What to do with 20lbs of Red Potatoes!

My new recipe, potato and ham soup.

Notice Grace's hand in the cheese?

She caught on quickly!

Sprinkling cheese into her own bowl.

The other day while at Ream's I came upon a fabulous deal. 20lbs of Red Potatoes for just $2.99. Having a large family and being on a budget that bag screamed at me to buy it. So I did. Then comes the challenge to find ways to cook up all those potatoes. Now, potatoes are not my most favorite food. In fact, I couldn't stand them while pregnant with Jaren and haven't been able to truely enjoy them since. But, my family adores potatoes.

My first us of the bag was to cook up some home fries Christmas morning to accompany my traditional Biscuits and Gravy. They were a huge hit. What are home fries you ask? Basically hash browns in diced form. You don't have to take the time to grate all those fries. You just dice them, blanch them and saute them up. What's blanching you ask? It just a fancy term for boiling in water for about 5 minutes. It starts the cooking process and makes the potatoes brown up more quickly.

My second use of the bag of potatoes was again at breakfast where I did make hasbrowns. Again a huge hit. But I needed to start using them for dinners.

Last night I came up with this fabulous potato and ham soup. It was gooo-ooo-oood. Would you like the recipe? Like it or not, here it comes. I love it because it is healthy and easy to make. No, really, it is.

6 red potatoes diced(skins still on. who has time to peel small potatoes. besides most of the nutrition is in the skins!).

1 onion diced

1 cup of ham diced

1. first heat a dutch oven(large pot) over medium heat with 4 tablespoons of olive oil

2. add onion and about 1 tsp salt, saute until tender

3. Add the ham and continue to cook until brown around edges, about 8 minutes

4. Add diced potatoes and continue to cook for about 5 minutes

5. Add enough water to cover ingredients about an inch

6. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes, until potatoes are tender

7. With a potato masher, mash the mixture and watch it thicken up. Make sure to leave some

texture.

8. Add about 2 cups 1% milk, bring back to a simmer, and it's ready to serve

9. As a garnish I added shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream!!

My kids all loved this as well as the husband. I served it with some french bread. It would have been better with a green salad. Another good accompaniment would have been some biscuits.

Notice there was no butter or heavy cream used in the making of this soup. So I'd say it's pretty darn healthy.