Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

What You Need:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 c chopped spinach
• 1 small garlic clove chopped
• Paring knife
• 1 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• Grater
• ½ c breadcrumbs
• Dash of salt and pepper
• Tinfoil
• Sheet pan
• Mixing bowl
• Spoon

What You Do:

1. Invite your child to wrap the sweet potatoes in tin foil and place on a sheet pan and then into a 350F oven for 1 hour. While the potatoes are baking, he can learn more about sweet potatoes by doing some research online.
2. Once the hour is up, invite your child to remove the sweet potatoes using oven mitts and allow them to cool for at least 20 minutes before working with them.
3. Now he can cut the sweet potatoes in half and scoop out the insides, placing the scooped sweet potato in the mixing bowl and the halves of the sweet potatoes back on the sheet pan. He can put a fresh piece of tinfoil under the sweet potato, which will help with clean up later!
4. Next, invite your child to slice the garlic using the paring knife and add to the sweet potato. Then tear the leaves of the spinach and add them too.
5. Encourage your child to mash this mixture together using a spoon, and then scoop it back inside the empty, halved sweet potatoes.
6. Now he can sprinkle each side with ¼ of the cheese each. Not only is he cooking, he is learning more about measurements!
7. To finish things off, he can sprinkle the ½ c of breadcrumbs on the halved sweet potatoes and then return to the oven for 30-minutes.

Your child can serve the stuffed sweet potatoes alongside any meal for a great family dinner!

Did You Know:

George Washington Carver, and American inventor and chemist, discovered hundreds of uses for sweet potatoes from adhesives to shoe polish?