Leftovers

The worst part of living alone has to be the dreaded meal of 'leftovers'.

"No, anything but that!"

"How can you eat the same thing over and over again throughout the week?"

"Bah!"

"Anything but 'that' again!"

Alright, so it does get old, which is problematic. It is usually cheaper to make a large batch of something than a smaller batch, especially when it comes to soups and chili. There comes a point where you look at it and just don't want anymore for a few days, even if it is delicious.

The solution to this is finding alternate ways to eat the food, change it up. Of all the foods I find chili is one of the easiest foods to add to something else to make interesting. Chili dogs, chili burgers, chili fries; the chili inspired list can go on. But for cheap nothing beats Baked Potatoes topped with Chili.

Baked Potato w/Chili

Tools:

Cutting Board

Knife

Aluminum Foil

Ingredients:

Chili (see Yellow Chili for my recipe)

Cheese or Cheese like product (I'm lactose intolerant, so you don't want to know what I use....)

2 medium potatoes per serving

Olive Oil

Salt

Making the Beast:

Ok, wash the taters to get all the dirt off and then cut up into 1 inch chunks. Put the chunks of the potatoes onto the center of the shiny side of a piece of 1 ft x 1 ft aluminum foil. Drizzle on some oil (about 2-3 tbs) and salt (about 1 tsp). Pull the sides of the foil up and fold over the top of the potatoes, and then roll up the sides, so you have a 'package' (scouts will recognize this as making a hobo/foil dinner).

Put the package into the oven at 450 F., and place the package in the center of the oven. You can do multiple packages at the same time, just make sure to leave about an inch between each package to let heat pass between them. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour, which should begin browning the potatoes in the foil. Remember the transient cook's mantra: browning = flavor, blacking = burning. Char on potatoes isn't very tasty and you will want to avoid that.

While everything is cooking, reheat the chili (I will put it on the 'warm' setting on my oven burner, but that's because I have an electric stove and can cheat like that). When everything is done, pull the taters out of the oven and put them into a bowl, spoon on your cheese and your chili, and tada! Baked Potato with Chili. You can also top this with fried onions, chives, or sour cream, but I like to keep it simple.

(The reason I cut up the tater is although you can bake a potato in the oven just as easily, browning multiple sides of the potato will bring out some fantastic flavors. If you are more time constrained, you can nuke a tater in the microwave, but it isn't the same in my opinion.)