Baked Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Remember in my last post, when I said that I had 3 days of meals planned, and I hoped nothing ruined them? Well, today, I almost ditched my cooking plans. Today was not a good work day. I had a long meeting, and then had a meeting this afternoon with my assistant cheerleading coach (that one was fine though, and fun!).

As a side note, as I am typing this, the spell/grammar check underlined the word cheerleading....apparently that is not a recognized word...seriously?!?

Anyways, by the time I got home, I wanted nothing more than to collapse onto my couch and watch the Big Bang Theory and sulk, or soak in a hot tub (but I don't have one), or come home to my own Christian Grey who could whisk me off on his own private helicopter (but that's made up).  Anyone who understands the Christian Grey reference is probably thinking, "That's what you'd want if you had your own Mr. Grey?!", and to that I say..."yep". For those of you who have no idea who Christian Grey is, he's one of the main characters in the book Fifty Shades of Grey. If you have no idea what that is then you need to get out more....

ANYWAYS, I opted for my couch and the Big Bang Theory, minus the sulking, but plus some cooking. After all, I knew if I skipped cooking a meal tonight that the ingredients may go to waste (I'm so bad at using everything I buy!), so I powered through and made dinner. I'm glad I did, because it was super delicious. I intended to bake the potatoes in the oven, but with the long day, I baked them in the microwave, took about 10 minutes opposed to the 45 in the oven.

Baked Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
adapted from Pinch of Yum

2 sweet potatoes
1 tbsp. butter
1 small shallot, minced
2 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup sour cream
2 oz. cream cheese (I used 2 of the little individual cream cheese containers, see pic below)
1/2 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
salt and pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
olive oil (optional if crisping the potato skins)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Pierce the potatoes with a fork all over and bake for 30-45 minutes until tender. Let cool 5-10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Saute the shallots for about 2 minutes until translucent and fragrant.
4. Add in the spinach and cook for about 3 minutes until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat.
5. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise. Spoon out the insides, leaving a thin layer along the skin so the potato can sit on it's own. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 5 minutes to crisp the potatoes a bit if desired.
6. Mash the insides and mix with the sour cream and cream cheese. Add the spinach and shallots, chickpeas, and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the mix into the potato skins.
7. Sprinkle each potato with about a 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake for 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted and everything is heated through.

These can made super healthy if you portion out the sour cream, cream cheese and mozzarella, and use low-fat/fat free versions. I used a pretty decent amount of each, so they were not as healthy as the original recipe intends them to be, but they were so so so goooood.