One of the menu ideas in Simplified Dinners is a baked potato bar. It’s a filling dinner and can also be a great way to use up leftovers: a bit of ham, a bit of beef, a bit of cheese, a bit of sour cream. When I make chili, if there are leftovers, but not enough leftovers to make a second meal, I freeze it to use on top of baked potatoes.
In fact, we had a baked potato dinner a few weeks ago, with ham and cheese and broccoli. It was delicious.
I decided to do another potato dinner last week, but this time had fewer toppings. I was concerned that, with the proximity to the last baked potato meal, it would pale in comparison and feel like a dud of a dinner.
So I changed things up — and in a way that made it not only more glamorous, but also faster:
- I cut the potatoes into big quartered steak fries. Yup, I just changed the shape.
- Then, at 425-degrees, with a spritz of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of seasoning salt, they were done and a beautiful roasted brown in under 20 minutes.
But I wasn’t done yet. I was going to win points with this dinner, even if it was only going to be potatoes, cheese, and a small dish of leftover ground beef with onions.
- I cut slices of cheese and laid them over the roasted fries, stuck it back in the oven for 5 minutes, and pulled out sizzling cheesy steak fries.
Yum, yum. The vegetable side was quartered sweet potatoes that roasted at the same time and temperature as the potatoes, served with a little butter and salt. Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
Then, I whipped out a batch of Northwest-style Fry Sauce, and dinner was a smashing success with all.
It was a simple dinner, but it was very satisfying, and did win me points. I highly recommend that you try it.
Do you have any recommendations for making a simple meal stand out?
Mystie Winckler is a wife, mother, homemaker, and home-educator. Mystie has been married for ten years to her only sweetheart, Matt, and together they have five children. For the last several years Mystie has been paring down her recipe collection, purging recipes in favor of simpler, basic fare. She wanted a short master pantry list, from which she could make a variety of dinners, most of them off the top of her head. Simplified Pantry is the result of that project. Mystie also blogs at Simply Convivial about homemaking and home-educating.
Michelle says
Hello! Simply fantastic. I'll be trying this TONIGHT! However, I'd like to clarify one thing: do I quarter them as uncooked potatoes or as already baked potatoes? Thanks a million!