A baked potato on a cold winters evening is one of the best easy meals around. Potatoes with the skin on are full of fibre, vitamins, and minerals, as well as being readily available and inexpensive.

Potatoes contain no fat, so they are a great food for the whole family—as long as you don’t assult them with lashings of butter. Spuds n beans is one of our fav family recipes and can be taken up a notch by adding some cooked chopped chicken into the beans prior to heating.

You will need:

• 4 potatoes, skin on
• ¼ of a cabbage, finely sliced
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• ½ bell pepper, finely diced and any color
• 1 can of chili beans—about 14 oz (400gm) can
• 4 Tbsp organic low fat sour cream or plain low-fat yogurt
• grated cheese of your choice

 Method

Preheat the oven to about 400°F/200°C. Wash the potatoes well and dry with a paper towel. Bake potatoes for about an hour in a moderate to hot oven. They will be soft to the touch when done. Wrap them in foil if you want the skin soft.

Make a coleslaw with the cabbage, carrots, bell peppers and onion. This can be dressed with some low fat yogurt, or if you wish,  a creamy coleslaw dressing.

Once baked, score a cross in the top of the potatoes not cutting all the way through. Give spuds a slight squeeze from the base to make a perfect nest. Place each one on a dinner plate and top the potato with the coleslaw.

Heat chili beans, divide into four and put on top of coleslaw. Top with lite sour cream, plain yogurt and a little of your favorite grated cheese.
Serves 4.

Image Credit: © Martinturzak | Dreamstime.com