Jalapeno Sweet Potato Chowder

I pinned a page about a jalapeno sweet potato soup, but unfortunately it didn't share the recipe :(  I found this recipe for sweet potato soup with bacon and combined the concepts to make my own delicious soup!

Ingredients:
5-6 large sweet potatoes
1/2 water, 1/2 Chicken stock to cover the potatoes
1 large yellow onion
3 jalapeno peppers
bacon
cooked chicken (I used meat from 4 drumsticks & 1 breast)
cumin
allspice
chili powder
cayenne
less of nutmeg, ginger
S&P

Chop the potatoes into 1" - ish size pieces and put in water/stock and boil.  Stir every few minutes while prepping the rest.
Cook the bacon, then reserve most of the fat in a container (to cook your eggs with in the AM), and leave some in the pan to cook the veggies.
Saute the onion & jalapenos.  I did not deseed or devein them because we like it hot!
Chop up your chicken into bite-size pieces.
Add spices and chicken to onion & jalapeno

 The original recipe called to puree the sweet potatoes, but we like soups like this more chunky.  And it's easier.  So as the potatoes start to get mushy, use a spatula or wooden spoon to smush them up.  Once they are mushed to your desired softness, add the rest of the ingredients to the potatoes.

Garnish generously with bacon!

Caribbean Beef Plantain Bake

I have been looking forward to making this for a while!  I pinned it about a month ago from Baltic Maid - not sure how I found it in the first place?   But Thank you Baltic Maid for creating/ posting this!  Always looking for different things to make with ground beef, since we do have like a hundred pounds of it in the freezer :)

I bought the plantains over a week ago - the store only had green ones so I had to wait until they got nice and dark as indicated in the recipe.

Below is my variation, adapted from the original.  I knew it would either come out 'ehh' or AWESOME and luckily it was awesome.  Already looking forward to my lunch leftovers :)


Caribbean Beef Plantain Bake
1 lb ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, chopped
(I cheated and used a bag of frozen sliced peppers and onions!)

1/2 jar strained organic tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
Paprika, Cumin, Oregano, Chili Powder, Cinnamon, S&P

2-3 very ripe (dark brown/black) plantains
Coconut oil

2 - 3 eggs


In a large frying pan, brown the ground beef. Set beef aside once done.

Saute the onion & pepper in the same pan and lightly brown.  Add spices (I don't put measurements bc I don't measure.  Be generous!)

Meanwhile in another pan, heat coconut oil.  Peel plantains and cut into bite size slices and saute until browned, flip to brown both sides.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Add tomatoes to the veggies and warm, then stir beef in.

Put the beef/ veggie mixture in 9x9 glass baking pan, top with plantain slices (I kind of pushed them into the sauce).

In a little bowl, beat the eggs. Pour them over the casserole.

Bake the casserole for 20 to 30 minutes.