Sweet Potato Egg Muffins, by Cheryl

I had a lot of extra sweet potato that I had grated for a different recipe and I was trying to figure out what to do with it. In come the sweet potato egg muffins! These were super duper easy to make and are good for an on the go breakfast (unless you like your eggs runny like me, then it might be a little messy!) or for a quick meal at home. You can store them in some tupperware for about 5 days in the fridge and just pop them in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds when you're ready to eat them. Yum!

Ingredients (for 6 muffins):

1 cup grated sweet potato
eggs
olive oil spray

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375.

2) Spray a muffin tin with olive oil spray or put in silicone liners. Scoop a couple of tablespoons of sweet potato into each muffin hole.

3) Crack an egg into each hole. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, longer if you want the yolks fully cooked.

Eggplant pizzas, by Cheryl

These mini pizzas are really quick to whip up and are delicious! You can put whatever toppings you want on them - the picture here shows a pulled pork topping, a hot soppresatta topping, a veggie (spinach and sweet potato) topping, and a regular topping of just cheese. We paired this with a delicious salad, Autumn Glow, which I'll post soon. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant
tomato sauce
cheese
olive oil
assortment of toppings

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350.

2) Slice eggplant into circles. Arrange in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for an hour to let the juices come out. Pat with paper towel.

3) Spray a baking pan with olive oil. Arrange the eggplant on the pan and brush some olive oil on top. Bake for about 10 minutes.

4) Add a spoonful of tomato sauce to each eggplant. Add various toppings, then add cheese. Bake for about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Hamburger Skillet, by Diane

WHOA this is amazing. I could have literally eaten this whole skillet!!! I found this recipe on Instagram for Whole30 and it looked interesting! It was easy, healthy, and did I mention DELICIOUS?!? It tastes like a big bite of a juicy burger minus the bun, and each bite has the exact right amount of sauce and toppings. It has it's own recipe for thousand island dressing, which is also easy to make and a lot healthier than store bought versions. I made this for lunches this week with a big batch of baked sweet potato fries and I was a seriously happy camper. The only things I changed were to add in nutritional yeast for a cheeseburger flavor, omit the oil, and I drained the meat before continuing with the recipe (I don't get why recipes call for browning beef in extra oil, let alone continuing with the recipe before draining it). Recipe posted with changes below.


Ingredients:

1.5 lbs ground beef (I used 2)
1 red onion, diced small
1 cup dill pickle chips, quartered
1 tomato, sliced thin (I don't like these so I left them out)
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. mustard powder
3 tbsp. coconut aminos (sub in soy sauce here if needed)
1 tsp garlic powder
Chopped romaine lettuce (I also omitted this)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup thousand island dressing (whisk together 1 cup mayo, 2 tbsp. tomato paste, 1 oz chopped dill pickles, 1/2 minced shallot, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried parsley, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
Optional: nutritional yeast

Directions:

1. Brown meat in skillet with the onions and drain.

2. Add the meat and onions back into the skillet, and mix in tomato paste, mustard powder, coconut aminos, and garlic powder. Stir well and remove from heat. Salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add in pickles, tomato, and lettuce, and top with dressing.

Blistered Peppers with Tahini Sauce, by Diane

I had these as an appetizer at a restaurant this weekend and was obsessed with them. The actual appetizer used shishito peppers, but I switched to mini sweet peppers in a pinch. Any pepper will do! The shishito peppers were fun though, because they had a mild heat, and every 1 in 10 are a pop of high heat. I baked mine because it was easy and I was roasting a bunch of things that day, but the actual recipe calls for a screaming hot pan (see below). They make a great, healthy snack! The tahini sauce was WAY better in the restaurant, as it was nutty and sweet with a hint of soy and garlic, but this recipe used too much vinegar. I'll keep trying to modify it, but for now, here's the recipe below:


Ingredients:


2 tbsp. tahini
2 tbsp. hot water
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. agave
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. sesame oil
Kosher salt
12 oz shishito peppers
2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Blend the top 6 ingredients until smooth, salt to taste.

2. Bring a heavy pan or skillet to smoking hot, add the oil and peppers, stirring often for about 2 min until blistered on each side and slightly softened.

3. Top with flaky salt and dip in sauce.