Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Have I mentioned that I bought a Costco-sized box of frozen hashbrowns a while ago?  All of the hashbrown recipes I’ve tried have used some of those hashbrowns–and I have over a third of the box left.  (Possibly closer to half.)  Anyway…

I needed a one-dish, relatively easy dinner last week, since I took the kiddos to Cookie Cutters so the girlies could get haircuts and we didn’t get  home until close to 4.  When I found these Cheesy Bacon Hashbrowns, I decided they would fit the bill; I left the bacon and the hashbrowns out on the counter to thaw while we were gone and then cooked bacon and threw the ingredients together once we got home.  It does use a can of condensed soup, if you’re picky about that sort of thing, but I have to say, I liked it even more than I was hoping to.  I used smoked paprika instead of regular (I like it better), and 1% milk (because that’s what I have), and I thawed frozen hashbrowns (ditto).  I also did about half and half sour cream and plain yogurt, because I refused to open a 16 oz container of sour cream to use 2 oz of it (not when the plain yogurt was open and available, anyway.)  I don’t know that any of the changes made a significant difference, but I liked it.  My oldest liked it as well; my middle did actually eat it herself, albeit with prompting, and the boy dumped it on his tray but ate it more or less unprompted.  All in all, it’s easy and tasty and worth making.  Who could ask for anything more?

(Well, I suppose you could ask for slightly healthier.  But I have found it almost impossible to manage easy, tasty, healthy, and inexpensive all at the same time.  I just hope for 2 or 3 of the four–and vary which ones I’m hoping for!)