bacon + sweet potato + dark chocolate

In addition to menu planning for holiday meals and parties, I love to dream up new ways to serve and present food. There is something extra fun and especially sweet about serving something scrumptious in a unique way. With Easter on the horizon, I wanted to come up with a fun way to serve my family favorite recipe for mashed sweet potatoes. Being that I love a good salty-sweet combination and I've yet to find a time when bacon didn't make something taste better, I went for a food trifecta and combined three of my favorites into one super yummy and gourmet looking treat. Seriously what's not to love about a bacon bowl filled with mashed sweet potatoes and drizzled with dark chocolate?! I'm not quite sure if these little cuties would fall into the appetizer, side dish or dessert category. What I know for certain is they are darn delicious and surprisingly simple to make!

Years ago I got the idea to make bacon bowls from Not Martha.

I've made them a number of times for special occasions and they are always a hit. How could they not be? My biggest tip for making these is to keep in mind that bacon shrinks when it cooks, so be sure to use enough bacon when you're wrapping and weaving the bacon around the cup. Also remember that foil is your friend when it comes to making clean up easy. Lay your upside down foil wrapped muffin tin on top of a larger foil lined cookie sheet when baking.

While the bacon is cooking, you can peel and boil the sweet potatoes.

Phillips Family Favorite - Mashed Sweet Potatoes Recipe:

2 large sweet potatoes - peeled and cubed

1 tbs. coconut sugar

1/4 cup of coconut milk - cream from top of refrigerated can

2 tbs. grade b maple syrup

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

juice of half a lemon

My mashed sweet potatoes are a family favorite, and they are ridiculously easy to make. My secret is that I boil them in coconut sugar water. I add 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar to the water, bring to a boil, add the peeled and cubed sweet potatoes, let them cook until fork tender, then drain most but not all of the water. I leave about a tablespoon of water in the pot. Then I add 1/4 cup of coconut milk from a can that was refrigerated for at least 24 hours so that the cream hardens on the top. I add the remaining ingredients, and then I use an immersion blender to whip to a creamy smooth texture. The lemon juice I stir in last, and it really brings out the sweetness! Feel free to play with spices - pumpkin pie spice is fun to add around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I chose to top these with drizzled dark chocolate for an unexpected twist but you could easily add chopped pecans, mini marshmallows or even more bacon......a little avocado would probably taste amazing as well.......get creative! You could even create a little buffet and let your guests make their own bacon sweet potato bowls.

Do you like dreaming up special menus for your holiday meals?