Baked Sweet Potato Hash Browns

I had no food in the house. The plan was to go grocery shopping later that night, but I knew I'd want dinner before then. Shopping for food while hungry is like shopping for clothes when naked ... or something.

Then I spotted the sad lone sweet potato on top of my microwave. FOOD! My instinct was to bake it with a bunch of butter and brown sugar, but I've been trying my best to cut down on sugar and white flour.

Of course I Googled something like "what to do with a sweet potato" because I couldn't think, and I didn't have enough ingredients to even modify anything else I've ever made with sweet potatoes. This is what I found: http://www.instructables.com/id/Perfect-Oven-Sweet-Potato-Fries/

As much as I hate to peel anything (potatoes, apples, carrots, anything), I decided to peel this instead of wash it. One of my many quirks is that I hate having my hands wet. For this same reason, I also stirred the potatoes around in oil later so I wouldn't have to wash my hands afterward. I do wash my hands, but I hate it.

Rather than try to make even matchsticks, I diced the sweet potato. This is part laziness, and part because a little section of my brain said: "Now you can call them hash browns and pretend you made up a new recipe and blog it."

Bwaahaha.

I'm convinced you could eat this with breakfast like hash browns, as leftovers for a weekday lunch at work, as a side with dinner, or in a giant bowl as your whole damn dinner. Guess which I did.

With the ground pepper, these are quite spicy!

Baked Sweet Potato Hash Browns
(serves 1-3)

1 sweet potato, diced
Olive oil
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine ingredients.
3. Bake until crispy, stirring once.
4. Drain briefly on paper towels.