Her Potato Skins vs My Potato Skins

I have a sibling who keeps purchasing frozen TGI Friday's Cheddar and Bacon Potato Skins from the grocery store. This caught my attention because said sibling has medical dietary restrictions and I wouldn't have thought these frozen potato skins fit within those. Apparently they're ok, but this lead to a discussion of ingredients and then I issued myself a challenge to make potato skins that would be healthier with a lot less ingredients.

While it's true that frozen potato skins are more convenient when you're in a hurry, mine took about 45 minutes to make and provided some stress-relief. Plus potatoes are high in fiber, protein, iron, and vitamin C.

Let's look at the comparison of ingredients:

Ingredients in TGI Friday's Cheddar and Bacon Potato Skins:
Potato Skins (Potatoes, Soybean Oil, Coating [Modified Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Salt, Corn Flour, Dextrin, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Dextrose, Xanthan Gum]), Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Bacon (Cured with Water, Salt, Sugar, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite), Cheddar Cheese Sauce (Water, Aged Cheddar Cheese [Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes, Annatto (Color)], Soybean Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Whey [Milk], Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Mono & Diglycerides, Lactic Acid, Spice, Yeast Extract, Guar Gum, Annatto [Color], Butter Oil, Nonfat Dry Milk), Salt.

Ingredients in my homemade potato skins:
Golden Potatoes, Olive Oil, Salt, Dried Spinach

Essentially theirs has 42 ingredients.
Mine has 4.

Mine is also free of any colorings, nitrites, and added sugars - not to mention I didn't use any mysterious "cheddar cheese sauce".

Their box includes 6 potato skins while I made 24 so I had plenty to refrigerate for later yum.
Their 6 potato skins tend to retail for around $3.19. The estimate of my cost is $2 at most. That means each of her potato skins cost her about 53 cents each, while each of mine cost 8 cents.

In my book, that's a point for me.

If you're interested in making them on your own see my potato skins here.