Hot Potatoes...Save Money

As food prices continue to increase I often ponder how I might be able to feed my family well and save money.  I have many cost saving methods, the first is that I conceptualize all of my meals in terms of starch, vegetable, and protein.  I plan to explain this further in later post. 

For now let's talk about a money saving starch: Potato

They are usually pretty cheap at the store, I have paid as little as 97 cents for 10 lbs, and easy to make and not mess up.  I usually include them once a week in my meal planning, twice if I am eating a sweet potato or yam.

I also try an mix up the type of potato I eat each week: I generally see about three kinds that are cheaply priced: Russet, Yukon Gold (yellow potatoes), and Red Potatoes.  

How many ways do you know to cook potatoes?  

So Russet I use in two ways, the most obvious is bake potatoes but I also do oven wedges with them.  I have found that Bake Potato night is a great cure for lazy Thursdays (which I find to be the hardest night of the week to cook).  Here is my baked potato check list (it changes each time and is never all of them):

Broccoli
Bacon or chili
Cheese
Butter
Sour Cream/ Ranch Dressing
Salsa
Olives

 Most of these items I have on hand at all times and all of them, except Bacon or chili, require little prep work or cook time.

So yellow potatoes I love to mash, I will leave it at that

Red potatoes are my favorite.  One dish I like to make with them is Parsley Potatoes

Cut red potatoes in 1/4" slices

Boil potatoes till done, drain water

Throw some butter in that pot, enough to be delicious to you

Throw in fresh/or dried parsley (as little or as much as you like) toss it around.

I will talk about sweet potatoes another time

One last point I not sure what your feelings are about dried potato flakes but I love them for their cheapness and quickness for making mash potatoes in a pinch when you are too tired to cook.  Remember fatigue is the enemy of a family budget and increases your chances of eating out.