couch potato

what do you do when you have a bunch of potatoes that you don't really know what to do with?

i found myself in this quandary when the hub did some grocery shopping for a BBQ solo.  the party was over and we had a whole bag full of russet potatoes that sat on the counter for a week.  i finally decided to wing it and make something delicious with them.

i tossed them in the oven to bake, and then when they had cooled down to slightly less than the surface of the sun, i halved them and scooped the good stuff out.

i wasn't working with a recipe at all, so it was fun to toss in whatever i thought sounded good.  a dash of salt and pepper, a scoop of sour cream, a little melted butter.  and, of course, some of this:

i mixed it all together and it kinda looks like puke.  but i tried a spoonful and it was SO good.  like mashed potatoes on steroids.

i actually had way too much filling for my shells, but i shoved it all in there and topped it with more bacon and cheese.

half an hour in the oven, and voila!

the rest of the filled shells went into the freezer, and now i have a lovely little stash to make a yummy side dish the next time i'm not feeling like whipping something up from scratch.

you're surprised that they're still in the freezer, aren't you?  it's okay, i truly am that lazy.

more kitchen cleaning-out

thanks to the magic of pinterest, i found yet another delicious way to get rid of stuff in the fridge that's taking up space.  this time:  sopapilla cheesecake!

i might have made this for breakfast.  well, correction:  the bean made this for breakfast.  if i blame a toddler, she won't get in trouble.  heh.  but i swear, she did - with a little help. 

first, mix cream cheese with some sugar and vanilla.

pop open a can of crescent roll dough, spread half of it out, and smear that glorious cream cheese mixture on top.

layer the other half of the dough on top of that and brush with softened butter.

turn around and give the camera a big, cheesy super duper fake grin.

sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of that.

get someone responsible (or, in this case, simply grown up) to put it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, and then ask said someone to slice it up and serve.  voila:

yes, the bean served us cheesecake for breakfast.  that's my girl.

cleaning, the fun way

with about a third of a gallon of reduced-fat milk to get rid of (i bought it for FIL, who gets grossed out by skim milk), i figured the best way to handle it was to make a batch of smitten kitchen's almond-vanilla rice pudding.  you'd have come to the same conclusion, right?

the bean, who was sickypoo with a fever yesterday, came over to inspect what i was having for breakfast (yeah, that's right).  "mommy, what are you eating in my bowl?"

and while she didn't exactly love the pudding itself, she sure had no problems helping me out with the whipped cream.  heh.

later, as she was obviously feeling better - bright-eyed, cheerful, dancing around like always - i dug out something to make for dinner.  we've had a package of lobster claws in the freezer for a while now, and since i never get to that darn lobsta truck anymore, i decided to make my own version.

but we had no rolls in the house, and i didn't want to have to cart the bean out to the grocery store for just one thing.  so i found a recipe and made my own.

yes, i know - they look like boobs.  but they were soft and yummy and a little bit sweet, and i tried to make them somewhat healthy by replacing half the flour with whole wheat.  i warmed up the lobster meat that i pulled out of those claws in a pan of melted butter.  lobster rolls are typically served with mayonnaise, but the hub hates the stuff.  he was pretty pleased with what was on the plate (as was i):

not your traditional lobster roll, but who cares?  it was yummy.  we ate them with potato chips and onion dip, and now i have one less thing cluttering up my freeezer!  total win-win.