Trader Joe's Mashed Potatoes

Whenever I'm at Trader Joe's I always scope out the store - see what's new, what's unique or what seems interesting. I love mashed potatoes (or potatoes in general) so when I spotted a bag of frozen Trader Joe's Mashed Potatoes in the freezer section I was intrigued. There aren't very many instant potato brands that I enjoy (outside of Idahoan packages) but I was intrigued by this. Fresh mashed potatoes that are frozen, convenient AND portion sized?

 

I had the package in my freezer for some time, not quite sure what I was going to do with them. I pulled them out the other day for a side with dinner and I have to say ... these potatoes are pretty amazing.  They come frozen, shaped in little round "coin" sized balls. You can cook as little or as many as you choose depending on how much you want as a serving.

 

I placed all the potato balls in the bottom of a non-stick pan, added in the water as directed and let it come together over medium-high heat. I was quite pleased with the end result. Smooth, creamy, mashed potatoes that involved little effort. No potatoes to peel, chop and boil.

 

The bag states you can flavor them up with chicken broth, butter, or the simple water method (which is what I chose). I seasoned them with a little sea salt and black pepper and they were good to go. Delicious paired alongside some meatloaf and mixed veggies. They were so good I picked up another bag on my latest trip to Trader Joe's to have on hand for days where I feel like mashed potatoes.

 

A serving, 8 pieces (4 ounces) is 90 calories or 2 points plus values.

Roasted Potatoes w/ Onion and Garlic

Roasted potatoes are such a comfort food – especially if there’s onion and garlic involved!  This particular recipe can be made either sliced or cubed – whichever you prefer.  The cook time is typically the same for either slicing methods because potatoes take quite a while to cook in the oven.  They are a delicious addition alongside any cut of meat – or if you’re a vegetarian alongside any meat substitute.

Serves 4 – Serving: ¼ of pan – 5 Points Plus.  (Recipe can be cut into 5 to make it 4 Points Plus per serving)

Ingredients:

1 2/3 lb (26.5 oz) raw potatoes cleaned and sliced (Note: I used this amount because I didn’t want to have to throw out a large potato so I just increased the amount to cook)

1 medium onion, sliced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 ½ tablespoons minced garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons oregano

1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Spray a large baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Add sliced potatoes, onions, minced garlic, dry oregano, salt, garlic powder, salt, pepper and olive oil to a large bowl.  Toss to combine. Once combined, evenly distribute to baking dish.

Bake at 375 for roughly 40 minutes – stirring the potato mixture halfway through.

If you find your potatoes are still a rather hard around ~30 minutes of cooking, you can add a few tablespoons of water to the bottom of the pan (it will evaporate) but will aid in steaming the potatoes a bit.

Boiled Dinner

St. Patrick’s Day came and went and my boyfriend and I did not have our boiled dinner. We were supposed to have dinner with his mom but a family emergency came up and dinner was called off.  I typically make a boiled dinner at least once or twice a year because I just really love corned beef.  My local wholesale club sells a lean corned beef eye round all year round and I really enjoy it because there’s not a whole lot of fat and it’s very low in Points Plus values (3 to be exact for 4 ounces).

I invited my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner and off and cooking I went bright and early in the morning.  I covered my corned beef in water and set it on to boil.  Once the water began to boil, I dropped the head down to medium-low and let it simmer away for 4 hours.  After that I dropped in my baby carrots (2 pounds worth), some peeled white potatoes and the largest head of cabbage ever cut into quarters.  I covered it and let it cook until all the veggies were done.

It was totally delicious!  I ate mine with a drizzle of white vinegar over the vegetables, a spritz of spray butter on the potatoes and a tiny bit of mustard alongside the corned beef.  Totally delicious!  I ate it for dinner and lunch two days in a row and was not complaining about that what-so-ever!  It’s a great meal – takes a while to cook, but was worth the points.

Whole plate points plus: 6.

Roasted Potatoes, Chicken Sausage and Peppers

Two weeks ago I went ahead and tried out a Skinnytaste recipe I had printed out after a recommendation and decided to try it out.  I’ve had sausage with potatoes and peppers a million times before – but most of those times were pre-Weight Watchers.  Typically when I make roasted sausages with peppers and onions in the oven, I eliminate the potato and just cook everything up in the oven until done.  I have to say, adding the potato made it seem like it was a dish that was “bad for you” which made it so much better!

I weighed out and measured all the ingredients needed for the dish and was quite surprised at how MUCH there was in the pan and how little servings there were.  The entire pan was to be separated out into four servings.  Four GIGANTIC servings might I add.  It was so delicious that I will be making this again.  It cooked up so quickly in the oven.  Next time I’m going to switch out the sausage for a different flavoring to change it up a bit (the original was delicious but I know I have a few other sausage flavorings in the freezer).

I followed the recipe (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/10/roasted-potatoes-chicken-sausage-and.html) as described except I eliminated the rosemary since I didn’t have any so I substituted for minced garlic (along with the powder garlic) and some oregano.  I love changing things up to my liking ;).  The ¼ of the serving was 8 Points Plus.

Overall two thumbs up.  Totally worth making again!  This would even be good to save half a serving to go along with some eggs in the morning!

QUESTION:

Have you ever made a Skinnytaste recipe?

Breakfast: Egg-“Hash” Muffins & Ham Steak

I’ve been getting bored with breakfasts as of late and have been finding I’ve been gravitating towards the same things.  Typically some sort of deli meat on toasted light wheat bread.  Of course I switch it up, but at the end of the day, it’s still deli meat and that can be really boring.  One thing about me is I am and probably always will be a complete carbaholic.  I LOVE anything that’s a carb – bread, potatoes, rice, etc.  If it’s starchy, I love it.  I had wanted hash browns and since I’m not a terribly huge fan of eggs I decided to try morphing the two together.  I looked up a few ideas online and found an egg white version but since I don’t like egg whites, I decided to just go with my own idea and chug along.  I originally was going to chop up my ham steak and drop it into the muffin tins, but when I got to that step there just wasn’t enough room in the tins.  That would work if I used giant muffin tins.

The only ingredients I used were 1 cup Simply Potato shredded potatoes (this is for 2 servings – ½ cup a serving – 3 tarts per serving), 1 cup egg beaters (1/2 cup per serving),  minced garlic, black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder and Mrs. Dash Spicy seasoning.

I mixed the minced garlic (use as much/little as you like – I love garlic so I put a fair amount) with the shredded potato, add in sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder to your liking and mix until blended.

Split the mixture up into the 6 greased (with Pam) muffin tins.  In the same bowl the potatoes were in add in 1 cup of egg beaters, black pepper, sea salt and the spicy Mrs. Dash seasoning.  Blend and pour the mixture evenly over the 6 cups of potatoes.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for roughly 20 minutes (until eggs are cooked through).

I ate with 3 ounces Carando breakfast ham steak and I topped my eggs with sriracha (LOVE that stuff!).  They were really yummy – the potatoes mixed with the eggs and made a fabulous flavor.

On my last trip to the grocery store they didn’t have the shredded potatoes, so I bought the diced with onion – which would be 2/3 cup of diced potato in place of the ½ cup per serving.

3 muffins comes out to be 3 PointsPlus Values (2 for the potatoes, 1 for the eggs).