February 25th, 2010

In high school one of my favorite hot lunches they served was baked potatoes.  They had tons of toppings and you got to pick 2 for your potato, which was a drawback because I wanted them all!  I also like twice baked potatoes, but never make them because I’d rather stay ignorant of the butter/cheese/cream amounts that make them so delicious.  So I decided to try making a healthier version of a twice baked potato with the works (and no lunch lady to limit me to 2 toppings!).  

I baked the potatoes whole in a 350 degree oven for an hour, let cool, cut in half, and scooped them.

I blanched and shocked (put in ice water) broccoli and green beans (which are for a side salad).

I keep my bacon in the freezer and then whenever I want to add some to a recipe, I just cut off strips from the frozen bacon.  I figure one strip is about equal to an actual strip of bacon and then they’re already diced for me when they heat up and I can drain the grease.

 

Then it looks like this and you only had to cut it 4 times for 4 strips.  Apparently the French call this bacon “Lardons.”  But I call it bacon because I can’t pull off fancy speak in the kitchen without giggling.

 

 

So into the mixer goes whatever sounds good to you.  Yesterday for me it was broccoli, chives, melted cheese, and diced bacon.  I then added a good amount of salt, pepper, and a couple splashes of chicken stock.

 

Then after a minute or two it looks like this

Scoop the potato mixture into the shells and bake until heated through.  You can easily make ahead of time and wait to bake them off too, I made them in the afternoon during naptime and put them in the oven 20 minutes before dinner.  I also made a spinach and green bean salad with egg, lemon juice, and olive oil.

I now have the Adam Sandler “Lunch Lady” song in my head….sloppy joe, slooopy sloooopy joe!