Visit Nancy Fox at SkinnyKitchen.com to see more of her recipes, like this one for easy baked sweet potatoes.
My family adores sweet potatoes. I love making them year round, not just for Thanksgiving. My favorite way is to bake them, which brings out their natural sweetness. Once baked, I love to fill them with a bit of reduced-fat butter and a dash of cinnamon. One medium size potato prepared this skinny way has just 128 calories, 3 grams of fat and 5 Weight Watchers SmartPoints. This potato makes a wonderful side dish for turkey, chicken, beef or pork. One serving also makes a super healthy, low-calorie snack. Mmm…
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bake Time: 50-60 minutes
Ingredients
4 medium sweet potatoes (yams) about 5” long, see shopping tip
2 tablespoons reduced-fat butter
Cinnamon, optional
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash and dry each potato and pierce with a fork a few times. Wrap each in foil and place on baking sheet.
3. Bake for 50-60 minutes until soft.
4. Remove foil, cut in half and mash each with ½ tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top, if desired.
Makes 4 servings (1 sweet potato with ½ tablespoon reduced-fat butter)
Healthy Benefit
Sweet potatoes are relatively low in calories and have no fat. They are rich in beta-carotene; having five times the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A in one sweet potato. They also contain an impressive amount of potassium, fiber and vitamin C.
Shopping Tip
In the U. S. most people call the kind of potatoes I’m using for this recipe sweet potatoes, but I’m really talking about yams in the U.S. They’re the darker skinned potatoes with a deep orange center as opposed to most of the sweet potatoes found in our markets. They have a much lighter colored skin and pale yellow inside. They’re not nearly as sweet, moist or flavorful. I’m using the type that restaurants use to make sweet potato fries.
Weight Watchers SmartPoints 5
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 4
Weight Watchers (old points) 3
SKINNY FACTS: for 1 sweet potato with ½ tablespoon reduced-fat butter
128 calories, 3g fat, 2g sat.fat, 7mg chol, 2g protein, 24g carbs, 4g fiber, 86mg sodium, 6g sugar
FAT FACTS: for 1 sweet potato using 1 tablespoon regular butter
204 calories, 12g fat, 2g protein, 24g carbs, 4g fiber, 123mg sodium, 10g sugar
Nancy Fox
Nancy Fox is no stranger to the food industry. She founded Mrs. Beasley's, a gift-basket company featuring baskets full of decadent baked goods. It became the "hot" gift to give among the Hollywood community. Nancy later opened 2 low fat restaurants called Nancy’s Healthy Kitchen. Her line of reduced-fat cookies were featured on "Oprah's Favorites" gift show. Continuing her passion for cooking and baking Nancy created a recipe website called Skinny Kitchen. Each week she shares skinny recipes, cooking and kitchen tips, food finds and the healthy benefits of many recipes. There’s also nutritional facts and Weight Watchers POINTS on each recipe.
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nancy@skinnykitchen.com
Friday 29th of July 2016
Thank you for sharing my recipe. I'm actually making these tonight with a mustard chicken. I hope you enjoy them!
My best, Nancy
Andrea Bates
Friday 29th of July 2016
Oh, yay! They look so good. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods of all time. I could probably live off of them. Maybe. ;)