Stuffed Potatoes

Sean's parents have been away for about 6 weeks. They're back! So we're having them for dinner tonight and I wanted to make it a little more special than your basic meal. We decided on Slow Baked Ribs, Asparagus and as the title of this post may have suggested, Stuffed Potatoes. Now I've never made these before. I tried once and decided on mashed potatoes after I hit some issues. I've come along way in my cooking since then and had a lot more confidence that I could do it. I just googled stuffed potatoes and the first one that came up was over at food network. I went through a few different recipes and just grabbed a few things from all of them to make what I imagined would be an ideal Stuffed Potato. Here's what I came up with. We had Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Bars for dessert, if you were wondering.


Loaded Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients

4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and dried
1-2 Tbsp oil
1/3 cup light sour cream
1/3 cup 0% Greek Yogurt
1 Bunch green onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
2-3 Slices bacon, cooked crisp and chopped into bits
1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used a pizza blend, because I had it)
Extra cheese for topping
1 Tbsp melted butter
Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Poke potatoes with a fork several times around the potato. I did about 6 pokes evenly spaced on all sides. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and oil them, place in the center of the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Remove potatoes from the oven, and turn the heat down to 375 degrees F.

Hold the potato with an oven mitt or towel, trim off the top of the potatoes to make a canoe-like shape. Reserve the tops. Carefully scoop out most of the potato into a bowl, I used a grapefruit spoon for this while the potato was placed in a small bowl to help hold it in place. Take care to leave enough potato in the skin so the shells stay together, a couple millimeters should be ok. Mash the potato lightly with fork along  with sour cream and greek yogurt. Stir in the onions, bacon, garlic and cheese. Refill the shells with the potato mixture mounding it slightly, I used a small ice cream scoop to help get in as much filling as I could in each potato. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the potato filling. Brush the reserved top with the butter and season with salt and pepper.

Set the potatoes and lids back on baking sheet, and bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Here's a picture pre baking (for the second time), they disappeared before I could get a photo after.