Once A Month Cooking - Potatoes

I got the idea for this HERE, at a woman's blog who occasionally does once-a-month cooking. She did potato skins, twice-baked potatoes, and mashed potatoes. I chose just to do the mashed and the skins.

Five-pound bags of potatoes were on sale for $0.99 last week at Smiths, so I picked up 2 bags. I had shredded cheese in my freezer from a sale last spring (where I got it nearly free), as well as some bacon in my freezer that I got for $0.29 per package in June with a great coupon. Then I also picked up one bunch of green onions ($0.89 at Reams). Total cost for this project is less than $4! If a serving is 2 potato skins, it comes out to about $0.12 per serving.


First I scrubbed the potatoes and poked them with a fork. Then I cooked them for 1 hour at 450 degrees in the convection oven.


After they cooled I cut them in half and scooped out the insides to make mashed potatoes. I mixed the insides with some butter, milk, and salt and pepper.


Then I scooped them into muffin tins and put them in the freezer for an hour to create individual servings.


While those froze, I filled the potato skins with cheese, chopped green onion and bacon pieces (not fully cooked so that when they get cooked later the bacon won't be too crispy).


Voila! I now have a freezer full of potato skins and mashed potatoes to use for lunches or dinners throughout the whole month! Not bad for less than $4 dollars!