Twice Baked Taco Stuffed Potatoes

  When I bought two bags of organic potatoes for 99 cents each, I needed to figure out a way to use them in case they started going bad since they were reduced.  I didn’t want us to have to each a bunch of starchy potatoes within 2 weeks, so I made Potato and Crab Chowder to eat then, and Twice Baked Taco Stuffed Potatoes to freeze and eat later.  These are so easy to customize and would even be awesome as a vegetarian dish by using black beans or lentils instead of ground beef.  You could also easily substitute ground or shredded chicken as well.  You can use any taco fillings that you prefer. 

Twice Baked Taco Stuffed Potatoes

• 8-10 Idaho Potatoes, or your favorite baking potatoes
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped, or 3 T. minced dried onion
• 1 packet of taco seasoning mix
• 1-2 bell pepper, chopped (I used 1/2 bag of frozen chopped peppers)
• 1 jar of favorite salsa
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• pepper, to taste
• red pepper flakes, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Scrub potatoes and remove any large eyes.  Rub with oil, sprinkle with salt, and place on a baking sheet covered in foil in the middle of the oven.  Bake for an hour, flipping after 30 minutes.

While potatoes are baking, prepare filling.  Cook beef, garlic, onion, and peppers in a large skillet until the beef is no longer pink.  Add taco seasoning mix along with 3 tablespoons of water.  Cook 3 more minutes until slightly thickened.  Place mixture in a large bowl.

When potatoes are finished baking, allow them to cook for 20 minutes or so until you’re able to handle them comfortably.  Cut each potato in half and scoop out the filling, leaving a 1/2 inch shell around each potato.  Mix scooped-out potato and salsa into the taco mixture and stir well.  I used a potatoes masher to mash the potatoes and blend the mixture at the same time.  If you have more potato mixture than you’d like to use, just set aside for another purpose.  Stir in cheese.  Mound taco mixture into the potato shells.  You may not use all of the filling in the potato halves.  Place filled potato halves on a baking sheet and place in freezer to flash freeze for several hours or overnight.  Once frozen, transfer to freezer bags.

To serve: Remove from freezer and place on a baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes (or microwave for 2-3 minutes or until heated through).  Serve with sour cream, if desired.

We had quite a bit leftover filling.  We used it as omelet fillings and just ate it out of a bowl. Obviously it would work well in taco shells too.  Extra filling meant I made several meals for the freezer (the stuffed pototoes) and several for right now.  We haven’t actually baked these potatoes from the freezer yet, but the filling was so good that I know they are going to be awesome.