Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes for Breakfast

Directions

Clean the sweet potatoes. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the sweet potatoes on top. With a fork, poke 4-6 holes evenly around each sweet potato. Bake sweet potatoes for 40-50 minutes or until soft and the skins are slightly wrinkled.

If using uncooked sausage - While sweet potatoes cook, brown and crumble sausage in a large skillet over medium heat for 5-8 minutes or until no longer pink. Drain reserving 2 tbsp. grease, if desired.

When sweet potatoes are done cooking, remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 375°F.

When cool enough to handle, slice potatoes horizontally, taking care to make sure the potato halves will be able to sit upright on their own.

Using a spoon, scoop out the insides of the sweet potatoes and place them in a large bowl, leaving 1/4 inch of potato around the edges so that the sweet potatoes look like a bowl. Place potato skins back on the parchment-lined baking sheet and set aside.

Mash the removed sweet potato, removing any pieces of sweet potato that are too tough or not cooked through.

Add melted butter (or reserved sausage grease) to the mashed sweet potatoes and stir until butter/grease is absorbed. Repeat with the milk. Add cheese, sausage and thyme to the mixture and fold until combined. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.

Using a large spoon, fill the sweet potato skins with the sausage mixture. Use the back of a spoon to create a well within the filling, large and deep enough to hold an egg.

Crack one egg within each well of the sweet potato skins. It's okay if some of the egg white spills over.

Place prepared sweet potatoes on rack in the upper 1/3 of oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until egg whites are opaque.

Garnish potato skins with salt, pepper, parsley and hot sauce to taste. Serve immediately.