Ditch The Sour Cream – Your Freezer Has The Ultimate Baked Potato Topping

The days of the simple baked potato are long gone. We are no longer limited to topping our spuds with only butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon, and chives. Nowadays, anything can be a baked potato topping. Just look at the British dish of beans on baked potatoes. Yes, it might sound a bit strange at first, but it is a dish that has legs — across the pond, at least. Closer to home, there is another stage of baked potato innovation unfolding, and it is one that you'll want to lock away for a tired night when you simply can't be bothered to cook a meal: topping a baked potato with a frozen dinner.

We will again forgive your skepticism, because this does sound a touch outlandish. But when you stop and think about it, it's actually brilliant. Those microwaveable meals taste pretty good, but, across the board, frozen dinners are begging for an upgrade. Perhaps that upgrade is a steaming-hot potato that is topped with a meal fresh out of the microwave. It only takes a few extra minutes to prepare these unexpected toppings to level up your baked potato. If you are still skeptical, have a look at this beefy English jacket potatoes recipe. While that isn't a TV dinner on top, that's the idea we're going for here: ditching the boring old sour cream and chives for a rich and hearty topping filled with meat, vegetables, and gravy — or whatever else you have on hand.

The biggest thing that you need to keep in mind when putting together one of these frozen-dinner-topped baked potatoes is that you probably want to choose a meal that doesn't have too much starch in it. You already have a whole potato, so adding too much more starch isn't a top priority. That said, macaroni and cheese on a baked potato is probably pretty delicious — especially if it's paired with Salisbury steak.

Something like a beef stew works great. Simply slice the potato open and pour it right in, adding lots of sauce to the otherwise undressed potato. This also works really well with dishes like frozen Indian curry. Saag paneer or chicken tikka masala over a baked potato is an equally excellent meal, but you'll probably want to skip the rice. With that in mind, a good place to start your search is probably on a list of high-protein frozen meals. These will offer plenty of meat and vegetables to fill your potato, and be sure to look out for the sauciest options.

Of course, there are some solid choices among the everyday Healthy Choice frozen meals as well, like the Cajun-Style Chicken and Sausage or the Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry. Really, all you actually need is a cheap bag of frozen broccoli in cheddar cheese sauce to make a proper meal of a baked potato. In the end, there are a lot of great options here, but it may just come down to what you have on hand when you go scrounging around the kitchen looking for a simple dinner.