Freezer Cooking: Twice Baked Potatoes

Most of the deals I find on potatoes are for the 10 pound bags.  This is only a good deal if I make the effort to use up the potatoes before they go bad.  One of my favorite things to do with them is twice baked potatoes.  I typically make a large batch and freeze the extras.

The first step is to bake your potatoes.  There is no set number.  Choose the ones that would make a good individual serving size.  You want them to be cooked until very soft.

Next you want to cut a small section off the top of the potato.

Bonus:  Do not toss those small sections you removed.  Scoop out the potato part and save the rest for potato skins!

Next scoop out most of the potato leaving a good shell.

All of the potato goes into a large bowl with butter, salt, pepper, sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt), cheese, chives and whatever else you like.  Mash everything together well.

Then put the mixture back into the potato shells.  If you wish to serve them right away, bake them at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or so until they are heated through.  If you want to freeze them for later, put them on a baking sheet and cover them.  Once they are frozen, you can put them all in a freezer bag.  To serve, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then bake as normal.

I actually ended up with a bit too much filling so I put it into custard cups to be baked.  

Testing, Testing: Pecan-Almond Butter

I found the recipe for Pecan-Almond Butter in an issue of Eating Well magazine.  It is a simple recipe and perfect to get me back into trying out some recipes.  The recipe is on the frugal side but still a special treat.  I used almonds purchased in bulk and pecans from our trees.  The remaining ingredients are pantry staples.

It starts with roasting the nuts and then putting everything into a food processor.  I have a 15+ year old Black and Decker food processor and had no problem making the butter.  I did stop it every couple of minutes and scrape down the sides.  After about 7 minutes, I had a smooth butter spread.

We ate it on sandwiches.  W decided since we rarely ate peanut butter sandwiches anymore that he would rather have this instead.  I loved the idea as I have never been a huge fan of peanut butter.  I like the small amount and am certain we can eat it up within the one month time frame.

Homemade Pork and Beans

Pork and beans are an occasional side dish as my house.  I used to be able to keep a few cans on the shelves thanks to sales, but the sales seem to be less frequent.  As a result I started searching for a recipe to make them myself.  I found a recipe for Baked Beans with Tomatoes on the Hillbilly Housewife website.

I opted to cook them in the crockpot rather than the oven to keep from heating up the house.  The coloring is different from purchased canned beans.  The flavor was really close though.  I would also like to point out that they is much more pork in my homemade pork and beans.  I ended up with the equivalent of six cans of beans.  I am sure I saved money over the current cost of purchasing the pork and beans.