Hello Giggles girls, as a general rule, love treats. Sweet or savoury, healthy or not-so-much, it pretty much goes without saying that food is something to be celebrated around these parts. As most of us slog through our week of work and/or school, we look forward to Friday when we’ll finally get a break; an opportunity to put on pyjamas, check out the Harry Potter Weekend that ABC Family is always running and indulge in some good eats. Oh, wait… is that just me?
For the inaugural TGIF Treats, I’ve gotta put forward the humble baked potato (or jacket potato, if you’re UK-friendly!) as the eat of the week. After all – I’m going to have one later today and I’ve been looking forward to it for days. Does that make me a pitiful person? Perhaps. But I’ll be a happy one nonetheless.
I know a lot of you are probably wondering how a potato counts as a “treat” (especially when not in french fry form!) but some of us are still trying to keep carbs to a minimum. Even if you aren’t, if you get into the true spirit of jacket potato eating, it soon turns into a special occasion food and in fact will probably replace a meal rather than just being a snack.
I’m referring, of course, to toppings. While conventional tastes tend towards butter or sour cream and chives, the great thing about the potato is that it’s a nice jump-off point for any number of fillings. My personal favourite, as pictured above, is baked beans (Heinz vegetarian, please!) and cheddar. I don’t generally keep bacon in the house, but if I did that would be a go, too.
Other popular topping choices include:
- Salsa
- Chili con carne
- Tuna and sweetcorn (pictured above)
- Sautéed mushrooms
- Coleslaw
- Cottage cheese with onion and chives
The list goes on and on.
If you’re not much of a chef, you can always make yourself feel like you are since these suckers take up to 2 hours to cook in a conventional oven. Wrap one (or two, if you’ve got a friend over/are feeling adventurous!) in foil and pop ‘em in and leave it – it’s that simple. You can also apparently cover them in butter and rock salt for an added crispiness, but I don’t really think that’s necessary.
If you’re lazy like me, you’ll want to speed up this process by zapping your potato in the microwave. No, I’m not going to tell you how to microwave a potato (though feel free to ask in the comments if anything is unclear, ha ha!) but a helpful guideline is that it’ll take anywhere from 6 to 12 minutes to cook depending on your appliance.
Is anyone else a fan of baked potatoes? What toppings do you like?
Images via Martin Lee for Rex Features / The Daily Mail and Burst of Bubbles
tuna, olive oil, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and artichokes YUM!!!!
The best topping is definitely butter, ham, pineapple and cheese, just like a Pizza. Yum! Although, any pizza toppings would be amazing!
Ask someone who knows me on a personal level and they’ll tell you I love potatoes. COOKED. OR. SERVED. IN. ANY. WAY. SHAPE. OR. FORM. I personally love any combination of everything available on my baked potatoes. Definitely diving into a baked potato, mouth first, for dinner.
Ahh, they sell ones EXACTLY like the first picture (with baked beans and cheddar cheese) at school, and you pretty much have a mouth orgasm when you eat them !
I’ve gotten really into microwaving sweet potatoes and adding almond butter or yogurt. As far as regular potatoes go I’m all about sour cream and salt. Or mayo, which I used to have as a kid…
what you have to do is MIX SOUR CREAM AND SPAGHETTI SAUCE, then add some guacamole, red onion, and finish it off with some cheese. maybe some bacon bits if you’re feeling adventurous.
I could start a blog on my love for potato food – potato and leek soup, perogies (stuffed with potatoes), and GARLIC MASHED POTATOES. praise the god of starch for putting these bad boys on our planet, can I get an amen sistahs? (I will regret writing that.)
ANYTHING POTATO RELATED I AM ALL OVER!!! love this, love you.
I don’t make them myself after a heinous incident where I forgot a bag of potatoes in a drawer for… a while, let’s just say, and we got fruit flies and my husband banned me from ever buying potatoes ever again.
But when I was in the UK and went to a jacket potato shop every other day, I used to LOVE the creamy-shrimp-pasta topping. And in the two misguided days in which I worked at a jacket potato stand, I found that by FAR, the most popular was (baked) beans-and-cheese, like 4x as much as all the other toppings combined.
I bake the potato in the oven after rubbing it with olive oil and sea salt. Then I add cheddar cheese, broccoli and jalepenos. Voila! Dinner is served.
The idea of a baked potato with toppings as a snack literally just blew my mind. This was, as Oprah would say, a lightbulb moment for me.
I often make jacket potatoes when I’m feeling lazy and I just tell my husband to “put whatever he wants on it.” I make them like Sarah above me^ and they are soooo yummy!
I love jacket potatoes! I’ve been craving one all day, strangely enough. My preferred technique is:-
1. Stab potato with knife all over and microwave for 2 minutes.
2. Rub with olive oil and season with black pepper and rock salt.
3. Bake for 60-90 minutes at 200 degress celsius.
4. Enjoy a lovely crispy skin!