Baked potato ideas please

[ZombiouslyGhoulblivious]

We are on an economy drive as I begin unpaid maternity leave. Last night we had baked potato with cheese and beans, and DP said he'd be happy to eat baked potato as a main more often.

Does anyone have any ideas for filling baked potato, um, fillings? He works in a tough manual job so no diet type options, and no tuna (as much as I love it, he doesn't).

Thanks!

we use any leftovers as toppings:
chicken curry
chilli con carne
bolognese sauce
chicken fajitas with peppers and onions
leftover roast veggies with cheese
mushrooms with onions, garlic and philadelphia (- yum!)
prawns marie rose (ketchup and mayonnaise with bit of chilli powder)
prawns in garlic and onion
sweetcorn and peppers
cheese and coleslaw

as I said, pretty much whatever you fancy! Anything goes with potato!

ham and coleslaw, you get get a knuckle for next to nothing and just boil it up while the spuds are cooking. The stock makes a good base for ham and bean soup as well

any left overs work really well to (pasta sauces, chill etc) or salads and cold meats

I sometimes do twice baked potatoes as an alternative to the usual cheese'n'beans jackets.

Bake your potatoes as normal, when cooked slice them in half (helps if you have already scored them around the middle pre-cooking) so that they sit like little boats. Scoop out the flesh, being careful to leave the skins in tact, tip the flesh into a bowl. Mash this with any number of fillings - the basic would be cheese, spring onions, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, butter and a dollop of creme fraiche/sour cream etc if you have it. Spoon the mixture back into each of the potato skin halves, sprinkle with grated cheese and place on a baking tray back in the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese on top bubbles.

You can try incorporating left overs into your filling mixture - i.e. some roast chicken, ham, fried bacon pieces or maybe even some smoked fish - I think smoked haddock would work well. I sometimes use goats cheese in place of cheddar. I reckon some fried up chorizo would also work well.

cubed feta mixed with chopped red onion, a blob of Greek yoghurt and a splash of balsamic vinegar, thyme and black pepper.

sounds wanky but is actually really delish and quite filling too. even my feta-sceptic DH loved it.

Oh Sainsbo's mag has these suggestions this month:

• sour cream and bacon with chives
• garlic mushrooms and spinach w cheese and creme fraiche
• cheats chilli and guacamole
• smoked salmon and chilli prawns
• winter coleslaw
• boston baked beans
• 3 cheese and onion

making your own coleslaw is so much cheaper and nicer too. I do 1 onion, about half cabbage and couple grated carrots with mayo and slosh lemon juice. You can add apple, celery, raisins, nuts, orange segments, whatever you fancy. Makes masses. Lovely with red cabbage and orange in the winter.

These are good jkt pots made into mini shepherds pies.

I'm so sorry, I thought I'd come back and said thanks

Thanks for all the suggestions, I think this week we'll be having twice baked potatoes a la QueenVictoria (what a weird sentence!)

Twice baked potatoes with cheese and sauteed leeks mixed into the scooped out potato are v nice.

Ratatouille

Lentil chilli or mixed bean chilli

Yes to homemade coleslaw

I like them with Greek style butter beans and tsatziki too (can give you the recipe if you want it - not authentic but I like it!).

Great ideas!!

I do the same sort of thing suggested by QueenVictoria. Bake the potatoes, scoop out the flesh and mash it with butter, grated cheese, sweetcorn, bit of pepper and chopped cooked bacon pieces. Then put mixture back into the skins, sprinkle more cheese on top and put back in oven or under grill. Serve with salad and coleslaw. Yum.

I might have that tonight actually.