Baked sweet potatoes

[Jiffer]

Ditto what angelisic said. I was going to say the same thing about avoiding the microwave whenever possible. Eating food cooked in a microwave threatens your health by violently ripping the molecules in your food apart, rendering some nutrients inert, at best, and carcinogenic at its worst. Theoretically, there are small amounts of radiation leaking out through the glass, and possibly around the door if it is not properly sealed. The FDA thinks it is "insignificant" amounts of radiation, but with the rise of cancer in our day and age, I don't trust that it's not giving me cancer. There are many studies that claim there are numerous other health concerns related to running the microwave, including problems with the heart. The Russians, who invented the first microwave, banned microwaves in 1974.

Now that I'm off that soap box ... ... let me say that I'm so excited that you posted about sweet potatoes. It just so happens I'm making sweet potatoes tonight! I haven't in a long time and I know they are chalked full of nutrients. So far, I've never made a baked sweet potato. I've made sweet potato casserole (like for Thanksgiving) and mashed sweet potatoes, which I'm doing tonight. I think I made baked sweet potato wedges once, which I will try again soon. I learned that when it comes to mashing sweet potatoes, it's better to bake them than boil them, because you lose a lot of nutrients when boiling (as with microwaving, but not as bad). Plus, they come out so much sweeter and tastier in the oven AND they're much easier to peel and cut. It's really hard to cut a raw sweet potato, but when I bake them first, the skins come off very easily and I can squish them into a bowl. I put them on a cookie sheet in the oven for like an hour or so on around 350. They leak a little sometimes, so I put foil on the cookie sheet. I don't seem to need to worry about how long I do them when it's for this purpose. An hour ... an hour and a half. If I were baking to eat as a baked sweet potato and didn't want them leaking out and being overly soft, I'd certainly follow the other instructions you've gotten.

If you want to try sweet potato wedges, cut them into wedges, drizzle some olive oil over them with salt and pepper and bake them. Can't remember how long, but probably a half an hour-ish? I learned it from Rachael Ray, so you can check her site if you want more specifics. Do you know they have sweet potato fries at El Pollo Loco now? (Assuming you live where they have El Pollo Loco ... I'm in Ca.) I seem to be finding sweet potato fries at more and more places, actually. I think it's a new trend. I'm trying to avoid fried foods as much as possible these days, but if I'm going to have fries, might as well be sweet potato fries. Then I can pretend they're "good" for me. But baking your own sweet potato wedges IS good for you. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll do that tonight instead of mashing them. Hmmmmm.

[Jiffer]

Funny thing happened. I ended up making baked sweet potato wedges instead of mashed sweet potatoes. My daughter always complains when I make sweet potatoes, but when the plate of sweet potato wedges was going around the table, she started getting nervous that everyone was going to take them all and there wouldn't be enough for her! I was cracking up. While she'd much rather have regular potato wedges, or better yet full on french fries, I guess sweet potato wedges aren't completely yucky!