While I have made my own version of the panini before, I wanted to see try an equally good but less time consuming version that I could easily make for a weeknight meal. And that is what this recipe is: Easy and Fast. It only requires a few ingredients and one pan.

Chicken Pesto Burgers

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground chicken
• 3  tablespoons of Pesto
• 2 teaspoons grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Mozzarella or Provolone Cheese

Kitchen Tools:

• 1 grill pan (or a skillet)
• Medium size bowl
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Wooden spoon (for mixing)
• Meat thermometer

Instructions:

1. In your medium size bowl, combine the ground chicken, pesto, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper. Use the wooden spoon to mix all the ingredients together.

2. To make sure all the ingredients are thoroughly mix, use your hands to completely combine everything together.

3. Spray your grill pan (or skillet) with non-stick cooking spray and heat the pan on medium heat.

4. One pound of ground chicken will yield 4 quarter pound burgers. Divide the meat into four and form 4 burgers. Place them in the grill pan.

5. Cook the burgers on each side for approximately 5 minutes.

6. Cooking chicken burgers can be a little tricky — you want to make sure they are cooked through, but you don’t want to overcook them. Be aware that chicken burgers dry out faster than ground beef. To be safe, check the burgers with a meat thermometer. Each burger should have an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

7. Remove the burgers from the pan, serve on buns or on bread of your choice with either Mozzarella or Provolone Cheese.

8. Enjoy!

I decided to serve my chicken pesto burger with some shredded mozzarella cheese.

You know what that means? Picnics. Yeah, I know, I know…who wants to think about picnics when it’s still snowing…but warm weather will be here before you know it.

So, today, I’m offering up one of my go-to picnic and/or party recipes: Easy Taco Stack-Up.

While it may not look like much, Taco Stack-Up is definitely a delicious little casserole that is easy to make and really versatile. You can dress it up or dress it down however you like! And, it’s not just good for a picnic or a party — it’s also a really great and easy dinner recipe too!

Easy Taco Stack-Up

Makes: One 13×9 in. casserole.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 cans Campbell’s condensed cheddar cheese soup
• 2 packages of taco seasoning
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 package of at least 8 burrito (large) size flour tortillas (If you prefer corn tortillas or another variety, feel free to change it up)
• 1 package shredded cheddar cheese

Tools:

• One 13×9 baking dish (I use a clear glass Pyrex dish)
• One large skillet
• Aluminum foil
• Colander/strainer
• Ladle
• Non-stick cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Place the ground beef into the skillet and brown it over medium heat until it is cooked thoroughly.

2. Once the ground beef is cooked through and no pink remains, drain the beef. Once drained, return the beef to the skillet.

3. Add the taco seasoning, cheddar cheese soup, and water to the ground beef and stir until all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

Just in case you’ve never used it, this is the Campbell’s Cheddar Cheese Soup.

4. Simmer the beef mixture on medium heat for approximately 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened and is no longer watery.

5. Once the beef mixture has simmered thoroughly, prepare your 13×9 baking dish by spraying it with non-stick cooking spray.

6. Using a ladle, transfer enough of the beef mixture into the baking dish to cover the bottom. Layer one and 1/2 tortillas over the mixture and start alternating layers until you are out of beef mixture.

7. After you have done  the last layer of the beef mixture, place two whole tortillas on top of the stack-up. (If you feel the top is not completely covered by those two tortillas, you can tear smaller pieces off another tortilla and cover open spaces.)

8. Cover  the stack-up with aluminum foil and place it  in a 350 degree oven. Bake for 20 minutes.

9. After 20 minutes, remove the aluminum foil from the stack-up and sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top of the stack-up. Return to the oven uncovered until the cheese is melted (approximately 5 minutes).

10. Remove the stack-up from the oven.

11. Cut, serve, and enjoy!

At the beginning of this post I talked about how versatile this recipe is:

To jazz it up, add beans, onions, and/or green peppers to the beef mixture. Also serve it with your favorite taco fixings like sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.

I didn’t have any other pictures to use here, so please enjoy this Astronaut Sloth… Slothstronaut.

Hey there! A while back, I said I’d let you know when I have my wedding blog up and running, and now that I do, I figured I should probably share the link: Twyf Becomes Wife. (How perfect is that, right?) I’ve been a little slow in updating it (sorry, couldn’t resist), but check it out, please. Let me know what topics you’d like to see!

Now, I know you all have probably had your fill of chocolate between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, but this is the easiest. dessert. ever. It really is. I made it a few weekends ago for our weekend potluck at work and my co-workers raved over it. Even with non-fat and low-fat ingredients, it still tastes incredibly rich.

Ingredients

- 2 cups plain yogurt (can be non or low-fat)
- 2 cups thawed whipped cream (can be non or low-fat)
- 1 18oz. box brownie mix
- handful of chocolate chips (optional)

1. Mix 2 cups of yogurt with 2 cups of whipped cream in a large bowl.

2. Blend 18oz. of chocolate brownie mix into the yogurt and whipped cream. This was easier when I did it gradually, not all at once. Using a hand mixer also helps.

That’s it!

I put all of it in a large container and sprinkled a handful of chocolate chips on top. You can try it on top of graham crackers, but I also like it as a really decadent chocolate yogurt/pudding type dessert. Hope you enjoy it!

So, here’s my extremely easy, pretty fast, and definitely delicious recipe for pepperoni rolls to help get you through the game!

Recipe Makes:  3 Large (approx. 14 inches in length) Pepperoni Rolls which are ideal for slicing for a crowd, or 6 smaller (approx. 7 inches in length) Pepperoni Rolls.

**For the purpose of this demonstration (and since I was making Pepperoni Rolls for a party), I made the large Pepperoni Rolls because I sliced them before serving.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Rhodes frozen pizza dough (contains 3 loaves of dough) or any other frozen or fresh pizza dough of your choice.

• 2 8oz bags of shredded mozzarella cheese (approx. 4 cups) Note: You may not uses all 4 cups, but it’s best to have extra just in case.

• 3/4 lb. of sandwich pepperoni (the large, salami size pieces) Note: Again, you probably will not use all of the pepperoni, but it is better to have more than you need than to run out.

• 1 stick margarine, melted

• Italian seasoning

• Garlic powder

• 1 egg, beaten

Tools:

• Pastry sheet, or appropriate surface to roll dough on
• Rolling Pin
• Non-stick cooking spray
• 2 Pastry/Basting Brushes
• Saucepan
• 10″x 15″ baking sheet

Instructions:

1. If you are following the recipe and using the frozen Rhodes pizza dough, follow the directions on the bag to thaw the dough. You can either place the dough in the refrigerator overnight or place it in a warm place for 3 to 4 hours. The dough does not have to rise before rolling.

2. Once the dough is thawed, set up your rolling surface. I use a Tupperware pastry sheet. Instead of using flour to coat my rolling surface, I spray the pastry sheet with non-stick cooking spray. For rolling the frozen dough, this works better than flour.

3. Separate the 3 loaves of dough. If you are making 6 pepperoni rolls, cut each loaf in half prior to rolling.

4. Place the first loaf on the pastry sheet. Spray the rolling pin with a small amount of non-stick cooking spray.

5. Roll the dough out until it is approximately 14 inches long and 8-10 inches wide.

6. Try to roll the dough out as straight as possible. If the edges are relatively even, the pepperoni roll will be neater and less likely to unfurl as it bakes.

7. In a small saucepan, melt the margarine and add the garlic powder and Italian seasoning (there are no particular measurements for the spices — just add to taste).

8. Using the basting brush, spread the margarine mixture on the dough.

9. Evenly spread the pepperoni and mozzarella on the dough. (Use as much or as little as you wish.)

10. Slowly roll the pepperoni roll as tightly as you can, leaving the edge underneath the roll. Tuck the ends under roll also.

11. Spray the baking sheet and transfer the pepperoni roll to the baking sheet.

12. Beat the egg, and lightly brush the pepperoni roll.

13. Bake the Pepperoni roll at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

14. Let cool.

15. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Questions? Comments? Let me know how your pepperoni rolls turn out!

So, when I found this awesome baked corn dog recipe in Food Network Magazine awhile ago I was really excited. I tried it out for a picnic and it was great. Now, you’re probably asking why in the heck I’m blogging about this now, you know, in October. Well, this sounded better than pork chops the other night so I made some and, lucky for you, I documented it as I went along!

Baked Corn Dogs

**Note, I am giving you the same recipe as appeared in Food Network Magazine and as shared in the link above. However, the photos included in this post was a double recipe (I froze the other half.)
Also, unlike the recipe included above, I leave the hot dogs whole and do not cut them in half first. They are easier to roll this way. If you want, it is easy to cut them in half after they are baked if you’re serving them at a party. Or leave them whole if you’re having them for lunch/dinner.

1 recipe makes: 8 corn dogs (you may have a little bit of dough left over)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup reduced-fat milk
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for greasing
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
• 1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for kneading
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika or cayenne pepper
• 8 bun length hot dogs
• 1 large egg, beaten

Equipment:

• 2 Large Mixing bowls, one for mixing and one for rising
• Wooden spoon
• Spatula
• Small saucepan
• 1 large baking sheet
• Basting brush
• Silicon/plastic pastry sheet for kneading (optional — you could also use saran wrap or wax paper)

Instructions:

1. Warm the milk in a saucepan to approximately 110 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a cooking thermometer, use it. If not, guesstimate.

2. Once the milk has reached 110 degrees, remove the milk from the saucepan and pour it in one of the mixing bowls.

3. To the warmed milk, add the package of yeast. Sprinkle it evenly over the milk. Let the yeast soften for 2 minutes.

4. After letting the yeast soften for 2 minutes, add the olive oil, brown sugar, and cornmeal.

5. Stir the milk, cornmeal, oil, yeast, and brown sugar mixture thoroughly.

6. Next, add the flour, baking soda, salt, and paprika.

(I used Paprika, but the original recipe also suggests using cayenne pepper.)

7. Thoroughly blend the mixture until all ingredients are incorporated.

8. Now you’re ready to knead! Unfortunately, this is the hard part. One downside of this recipe is that the dough, prior to kneading is very sticky. It is manageable, but To do this you have two options:

Option 1. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a flour-coated pastry sheet (or on wax paper/saran wrap). Again, the dough is very, very sticky. You will need to add flour to it until it loses most of its stickiness and you can knead it and form it into a smooth ball.

Option 2. I highly suggest this. Make the recipe in a larger bowl than you think you’ll need. Then, instead of taking the dough out of the bowl, simply knead it in the bowl. Keep adding flour and keep kneading the dough until it is smooth. This really is much easier than option 1. It’s much less messy and uses less equipment!

9. Place the kneaded dough into the second mixing bowl. Before placing the dough in the new bowl, grease the sides of the bowl with olive oil.

When you’ve kneaded the dough it will look like this!

10. Cover the bowl of dough with saran wrap and place it in a warm, dry place. Let the dough rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it has doubled in size.

11. Spray your baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and remove the hot dogs from the package.

12. Place a sheet of saran wrap or wax paper down on whatever surface you will use to roll the dough and wrap it around the hot dogs. Using flour is not necessary, unless your dough is still overly sticky. I actually sprayed a little non-stick cooking spray on my piece of saran wrap and it worked just fine.

13. Taking small pieces of dough from the bowl, use the palms of your hands to roll the dough into  long “snake-like” pieces. In order to wrap the entire hot dog, you will likely need more than 1 “snake” of dough.

14. Begin wrapping the dough around each hot dog, pressing it down lightly as you spiral the dough around the hot dog.

Note: The thinner your dough “snake” is, the more compact the corn dog will be after it is baked. If you use thicker pieces of dough, the corn dog will puff up considerably while baking.

15. Place the wrapped hot dogs on the baking sheet. Take the beaten egg and egg wash each corn dog.

16. Bake the corn dogs at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-18 minutes or until they are a light golden brown.

Pair with the condiment of your choice and serve!

Enjoy!

If you’ve answered yes, then I have a recipe for you!

It’s no secret amongst my family and friends that chicken is probably my favorite food. Mostly, I love it because it is such a versatile ingredient. So, I’m always looking for new chicken-related recipes.

Although I don’t mind more complicated recipes, easy recipes are always great to have when you’re short on time or simply don’t feel like putting the effort into making some extravagant meal. For example, I made Chicken Paprikash a few weeks ago for the first time and by the time I was done I needed a nap (just kidding).

So, I was very excited to learn that you could roast a whole chicken in the CrockPot. Oh, I love the CrockPot…haha.

Roasted Chicken is always a good bet.

Ingredients:

– 1 whole chicken for roasting*

– 1 cup water

– Olive Oil

– Seasoning of your choice**

*Make sure you buy a roasting chicken and not a frying one. All of the roasting chickens available at my grocery store were around 6 1/2 to 7 lbs.

**I used Chef Paul Prudhomme’s “Chicken Magic” Seasoning. However, feel free to use whatever you want. Many spice brands have a rotisserie spice blend that would be good. Also, you can never go wrong with plain salt and pepper!

Tools:

– 1 Large CrockPot (Remember, you’ll need to have a CrockPot that the chicken will actually fit in. My CrockPot is oval and works really well for this kind of recipe.)

– 1 pair of tongs

– 1 basting brush

– A small oven safe dish or ramekin (to prop the chicken up with)

Instructions:

1. Place the chicken in your kitchen sink and remove it from the packaging. (This can be somewhat messy, so have your waste basket on hand.) If your chicken was frozen, it should be completely thawed prior to cooking.

2. Once you’ve removed the chicken from its wrappings, you will need to remove any of the “innards” (giblets) that have been left inside the chicken’s abdominal cavity. Sometimes the giblets are in a small bag, but sometimes they are loose. Your best bet is to use tongs to remove them. After you’ve removed these items, rinse out the inside of the chicken’s abdominal cavity.

3. Prepare your CrockPot. I wanted to prop my chicken up a little in the CrockPot, so I placed a small oven safe corning ware dish in the bottom of the CrockPot. Also, spray the inside of the CrockPot with some non-stick cooking spray.

4. Place the chicken in the CrockPot.

5. Take a small amount of olive oil and baste the chicken with it. This will help the skin brown and become crispy.

6. Sprinkle your chosen seasoning over the chicken, making sure to coat the legs and wings.

7. Before you begin cooking the chicken, pour about 1 cup of water into the bottom of the CrockPot. Feel free to use less or more, depending on your personal preferences.

8. Turn the CrockPot onto the Low setting and cook for 6 to 7 hours. If you wish to cook the chicken in a shorter amount of time, you could cook it for approximately 2 hours on High and then reduce the heat to low for another 2 to 3 hours. When it comes to cooking chicken, it is all about temperature. The chicken is done when the internal temperature of the meat is at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Once the chicken is cooked, it will look like this:

10. Carefully remove the chicken from the CrockPot. Allow it to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. This will allow the chicken to retain its moisture.v

Serve and enjoy!

In my absence, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest and have found a good number of awesome crafts and recipes that I’ve been trying. Some have worked out, some haven’t. And there are still many more that I haven’t yet had the time to attempt.

When I saw this recipe for Chocolate Cobbler last week, I knew that it would be one of the recipes I tried soon. I mean, really, who doesn’t love chocolate?

“Granny’s Chocolate Cobbler”

I found this recipe through this Pinterest-linked blog. The recipe, however, is actually from Tasty Kitchen recipe website contributor Susan Hawkins.

While I’ve eaten similar ooey-gooey chocolate concoctions before, I’ve never heard it called “cobbler” before. I mean, cobbler is supposed to include fruit, right?

Regardless of the name, Chocolate Cobbler is extremely easy to make (you don’t even need a mixer!) and doesn’t require any out of the ordinary ingredients.

Serves 10

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, divided
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup (5 and 1/3 Tablespoons) melted butter
• 1 and 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 and 1/2 cups Hot Water

Tools:

• Ceramic or glass oven safe baking dish, approx. 8 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep.
• Spatula
• Whisk
• 2 mixing bowls, one large and one small.

Instructions:

1. In the large mixing bowl, combine the flour, Baking Powder, and salt. To these ingredients, add 3/4 cup of granulated sugar and 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder.

2. Using the whisk, blend these dry ingredients together so they are mixed evenly.

3. Add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract to the mixture. Using the spatula, stir until the batter is thoroughly mixed and smooth. Set this bowl aside.

4. In a small mixing bowl, combine the remaining granulated sugar (1/2 cup), the remaining cocoa powder (4 Tablespoons), and the brown sugar. Use the whisk to evenly mix the sugars and cocoa.

5. Even though the original recipe does not direct you to grease the baking dish, I went ahead and sprayed mine with some cooking spray to be on the safe side.

6. Add the wet, batter-like mixture to the baking dish and spread it out evenly. Then, sprinkle the sugar and cocoa mixture evenly over the batter. It will look like this:

7. Finally, pour the hot water over the top of everything. DO NOT MIX IT. Just let it be.

8. Place the baking dish in a 350 degree oven and bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, test the center of the cobbler with a toothpick. If it is still extremely wet when you pull it out, bake the cobbler for another 5 minutes. (NOTE: The toothpick will never come out completely clean since this is cobbler, and not cake or brownies. Use your best judgement.)

9. Remove the cobbler from the oven, let cool for at least 10 minutes and enjoy!

The cobbler is very similar to volcano cake or chocolate melting cake. It is meant to be eaten warm. The top is a crunchy, cake like crust and the inside is a molten chocolate sauce. Very good, but also best in small quantities. Add ice cream if desired — it is cobbler after all!

Note: I refrigerated the cobbler after people were done eating it. While I normally wouldn’t do this with brownies, cookies, or cake I wasn’t sure how the cobbler would behave since it was both wet and dry. (Better safe than sorry.)

I really liked this recipe, but I wonder how you could change it up a little bit. It would be interesting to try different types of chocolate (maybe dark chocolate) or possibly see how it behaved with different types of flour.

But random memory triggers aren’t the only things that can bring you warm feelings. Consistency does that too.

Every Christmas Day, I go to my Aunt Susie’s (my Grandma’s sister) house for a huge Christmas open house. Situated on the border of a large park system, her house is a dream for a history person like me. It is filled with hidden nooks and crannies, with a double staircase, and a summer kitchen. And every year, like clockwork, she and my Grandma make what they have dubbed “Christmas Potatoes.” Even when my Grandma makes them at other times in the year (for smaller occasions) she still calls them Christmas Potatoes.

Really, they could be called Hungarian Potatoes. Or Paprika Potatoes. Or as they’re called in my own brain, Amazing Potatoes.

They’re probably so good because they are just so simple.

So, I figured I share the recipe with you.

Amazing and Easy Paprika Potatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 cans of Whole White or Whole New Potatoes*

1 stick of margarine (or butter)

1 heaping teaspoon of good Hungarian Paprika**

*The two names are interchangeable — they’re the same thing.

**The paprika is the most important ingredient. While you can make the potatoes with any kind of paprika, the better the  quality, the better the taste.

Instructions:

1. Open and drain the cans of potatoes. Cut any dark spots off the potatoes.

2. In a small saucepan, melt the margarine.

3. Add the paprika to the margarine, stir.

4. Drop the potatoes in the paprika-margarine mixture and coat them thoroughly.

5. Place the potatoes in an oven safe dish. I use a cookie sheet, but any oven safe dish or pan will work. Cover with aluminum foil.

6. Bake the potatoes at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked.

7. Enjoy!

My 25th birthday is this December.  That leaves me only a few months to do these things.  Given that deadline, I have not included any big ticket items that might go on a bucket list.  I am neither traveling, nor getting married, nor starting my own business, nor anything monumental whatsoever.  I am simply operating from a carpe diem point of view.  I want to make the 100+ days left of my 24th year count instead of squandering that time away on Facebook.

1. Don’t wear sweat pants or gym shorts in public.

2. Go to an outdoor movie.

3. Ride the Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Towpath train.

4. Try a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.

5. Go on a real, decent length hike.

6. Trace my family lineage back to Europe.

7. Do the Tour de Donut.

8. Finish Invitation to a Beheading by Nabokov.

9. Finish El general en su laberinto by García Márquez.

10. Make soybean baklava.

11. Be extra punctual.

12. Make homemade jam.

13. Cut back on my use of Facebook.

14. Make homemade ice cream.

15. Bake Irish Car Bomb cupcakes.

16. Write (and finish!) a short story.

17. Obtain gainful, respectable employment.

18. Bake mocha cupcakes.

19. Do a fitness event.

20. Pick my own produce.

21. Watch The Motorcycle Diaries.

22. Read a book every month.

23. Carve a pumpkin.

24. (Possibly) Get my TEFL/TESOL certificate.

25. Recreate simit as I ate it in Turkey.

What are your short term goals?

This afternoon I could not find a good recipe for kumpirs, something that quite honestly I do not need a recipe for.  I watched those tasty loaded baked potatos get made a handful of times in Turkey, enough for me to know how to make one.  for potatoes and cheese to make myself a cheap, filling dinner.  What I wanted was for Google to reassure me that my memory of the kumpir served me correctly, but instead I got a handful of boutique kumpir recipes very unlike the buttery, cheesy fast food version I had in Istanbul.

I know perfectly well how to prepare a kumpir, so since Google is lacking in solid kumpir recipes, I thought I would share.  For about $10, you too can make an “exotic, foreign” dish.  You can pat yourself on the back for being all swanky and multicultural.  All it takes is a microwaved baked potato and, truthfully, whatever leftovers you feel like wrangling out of the fridge.  The toppings I list are the standard kumpir toppings, but the kumpir is more of an art form of throwing everything you can find on a baked potato than of following a specific recipe.  Given the dismal economy and rising food prices, I think a lot of people could get on board with my quest to lower my grocery bill without feeling like all I eat are ramen noodles.  So I present the kumpir, a gloriously fatty, delicious, cheap meal.

I neither made nor ate this particular kumpir, but it looks legit.  I found it on Google, which does in fact have many good things even if the specific kumpir recipe I want is not one of those things.

What you will need

Really large potatoes

Shredded mozzarella or feta cheese

Corn

Hot dogs (about 1 hot dog for every 1 large potato)

Macaroni salad

Optional, suggested additions

Pickles

Peas

Olives

Butter

Ketchup & mayonnaise

Anything you need to eat right away before it goes bad

How to make your kumpir

1. Microwave cook the baked potatoes.

2. Heat up the corn and hot dogs.  Cut the hot dogs into little pieces.

3. When the potatoes are cooked, split them open.  Leave enough of the potato skin uncut that the potato still stands upright like an oval rather than flat on the plate like a disc. 

This is an example of how NOT to slice your potato.  I overcut mine and it turned into a flat, listless baked potato.  My sense of spatial reasoning is not so great…

4. Scrape the potato off the skin and mash it inside the skin.  Keep the skin upright here still. 

5. Add the cheese in and mash it with the potato.  Don’t be shy about adding cheese because in this case, the more cheese the better your kumpir will taste and look.  (If you are using butter, also add it now.)

6. Add the pickles, olives, macaroni salad, etc.

7. Add the corn and hot dog slices.

8. Top with ketchup & mayonnaise.

9. Enjoy.

This is how the finished DIY kumpir should look.  I wish I could credit myself with producing this baked potato, but my boyfriend made this one.

The budget friendly breakdown

$2 Two giant potatoes

$2.17 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, only about 3 oz of which were used

$2.28 Macaroni salad

$1 Package of eight hot dogs, two of which were used

$1.50 Jar of pickles, half of which were eaten

$.70 Corn

Total cost: Under $10

The best part?  We will each get two meals out of those two giant potatoes, so this $10 recipe serves four people.  You even have ingredients left over.