WHOLE BAKED SWEET POTATO in the oven (quick and to the point!)

Oven-baked sweet potatoes are delicious, nutritious, and comfort food at its best. They work great as a side dish, you can use them as a base for a main meal, they're perfect for meal prep, and they couldn't be any easier to make. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and then line a rimmed baking sheet, which is also called a half sheet pan, with some parchment paper or foil. And then I like to place a wire rack right over the top. This isn't necessary, but it does help for the hot air to circulate around the potatoes, which help the potatoes cook more evenly. I also like to just spray that rack with a little bit of cooking spray, just to make sure my potatoes don't stick. To prep your potatoes, simply give them a rinse under some cool water. You could use a scrub brush if you have one, but I just like to use my thumbs. Next, I'll pat my potatoes dry, and then lay them right on the wire rack. If you're not using a wire rack, then you can put them right on the baking sheet. Then using a fork, I'm just going to poke three to four rows of holes over the top, and then I like to pick it up and do the bottom as well. These holes don't need to be super deep. You just want to help the steam escape from the potatoes, so your potatoes don't explode in the oven. Then I'll pop these into my 400 degree oven, and let them go anywhere between 45 and 60 minutes, or until the outside of the potato is nice and crisp, and the inside is creamy and tender. You'll know your potato is done because a knife will easily slide right through the potato, just like this. If the natural sugars from the sweet potatoes have started to bubble and ooze out a bit, that's another sure sign that your potatoes have been baked to perfection. Sweet potatoes can be enjoyed in so many different ways. You can keep it classic, slice it in half, add a pat of butter, a little bit of salt and pepper. That will never let you down. Or you can create fun little meals with it. Something I love to do is cut my baked sweet potatoes into rounds, and then I will top them with fun little toppings. I've been on a cottage cheese cake lately, so a few of my favorites are the following. I will add some cottage cheese and everything bagel seasoning to the top of a sweet potato round if I want something savory. So good. Another favorite is some cottage cheese with a little bit of cinnamon and honey. Absolutely delicious. If you have a sweet tooth, add a little nut butter if you really want to go crazy. And then another favorite is add a little cottage cheese and top it with some smoked salmon and black pepper. These are all simple ideas that literally take two minutes if your sweet potatoes are prepped and ready to go. And if you're looking for more of a main meal, one of our family favorites is inside the Clean & Delicious Cookbook. I take baked sweet potatoes, stuff them with shredded barbecue chicken and coleslaw. So simple, so delicious. If you want to check the book out, I'm going to link it for you down in the description box below. And a few other tips to keep in mind when you're working with sweet potatoes is this base technique will work with any color sweet potato. So orange, red, cream, purple, they will all bake up to perfection using this exact technique. In a perfect world, you want to try to look for sweet potatoes that are the same shape and size because this is going to help them to cook up more evenly, which is also going to make your life a little bit easier. And then finally, if you're adding baked sweet potatoes to your meal prep, once they are cooled down, all you need to do is transfer them to an airtight container. You can do this whole or you can do what I like to do and slice them into nice hearty rounds. Pop the lid on and this will happily last in your fridge for up to five or six days. So now I want to hear how you love to enjoy your baked sweet potatoes. Be sure you come on down to the comment section below and do share. And as always, thank you so much for watching. I'm Dannie Spees and I'll see you back here next time with some more Clean & Deliciousness. Cheers!