ATTENTION: This post is for those of us who don’t mind being a little lazy with cooking every now and then. So that could potentially mean all of you….
Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking fancy meals, but sometimes I just want to come home and make dinner in about 5 minutes so I can sit down, eat it, and relax for about 2 seconds! Does this sound familiar?
Never fear! I’ve got a how-to for you today that will ensure a quick and easy side or entrée in under 7 minutes! LET’S GO! 🙂
Happy How-To Tuesday!!!
(Image Credit: The Cutting Back Kitchen)
I think I have an orange problem.
I am a big-time sweet potato and carrot lover. I can polish off a 2-pound bag of baby carrots in about 24 hours. No, really…I also love baked stuffed sweet potatoes for dinner. I could eat one almost every night!! Clearly, I do not have a problem reaching my necessary vitamin A intake.
With this sweet potato obsession, you can only imagine how much I bake up batches of sweet potatoes. Who am I kidding? I never bake up batches of sweet potatoes. In fact, I don’t bake my sweet potatoes at all. I’m too impatient to wait 45 minutes to an hour when a sweet potato craving hits. Instead, I “bake” my sweet potatoes in the microwave. In under 7 minutes, you can have a delicious meal that’s chock full of vitamins, minerals, and that gorgeous orange color of course! Perfect for fall! 🙂
How-To “Bake” Sweet Potatoes in the Microwave
Step 1: Begin by cleaning the sweet potato under running water using a produce scrubbing brush or your clean hands. This is especially important if you also eat the skin of the potato like I do.
Step 2: Pierce the potato with a fork about six to eight times. This will prevent the potato from exploding in the microwave. Trust me, you do not want to skip this step!
Step 3: Wet a full-sized sheet of a paper towel with cold water. Gently ring out any excess water. Carefully unfold the paper towel and place it onto a microwave-safe plate. Place the sweet potato onto the paper towel.
Step 4: Loosely fold over both sides of the paper towel to cover the sweet potato. Covering the sweet potato with the damp paper towel will provide a “steaming” effect when microwaving the potato.
Step 5: Microwave the potato for approximately six minutes, flipping once halfway through. For a medium potato, I normally microwave it for three minutes, flip, and microwave an additional two and a half to three minutes. Smaller potatoes will take less time. Larger potatoes will take more time. Once you experiment a bit, you will find the “right” amount of time for your potatoes.
Step 6: After cooking, unwrap the potato and let it cool for several minutes and use a knife to cut the potato in half. Admire how pretty your potato looks and then top it with desired toppings. Some of my favorites include: almond butter, melted butter, yellow mustard, salsa, ketchup…the topping choices are pretty much endless.
Easy enough, right? 🙂
Whether you are making dinner with sweet potatoes, baking with sweet potatoes, or eating sweet potatoes as a side, save yourself a ton of time and nuke them in the microwave. This is the lazy girl’s way of cooking! 😉
Note: This same method works just as well with regular russet potatoes, too!
(Image Credit: Clean Eating Veggie Girl)
Just like the brightness of the sweet potato, I’m wishing you all a bright and happy Tuesday too. 🙂
XOXO