Do you know how much it costs to get something dry cleaned these days?

Well do you? A $h!tload, that’s how much!!! $70.37 for 2 suits, 2 pairs of pants, a dress and someone else’s sweater. For $70 I could BUY 2 suits, 2 pairs of pants, a dress and someone else’s sweater!

 

Yeah, along with robbing me blind, the cleaners also stuck someone else’s sweater in with my order for me to unknowingly pay for when I picked everything up this afternoon.

Thinking about keeping it…it’s from Ann Taylor and in my size… Whadd’ya think?

Juuuust kidding. I would never do that. Besides, animal print isn’t my thing. I much prefer black & gold, baby!!!

Oh yes, my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes (who are just screwing themselves right and left OFF the field) are taking on the Missouri Tigers at the Insight Bowl in Arizona tonight!

 

After such a disappointing season, I honestly have no idea how the game will turn out, so I’m crossing my fingers EXTRA hard…

 

and I whipped up a fun, football-inspired dinner of Twice Baked Potatoes to pump us up. Kind of looks like a football, right? Right?!

 

At any rate, this was twice baked potatoes TWO ways.

Russet for him…

Sweet for her!

All I did was scrub and prick the potatoes, then microwaved them until soft (I guess they should technically be called once nuked, once baked potatoes. Details.) While they were cooking, I got the filling ready!

In separate bowls for each potato I combined:

• Shredded cheese
• Butter
• Sour cream
• Bacon
• Garlic powder
• Salt & pepper

Right about now you might be asking yourself, “how can she POSSIBLY call eating cheese, butter & bacon eating better after the holidays?!”

Well, I never said it was an exact science… Plus eating well during the day, coupled with exercise, allows me to be a little adventurous with moderate amounts of luscious bacon and cheese for dinner.

…mmmmmlusciousbaconandcheesefordinner…

Anyways, after the potatoes were cooked, I cut them in half lengthwise and scooped out the insides, leaving 1/8 inch flesh still inside the potato skin, then mashed the potatoes in with the filling.

Next, I filled the potatoes back up with the filling and popped them in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes!

 

I LOVE THESE THINGS!!!!!!!

I’ve never made a twice baked potato with a sweet potato before, but the sweet & savory combo was mouth watering.

The filling was super creamy, thanks to the butter and sour cream, while big chunks of salty bacon lent a fab texture. I could have eaten 14.

Do you know how hard it is to photograph orange things?

Ben topped his twice baked with potato chips, and called it Potato Three Ways. Fancy…!

FYI, I didn’t eat enough protein today so I was starving when I got home. Twice baked potato-making snacks included my kryptonite,

and a buttered bun. How good are buttered buns?! I grew up eating butter bread for a snack and I still adore it to this very day.

Thinking about trying to make my own butter this weekend. Ever tried it?

In big news…

Wellllllll today was the day I found out about the Breakstone Blogger Contest… After countless votes from my family, friends and you wonderful, wonderful, people, I…

didn’t win.

I KNOW!!!! I was sad for a minute. Then I remembered that the ladies I was up against have blogs three times the size of mine and I was glad to have even been competing in their company in the first place.

For the final time – thank you, thank you, thank you one and all for your votes. You are all so very sweet and I knew I could count on you for your support!

At least we’ll always have whoopie pies!!!

In other news…

I updated my dinner, appetizer & side dish, dessert, breakfast, how-to and workout pages! Added a big back-log of recipes, while taking off some outdated ones, and organized my workout page by treadmill and other cardio workouts.

Ahhh, organization! I would totally be a professional organizer if I didn’t get grossed out by piles of other people’s stuff!!

Ok, off to prep for the big game. Wish. Us. LUCK!

~~~~~

How about a nice round of Two Question Tuesday?

1. Do you prefer to cook using precise measurements or by adding a “little bit of this & that”?

2. Ever had any random jobs in your lifetime?

My answers:

1. I am literally unable to precisely follow a recipe when cooking. I think of recipes more as guidelines than hard & fast rules to follow!

2. I’ve had a million jobs including working at a dry cleaners (where I never screwed up an order! ) grocery sacker, swim instructor, telemarketer (worst. job. ever.) barista (best. job. ever) and working in the juniors section of a department store. I wanted a job in gift wrapping, but they sucked me into working in juniors. Hours were terrible was commission was bomb!