Sweet Potato Hash with Maple Bacon – Kid-Friendly Meals Summer Series

Sweet Potato Hash with Maple bacon – I mean, it pretty much makes my mouth water as soon as I think of it. 

A few years before we had kids, Adam and I decided to do the Whole 30. It was a really enlightening experience and I learned a lot about myself and food, as well as picked up on some new recipe ideas. Because Whole 30 is all about eliminating certain foods from your diet for a period of time and then re-introducing them to see if you notice a difference in your body, we always struggled with breakfast options, as our usual “go to” items were off the list during those 30 days. We ended up finding a sweet potato hash recipe, and I fell in love.

The best part was that I could roast up a whole bunch of sweet potatoes at the beginning of the week and use them for all my meals throughout the week. During that time, I learned that sweet potatoes are pretty much good for everything – Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Add a poached or over-east egg and it was perfection to me. 

Even though we don’t follow Whole 30 anymore, we still have kept some of the recipes handy and use them regularly. 

Alternatives to Sweet Potatoes

I fully realize not everyone has a crazy obsession over sweet potatoes like I do, so if that’s the case, there are several ways you can mix up this recipe. The most obvious one is to use while potatoes or red potatoes instead. 

However, you could also easily make this into a grain bowl and use quinoa and whole-grain brown rice – the options are endless. 

Lastly, after I was done making this meal, I realized having it all on a bed of spinach would have been an awesome way to get in some additional veggies, so I’ll be trying that next time. 

It’s All About Balance

In anticipation for someone to reach out to me and let me know that bacon isn’t a healthy food, I’ll let you know that first, none of the meal options I’m posting this summer are focused on any dietary purpose – That’s the job of a dietitian, and I’m a wellness coach. (If you’re not sure how that’s different, I wrote a post all about the things you might be surprised to learn about a wellness coach.) So, if you have a specific dietary need, feel free to reach out because I have a great list of dietitians I trust with my clients when it comes to specific needs.  

Second, I believe life is all about balance. We don’t have bacon every night for dinner. In fact, I probably make bacon about once a month, and you could totally use other proteins with this recipe, so use whatever works best for you and your needs. I will say that having a little maple bacon in this dish made it extra yummy. I’m also a savory/salty lover over a sweet lover, so this is my way of working in a little treat that satisfies me. 🙂 

Top It Off

This isn’t a sponsored post for Trader Joe’s (I wish it was!), but I absolutely love the Everything But the Bagel Seasoning they have, and try to think of creative ways to add it to food. It’s usually on my lunch with avocados, cherry tomatoes and spinach with a hard-boiled egg, but it was amazing with this dinner as well. If you haven’t tried this seasoning yet and you love everything bagels, you need to give it a try. 

That being said, my kids throw anything across the room that has black specks in it (you think I’m kidding), so they preferred a little ketchup to dip their sweet potatoes in. So many options for this, too! 

Getting the Kids Involved

I find my kids are much more invested in dinner time when we have them help. So lately, they have been in charge of setting the table and for meals like this one, deciding what they would like to eat and how much. I usually will put one item on their plate that I choose, then they get to choose the rest. That way I know they aren’t just eating ketchup and bacon (because my daughter probably would). 

I like this recipe with the eggs a little more runny (be sure to back yours a little longer if you like cooked through eggs), and I haven’t had my kids try runny eggs yet, so in anticipation of them not being all about the eggs in this dish, they helped up make hard-boiled eggs before we started dinner. Basically, this means I make the hard boiled egg, and they crack and peel them. 

Try More Kid-Friendly Recipes

Looking for more ideas to make dinner a time everyone will love? Check out the other kid-friendly meal ideas here! 

Did you try this meal? What did you think and did you make any adjustments so that your kids would eat dinner with you and love it? Comment below!