by Amanda Coers

Created on: February 20, 2010

Potatoes are not the diet enemy. When you're counting calories and watching your bank account as well, potatoes are a very valuable, low-calorie, inexpensive food resource. One medium-sized potato holds around 160 calories and includes 28% of your daily vitamin C, 27% of your daily vitamin B6 and 26% of your daily Potassium. That’s more than the celebrated banana.

Get the nutritional skinny on the often mis-judged potato here: Potato Nutritional Analysis

Mash potatoes are king in our house. My family loves when I whip up a nice big bowl of fluffy, whipped potatoes. I love mashed potatoes, too, but they don’t do much for my figure. When I’m serving mashed potatoes I’ll usually set one medium-sized potatoe aside for myself and steam it in the microwave. It’s a quick and easy way to prepare a "baked" potato.

To steam your potato you’ll need:

* A potato

* A sandwich baggie

* Two paper towels

* Water

* Microwave

First, scrub that spud. You don’t want to bite into a dirt-coated potato, it can ruin your taste for potatoes for life. Give it a nice scrub and then CAREFULLY poke several holes into the potato using a knife or fork. Carefully means not talking to your kids about picking up their shoes while you’re stabbing a potato. The potato is wet, you’re stabbing away and getting a little annoyed with your children… your odds for stabbing yourself are doubling every second.

After you’ve CAREFULLY poked several holes in your potato, wrap the potato in two paper towels and soak it under the water faucet. Now place the soaked spud into the sandwich baggie and add a little more water, a few tablespoons. Zip it up and place it into the microwave. Cook for about five minutes.

Please note, this potato will be hotter than any substance known to man. Be extremely careful when removing the potato from the microwave. In fact, give it a minute or two to cool down before you reach in there. Carefully remove the sandwich baggie and paper towels, set the potato on your plate and slice in half. Give it a nice sprinkle of salt and pepper. From here you can add margarine and sour cream and all that jazz… but keep in mind we’re trying to cut calories here. I like mine with a tablespoon of margarine (60 calories).

Baked potatoes can be on the menu for a low-calorie diet. Using this simple, five-minute preparation method, you can enjoy a steamed spud with any meal.

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