And the winner is of the cookbook and apron was…  Stacy who said;

About the only thing I’m doing right now is switching oats for crackers in things like meatloaf and tuna patties. I could really use this book because my kids refuse to eat vegetables.

Thank you all for some great ideas.  Now here is a healthy snack idea we tried yesterday. 

Mashed potatoes to snack on!  Why not? But to add a little flare, we put in food coloring, scooped it onto an ice cream cone, and didn’t even need a fork. The result, Mashed potato ice cream cones.  The kids thought it was hilarious to say, ” can I have more ice cream mom?”

All the ideas we come up with will work for some kids, not for others. They are going to work once, but not twice. Sometimes they don’t work twice, and then they like it! That is the joy of parenting. Wouldn’t you agree?  Kids are always evolving, always changing.  That is what makes it so great to be a parent.  I love the challenge, and I love being a mom. 

From the peanut gallery: I won’t let flip flopper pierce her ears till she’s 12.  So she’s almost 8 now and she informed me that she wants her ears pierced SOOO bad that she’s going to stick a fork through her ear!  I just laughed.

I almost never make potato salad, because that would mean I have to plan ahead.  You can’t decide at 5:00 to make potato salad for dinner.  It needs to have sufficient time to chill.  Well today, I did plan ahead.  But this time I chopped up a sweet potato and added it to the regular potatoes. I’m not talking orange fleshed yams! But the white fleshed sweet potato.  Very important distinction.

In the morning, I chopped and boiled the potatoes together for 12 minutes.  I then let the potatoes chill in the fridge the rest of the day.  When it was time to prepare dinner, I whipped up a dressing for the potatoes that consisted of light Mayo, a little sugar, salt, and apple cider vinegar.  It was important for me to keep this dish simple. By adding lot’s of vegetables and color, I know it would be met with resistance.  It was just the two types of potatoes and some boiled egg whites.

Sweet potatoes are not related to regular potatoes. They are a completely different vegetable.  They are more nutrient dense than regular potatoes, and great source of antioxidants, essential for protecting cells from damage.   I love white fleshed sweet potatoes baked and mashed, and now I like them boiled and mixed with dressing too.  Many day’s I will bake a sweet potato for lunch, and it is so filling, I won’t be hungry until dinner.  There are very few foods that I can say that about, because naturally I can eat (graze) most of the day.

Exciting things are happening! Come back tomorow for a cookbook give-away. Monday for a “back to school” giveaway (my kids are starting school on Monday). And sign up for my newsletter (top right hand side of my website). Although I have not sent one out yet, I have one in process with fabulous recipes, giveaways, and great healthy food information!

Not only are potatoes available year-round, they are also inexpensive.  With vitamin C, potassium, B6, and fiber, it’s a staple in our house.  My kids love mashed potatoes and baked potatoes, and lucky for me, they do not care for cheesy potatoes (funeral potatoes for those who know).

I made mashed potatoes the other night for dinner.  I try to include small pieces of the skin on in order to preseve some of the healthiest part of the potato.  I chopped up a raw potato.  Boiled the chunks in water until the pieces were soft (about 15 minutes). 

Poured out the water and blended up the potatoes with a mixer.  At this point many people add butter, salt, cream, milk, or whatever to make it creamier.  We are very happy with just a spoonful of plain yogurt, and a little bit of salt.

 This night I used the mashed potatoes to top my shepherds pie.  The base was black eyed peas (because we love them) mixed with a little lean ground beef to hold it together.   A sprinkle of season salt.  Then layered corn, green beans, and finally topped with the mashed potatoes.  The kids ate several helpings. The husband finished it off.  Definitely delicious and a dinner I will make again.

 Some of the day’s my husband is off of work, he will make the yummiest breakfast for all of us.  He cuts up some potatoes. Cooks those in a skillet.  Adds some onions, cracks some eggs, and cooks it through with a little salt and pepper on top.  It is quite divine. Other times he’ll add peppers, mushrooms, or cheese.  OK, often he will add cheese, and I’ll take my serving before the cheese is added. And of course Ketchup boy will add ketchup to the top.  If we are out of potatoes, frozen shredded potatoes work well, and it makes for quicker prep time.

Here is the finished product:

What do you get when you roll potato slices through starch, fry them, and then freeze?  Your grocers frozen fries!  Thought you were doing good when you bought a frozen bag of fries, so you can bake them.  Don’t be fooled, many times, they pre-fry these fries, so although you are baking them, they’ve already been soaked in grease.  Check your labels.  You don’t need a manufacturing plant to cut potatoes for you.  Tonight we cut up our own.  This was less work than I anticipated. We had one of those fry slicer that cut my potatoes into nice thin strips. I soaked the fries till dinner, coated with olive oil and baked with a little salt.  Quicker than a fast food trip.

To make them a little more gourmet, I wanted to add some parmesan cheese. I’m really into cheese right now, but who can afford the good stuff?  A brick of parmesan that you shred yourself was 17.99 per pound at my CHEAP grocery store!  My goodness, my kids sneakers don’t even cost that much! 

I don’t know if I’ll ever buy frozen fries again. The kids ate them up, they were easy, and although frozen potato products can get dirt cheap, I still think it’s cheaper and tastier to make the real thing.  If you are super busy, cut the potatoes up in the morning, keep in a bowl full of water in your fridge all day, then you just have to bake prior to eating.  They did take a good 20 minutes at 450 per side! So baking took a while.