College Student Cooking {Potatoes}

Dear Kate,

Like Mom, you may think potatoes will make you fat and have no redeeming value.  Potatoes have gotten a bad rap from the low carb enthusiasts to the common junk foods;  French fries and potato chips.  I will make a case for these veggies ANY day of the week.  They are a real food with all that real nutrition to go with them.  Easy to find, easy to afford, filling and tasty.  We just need to use them for good instead of evil.

It is worth buying organic, conventional is sure to have soaked up lots of bug poisons.  Leave the skins on, as with most produce the greatest concentration of vitamin lies in the layer just beneath the peel.  Scrub them well and imagine the possibilities.

You could start out with a regular baked potato by rubbing the skin with oil and baking for an hour in a 350 degree oven.  You could grate them on your cheese grater, make patties and fry then in butter.  You might cut them into cubes, coat with oil and seasoning and steam/fry them until tender.  Or slices would be nice too.  You could even quarter and boil them for fork mashing later.

Potatoes make a nice bed for a great many traditional and untraditional. Bacon , chives, chili, cheese.  Pour spaghetti sauce on top and s sprinkle of cheese and you have a “potato pizza”.  Sautee onions and peppers for a “potato fajita”.  Steamed broccoli (or spinach) over a potato with cheese and you have ”cheesy potato broccoli un-soup.”

And my favorite…

Potato Bruschetta

4 medium baked potatoes

¼ cup finely chopped red onion
1 large ripe tomato, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped (grab some from the garden next time you are here)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Combine onion, tomato, garlic, basil, cheese and olive oil in a small bowl.  Split open potatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper and spoon tomato mixture evenly over all four of them.

Obviously, you would just make one at a time unless you were feeding your friends J

Another variation of this that is super easy is to find/make a nice chunky salsa, strain off the juices and put the chunky part over your potato.

Go here for more tips for eating on a dime.
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