All Dressed Red Potatoes

Had our return flight not been delayed we would have arrived home in the early evening hours on May 25.  We would have stopped to re-stock a few groceries needed after being away for three weeks.  Instead we arrived home just after midnight on May 26 with no groceries and an empty fridge.  The next day my husband picked up a few essentials like milk, potatoes, sour cream, and bread because quite frankly neither of us felt like doing a larger grocery shopping that day.  Our first meal at home was a simple, easy and frugal meal.

We like having a meal consisting of topped baked potatoes as the main course on days when we just don't know what we want for dinner.  It doesn't happen often but it is a great, comforting meal.  Baking takes about 45 minutes and there's no doubt about it, the crispy texture of the baked potato skin adds to the flavour.  Instead of baking, I decided to try steamed potatoes that cook in about 10 minutes making them a better choice than baked for a summer meal or when at our vacation home.  Gosh, it gets hot there!  I'm working on a few tried and true meals I can make at the vacation home that don't produce a lot of heat during prep.

I steamed red potatoes then topped the bite-sized pieces with cheddar cheese, sour cream, steamed broccoli, bacon pieces and fresh cut chives.  The cheese, bacon and broccoli were from the freezer so only needed brief thawing although I did warm the bacon and broccoli slightly in the microwave.  This really was a nice substitution for the traditional topped baked potato.  It came in at the 15-minute meal mark and is so easy to assemble that a beginning cook would not have any problems putting it together.  It is a rather frugal meal as well.