I Need Suggestions__Sweet Potato Fail

I have read comments from a couple of you who had assumed that punt days are always successful.  That would be because I haven't posted the things that didn't work, so I decided I would start talking about some of the failures.  I just didn't realize the opportunity would come so quickly. (That night!)

TheHub has been out of town on a retreat, and I did not have to plan a meals around his likes or dislikes.  In fact, I did not have to plan a meal at all.  I could just look through the fridge and pull out odds and ends of whatever was available and have that.  It sounded perfect.  I wrangled up 3 leftover pieces of Conecuh sausage, a piece of a leftover bell pepper and a few slices of onion. 

I also have been cleaning out the freezer to make room for then soon to happen summer harvest. ( I got an email that my favorite U-pick strawberry place opens today, so I did not clean it out one moment too soon)  Cleaning it means also using the food in it as quickly as possible.  At some point I bought a steam and serve bag of sweet potatoes and decided to prepare them to go with the sausage.  Naturally I could not just steam and mash them and leave well enough alone.  No, not me!

After they were mashed, I remembered my dad using leftover regular mashed potatoes to make lovely puffs of potato deliciousness.  He occasionally cooked on the weekends when we were kids and these were one of his specialities. Now, did I call him and ask him how he made them first?  Of course not, I just started mixing and cooking.

                                            Unsuccessful Sweet Potato Pancakes 

          For your frame of reference this plate is a breakfast plate, so the pancakes were pretty small.

1/2  of a 24 ounce frozen steam and serve bag of sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 medium bell pepper, chopped

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon thyme

salt and pepper to taste

2 eggs

coconut oil

Now in theory this is what should have happened.  In a large bowl, stir everything together until it is well blended.  Heat coconut oil in the bottom of a non-stick pan until it is hot.  Drop?Pour? pancake shaped blobs of the sweet potato mixture into the oil.  Flip when brown on the bottom and cook on the other side until well browned.  Serve immediately

In reality these broke apart pretty much as soon as they hit the oil.  I threw out 3 pans of these before I had three that actually held together during the cooking process. I am thinking 3 eggs might have worked better as a binder and I probably should have also added a tablespoon of coconut flour. Not sure and not sure I will never find out, because I thought these were way more trouble than the pay off. 

As for the taste, they were pretty dang delicious, but I was teed off by the time I ate them and did not enjoy it like I would have if I had been successful.  I am really glad I was the only one eating, because after tossing so many, I only had enough for 1 person.

If you have any paleo options that would work fixing these, please let me know.