What I ate: March 26, 2011

Breakfast: Waffles and 3 slices of Vermont Smoke and Cure bacon (both previously frozen). Reheated on a sheet pan in the oven, 8 minutes at 350°F. And this was the waffle that I kind of mangled getting out of the waffle maker.

Lunch: Sausage and green pepper stir-fry with rice. There's one green pepper and one Vermont Smoke and Cure breakfast sausage link in one serving. I pre-cooked the sausage and froze it, then defrosted and reheated it in the microwave, covered, for 0:40. Seasoned with garlic powder, pepper and soy sauce.

Beverage: Sweet berry lime green iced tea from the Keurig. 70 calories. Despite the cold temperatures, spring must be approaching because I haven't wanted an iced tea since last summer!

Snack: 2.7 oz. plain organic Greek yogurt with Vermont maple syrup and 0.8 oz. of homemade granola .

Dinner: Delmonico steak with loaded baked potato .

Coincidentally, this is the same lunch/dinner combination as Saturday, March 12. The steak was the last of my frozen indoor steak that I wasn't particularly happy with, but it was still tasty.

The big experiment was with the potato. While it's not a big deal to bake a potato, it takes an hour in the oven. I'm not a fan of the texture of a microwaved baked potato, though it is fast. I made a few extra baked potatoes the last time I made salt and olive oil rubbed baked potatoes , vacuum sealed, and froze them.

The question is whether I could reconstitute them. Boil-in-bag works really, really well for frozen mashed potatoes, making potatoes that you might not recognize as being previously frozen. So I thought, "Why not try it for a whole potato?" Well, actually half of a potato, because I was doing a reprise of my steak and loaded baked potato meal. Answer: it works really well!

I took my vacuum-sealed, frozen, half of a baked potato and put it in a boiling pot of water, waited for it to return to a boil, and simmered it for 22 minutes, covered. I then removed it from the vacuum bag and added the toppings.

And baked it in the oven with the topping for 5 minutes at 350°F mainly to melt the cheese.

I'll concede that 22 minutes in a boil-in-bag is not a huge savings over 60 minutes in the oven, but it is less time, and it does provide a way to save a half of a potato, or to preserve potatoes that are getting a little too sprouty.

Dessert: 1 square of Lake Champlain dark chocolate raspberry truffle. And 2-Up Shiraz, Australia.

0.7 oz. Madhouse Munchies sour cream and onion potato chips.

Weight at beginning of the day: 112.8 lbs. Weight at the beginning of the next day: 111.6 lbs.