Sweet Potato Tacos

My good friend, Laurel, not so lightly urged me to try these tacos. I'm SO GLAD I did!! They are awesome! Take tacos, add a little sweet, but awesomely healthy. These tacos. Saweet.

Photo Credit to the Blanchard Bistro

Sweet Potato Tacos
½ pound ground beef or turkey {I used a full pound, but will use 1/2 next time}
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning {I used one packet}
½ cup tomato sauce {I used a whole can}
1 can (15 oz.) black, kidney, or pinto beans, drained
5-6 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups chopped fresh spinach
1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
tortillas, sour cream, salsa, fresh cilantro, and/or guacamole for garnish

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Brown ground meat in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and beans. Set aside.

Spray a 9x13 inch casserole dish with non-stick spray. Place sweet potato cubes in the pan and top with the butter and a sprinkle of salt. This is where you'd add the spinach if you had it, but if you don't, it's still darn yummy. Then add the taco meat and bean mixture and the cheese {I added the cheese when I assembled the tacos}. Cover with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender.

Serve in a tortilla with sour cream, salsa and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro. And guacamole if you have some.

Makes 6 servings.

Notes {from Kimma, where I found the recipe}:
This may be my fastest turnaround from seeing a recipe to saving it (on Pinterest, of course) to making and eating it to photographing and blogging it. All done in just about a day and a half! And that's saying something. I'm really on a sweet potato kick at the moment, so whenever I see a recipe doing something creative with them, I get really excited. And this one was really, really great. A keeper, for sure. Especially with homemade tortillas, as seen in the photo above (only because we didn't have any from the store, but now I wonder if I'll ever go back!).

I've made this multiple times now - we LOVE it! I even tried it in the slow cooker recently and it worked like a charm. I did up the sweet potatoes to 3 medium sized (probably closer to that 6 cups of cubed sweet potato that the original recipe calls for, but I'm not totally sure because I didn't actually measure). I also added a whole can (1 cup) of tomato sauce to the meat/bean mixture just because I didn't want to have a half can sitting in my fridge and then going moldy (that's what happened last time). It was perfect. Still haven't tried it with spinach, but I think it would be wonderful. Black or kidney beans are my usual choices. And I don't add cheese in the oven/slow cooker (I did the first time, but ever since nope) - I just sprinkle some on top as garnish in my taco shell.

Recipe Source: The Blanchard Bistro