Sweet Potato Jalapeno Popper Tacos

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This recipe came to be from a blissful kitchen mix-up when Jamie accidentally bought ingredients for two separate recipes she planned to cook. The original recipe we wanted to make was for sweet potato and pineapple tacos. We knew all of that starchy sweetness needed salt and spice and the first thing that came to mind were the ingredients in bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers. If all of this is sounding a bit weird to you, we get it. It’s a weird sounding recipe!! Trust us when we tell you that somehow it all works. There is a little bit of everything in this recipe – roasted sweet potatoes and pineapple, charred jalapeños and onions, salty thick cut bacon, and a cilantro lime crema. The flavors all meld together to create these deliciously unique tacos that simultaneously taste sweet and bring the heat. This recipe is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon watching football and the perfect way to bring in fall flavors.

Sweet Potato Jalapeno Popper Tacos

  • Servings: 8 tacos
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We love the combination of sweet and spicy in this unique taco recipe.

Ingredients For The Tacos

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into large bite-sized pieces
  • 1 yellow onion, sliced in half and then quartered lengthwise
  • 2 cups pineapple, chopped into large bite-sized pieces
  • 2 tbs vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp coriander
  • 6 slices thick cut bacon
  • 4 jalapenos
  • 8 taco sized tortillas
  • 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
  • cilantro leaves, for garnish
  • 1 lime, cut into segments, for garnish

Ingredients For the Cilantro Lime Crema

  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 tbs mayonnaise
  • 1/3 cup packed cilantro
  • 1 clove garlic
  • juice and zest of 1 lime
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • salt, to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Make the cilantro lime crema. Combine all of the crema ingredients (sour cream – paprika) in a small blender. Blend until the cilantro is evenly distributed in the crema and all of the ingredients are well combined. Season the crema with salt and refrigerate until you are ready to use.
  3. Make the tacos. Combine the first seven taco ingredients (sweet potatoes – coriander) in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
  4. Lay three slices of bacon in the center of each of two large cookie sheets. Divide the sweet potato bowl ingredients around the bacon on each of the two sheets. Spread everything into a single layer and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, flip the bacon and give everything a toss with a spatula so that all of the ingredients are equally browned. The bacon should be crispy and the sweet potatoes cooked through when you remove them from the oven. Leave the oven on for later use.
  5. While the bacon and sweet potatoes are cooking, turn on a gas burner to medium-high heat. Using tongs, roast the jalapeno peppers on all sides so that they are lightly charred. When the jalapenos are cool enough to handle, remove the stem and seeds, outside charred layer, and roughly chop the remaining peppers. Add them to the sweet potato mix and toss well to incorporate. If you do not have a gas range, you can replicate this step using the broiler of your oven after the sweet potatoes have finished cooking.
  6. Remove the bacon from the cookie sheets and onto paper towel to drain some of the fat, if necessary. Roughly chop the bacon from both cookie sheets and add it to the sweet potato mix. Combine the ingredients from each of the sheets onto one and tent with foil to keep warm until ready to serve.
  7. Lay the taco tortillas on the open cookie sheet in a single layer (as best you can). Sprinkle the cheese evenly over each of the tortillas and put in the oven to warm the tortillas and lightly melt the cheese. Remove the tortillas and assemble the tacos.
  8. Lay an even amount of taco filling onto each of the 8 tortillas. Top each taco with the cilantro lime crema and additional cilantro, if desired. Serve with lime wedges for garnish.

Breakfast For Dinner Bowls

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“Breakfast For Dinner Bowls” used to be our fancy way of saying, holy crap we didn’t buy groceries and have absolutely no idea what’s for dinner. This is precisely what has happened on a number of occasions; so many, in fact, that Breakfast For Dinner Bowls have now become a request instead of an accident. What exactly goes into one of these bowls changes from time to time, but the general gist is bacon, soft boiled eggs, a grain like quinoa or farro, and lots of vegetables. The result is a hearty breakfast bowl that easily satisfies for dinner. No matter what combination of ingredients we use, it’s a crowd pleaser every time.

Breakfast For Dinner Bowls

  • Servings: 4
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A healthy version of breakfast for dinner, complete with all of our favorite breakfast essentials.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups quinoa, farro, or your favorite grain
  • 4 slices thick cut bacon
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced and divided
  • 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
  • 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbs honey
  • 2-3 springs fresh thyme
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 6 cups lightly packed kale, large stems removed and roughly chopped
  • 8 oz cremini mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup parmesan, feta, or goat cheese (optional)
  • your favorite hot sauce (optional)

Directions

  1. Heat a medium pot with 3 cups of water to a boil. Add your grain of choice and cook according to package directions, adding more water if your grain requires it. Cook until done and set aside in a separate bowl, covered.
  2. While the grain is cooking, heat a second large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until it starts to get crispy, about 8 minutes, flipping once half way through. Remove the bacon, leave about 2 tbs of the fat in the pan, and discard the rest. Keeping the heat on medium, add half of the garlic (2 cloves) and cherry tomatoes to the pan. Cook until the tomatoes start to burst. Add the balsamic vinegar, honey, and thyme to the tomatoes. Chop the bacon and add it back into the pan. Reduce the heat and cook another 5 minutes or so, until the tomato mixture has a jam like consistency. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the pan, and keep covered and warm until you are ready to serve.
  3. It is time to cook the eggs. Gently put the eggs into the boiling pot of water from Step 1. Depending on how you like your egg, cook the egg for 6 minutes for a thick runny yolk or 7 minutes for more of a jammy yolk consistency. Keep the water at a gentle boil while the eggs are cooking. Immediately transfer the eggs from the boiling water to a bowl of ice water. Peel the eggs when they are cool enough to handle, trying to do this process quickly so that they don’t over cool, and set the eggs aside until you are ready to serve.
  4. While the eggs are boiling, begin cooking the mushrooms. Using the same pan that the tomatoes were cooking, add the olive oil, remaining garlic, and mushrooms. Let the mushrooms and garlic cook for about 5 minutes before adding the kale to the pan. Give everything a good toss, season with salt and pepper, and cover. Cook the mushrooms and kale for another 3-5 more minutes, or until the kale is nice and wilted.
  5. Now you are ready to combine all of the elements to serve. Divide the quinoa or bulgur evenly amongst the four shallow pasta bowls. Add the kale and mushrooms to the plates, making a little nest in the center. Put a large spoonful of the tomato bacon jam into the nest and top with the soft boiled egg. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired, and serve. We like our bowls with a little bit of hot sauce, as pictured.

Larb Lettuce Wraps & Bowls

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Larb is a traditional meat salad found in Laos and Thailand. It is one of our favorite dishes to order on a Thai menu when we are trying to eat healthy because it’s light and really refreshing. What makes this dish bright are the many herbs and spices mixed into the meat mixture. It is usually served with sliced cucumber and sliced jalapenos for some kick. With everyone having different goals this time of the year in regards to their eating habits, we’ve made this recipe a little bit of a choose your own adventure story. Watching the calories? Serve the larb in lettuce wraps with lots of added vegetables. Needing a bit more? Serve the larb over a bed of white rice. This is a great weeknight dinner and made extra fun when everyone gets to make their own version!

Larb Lettuce Wraps

  • Servings: 8 lettuce wraps
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Our quick and easy variation of larb – a delicious, healthy and herby salad found in Laos and Thailand.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground pork
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 1 shallot
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1 tbs fish sauce
  • 3 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tbs sambal oelek or your favorite chili paste
  • 1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
  • juice of one lime
  • bib lettuce – divided into 8 cups
  • 1 english cucumber, sliced
  • 2 cups cooked white rice
  • jalapeno, sliced for garnish (optional)
  • cooked white rice, if you plan to make rice bowls

Directions

  1. Prepare the vegetables. Mince the garlic, ginger and shallot and set aside. Thinly slice the red onion and set aside in the same bowl as the garlic mix.
  2. In a large sauté pan, sauté the pork over medium heat. You do not need to add any oil to the pan, the fat from the pork will start to render as it is heated. Use a spatula to break up the ground pork into bite sized pieces.
  3. Sauté for five minutes and add the garlic, ginger, shallot and onion to the pan and continue to stir and sauté for another 5 minutes. The onion should start to soften and the pork will be completely cooked through.
  4. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce and sambal oelek. Stir completely so that all of the ingredients are combined. Sauté for 5 minutes or until the sauce is mostly soaked up by the pork. Remove the larb from the heat, set aside, and add the lime juice.
  5. Lettuce Cup Preparation: Place a 1/4 – 1/2 cup serving of larb into each lettuce cup. Top with sliced cucumbers, cilantro, and jalapeno.
  6. Rice Bowl Preparation: Place 1/2 – 1 cup cooked rice on the bottom of a bowl. Layer with a 1/2 cup of larb and top with sliced cucumbers, cilantro, and jalepeno.

Scary Salt & Pepper Skeleton Ribs

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Ribs are one of the recipes that we have struggled with over the years. It is so easy to overcook and undercook them, particularly on the grill. A few years ago we purchased Nadine Levy Redzepi’s cookbook, Downtime, and made her version of oven baked ribs. Once we made them, we never looked back. The key to this recipe is to generously season the ribs with salt and pepper. If you under season them, they won’t taste like anything and you’ll just be drowning them in bbq sauce to compensate. We love this particular recipe so much because it is so simple and really brings out the taste of the meat. It’s also a much shorter cooking time than other recipes for ribs, which is great when you haven’t planned far ahead before dinner time. We love how the ribs get just a little bit crispy and still have some pull to them, versus falling off the bone like a short rib. You can serve them with barbecue sauce, but we rarely do because they are so delicious on their own!

Scary Salt & Pepper Skeleton Ribs

  • Servings: 4
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Our favorite preparation of for ribs, just in time for Halloween dinner!

Ingredients

  • 1 rack pork spare ribs
  • 1 tbs vegetable oil or avocado oil
  • 1 scant tbs kosher salt or sea salt
  • freshly cracked pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Use a sharp paring knife or meat carving knife to remove the membrane from the back of the ribs. You can do this by turning the ribs bone-side up and gently sliding your knife between the membrane and rest of the rib. Gently pull away the membrane and discard.
  3. Rub the ribs with the vegetable oil and season very well on both sides with the salt and pepper. Place the ribs on a cookie sheet and into the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Be aware that if there is excess fat on the ribs, the fat will splatter and can cause your oven to get very smoky. Keep a window cracked or your air vent on if this happens.
  4. After the 1 hour and 30 minute cooking time, remove the ribs from the oven and gently cover with foil. Let them rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Serve with barbecue sauce, if desired.

Mapo Tofu

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We have been seeing a ton of recipes online lately for Mapo Tofu. We have our go-to favorite place in Denver for getting very good, traditional Sichuan cuisine (Shanghai Kitchen) but had not tried Mapo Tofu until recently. We ordered it, immediately fell in love, and knew we wanted to recreate it at home. This dish is rich, spicy and will warm you up any night for dinner. We prefer to serve this with rice and a green veggie on the side for an easy weeknight dinner.

Mapo Tofu
Makes: 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 inches fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 lb ground pork
  • 1-2 tsp Chinese red pepper depending on your spice preference
  • 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
  • 1 tbs red bean paste
  • 2 tbs black vinegar
  • 1 lb soft tofu, cubed

Instructions:

  1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger and ground pork. You do not need to add oil as the fat from the pork will melt and add liquid to the pan. Sauté for 6-8 minutes until the pork is cooked completely through.
  2. Add the Chinese red pepper, peppercorns, red bean paste and black vinegar. Mix thoroughly to combine the ingredients. Add the tofu, reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Be sure the tofu is heated throughout.
  3. Serve over rice, hot, and enjoy!

Semi-Homemade Potsticker Salad Bowls

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If you know us personally, you know that we love dumplings something fierce. At any given time, you can venture to Tuck or Tate’s homes and find potstickers in the freezer. They are the ultimate answer to “oh crap, what is for dinner?!” We have created these Potsticker Salad Bowls by combining two of our favorite Japanese appetizers: potstickers and the house salad with ginger dressing. 

Makoto Ginger Dressing one of the only pre-made salad dressings that we will buy at the grocery store- the stuff is that good. You can find it at regular grocery stores (Publix, Wegmans, King Soopers/Kroger) in the refrigerated salad section. We’ve added romaine, shredded carrots, snap peas, and cucumbers to bulk this baby up with some vegetables and brown rice because Tuck and Tate have fathers that would never consider a lettuce-based salad a dinner. If you prep the salad ingredients while the potstickers are cooking in the pan, this dinner can be on the table in 20 minutes. 

Semi-Homemade Potsticker Salad Bowls 
Prep Time: 20 minutes    Total Time: 20 minutes 
Makes: 4 servings 

Ingredients: 

  • 1 package frozen potstickers (there should be about 20 in the pack) 
  • 2 tbs sesame oil 
  • 2 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tbs sriracha 
  • 1/2 cup water 
  • 2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped into bite sized pieces 
  • 1 package frozen brown rice 
  • 1+ cups shredded carrots 
  • 1+ cups snap peas 
  • 1 cucumber, sliced
  • 1 avocado, quartered and sliced 
  • 1 bottle Makoto Ginger Dressing 

Directions: 

  1. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, sriracha, and water to the pan- stir to combine the ingredients. Add the frozen potstickers to the pan, creating one even layer of potstickers. Cook the potstickers on medium heat for approximately 10 minutes- rotating every once in a while so that all sides of the potstickers are heated through. As the water evaporates and steams the filling, the oil and soy sauce will coat the outside dough and give the potstickers a crispy flavorful topping. 
  2. While the potstickers are cooking, cook the frozen brown rice in the microwave according to package directions. It doesn’t have to be scorching hot, just heated somewhere north of room temperature. 
  3. Assemble the salads by layering the romaine, brown rice, snap peas, carrots, and cucumbers. Top with the Makoto dressing. When the potstickers are finished cooking (starting to get crispy on the outside and the water has evaporated), remove from the pan and serve on top of the salads. Garnish with avocado and serve. 

* Please note our salad is not pictured with cucumber because we were so excited to cook, photograph, and then eat this recipe that we forgot to add them in the process. Sigh. 

Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork

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Pulled pork has become a go-to week night recipe in our house. You can make it in the Crock Pot or Instant Pot and you really get your bang for your buck with this one. We love it because it is pretty hands off and produces a quantity that is large enough for a crowd or for week night leftovers to put on top of salads, in tacos or just eat alone if you are lazy on a Thursday like we are! We have a few ways we like to season and make this dish but wanted to bring in a BBQ element to our Super Bowl party this year. The Instant Pot reduces the cooking time by hours making this recipe perfect for entertaining. You can be hands off while your guests are there and still serve a bad ass sandwich.

Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork

Makes: 8-10 servings

Active Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

  • 3 lb pork butt/shoulder roast
  • 6 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 4 tbs salt
  • 4 tbs pepper
  • 4 tbs chili powder
  • 4 tbs garlic powder
  • 12 oz light beer (we used Blue Moon)
  • 2 cups BBQ sauce (pick your favorite kind!)

Directions:

  1. Trim off any excess fat from the pork shoulder. It doesn’t need to be perfect but will help ensure that your pulled pork isn’t completely saturated with oil when you are done.
  2. Create holes in the pork using a knife and insert the garlic cloves. Try your best to evenly distribute the garlic on all sides of the pork the best you can. We literally stick a knife straight into various parts of the shoulder to create the “pockets”.
  3. Season the pork with the salt, pepper, chili and garlic powder evenly on all sides. **
  4. Set the Instant Pot on saute and sear the pork on all sides until the sides are seared brown. You do not need oil at this point as the pork has enough fat naturally.
  5. Change the setting to pressure cook on high and add the beer. Cook on the high setting for 75 minutes. Release the pressure when done. Open the Instant Pot and flip the pork over, submerging the other side of the pork, and cook on the high setting for an additional 20 minutes.
  6. Release the pressure and using two forks, shred the pork. Be sure to discard any bones during this process which should only be the shoulder bone depending on the cut you purchased.
  7. Add the BBQ sauce and serve with buns, coleslaw, pickles and cheddar cheese!

**If you want to use a Crock Pot, sear the pork in a pan on the stove and transfer the pork to the CrockPot. Add the beer and set the Crock Pot to cook on High for 8 hours. Continue with Step 6 and enjoy!