Potato Skins

Welcome to Round #2 of the potatoes. To be honest, if the Overloaded Twice-Baked Potatoes and these Potato Skins got into a match to determine which was the best, it would be a barnburner.

I've always enjoyed the potato skins you can get at restaurants, but it's nice to make a healthier, nongreasy version and get to enjoy them in my pajamas :-)

The following recipe is based solely on the potato tops from the baked potatoes from the previous recipe. However, this recipes is EASILY adaptable to accommodate any number of potatoes and/or mouths to feed.

INGREDIENTS:

- 4 leftover tops of potatoes
- Canola oil
- Salt
- 1 cup of shredded cheese
- 3 pieces of turkey bacon, cooked, crumbled (SIDE NOTE: Bacon does really well in the freezer. We never eat enough of it at one time (don't get me wrong...we definitely COULD!), so I keep it wrapped in the freezer and use slices as needed)
- green onions/chives

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 450 degrees
- Cover a baking sheet with foil (makes clean up so much faster)
- Brush both sides of each potato skin with canola oil
- Sprinkle with salt
- Place potato skins on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes
- Remove the baking sheet from oven, flip the skins, and bake for an additional 10 minutes
- Once baked, put ~1/4 cup cheese and ~1/4 of the bacon crumbles on each potato skin
- Return the potato skins to the oven for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is melted
- Top with green onions (you can add sour cream, etc. if you so choose)

TAHDAH! Easy way to use up the remains of another meal without it going to waste. I served the potato skins as a side with a meal of sausage and Ranch Style beans. That was about 30 minutes ago. Am thinking that I wish we had more...

Fridge Salad - for a week!!

It really can't get much easier than this:

Ingredients:

- 1 to 2 heads of Romaine lettuce (it depends on how much you want to make and how many people will be eating it. I recommend Romaine simply because it does a good job of not getting all flimsy and wilting on you after it's covered in dressing and left in the fridge).
- 5-6 TBL of dressing (I use about 5 but it depends on how much you like dressing; the trick is remembering that once it all sits in the fridge for a little while, the dressing becomes a bit more noticeable - if you put way too much you'll drown your lettuce!)
I use Newman's Own Light Sun Dried Tomato



- 1 can garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), drained and rinsed (AWESOME source of fiber and protein)
- Any other salad fixin's you want (I add 1 sliced zucchini and 1 green bell pepper)



Directions:

Just like it says above:
- Throw all the ingredients together, mix it up so they can make friends, and place in a covered container in the fridge until you're ready to eat it
- I keep mine for one week (if it makes it an entire week!)


(Note to self: clean fridge before posting another picture of it)

Before I eat, I crunch up a handful or two of tortilla chips in it - I love my salad with some crunch to it!! We always use Mission tortilla chips (known for being gluten free and they have a great Allergen Control Program in place)



So I mentioned that I try to do this whole thing as cheaply as possible, so here are my tips:

- Yes, it takes more work, but buy the heads of lettuce rather than using the kind in the bag
- Rather than crunching up new chips, when you get to the bottom of the chip bag save the crumbs! I keep mine in a separate bag and use them for this purpose.



- Eat this salad instead of having to go out to buy one :-)