Taterrific Trio

The Woodruff thermostat feud has been going on the entire 10 years my husband and I have been married.  I like the house comfortable, Allen likes to avoid using the HVAC at all costs.  He is also obsessed with saving energy and frequently changes out my light bulbs for those horrendous swirly luminaries that put out less light than a candle, but that's a story for another day.  His idea of air-conditioning is an ice pack on the neck.  In the summertime, this means using the oven is practically unbearable.  When I do need to use it to make part of the meal, I wait till Allen is otherwise occupied, crank up the AC, and try to take full advantage of the opportunity.  Fortunately, our huge yard takes at least 2 hours to mow, so summer Saturdays are perfect for making some of my favorite oven-baked meals while Allen is otherwise engaged.

Tonight I wanted to make ribs for dinner, which I think are best slow-baked for hours in the oven, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to try out new potato and asparagus recipes.  The potatoes are the only dish I used a "real" recipe for, so that's what you'll see below, but I thought I'd tell you about the rest of the meal because it all went together so nicely and was such an efficient use of the oven that even Allen was impressed!

About 2 hours before I wanted to eat, I set the oven for 350, rubbed a rack of spareribs with Texas Roadhouse Sirloin Seasoning, wrapped them loosely in foil and put them in to bake.  This gave me plenty of time to prep the potatoes.  After the ribs had baked for 1 1/2 hours, I turned up the temperature to 400 and popped in the potatoes.  After 20 minutes, when it was time to turn over the taters, I took out the ribs, slathered them with BBQ sauce (we like Sweet Baby Ray's), and put them back in, bottoms ups and uncovered, on the top rack to caramelize.  10 minutes later, when it was time to put the cheese on the taters, I coated some asparagus with olive oil and sprinkled it with salt, pepper and grated parmesan and put it in as well.  At this point I flipped the ribs to finish up the other side.  This meal takes a few hours from start to finish, but it requires very little effort other than watching the clock and I thought it was even better than the fancy birthday dinner I bought for Allen at Outback last week.

Cheesy Taco Taters
link to orignial recipe 
Prep time: 10 min  Cook time: 40 min
Serves 8

5-6  medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/3 cup oil (olive or vegetable)

1 (1 oz) envelope taco mix
Sprinkle of seasoned salt

Sprinkle of black pepper

2 cups Mexican blend cheese, shredded

 

Place potatoes in a gallon size Ziploc bag with oil and taco mix.  Seal and shake until they are all well coated. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and spread the potatoes out in it.  Sprinkle with a little seasoned salt and black pepper.  Place in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes.  At 20 minutes stir them around to turn and get all sides browned.  Sprinkle with the cheese about 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

303 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!