Creative Leftovers Pulled Pork n Beans Jacket Potato

   This is my first food blog challenge, and I think it overwhelmed me a little, so many thoughts, options and ideas have gone thru my head that I've  had a serious case of blog block going on, and just couldn't put thoughts to keyboard all week.   So here we are almost a 1/4 the way thru the challenge and I'm just getting the first one done !! I'm happy to say , this will be my first entry in the 10 with 5 challenge,  10 recipes with 5 ingredients or less.  A good match for my creative leftovers series, which I started as a way to help people use up all that extra food. Which is the case here,  Id made 6lbs of pork shoulder into pulled pork a couple days ago... and still had lots left. What to do with it ,  Ive already had several sandwiches and wasn't really interested in having another.   Its been a very cold, snowy kinda week , and comfort food is needed.  I grew up eating Jacket Potatoes.. and that was just what I needed today.
 For those people who are just finding my little Food Revolution,  you should know ... writing recipes is insanely hard for me.   I almost never follow one , and rarely write anything down.  I do however take a lot of photos, hopefully of all the steps, and explain it that way.  So here we go, I hope you enjoy :)


Ingredients you will need for dinner for two:


2 large potatoes  - I prefer russets or Yukon gold for baking .
1 cup pulled pork
1 cup of baked beans
1 cup of your favourite cheese grated ( 6 year old cheddar )
Okay this last one took me a while to decide on, normally Id have butter, onions, mushrooms ,red pepper and just about anything else i could find on top as well.  Hmmmmm colour won!!  lol
1 red bell pepper

Start by scrubbing your potatoes , and puncture several times on both side with a fork. I like my skins crispy so I don't wrap them , and just toss them in the toaster oven for about an hour and half at 350F.  Cooking time will vary with the size of the potatoes.

You can tell when they are done by giving them a little squeeze, they should give slightly .  Do it quickly tho , remember the game hot potato ??  Well this is the real thing :)  

The nice thing about this easy meal , is there really isn't a lot of prep. You can slice them however you like, I went thin today , then cut them into 1inch lengths.  

Everything assembled and ready.  I put the potatoes back in for 10 minutes will I started on the topping. 

Warm up a pan with a drizzle of oil,  add the red pepper 1st , let it sizzle for a couple of minutes. 

Then add in the pulled pork , then the beans.  Bring to a boil , and simmer for 10 minutes.  

Meanwhile, halve the potatoes , and make a series of random cuts into the flesh ,  trying not slice thru the skin .  This will allow some of the sauce to penetrate into the spud :) and it saves scooping it out !  

A pinch of cheese on top, then grab your pulled pork n beans from the stove 

Divide between the two potatoes, don't worry about making a mess.  This is comfort food and should be messy in my opinion :)   A few cracks of black pepper ( Salt was not needed as the pork was smoked shoulder ) 

More cheese on top , and back into the toaster oven .  

I simply toasted it for 10 minutes .. and the cheese was nice and melted .  

Time to grab a steak knife and a fork and dig in !   

Ive made a lot of loaded potatoes over the years, this was the first time Id used pulled pork. Ive got to say , I was not WOW'd ... it was good descent food, but seemed to be lacking something ..  maybe I should have gone with mushrooms instead of red pepper, or tomatoes instead of beans I don't know.  I do know my belly is full , my plate is clean and I'm really happy to have gotten the first one done!! On to the next dish :)