner and I’m good (it’s pretty filling). Other times I’ll have a half with steak or chicken, or a side salad. My apologies for the slightly terrible photo. We’re striving for simple here.
Simple Stuffed Sweet Potato
Serves two
Ingredients
One large sweet potato
1/4 red pepper
1/4 red onion
1/4 avocado
One tablespoon olive oil
Two teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried cilantro (unless you have fresh on you, in that case definitely go for fresh)
Black pepper & sea salt
Optional: 1/2 cup cooked black beans
Method
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Poke the sweet potato with a few holes and bake for 30-35 minutes or until tender inside and skin is slightly crispy.
While that’s baking, chop the avocado, red pepper, onion, cilantro and optional black beans and mix together in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, cayenne, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Once the potato is tender, remove from the oven and slice in half. Using a spoon, scoop out the center of each half and transfer the fleshy insides (yikes, sorry for that terminology) to a cutting board. Cube the insides and add to the vegetable/liquid mixture. Stir this thoroughly.
Divide the mixture in half, and add into the scooped out portion of each potato half. They will be overflowing, and that’s okay. Top with a little cilantro and enjoy!