Meatless Mondays: Loaded Sweet Potatoes

I've been wanting to do Meatless Monday for awhile now, but quite frankly I don't plan ahead enough. Today I made a plan, got the ingredients, and let my creativity flow. This meal was so so satisfying. I didn't finish my portion and even an hour after I was still full!

Loaded Sweet Potatoes
serves 2 (with leftovers)

ingredients

• 2 medium sized sweet potatoes
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 avocado, chopped (or guacamole if you prefer)
• cilantro
• pico de gallo
• 1/4 cup water or vegetable stock or beer or white wine
• 1 can (15oz) of black beans (no salt), drained and rinsed
• 1/2-1 cup chopped yellow onion (varies by how much you like onion)
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 tbs cumin
• 1 tsp ancho chile powder
• 1 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• fresh cracked pepper
• salt

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 or 375 degrees. (It doesn't totally matters, because the sweet potatoes are done with you can squeeze it and it's tender.)
2. Drizzle olive oil over sweet potatoes and rub it all over. Season the sweet potatoes with salt and pepper. Bake for about 40 minutes.
3. Meanwhile heat a pan (med-high), then put in frozen corn in the dry pan. Don't mess with it. We want to char it a bit. Season it with the cumin, coriander, ancho chile powder, garlic powder, pepper and salt. Let it cook for a few minutes.  then stir it up a bit and let it cook undisturbed for another few minutes. Keep cooking until it's got some charring and starting to really smell great! Put the corn in a bowl with the beans. stir it up. 
4. Deglaze the pan using water, vegetable stock or other liquid of choice. Throw in your onions to saute. Cook until they are translucent and soft. 
5. Now add the beans and corn into the pan with the onions. Saute it all together for a few minutes. Taste it...see if you need adjust the seasoning. (add cumin for smokiness, maybe you like it hot? add some hot sauce or cayenne or ground ancho chile.)
6. Set aside in a bowl. Now take your roughly chopped cilantro and gently stir it in.
7. When sweet potatoes are soft and tender to the touch, they are ready! Let them cool for a bit and cut it open in and * pattern. I mashed it up a little bit to allow for an area to put your corn/bean/onion/cilantro mixture. 
8. Start loading it up with the corn/bean/onion/cilantro mixture. (If you want to add cheese, do it now...and put it back into the oven for a few minutes to melt.) Now add the pico de gallo and  finish with chopped avocado.