What Do Superheroes Eat?

The other night at dinner, one of the boys brought up an interesting question – What does Batman eat? Well, as you can imagine, this sparked quite a philosophical debate. Matthew insisted that superheroes eat “regular” food; Dylan thought Spiderman only ate spiders; and Liam was adamant that Superman eats soup, all kinds of soup, but ONLY soup.

There were a few things they did agree on. Superheroes eat A LOT and they like to eat in restaurants. Although they were not sure where these restaurants were, you know, the ones that serve spiders…

Growing up I preferred Barbie to Batman but who doesn’t remember Popeye and his spinach? I am not even sure my kids would know who Popeye is BTW. Wow, that makes me feel old! I remember my mother used to make a dish with potatoes (from a box) mixed with spinach (from a can) – and I loved it. I wanted to update the dish here using fresh ingredients. Here is our version:

Ingredients:

2 large russet potatoes

Olive oil

Kosher salt & black pepper

2 strips bacon

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups fresh spinach, rough chopped

2 oz. Mascarpone cheese

1/4-cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes clean under cold running water. Poke potatoes with a fork several times. (This is important! If you don’t poke holes, potatoes will explode in oven.) Rub each potato with olive oil and season with salt. Place on a baking sheet and cook for approx. 1 hour 15 minutes. They will crisp on the outside and should give a little when pressed.

Meanwhile cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and drain on paper towels.  Leave about 1 tbsp of bacon drippings in the skillet and add the garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes, and then add the chopped spinach. Sauté until spinach is completely wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.

When potatoes are cooked allow them to cool and then slice in 1/2 and scoop out the centers, leaving about 1/4” border.

Place the scooped out potato, mascarpone cheese and milk in large bowl and mash together. Add in spinach and bacon, reserving some bacon to sprinkle on top. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fill the scooped out potatoes with the spinach/potato mixture and top with the reserved bacon. Heat oven to 350 degrees, place potatoes on baking sheet and cook until heated through and browned in spots, about 25-30 minutes.

And the VERDICT is:

Matthew (age 5): “Bacon makes everyone big and strong – more bacon next time.”

Liam (age 4): “I am only eating the bacon and I like the skin, it tastes like chocolate.”

Dylan (age 4): “Mommy made a BAD dinner tonight…”

Ouch, I guess I was too overzealous with the spinach in Dylan’s opinion. Everyone tried some so I would definitely make these again. Maybe cut down on the spinach and put almost all the bacon on top so they will think I added a lot more. Sneaky, I know….

See my blog for more kid-friendly recipes: House of Bedlam