Friday, January 16, 2015

Easy Peasy Potato Pancakes

I love mashed potatoes, in fact they are my favorite food, so when I make them for a side with dinner I tend to over make them. I make way more then we would ever eat at a meal and I always have lots of leftovers. Here comes in the trouble, I hate leftover mashed potatoes! They just are not good reheated. Do you agree? I feel like they get a really starchy flavor to them when they are reheated.

So, last night I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and putting away the leftovers. There were gobs of mashed potatoes left and I was getting ready to put them in a Tupperware and tuck them away in the fridge where they usually sit about a week and then are transferred to the garbage pan and I was thinking why don't I just throw them away now? It just seems too wasteful throwing away food that isn't spoiled. In the name of frugality, I decided I was going to use these leftovers somehow to make something! So, I spent an extra few mins making up some potato pancakes.


I threw all the ingredients in the serving bowl the potatoes were already in, mixed it in with my hands, and formed patties. I placed the patties on a plate and wrapped them in saran wrap and stuck them in the fridge. The next morning it only took a few minutes to cook them on the electric griddle and they were awesome!! Everyone loved them even the picky people in the family! And they made for a nice hot, hearty breakfast before taking Henry to school in this sub-zero weather we have been having.



Easy Peasy Potato Pancakes

*The measurements are not exact due to this being something one makes with leftover*

3-4 cups leftover mashed potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese ( I used Vermont White Cheddar, plain Cheddar is good too)
2 thin sliced green onions
1Tbs minced garlic
3Tbs minced onion (I used the dehydrated kind for this)
A heavy handed sprinkling of Italian Seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients
Form into patties
Cook on an electric griddle or in a frying pan until browned on both sides and warm all the way through.

I served with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of Italian Seasoning on top. Yummy!!!

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Easy and Cute Christmas Savings!

  Easy and Cute Chrsitmas Savings Tip

 
The Christmas season is finally over and we can all go back to life as normal!!! I for one love the end of the Christmas season as much as I love the beginning. I have a habit of taking down the tree December 26th, packing up all the decorations, putting away all the new toys and clothes, and not having another Christmas-y though until about Halloween. This year, I really want to change that by preparing for Christmas year round so that it won't be such a drain on us next winter.
 
So, I got really lucky and found this adorable shadow box on sale at Dollar General. It has a slit in the top so kids can write down their Christmas wishes, but instead we are going to drop all of our change plus $40 a month into that slit. I think it will be really fun to actually watch our savings grow, and after saving change only for a month we had saved up $53.17 in December. In January we have started adding the $40/month in cash as well. We look forward to having around $1,000 extra dollars at Christmas time next year :)
 
What do you do with your change? Leave your ideas in the comments!