The Perpetual Feast

Twice-baked potatoes are a nice side dish.  They dress up a plain piece of chicken or meat, and make it seem a little more festive.  They also can be a meal in themselves, hearty enough to be eaten with a salad or a bowl of soup.  I confess that I primarily made these twice-baked potatoes as something to freeze and take for lunch, reheating them in the office microwave. I’m not much of a sandwich eater, and these potatoes and a piece of fruit will make a nice lunch variation.  I originally planned to make the twice-baked potatoes without the cheddar cheese topping, so here they are with a dusting of paprika ready for their second baking.

But when I tasted my first one, I thought it needed a little something extra, so I added cheese on top.  I froze them without the extra cheese, since I might want to vary things or use a different cheese (like the reduced fat havarti I just bought), but the recipe is for the potatoes with cheddar.  If you don’t use the cheese, you can reduce the overall fat gram count by 2 grams/potato half.

Double Cheese Twice Baked Potato

5 large baking potatoes (about 4 pounds of potatoes)
½ cup non-fat sour cream
½ cup non-fat milk
2 Tablespoons light butter
½ cup reduced fat blue cheese, crumbled
¼ cup thinly sliced green onions or chives
4 ounces of reduced fat cheddar cheese

Paprika to sprinkle (optional – it’s only for looks)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Scrub the potatoes and pierce several times with a fork. Bake in the oven until they are tender, about an hour and 15 minutes.  Do not microwave them – microwaved potatoes will have skins too thin to easily withstand scooping and stuffing.  Remove from oven (leave oven on) and allow to cool for about 10 minutes so you can handle them. Cut 4 of the potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop the insides into a large bowl, leaving about ¼ inch of potato attached to the skin to create a shell. Try to keep the skins intact.  Peel the fifth potato, cut it up, and add it to the bowl. The extra potato will give your potatoes a generous stuffing that will mound above the level of the shell.  Add the remaining ingredients except for the cheddar cheese to the bowl and beat with a mixer until it is the texture that you like.  Some people like their twice-baked potatoes to be very creamy – I prefer a bit of texture.  Stuff the potato shells evenly with the potato cheese mixture, mounding it gently above the shell.  Return to the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 350.  Place ½ ounce of cheddar cheese (shredded or thinly sliced) on top of each potato and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Makes 8 servings with about 4 grams of fat/ half-potato serving (with cheddar).

Variation: if you really want these to be blue-cheesy, use a full cup of reduced fat blue cheese.  This will make the potatoes have 5 rams of fat/serving

Note: Light butter is a handy ingredient, when what you want is the taste of real butter without all the fat.  It is real butter mixed with canola oil, buttermilk, water, etc.  Light butter has 5 grams of fat/tablespoon unlike 11 grams of fat in a tablespoon of butter.  You can’t really use it for baking or sautéing, but it’s good as a spread on a baked potato, and I often use it as a flavoring in place of regular butter.

By the way, it is STILL snowing.   The truck is now completely invisible. There must be at least 4 feet on the ground, and I have been snowblowing twice a day. There is no place left to stack the snow. This is not my idea of exercise.  If anyone sings “Let It Snow” or “White Christmas”, I’m going to throttle them.