Super Loaded Baked Potatoes

Some nights I come home after work and I already have dinner all planned out, but some nights I come home and have no idea what to cook. Usually when that happens, I ask Lee what sounds good. Last week I had some chicken cooking in the Crock Pot, but had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I asked Lee and he said I should shred it and make bbq chicken. Barbecue didn't really sound good to me. I was thinking that buffalo chicken casserole sounded good. Lee was trying to get over a sore throat and he didn't want anything spicy.  Since we couldn't agree, Lee suggested that we make loaded baked potatoes. That way we could each have what we wanted. He's so smart! On this night, we even used paper plates and kept dinner simple. Here's how we made them: 

Ingredients 
1 lb. shredded, cooked chicken
6-8 potatoes
Butter
Your choice of sauce: Lee used bbq, I used Frank's Buffalo Sauce & ranch
Shredded cheese, we used colby-jack
Bacon bits, veggies, or any other topping that sounds good


To start, I used Mix and Match Mama's Perfect Chicken recipe. I cooked my chicken in chicken broth. Once the chicken is cooked, shred it with a fork. This night, I cooked a full pound of chicken, but I only shredded enough chicken for our 2 potatoes. We ate the rest of the chicken as left overs on salads and quesadillas later in the week. If you are cooking for a larger family, this recipe makes enough chicken to load up 6-8 potatoes.

Next, we stabbed our potatoes with a fork and cooked them in the microwave. Our microwave has a Potato button, but we flip them over about half-way through cooking.

Once your potatoes are soft, put them on a plate and cut them in half. Butter your potato, and add your chicken. Then add your sauce, cheese, and any other ingredients that sound good to you.

I made a buffalo chicken bacon ranch potato, so I used butter, chicken, buffalo sauce, bacon bits & shredded cheese. Then I microwaved my potato for about 15 seconds to melt the cheese, and topped with ranch.

Lee had a bbq chicken potato, so he used butter, chicken, bbq sauce, and shredded cheese.

Enjoy! You can personalize this anyway you want. Some other potato ideas we have tried in the past: Mexican potato with chicken, queso, and salsa. Regular loaded potato with butter, bacon, cheese, sour cream, & green onions. Instead of cooking crock pot chicken, you can even use left-over ham, chicken, sausage, steak, etc, and use this as a way to get rid of your left-over meat or veggies, The options are endless!

Shrimp, Steak, & Bacon Quesadillas

Everyone has those nights where you really just don't feel like cooking, or you simply don't have time. Tonight, for me, was one of those nights. I have an assignment due for my online class on Saturday, and reading to do for my night class tomorrow. Thursday and Friday night I'm going to be busy making cupcakes for my nephew's birthday party this Saturday, so tonight I really need to get my assignment and reading done for my classes (Check out my page later this week to see my cookies n cream cupcakes). Since my night is already pretty busy, I decided to make a quick dinner: quesadillas.

I love making quesadillas because there are no rules! You can put almost anything in them and they'll be good. Last night I grilled steaks for Lee and I, but I couldn't finish all of mine. I also had a few shrimp thawed out that didn't get used from our Yummy Shrimp Tacos last week, and some corn left over from our steak dinner. These three things, along with some chopped bacon, onions, and mushrooms got put into our quesadillas. Here's how I made them:

Ingredients:
2 tortilla shells
1/3 cup shredded cheese (I like Colby-Jack)
*left-over meat and veggies (I used steak and peppers, but chicken or shrimp would both good too!)
*1 chopped mushroom
*1/3 chopped onion
*2 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
*These ingredients are all optional! Use what you have in your fridge, and personalize this to what your family likes.

Each recipe makes 2 servings.

I had some bacon thawed out that needed to be cooked up, so I took two pieces of bacon, cut them in half, and cooked them in the skillet. Once they were cooked, I removed the bacon and set on a paper towel, and left my grease in the skillet. Once the bacon cools, cut it into smaller pieces and set aside with the other chopped meats. If you're wanting to eat healthier, skip the bacon all together and just heat some extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in your skillet.

Next, I chopped my onion and mushroom and threw them in the skillet with the bacon grease. Once the onions were nearly soft, I threw in my chopped steak, de-tailed shrimp, left-over corn, and chopped bacon pieces. I stirred all of them up over medium heat until they were all warm.

Then I plugged in our quesadilla maker and put a tortilla on the bottom. (If you don't have a quesadilla maker, you can use a Panini press, or simply a skillet on the stove.) Fill the tortilla with your heated food mixture and throw some cheese on top. I like lots of cheese, so I used about 1/3 cup, but you can go more or less depending on your preference. Slap another tortilla on top, close the quesadilla maker, and let it cook. Once the tortilla shell is browned, take it out a cut into triangles using a pizza cutter or kitchen scissors.

I like to serve my quesadillas with queso and salsa. I love this meal because dinner can be ready in about 20 minutes!

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