roasted sweet potatoes with bacon and scallions

During the school year, I suck at being healthy. So, during the summer, I try to cleanse my body of all the crap food and nourish it with the good stuff. I've especially been attempting to be as Paleo as possible before my New York vacay in July. I was doing really well but, truthfully, I've FAILEOd a few times this week for social purposes. Oops.

Can you believe I only started eating sweet potatoes about a year ago when I did my first Whole30? Crazy right? White potatoes will always be better in my book but, if it's in the potato family, I'll work with it.  Lately, I've been addicted to this one sweet potato side dish. Since sweet potatoes are Paleo-friendly, I don't even feel guilty that I've already made it twice this week. SO good.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Bacon and Scallions

INGREDIENTS
2.5 lbs sweet potatoes
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh garlic (about 3 cloves)
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3 Tbsp bacon fat (or substitute with extra virgin olive oil)
5 slices cooked bacon, roughly chopped
1/4 cup sliced scallions

DIRECTIONS
1. Cook bacon. You can do this stovetop in a skillet or baked in the oven. Cook the bacon to desired texture (I like mine crispy!). Remove bacon from pan and set aside on a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess fat. Also reserve additional bacon fat from skillet/pan to use. 
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
3. Prepare sweet potatoes. Wash the skin of the sweet potatoes by scrubbing with water. Cut raw sweet potatoes into 1-inch rounds, and then into half or quarter pieces. 
4. Place sweet potatoes, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sea salt, and black pepper into a large mixing bowl with 2 Tbsp of pourable bacon fat or extra virgin olive oil. (If the bacon fat has solidified, you can warm it up in the microwave to get back into liquid form.) Stir everything together until ingredients are well distributed onto sweet potatoes. I give the bowl a few tosses, too.
5. Place the seasoned sweet potatoes onto a foil-lined baking rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes or until sweet potatoes are fork tender.
6. Toss the warm sweet potatoes with 1 Tbsp warm bacon fat or olive oil, bacon, and scallions. 
7. Serve hot. 

cheddar jalapeno bagels w/sun-dried tomato + herb cream cheese spread

I'm not sure what planet I've been on lately. Perhaps one where I'm too busy spending all my money and forgetting I have a blog to tend to or something. My bad.

But to make it up to you (by you I mean whatever loyal, occasional, or drive-by followers I may have), I will share this recipe. Bagels. Wait, let me rephrase that. Cheddar jalapeno bagels. Wait wait, there's more. Sun-dried tomato and herb cream cheese. Oh yes, this is next level Sunday Brunch. Whip up a mimosa with this and you're good to go. Okay, allow me to introduce you to a flavor explosion..

Cheddar Jalapeno Bagels
Yields 8 Bagels

INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
2 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
1/4 cup room temp water
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced jalapenos (I eliminated the ribs and seeds of the jalapeno to keep the bagel itself pretty mild)
1 egg, lightly beaten
topping: extra shredded cheddar cheese, jalapeno slices (for the slices I cut straight down into the ribs and seeds which will add a spicy kick to the top)

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together bread flour and salt. Set aside.
2. In a liquid measuring cup with lukewarm water, dissolve sugar. Then add yeast. Do not stir. Allow yeast to bloom-- this will take about 5-7 minutes.
3. Once yeast has bloomed, make a well in the dry ingredient mixing bowl. Gradually add water and yeast mixture into the well. Use a fork to incorporate the dry with the wet. At this point, it will look kind of shaggy and super dry. 
4. Turn out the dough onto a flat surface. Begin kneading the dough. Add some of the reserved room temp water to help moisten the dough if necessary. I ended up using about 1/4 cup, but add more or less as needed. Knead for about 7-8 minutes until the dough is relatively smooth and elastic. If you punch your finger into it, the dough should spring back. At this point, slightly flatten the dough, add diced jalapenos and shredded cheddar cheese to center. Fold the dough over and knead everything together for a couple more minutes until it looks like the jalapeno pieces and cheese are distributed well.
5. Dust out any leftover dry that may have stuck to the sides of your medium mixing bowl. Lightly grease that same bowl with olive oil. In order to avoid over-greasing, I pour just a little bit onto my fingertips, then spread into the bowl.
6. Place the dough back into the greased bowl and allow to rise for about 1 hour in a warm spot. It's ready when it looks like it has doubled in size.

7. Dust a little bread flour onto your flat surface. Flip the dough out of the bowl. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. The best way to do this is to cut it like a pie.

8. Shape each section into a round ball. Use your finger to make a hole in the middle. Then set aside onto a large parchment-lined baking sheet. Allow the shaped bagels to rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. 

9. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
10. In a large pot of boiling water, boil the bagels--about 45 seconds to 1 minute on each side. You can boil the bagels in batches depending on the size of your pot. I was able to fit about 3 or 4 at a time. Remove the bagels from the boiling water and set back onto the parchment-lined baking sheet.

11. Brush an egg wash (the light beaten egg) onto the tops/sides of all the bagels. Add extra shredded cheddar and sliced jalapenos to the tops (I might have also added a little Parmesan also because I was low on cheddar.)

12. Bake for 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Herb Cream Cheese Spread

INGREDIENTS
8oz. regular cream cheese spread (full fat, low fat, whatever you deal with)
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp roughly chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp roughly chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp + 2 tsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes, drained

DIRECTIONS
1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together well with a spatula.
2. Once all the ingredients are evenly combined, use the spatula to transfer the cream cheese mixture to a nice dipping bowl. Or do as I do-- throw it all back into the cream cheese container. Top with extra chopped herbs and/or sun-dried tomato if you like.
3. Done! Put the lid back on the cream cheese container and refrigerate any leftover.

 I really need to start hosting Sunday Brunch..

.. because, seriously, this platter is so share-worthy.
I had brunch by myself but that's okay. It was still scrumptious. Totally hit the spot. Nom.

 

(p.s. do you see that melted cheddar in the middle?! ^^ YUM.)