Tater Skins

Day before yesterday I spent a big portion of my day turning 10 pounds of Russet potatoes into these twice baked potatoes that can be frozen.  I love having these in the freezer.  About once a week they end up being paired with a salad for a no-brainer supper around our house.

twice baked potatoes wrapped and ready for the freezer

Evidently, I put too much filling in the first potatoes because I ran out with 10 shells left to fill.  I didn't know what to do with the empty potato shells, but didn't want to be wasteful and throw them away, either.  Then it hit me - TATER SKINS!  Back in my college days I used to love getting tater skins from Max & Erma's restaurant.  So, I stuck my empty potato shells in a zip lock bag and put them in the fridge  to  await transformation.

These were super simple to make and used only 4 additional ingredients; shredded cheese, real bacon bits, sour cream and chives.  You could easily use crumbled bacon and green onions, but this is what I had on hand.

I laid the empty shells out on a cookie sheet,

filled them with a little shredded cheese and bacon bits (no measurements needed),

and popped them into a pre-heated 400 degree oven.  Twenty minutes later they were ready to be finished off.

I put a dollop of sour cream on each potato and topped with some chopped chives from my herb bed to finish them off.

Yummo! I think that the next time I make twice baked potatoes I may fill them a little too full on purpose so I'll have another excuse to make these super easy tater skins. :0)


I'm linking this post to These Chicks Cooked.