Post Furlough/Student Food: Jacket/Baked Potatoes - ultimate cheap comfort food.

 Ah, just imagine the rain coming down outside, the nights drawn in and cosy fire to sit by and a baked potato topped with butter for tea.  Ultimate comfort food thanks to the carbs, but not as cheap as it used to be thanks to the supermarkets.  

The supermarkets cottoned on that you can sell spuds for £1.29  but big baking potatoes can be sold for £1.75 for the same size pack.  Then there are the ready cooked frozen variety - why spend valuable time and fuel cooking baked spuds when you can buy them ready cooked and ready to eat in minutes; all at the heady price of £2.50 for four thanks to McCain.  The packs of four baking potatoes still work out cheap for 15-20p each at this time of year.  Seasonality is a thing though so the prices do go up across the year but this is the time when you can score with the normal sacks of potatoes hiding some of a decent size for baking.  I was hoping that my own garden crop of spuds would yield some nice big ones to use but unfortunately we had to harvest earlier than I expected due to pests and although we had a fine crop of potatoes in terms of number they were new potato sized, gorgeous for home made potato salad but not for baking.  Maybe next year.

Jacket/Baked potatoes take approximately an hour in my oven - the soggy offerings that come out of the microwave do not, IMHO, taste anywhere near as good but in these days when we are all trying to reduce the amount of fuel we use both for the sake of cost and for the sake of our carbon footprint is it time to say goodbye to the humble jacket spud?

Thanks to The Batch Lady I discovered this way to make in advance and freeze, best bit they only 15 minutes in the oven en masse and then 15 minutes on the day so I can fill the oven to make the best use of the fuel.

Of course you can just dollop the filling on top (I am afraid I am so lazy this is what I tend to do!) or scoop out the potato and mix with the filling ingredients, pile it back into the skin and flash under the grill or back in the oven ("twice baked potatoes").  Either way gives a great gluten free carb hit designed to fill you up.

Now what to top them with:

Grated cheese

Tuna mayo either plain or with extras like chopped spring onion, cucumber, sweetcorn, chives

Coleslaw with or without cheese

Cauliflower Cheese

Beans with or without cheese

Pesto and cheese

left over curry (meat or veggie)

left over chilli (meat or veggie)

left over bolognaise (meat or veggie)

egg mayo

coronation chicken

Prawns in mayo or rose marie sauce

sweetcorn and cheese

Sardines and chilli flakes

bacon spring onion and cheese

peppers, garlic mushrooms and cottage cheese 

smoked haddock and cheese

cottage cheese and pineapple

cheese and onion

bacon brie and cranberry sauce

sardines coleslaw and cheese

bacon and egg

ham cream cheese and cress

chicken sweetcorn and kidney beans

tomato and mozzarella

bacon and beans

houmous (beetroot or otherwise)

ratatouille

meatballs - if Subway can do it in a sandwich why not on a jacket potato?

mushrooms and blue cheese

and the list goes on and on.....