Loaded Sweet Potato, Self-Care & Kindness

My mom has had health issues over the past year, including lengthy hospital stays and needing regular oversight and care.

For those of you that have been there, you know how physically and mentally exhausting it can be. And for the lucky ones that haven’t gone through it, I’ll say with no exaggeration, it can feel like you've been hit by a truck at the end of one of the hard days.

It’s hard to wrap your head around how much you can hurt physically from not doing anything physical, which is a strong reminder that emotional stress is damaging to the body.

And this is just one kind of emotional stress that I’m currently dealing with. Every day, the people around us are experiencing divorce, loss of a job, housing issues, discrimination and violence, and the list goes on.

This brings me to the concepts of self-care and kindness.

Let’s start with self-care.

We have been trained to think of self-care as exercise, yoga, meditation, journaling and all of the rest of it. In other words, the concept of self-care is about “doing” for ourselves. But in the times of life when you are truly exhausted, self-care doesn’t have to mean doing anything. It can simply mean sitting your ass on the couch and letting your mind go numb while watching television.

And you know what? That’s a-ok. That is just as much self-care as the rest of it. Don’t let yourself or anyone else tell you otherwise.

Next, let’s talk about kindness, both for ourselves and others.

Many of us are overachievers and don't know how to not be hard on ourselves, even in the face of great emotional stress. Sometimes the healthiest thing we can do is give ourselves some grace to not do and be everything. This falls in line with it being okay to sit your ass on the couch and watch TV mindlessly, or whatever it is that allows you to check out.

Then there’s kindness to others.

Everyone around you is going through something, and most often at multiple points throughout their lives. Some you may know about, and others you may not.

If you are the person going through it, and you need some space and grace from the people around you, share what you are going through. You don’t have to go into detail, but doing so allows the people that are relying on you and expecting something from you to give you that space and grace you need.

If you are someone relying on and expecting of others, regularly ask them what is going on in their life so that you give them the invitation to share when they might not feel safe doing so.

This brings me to today’s “recipe.” You all know that cooking is my happy place, but you couldn’t pay me to do anything involved in the kitchen right now. I want comfort food that can be prepared quickly and easily.

This loaded sweet potato is just that. Simple to make and comforting, while also providing good nutrition. It’s so simple it doesn’t even require a recipe so much as instructions.

You may not need it now, but if and when the time comes that you need to give yourself self-care and kindness, it’s here for you.

Sweet Potato with Peanut Butter, Chili Crisp and Scallion

Preheat the oven to 450F. Use the convection roast setting, if you have it. Using a vegetable brush or damp paper towel, scrub the dirt off the skin of the sweet potato. Use a fork to poke holes around the sweet potato and wrap with aluminum foil. Bake in the oven until the potato is soft throughout and a knife can easily cut through it. Remove from the oven and let cool to the point you can handle it with your hands. Cut the sweet potato in half. Top with peanut butter or another nut butter. I like peanut butter as it’s higher in protein than other nut butters so the meal is more satiating, but almond or cashew butter are other great options. Sprinkle with salt. Dollop with chili crisp to your heat level liking (I use Momofuku’s Chili Crunch) and top with sliced scallion. Can also be served as a half or cut up into quarters or smaller pieces to be served as a side dish or shared appetizer.