This is a brand new weekly series I’m starting for this spring/summer season of MBIIP and it’s going to be a cooking show where I prepare an original recipe in the MBIP kitchen!
I used to really like to cook years ago, but I kind of got away from it when I lived in New York because my apartment didn’t have an oven or a stove. New York apartments can be weird like that and I either ate out at cheap diners or whipped up something in my microwave and/or electric skillet, which left me with limited options.
Since I’ve been doing MBIP, I go out to eat all the time, so I thought it might be fun to take one day of the week and eat in and create a meal from scratch, so let’s start this debut edition of “30 Minute Marty Meals!”
This Week: The Cheeseburger Baked Potato Royale
All the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe: One onion. Pam Butter Flavored Cooking Spray, Sandwich Pal Sweet & Spicy Mustard, Chili Powder, Hall’s Snappy Beer Cheese, Cabot Hot Habanero Cheese, Black Pepper, Fully Cooked Bacon. one potato (not two potato and certainly not three potato) and Extra Lean Ground Beef.
I purchased all of the ingredients at the Schnucks Grocery Store on University Street.
Okay, let’s get cooking!
We’ll start with the star of today’s cooking episode, the baked potato.
On it’s own, a baked potato isn’t too exciting, sorry Mr. Potato, but it’s the truth! So today we’ll show you how to turn this bland food item into a saucy and spicy boat of deliciousness!
I washed the potato and dried it off then sprayed it with the Pam Butter Flavored Cooking Spray. I pierced holes all over it to help with the baking process and then put it in the oven at 425 degrees. We’ll let it bake for an hour.
And yeah, I know it’s called “30 Minute” Marty Meals and it’s going to take well over an hour to prepare, but hey, let’s just all settle down and be a little abstract here, okay? Let’s not strive to be this!
The next and very important ingredient is a 16 ounce can of Bud Light! Cheers!
While the potato is baking, we’ll prepare the cheeseburger filling. I sprayed the pan with the Pam cooking spray and soon found out that plastic forks aren’t very reliable when using to mix the onions around on a hot pan! We’re doing this live, so this is what I like to call, “improvisational cooking!”
Luckily I have a real spoon, so we’ll use that for the mixing on the oven. I’ll invest in a real fork soon!
We’ll brown the ground beef now and drain the grease out of it through this strainer. If I decide to run for President in 2020, that will be one of my slogans: “Drain The Beef!”
Now it’s time to really get cooking here and turn this de-greased ground beef into a tasty and cheesy filling for our baked potato. I added the whole tub of the Hall’s Snappy Beer Cheese, it’s so gosh-darned snappy, why the hell wouldn’t you?
Next we’ll season it with liberal doses of chili powder and black pepper to spice this mixture up!
Then we’ll add some squirts from the Sandwich Pal Sweet & Spicy Mustard and the onions that we fried earlier that melted my fork!
And last but certainly not least, it’s time to bring home the bacon! I crumbled up three long strips of bacon, added it to the mixture and now let’s give it a taste!
Wow, this is really delicious! The cheese adds a rich and creamy flavor with the spices and mustard adding some zing to the zang! And the bacon takes it to another level entirely! This could really just be spread on crackers and eaten right now, but we’ll hold off and wait for the potato! We do need just one more ingredient here though...
Another beer! Alright, while the ground beef mixture simmers on the stove, the potato still has about another half an hour to bake. So, let’s enjoy that beer while taking a little musical intermission!
I thought that the song, “Cheese and Onions” by The Rutles would be the perfect tune to listen to while we wait for Mr. Potato to be fully baked.
Do I have to spell it out?
“C-H-E-E-S-E-A-N-D-O-N-I-O-N-S...oh no!”
Okay, it’s time to take Mr. Potato out of the oven and place him on the official MBIP Tasting Plate!
Now it’s time to get all surgical on Mr. Potato’s ass!
We’ll slice him open just like a Manson Family member would do and remove some of the potato, to make room for the spicy and cheesy ground beef filling. I seasoned the potato with a generous sprinkling of black pepper.
And yes, for those of you keeping score at home, this is yet another plastic fork I’m using! I have a whole drawer filled with them!
Before we add the ground beef mixture, I think perhaps we should have another beer. Just like those Seinfeld pretzels, this cooking show is making me thirsty!
Now we’ll fill Mr. Potato up with the spicy and cheesy ground beef mixture and this is where a lot of people would call it a day, but not here on the 30 Minute Marty Meals!
I sliced some cubes from the Cabot Hot Habanero Cheese stick and put them on top of the loaded potato. Then we’ll zap it under the broiler for a couple of minutes and...
Voilà! I present this week’s 30 Minute Marty Meal, The Cheeseburger Baked Potato Royale! And yes, the name is inspired from Pulp Fiction!
This is so tasty and satisfying, it’s really a meal unto itself.
The cheeseburger mixture is rich, creamy, savory and spicy and compliments the baked potato perfectly. I tried to get equal parts potato and beef filling in every bite and it’s kind of like eating a spicy and cheesy Shepherd’s Pie!
When I was done, I was looking at the potato skins on the plate and had a thought: Why not utilize some of the leftover spicy cheesy ground beef to them and make a second course of potato skins! So that’s exactly what I did!
All that’s missing now is the dessert!
Cheers and see you next week here on the next episode of 30 Minute Marty Meals!
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