Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes - 2 Ways

Served With Some Exciting News...

Double the lunch, double the pleasure!

Hello food friends (is it ok to call you that? Is it too soon?),
I'm going to start by apologizing for how rushed this post is going to be. In fact, I will probably come across a little frantic. The reason for this is because I am attempting to do something that does not come easily to most males - multitasking. At this current moment I am:

1. Writing this post.
2. Trying to organise with some friends what we are doing for new year's eve (IT'S OVER 3 MONTHS AWAY, WHY ARE WE ARRANGING THINGS NOW!)
3. Buying my brother's birthday presents online.
4. Watching The Great British Bake off #IfTamalgoesIwillkill
5. Packing a bag full of three day's worth of clothes for a trip to London tomorrow.

'Wait' (I imagine I hear you say) 'why are you going to London?'
Well Chums, I'm extremely excited to announce that I will be volunteering at this year's Food Blogger Connect event at Chiswick House and Gardens!!! The event itself takes place from Friday-Sunday but I'm heading to London early tomorrow to help with the set up and am coming home a day early on Saturday. The Next few days are guaranteed to be full of wonderful talks and demos, fascinating people and of course oodles and stroodles of mouth-watering food! I'm literally going to eat everything.  

Sweet (and savory) potatoes - because every meal needs a pudding. 

Ok, before I burst with excitement, let's move quickly onto the recipe. As you may or may not know, lunch is my least favorite meal of the day. The reason for this - it's boring, or at least it usually is. There are only so many sad-looking, squashed sandwiches and watery pasta-filled Tupperware boxes a person can take! Hence, when I discovered some sweet potatoes hiding in the back of the cupboard, I decided it was time to make a lunchtime meal that would get me as excited as I get for breakfast. 

'Sour Cream' and Cheesy Chive Stuffed Sweet Potato

 

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
1 tsp chives (I used dried)
1 spring onion - chopped
Handful of chopped spinach
Salt/pepper to taste
20g cheddar cheese (can use reduced/low fat if desired)

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius (fan oven), 170 degrees Celsius (for non-fan assisted ovens).
Use a knife to stab a few holes in the potato.
Place in the microwave (Cheat!) for 5-6 minutes (1000 Watts) until potato has cooked and is slightly soft when squeezed. Be careful, it will be hot, I learnt this the hard way.
Once the potato has cooled enough sufficiently to handle, slice it in half and scoop out the insides using a spoon, leaving about 1/4 inch around the skin.
Place the potato flesh into a bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients apart from the cheese.
Stuff the contents of the bowl back into the two potato halves and top with cheese, before placing into the oven for roughly 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and gone oh so ooey gooey.

Spiced Apple and Peanut Butter Stuffed Sweet Potato

 

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
2 tsp peanut butter
2 tsp sweetener of choice (truvia, xylitol, coconut sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 medium apple sliced

Instructions:

As before, preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius (fan oven), 170 degrees Celsius (for non-fan assisted ovens).
Use a knife to stab a few holes in the potato.
Place in the microwave (Still Cheating) for 5-6 minutes (1000 Watts) until potato has cooked and is slightly soft when squeezed. Be careful, it will also be hot, I learnt this the hard way... again.
Once the potato has cooled enough sufficiently to handle, slice it in half and scoop out the insides using a spoon, leaving about 1/4 inch around the skin.
Place the potato flesh into a bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients apart from the apple slices.
Stuff the contents of the bowl back into the two potato halves and top with the slices of apple, before placing into the oven for roughly 10 minutes. Feel free to sprinkle a little more of that beloved cinnamon on top.

I really hope you enjoy these sweet potato bakes, they're tasty, filling and they can easily be wrapped up in foil and taken to your place of work instead of that shop-made tuna salad that's more mayo than macro-friendly. The benefits of sweet potato are endless: High in Beta carotene, vitamin A and dietary fibre, these guys are welcome in everyone's diet! Anyway I really need to finish packing, so I'll end this post here. I've got clothes and toiletries sorted, printed off my ticket, written out all the journey details and have got some chocolate chip cookie dough overnight oats waiting in the fridge for my early start tomorrow. London's calling and I can't wait! 

Eat well and be happy,

Alex

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