Loaded Baked Potatoes

I am not a chef. I only understand basic knife techniques (most of which I learned from watching Good Eats all the time on food network). No, I am merely a lady who loves to eat. And I like to eat good food. Thank God found a guy who actually enjoys cooking and is amazing at it.

Now, that being said, I am not terrible when it comes to making food. But I am lazy. I don't like standing around waiting for my food to cook, because I usually begin cooking when hunger strikes me.  I'm not going to stand around the stove for two hours waiting for food to cook. This probably means I probably will never actually try cooking something that takes three hours in the oven (sans the occasional Thanksgiving turkey...maybe) 

I digress.

My point is, I cook food that tastes good and is hell-a easy to make, that fills you up. 

Which is why I am going to share my staple dinner recipes with you, Beginning with Loaded Baked Potatoes (mostly because we had them this last week and Andrew raved about them). They're simple, take almost no effort on your part, and you can personalize them, so the seven year old can eat chili and the five year old can have bacon and cheese. 

So here's a shopping list (for a family of four):

• 4 LARGE Yukon Gold potatoes or potatoes of your choice (I just LOVE the buttery taste of the golden ones)-If you can't find one about the size of a your fist plus half I'd get two smaller ones to even it out (sometimes our grocery store doesn't have a very good potato selection). Use personal judgement, of course. 
• A family size can of Hormel Chili or what ever your favorite chili is. If your choice doesn't have family size, get four normal size cans (unless it's Chunky soup, and then just get two). Think a serving of soup per person.
• Cheese of choice. We buy pre shredded stuff cuz shredding cheese hurts my hands a lot. I try to get stuff that will melt really well too. Boring cheddar is delicious, but I'm sure lots of others are good too. 
• Butter
• Sour Cream
• Bacon 
• Nacho chips
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Hot sauce
• Anything else you could ever dream to put in a potato

Like I said, it's anything you want it to be. I just really like chili in my potatoes. And cheese. And bacon...

-So, set your oven for 350

-Wash your potatoes up nice and good since they're being baked in the skin

-Poke 'em a bunch with a fork. I like to pretend I'm stabbing spiders (be careful of your hand while doing this)

-Stick 'em in the oven for an hour or until you can poke through them cleanly and with out resistance (I'm not very precise...sorry)

-Around the 40 minute mark, gather your other ingredients and set your table (BAM factored it right into the cooking process!)

-Open chili, follow stove top (or microwave! who cares!) directions (unless you were super fancy and made your own chili in which case, never mind). Whatever you do, just keep it warm until dinnerz time.

-If you need to, you would now prepare your veggies or other potato ingredients (grating cheese for instance)

-When potatoes are done, remove from oven, place one serving on each dish. 

-Cut potatoes length wise with a knife in a zig-zag pattern in the center only

-When cool enough to touch safely, push two ends of potato together to effectively blossom them open, releasing steam

-Add desired toppings in desired order

-Sit down, say a prayer, dig in!

What followed our dinner last week was a great murmur of "Thesepotatoesrreallygood"

Like I said: Easy, delicious, hearty and FAST. Start 'em at five, dinner by six. 

Loaded baked potatoes: The way I made them they had lots of protein, some dairy, a starch and whatever else you might want to put on there. Not necessarily SUPER healthy, but better than a nasty burger from McDonald's. 

I would have had pictures if I had had the foresight to be this awesome, but hopefully next time I make something I will think to do that.

Next post: Zucchini Pizza Boats