Before last night, I hadn’t had twice baked potatoes in ages! It was always one of those “aw yeah!” foods that my mom made on occasion, and they were so good: loaded with bacon, cheese, and sour cream. It makes the mouth water, non?
These days, I’m trying to eat healthier. Following the DASH Diet since November, I’ve already lost 20 pounds! (To be fair, I haven’t weighed myself since quarantine started mid March, and while I’ve been okay about keeping up on it, I have definitely not been as proactive as I should be; I may or may not have been making and eating more of my fair share of bread loaves and chocolate oatmeal cookies.)
I pulled out some chicken thighs from the freezer a few days ago and not only was I running out of time to use, I had no clue what to serve them with. Remembering I had three Russet potatoes in the pantry, I suddenly remembered: twice baked potatoes. OMG YASSSSSSSSS. But how to make them healthier?
I nixed the bacon (don’t @ me) to keep the fat and sodium down, and subbed the cream cheese for plain nonfat yogurt. I love plain yogurt; I use it in and on everything. I really love Nancy’s Organic Nonfat Plain Yogurt because it’s chalk full of probiotics and low in sodium (no this is not a paid promotion, I just really love Nancy’s [and if Nancy wants to promote this post then to that I say ‘hey, girl, reach me here‘]). Alas, I digress.
Tips When Making Twice Baked Potatoes
- Depending on what you’re trying to cut down on, be it salt, fat, or calories, always look at the nutritional info when picking ingredients. Since I’m trying to cut down on salt, sometimes I end up using full-fat ingredients because things that are nonfat or low-fat sometimes have added salt to make up for the lack of fatty flavor.
- Use Tongs. When those potatoes come out of the oven they’re gonna be, well, hot. And since they’re hot, you’re gonna want to use tongs to hold them in place so you can easily cut them open and scoop out the insides.
- Adding smoked paprika gives the potatoes a little pep, but is by no means necessary. I just love smoked paprika.
- You don’t need to use room temp butter if you add it to the potatoes before adding anything else. As soon as you scoop of those potato insides, mix in the butter. The heat from the potatoes will melt the butter.
- Add the cheese after the butter has melted into the potato mixture. Why? Because I said so. No, because it’ll melt faster than if you add the other ingredients that will cool the potatoes. It’s science.
OK, let’s get on to the good stuff.
Healthier Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 Russet potatoes
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
- 1/8 cup chives (fresh or dried both work great!)
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- salt & pepper to taste
- shredded parmesean
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degreed fahrenheit.
- Scrub potatoes with cold water, then coat lightly in oil (any kind with a high temp point).
- Pincture a few holes in the top of each potato. Throw em straight in the oven for 1 hour (or 60 minutes, whatever you prefer).
- Cut them in half, hot dog (lengthwise), and scoop them out, keeping the potato skins.
- Mix in butter. Once mixed and melted, mix in cheese.
- Add in remaining ingredients, mix well.
- Scoop mixture into each of the potato skin halves. Sprinkle with parmesean cheese.
- Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes.
And that’s it! If you tried this recipe, let me know what you thought below. If you liked it, save it on Pinterest!
