When Dinner isn't enough

by Jennifer Frye | More from this Blogger

18 Jan 2007 08:59 PM

What do you do when enough is not enough? I spent all evening preparing a simple dinner for my family. It was a nice hot bowl of homemade Vegetable Beef Soup and sandwiches. I also made a tossed salad with dressing to go along with it. We are just starting to get some cold weather here so I try to plan my meals appropriately. I don't make soup for a hot summer day, but it tastes really great on a cold day such as today.

I cook for a large family so I usually double my recipe ingredients to allow for second helpings. For example, if the recipe calls for one pound of beef, I add two pounds. With four growing boys and one growing girl, it doesn't take long to empty a pot of soup and go through one loaf of bread to have enough sandwiches for everyone.

After my meal was ready to eat and I called for everyone to sit down and eat, I thought that I and everyone else would be stuffed to the gills. But, I was wrong. After everyone had finished and the pot of soup was gone, my kids asked me if that was all I had. I was totally caught off guard. When I made that pot of soup, I thought that I would have enough left over to have lunch tomorrow.

Back into the kitchen I went to see if I could come up with anything else to fix, without spending another two hours in my kitchen. I remembered that yesterday I had made Taco Salad. When I make Taco's, I use five pounds of ground beef and triple the ingredients. So naturally, I had some taco meat left over. So I got creative. First, I baked one potato for each child in the microwave. Normally, I like them in the oven, but I didn't have time. I warmed over the taco meat. When the potatoes were done, I cut them open and loosened the potato and added butter. I sprinkled some bacon bits on the potato. I added about one cup of meat on each potato. I topped the meat mixture with lettuce, cheese, scallions and salsa. When I added all of this to the potato, it seemed like a lot. I served it immediately.

This time, my family complained of being too full. They loved the baked potato creation and complimented the chef. With a baked potato, anything goes.

More baked potato ideas

Baked potato soup

Try this baked potato recipe

Learn more about Jennifer Frye

Jennifer Frye is a stay at home mother with five children, four boys and one girl, including a set of boy/girl twins.

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