My true confessions about meat and potato meals…
You know what I love about mashed potatoes? Eating them. Otherwise, I am so over mashed potatoes. Therefore, I kind of stopped making them.
Why did I stop? It’s not like they’re difficult. My family loves them. They make a filling side dish. They are a real food. And above all, we can stir lots of butter into them. Why wouldn’t I make them more often?
Because, this:
I decided to make mashed potatoes a couple weeks ago since I had pretty much avoided the task since Thanksgiving. The family was thrilled. But making a meal of lamb chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, a veggie, another veggie – well by the time it’s all said and done – I had spent a very long time in the kitchen and had a sink and counter full of dirty dishes. That’s just one meal, people. (Except for the muffin tin and probably like, a spoon.)
I’m convinced that this is why so many people don’t enjoy cooking. Am I right? It takes too long. There are too many steps. There’s too much clean up. You know what? I don’t enjoy it either when it looks and feels like that.
Well, I’m not here to tell you what to do (except for never eat margarine). But as for me and my house, we’re only going to make mashed potatoes for special occasions. Otherwise, we’re going to stick with simple meals that don’t require many steps. Fast (real) foods that don’t dirty many dishes. Real food made easy.
Here, I’ll list a few of our favorite Not-So Meat and Potato Meals:
- Easy Noodle Stir Fry with a side of fruit because it already includes lots of veggies
- Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts with two to four easy “throw on the table” fruit and veggie sides
- Black Bean Chicken Nachos with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and fresh fruit
- Taco Potatoes with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and fresh fruit
- Tuna Casserole with salad, peas, and fresh fruit
- Italian Cream Cheese Chicken with salad and steamed veggies
- Alfredo Sauce with Pasta with salad and steamed veggies
- Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot topped with meat, cheese, and veggies
- Ham and Cheese Pasta Salad with raw veggies and fresh fruit
Instead of mashed potatoes, I’ve been making a lot of baked potatoes recently. I love this because they are so versatile and easy. Here’s a post detailing what I do with leftover baked potatoes.
‘Fess up. How often do you make mashed potatoes? (The real kind, not from a box. Don’t get me started.)
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If you love the idea of keeping your meals simple and good, you will LOVE Simple Meals!!
I don’t make them very often either. For mostly the same reasons. My family loves them though. My mother in law has resorted to instant ones. :) My husband is not a fan of that. :)
I make them about once a month. My family loves them! I use my stand mixer to mash them and I serve them right out of the mixing bowl. Less dishes for me :-)
I’ve never been a big fan of mashed potatoes, so I don’t make them often. Once in a while, though, there’s something on the menu– meatloaf, for example– that just must be served with mashed potatoes. Usually they’re just for Thanksgiving.
Mashed is one of the few ways my husband likes potatoes, so we have them a fair amount in the winter. My tip is to use a hand mixer to mash them right in the pot you cooked them in. It makes the cleanup much more tolerable AND helps keeps them warm while you mash them!
My husband loves potatoes, so I do make mashed potatoes quite a bit during the cooler months, however, they are usually not a weeknight side dish because of the time involved, unless I can peel and cook ahead. And thank you for reminding me about baking potatoes in the crockpot, it makes things a lot easier.
Here in Central NY, we have salt potatoes, which are a summer favorite. They’re the only potatoes we eat in the summer!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/travel/escapes/22rNYfood.html?_r=0
Husband loves them, my son and I, not so much. So DH usually just orders them at restaurants and he gets them at Christmas. DH doesn’t love them enough to make them himself. My side of the family thinks it’s not Christmas without mashed taters. One year my aunt cooked 40lbs!!!! Granted we usually have 30-40 people at Christmas, but that year we still had A LOT of leftovers.
The only thing that stops me from making mashed potatoes more is washing and peeling the potatoes. Otherwise, it’s just one pot. I boil them, drain some of the water and use my potato masher to mash them. I don’t make gravy. We just put butter(real butter) on them(my kids put ketchup on them) or I mix the sauce from the chicken or other meat in them in my plate.
Mashed potatoes are an absolute must in our house. We ALL love them and so we have them at least once a month. We don’t peel them, we just wash- cut- boil. The peels give us so many vitamins and I’ve eaten them that way for years. They almost seem too plain to me now when I eat them somewhere else without the peels. We just dump them in my favorite mixer ever- the bosch universal. Add butter, milk, sour cream, cream cheese, salt, pepper… my mouth is watering already!
I do understand what you mean about the mess but it is one of my all-time favorite foods so for us it is worth it. Of course, I’ll run 3 dishwasher loads after a meal like that and have the kids load and unload so the “load” on me isn’t too bad! :-)
We eat mashed potatoes about once a week. I have a great freezer recipe, so I make a huge batch and freeze the extra for another meal (or two). I’d be happy to share the recipe if anyone is interested.
I’d love to have the recipe for freezer mashed potatoes. We eat quite a few of them too. My son loves them with kale, onions, and garlic sauteed in butter and then stirred into the potatoes.
I don’t make them very often either, but when I do, I take the easy way out…Scrub the potatoes and cut them into chunks so that they cook faster. Don’t bother peeling them. The peels are where most of the nutrients are found, and restaurants often serve them with the peels as “fancy.” Put them on the back of the stove to boil until they’re tender. Drain them using the lid of my pan, add butter and milk and garlic salt to the pan, and then use my hand mixer to mash them in the pan. Just one pan for the whole operation, and when it’s just the two of us, I serve them from the pan as well…But maybe this wouldn’t be as easy to do with a big enough pan of potatoes for larger family?
When my husband cooks he’ll make them. But cooking for him is Zen. He can get so lost in thought chopping onions, stirring a pot, or mashing potatoes! The good thing is – he also likes washing the dishes in our house (one of the reasons I married him – ha ha!) so the extra dishes don’t bother him.
Of course, he does the cooking only about 10% of the time, and usually on the weekends- I think he’d see potatoes differently if he cooked more often!
I haven’t made REAL mashed potatoes in a couple of years. Life is a little too complicated…so I do the best that I can and know that I can’t win them all. Sams Club has a red box of Idahoan Premium instant potatoes that has to be the best box potatoes ever. Add Ranch Dressing, cheese, or sour cream with REAL butter. Not the same as homemade, but as homemade as it’s going to get at this point in my life. :)
But… your Crockpot Potatoes have become quite the staple in my house…actually found that I use that recipe more than the box. Plus, you can mash them with all the toppings and it becomes mashed potatoes. Haha, so maybe I am making real mashed potatoes. Who knew…
I don’t make mashed potatoes too often, maybe once every 6-8 weeks, sometimes longer. But when I make them, I don’t peel all the potatoes, making it a little less time consuming. BUT then I throw them into the crockpot with some chicken broth, milk, salt & pepper, and butter. Cook on low for 6-8 hours and then mash when ready to serve. It’s a cinch, requires very little time and hardly any dishes at all! We also use leftover mashed potatoes to make shepherds pie, yum!
Mashed potatoes are a one-pot deal for me as well (except at Thanksgiving, when I transfer them to a pretty serving bowl). I still don’t make them often, but when I do, it’s with an easy meat dish, like a ham cooked in the crockpot. Veggies would be a quick steam or sautee of something frozen (so no washing/cutting required).
I make mashed potatoes at least twice a week for our family of seven! It’s all part of our eating real food, and if everyone helps to clean up the kitchen, it’s no deal! I always peel the potatoes, cut into chunks, and boil in salted water. I then strain them and mash them with a handheld Bosch mixer right in the pan, with seasalt, real butter, sourcream, a little milk, and either lemon dilly or 3 onion mix from Epicure. Yum, Yum, Yum!
I make mashed potatoes fairly often. BUT I never wash the potatoes. Nor do I wash dishes. So, if my crew (hubby, 2 teen boys, 1 10 yo boy) want potatoes, SOMEONE must scrub them. I’m too lazy to peel, so the peels get mashed in, using my stand mixer. And since I do most of the cooking in the house, I don’t do the clean up. The boys take care of that.
a lot! but that’s becuase when i make mashed potatoes i make an entire costco bag of potatoes into mashed potatoes, then freeze them in quart bags. then all i have to do is take a bag from the freezer, defrost (usually in a sink of hot water) pop it in a greased casserole dish, then put it in the oven alongside whatever meat i’m cooking!
That’s a good idea! I was thinking about freezing them when I was reading the article. So the texture doesn’t get weird once defrosted? OOoo….not a bad idea. if they come out good. When I make gravy I make a LOT of it and freeze it. (it takes just as long to make a big batch as it does a little batch) So I could do the same with mashed potatoes and maybe not have to use the box stuff at all. Hmmmm…
I make real mashed potatoes about once a week.
Great ideas in this post. Thanks! Can you do the mint extract next. I have a little girl obsessed with our mint plants. Would be a fun project to do with her.
I make mashed potatoes at least once a week. They’re my go to easy side. I use the pressure cooker and they’re done in 5 minutes, then I serve them from there so there aren’t too many extra things to wash.
Whether I’m baking or cooking I always wash dishes as I go and by the time the meal is ready the majority of the dishes are done. I do this for the meals on holidaysome too. It makes things much easier and I don’t have a mountain of dishes waiting on me.
I make mashed potatoes about once a week. It’s a one pot deal for me as well. I boil and mash in the pot then serve from the pot (unless we have company of course). It’s not big labor intensive dinners we are having them with though. Usually just turkey burger patties or chicken breasts and veggies or a salad. The big messy gravy meals that involve roasts and lots of dishes and work are about once a month in the cold months… nov-mar.
I am not much for mashed potatoes. My husband eats them but it is not his favorite. When I have made them I just use one pan to cook then mash. I also wash my pans or any dishes I use as I go. No way I could deal with dirty dishes piled on the counter and in the sink. I always wash my pans so they don’t take up so much room in the dishwasher. When we have company no one has to clean up after me. HAHA!!
I don’t know if it is because I have been reading this site for six years, but I cook a lot like you do Laura.
Meat and potato meals are too much brain work for me. I can’t seem to organize myself to make multiple things. I love all-in-one meals. We add fruit and cut veggies or salad for sides, and we are happy. I can stretch meat further this way and have fewer dishes to wash.
Mashed potatoes happen less than once a month.
Last night I made enchiladas. I warmed up some frozen corn, opened a can of pineapple, and washed some lettuce from the garden. Tonight is spaghetti with home-canned sauce and home-canned green beans with more salad from the garden.
I make mashed potatoes about ONCE PER YEAR!
Couldn’t live without mashed potatoes-one pot method!
It’s funny how one thing how we all have different things that seem like a lot of work. I’m in the camp that loves them and thinks their easy! ;) I don’t peal them and mash them in the pan I cooked them in by draining the water by tilting the lid over the sink. I think it’s easy and delicious but I can see how it would feel like a lot of work if you pealed them!
Not very often here, either. But I did make them one night last week. My picky food-allergic son loves them, and had been asking for them, so…. I was going to make pizza tonight, but my KA bowl was still soaking in the sink from the rye bread I made yesterday….so I hear ya ’bout the dishes. :-)
Dirty dishes=God is good.
Yes, mashed potatoes are time consuming.
Hence my little cheat.
About once a year, Costco has a sale on their mashed potato packets (so each packet is like $.50 or so, feeds about 4-5 hungry folks, so we make two at a time anymore), so I snag a few boxes. Only ingredients are potatoes, butter, salt. Then boom, mashed potatoes anytime mommy feels like being lazy. :D
I think I mixed some in with real potatoes one Thanksgiving, stuck them all in the crockpot to keep warm, and no one seemed the wiser.
I make real mashed potatoes (from potatoes grown in our garden) fairly often, but I cheat. Whenever I make them, I always mash up HUGE quantities. I also mix in some cream cheese and sour cream. This way, they work as “refrigerator mashed potatoes” (you can find lots of recipes online) and stay soft when reheated. Then for the cheating part . . . I freeze them in family-sized portions, take them out of the freezer the morning I want to use them, and then just reheat them in the oven. Walaah! Mashed potatoes whenever you want, without the work and the mess.
We harvested about 200 pounds of potatoes from our garden last year, and they kept in our root cellar quite well until about March, when they were beginning to sprout. Then I froze up a bunch into mashed potatoes (and a few other ways, too) and was able to preserve potatoes to last us until this year’s harvest is ready.
Now that my kiddos are old enough to peel the potatoes I don’t mind making mashed potatoes. We usually have them at least once a month plus Thanksgiving and Christmas!
My DH is a meat and potatoes man! Sadly, I only make real mashed potatoes maybe once a year. I don’t peel the potatoes, but I do run them thru the grinder once cooked. That leaves a hearty texture and cuts the peels into itty-bitty pieces like seasoning flakes. It’s easier on the arms than mashing by hand, but extra dishes. We don’t like potatoes whipped in the mixer.
Too often I rely on instant potato pearls when we want mashed potatoes. Yea, I know. Because of this, most the time we eat potatoes they are baked. I put a whole bags worth in the oven at one time and bake them, then keep them in the fridge to eat later.
We have mashed potatoes once a month or so, and I do the one pot thing too. Butter, milk, salt and pepper and a hand masher. They are wonderful with buttermilk poured in too. Nice and tangy and creamy.
I am very curious. At the bottom of this post is a picture of a dish. It looks like beefy potatoes, cheese? and some salad on the side. It looks delicious. What is it exactly?
No one in my family minds me making big meals with a lot of dishes. My husband almost always does the dishes, he doesn’t mind a lot of dishes. I don’t mind a lot of dishes. It doesn’t take that much longer to wash them, really…no more than making a box caked mix or one from scratch. It’s all relative. Plus doing dishes is good alone contemplative time with God. Who doesn’t love that time!?!
I make mashed potatoes whenever I think about it. I made them this week for the first time in a while. But the reason I haven’t made them that often is because our son doesn’t like them. It has nothing to do with clean up.
I have a Thermomix. before Thermomix, I’ve made it once. Now it is super easy. Add the raw potatoes and milk. Switch it on and the thermomix cook and stir it. After 15/20 minute, I add butter and increase the speed for about 30 seconds. And then there is smooth mash potatoes.
I’m a HUGE fan of mashed potatoes in the pressure cooker. Super easy, no need to keep checking if they’re ready to be mashed, and they mash easier too. I also have frozen mashed potatoes with great success. When I reheat, I just add a little more milk and butter, and they taste fine, so you could always make a batch, and freeze.
We LOVE mashed potatoes! I used to not make them very often for the same reasons, but now we have an InstantPot, and they are so easy to make. I cut scrubbed potatoes into 8-12 pieces, put them in with a cup or so of water/broth, and set the pressure for 3 or 4 minutes. I don’t have to watch a boiling pot, drain anything, peel anything, or fuss about anything. It takes less than five minutes prep work. Once the pot’s come back down from pressure, I add butter/cream, mash it right in the stainless steel pot (on the counter, not in the pressure cooker shell), and we have amazing mashed potatoes. Yum!
I’m late to the party, but I totally make and freeze big batches of mashed potatoes. My mom makes the most amazing, light, fluffy, and not lumpy mashed potatoes you’ve ever tasted … and I don’t. I cook the potatoes until they practically mash themselves (so yeah, they’re a little overcooked), drain, and mash them as best I can. Then I add whatever I have on hand of the following: butter, sour cream, milk, cream, cream cheese, buttermilk, and I always add LOTS of shredded cheese, some garlic powder and dried dill, and plenty of seasoned salt. I put them in quart sized ziplocks and freeze. I usually don’t remember to get them out in time to thaw well, so I toss them in a sink of hot water, put in a greased casserole dish, and bake (usually with a premade and frozen meatloaf that I do in bulk, too). If there is still a frozen chunk, I break it up and pull the pieces to the edge so they have a better chance of getting fully thawed. Super yummy, super easy!
Did you ever just just make mashed potatoes with oven baked potatoes? It’s SO much easier to bake first. Then it just takes a second to peel and add butter, milk, salt. ????
I will definitely try that sometime!
I’ve taken it one step further and buy Alexia frozen hash browns to make your Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole or for special Sunday brunches.
I feel ya with the added dishes and stress. Short cuts are necessary to feed large families real food on a regular basis! We’re expecting #6 and I’m currently the only dishwasher in the house, :)
My mother-in-law was a very negative person. I remember complimenting her mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving because we loved them and I didn’t have time to make them at home. At which time she became disgusted and told me everyone knows it doesn’t take time to make mashed potatoes.
Of course, she was at home all day and I was working full time with a young daughter. After picking her up at daycare after work, my husband and I were already tired. She never worked outside the home after having children. I let the statement go but all these years later, I still remember it when making mashed potatoes (which is still seldom).