Potatoes- Goodness Unearthed

One medium sized potato is just 110 calories and is absolutely fat free and sodium free, making them more than just delicious! Potatoes provide you with 45% of your daily value of vitamin C and the skin provides you with more potassium than a banana!
   Research suggests that diets rich in potassium and low in sodium reduce the risk of hypertension and stroke. Potassium helps maintain your blood pressure, and it’s estimated that less than 3% of American’s meet the standards for taking in potassium. Scary thought isn’t it? With just one potato a day you are one step closer to meeting your daily intake for potassium. Worried about Gluten these days? Recent studies show 3 million suffer from side effects associated with eating gluten. This spuds got your back though if you happen to be one of those people, potatoes are 100% gluten free!

Still not convinced potatoes are for you? What about being able to prepare this delicious vegetable in under 30 minutes? I’m going to show you how!

   I was given the opportunity recently to dig my hands into some potatoes and recipes to become a part of a Campaign for the US Potato Board, in which we were given a kit to use and put our own twist to some recipes in a chance to win a $200 gift card!

I’ll share my recipe with you in a minute, first though I want you all to head over to http://www.potatogoodness.com/ and download their PDF copy of the a fun coloring book for the kids! My kids enjoyed it and the book also contains some yummy recipes in there. Get the kids involved in picking which recipe they’d like to make. The coloring book can be found here.  You can also find the US Potato Board on Facebook.

Now for the recipe. My kids picked the “Russet Potato Recipe” from the coloring book and I put my own spin on it. The original recipe called for 1 cup steamed broccoli in which I substitute with some greens fresh from my own garden! I also used a different cheese, but feel free to us whatever is on hand. We also got some potato scrubbing gloves, and a excellent masher that my kids could use to help out with this recipe.

Ingredients

4 medium Russet potatoes
1 and a half cup of Spinach and another tender green such as Baby Mustard or Dandelion greens.
1/2 cup fat free sour cream (optional)
1 cup shredded four cheese blend (such as medium cheddar, monterey jack, asadero and queso quesadilla cheese)
Chives (optional)
Pepper to taste
Tablespoon oil

Directions
Preheat oven o 450F
Pierce the potatoes with a fork. Microwave potatoes on high for about 7 minutes . Remove and set aside till you can handle them, they will be hot!
While they cool heat up a skillet with your tablespoon of oil. Add your helping of greens and cook on medium till the greens are wilted and tender. Should only be about 5 minutes. Set these aside.
Potatoes-  After they are cool slice them lengthwise down the middle. Use a spoon to scoop out the center of each potato and put into a bowl. Mash the mixture with sour cream 3/4cups of the cheese until creamy. Add in the greens and mix gently. Scoop mixture back into the potato skins and top with remaining cheese ans sprinkle with chives. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes. (I actually broiled mine for about 3 minutes till the cheese was melted ) Which ever works best for you! They came out great!.

Be sure to head to both the USPB Facebook page and visit their website for fun recipes, interesting facts and so much more! You can sign up for their weekly recipe email as well, find that here and find them on Pinterest!

Enjoy a potato today!

**Disclosure- I received the products mentioned above , in order to write an honest review. No monetary compensation was received for this post. I did not have to write a positive review, Any and all opinions are and will always be my own.*