This spud's for you
Posted
Nov 16 2007, 11:52 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Want to save a ton of money and enjoy comfort food to boot? Bake some potatoes in your slow cooker.
I did this one recent weekend morning and they were done to a tender turn after two hours on the high setting. The aroma was irresistible, even though I'd had a late breakfast, so I split open one of the smaller spuds, glossed it with butter and sprinkled on some coarse kosher salt.
Afterward, I realized this was probably the cheapest snack I've had in ages. At 99 cents for a 10-pound bag, the per-spud price was about 4 cents. The butter cost less than 2 cents (loss-leader price plus coupon). The price of the salt was infinitesimal, since it came from a one-pound box I bought at the dollar store.
They can make a cheap supper, too, and involve practically no labor. We know that on some nights, we're more vulnerable to the allure of Thai takeout or the fast-food drive-through – maybe Mondays send us reeling, or Thursdays are crunch days at work. So on those nights, plan a spud supper instead. You'll come home to the lovely aroma of freshly roasted potatoes, and you won't have to tip a delivery driver.
Tater thoughts
Every slow cooker is different, so you'll need to experiment with cooking times. Try it on a weekend to get an idea of how fast your slow cooker is. (Does anyone but me think that sounds weird?)
Then on a weekday, fill the cooker with washed spuds that you've poked a few times with a fork (this lets steam escape). Plug it into a timer -- if you don't have one, they're pretty cheap -- that will start the appliance later on.
According to an article from Runner's World magazine, a large russet potato has zero grams of fat, eight grams of protein and seven grams of fiber, and provides almost two-thirds of your daily vitamin C requirement, more than half the B-6 and 1,600 milligrams of potassium (triple the amount in a banana).
Potatoes are pretty cheap year-round, and with Thanksgiving approaching they're likely to be loss leaders at your local market. Sweet potatoes also are likely to be inexpensive, so try them in the slow cooker, too.
Although there's a persistent notion that sweet potatoes are healthier, the fact is that both types have their good points, according to an article by nutritionist Alan Aragon. I'd like to extend a personal thank-you to Aragon for pointing out that a little butter on your vegetables is actually healthy.
One potato, two potato
So go ahead: Serve them with real butter and, if you like to live dangerously, with sour cream. Create a little condiments bar with crumbled bacon (cook and refrigerate a few extra slices some morning), chopped onion, black olives or anything else you think looks good. Cook a vegetable or two to serve on the side, or warm up a can of corn or beans if you’re feeling pressed for time. Or lazy.
Other possibilities:
• Pour chili – leftover or canned – over the spuds and sprinkle with a little grated cheese.
• Steam or stir-fry some broccoli and make a fast cheese sauce. (Fastest of all: Microwave some Velveeta.)
• For the ultimate comfort food, mash the potatoes with the skins on. Stir super-nutritious steamed kale into the mash for a variation on the Irish dish of colcannon.
• Cut up the spuds and turn them into potato salad. Even the cheapest hot dogs taste good with potato salad.
• Slice and fry leftover tubers and serve them with scrambled eggs for a breakfast-for-dinner meal.
• This message group has recipes that turn ordinary baked spuds into dishes like Dijon mushroom potatoes, baked potatoes with spicy chicken topping, or Mexican salsa potatoes.
The a-peel of money saved
The Wendy's down the street sells baked potatoes for $1.29 plus tax -- and if you were eating there, you’d probably buy drinks and maybe a side order of chicken strips.
At home, you’ll pay less than a dime per spud, plus the cost of whatever you put on top. We're talking dinner for less than a dollar, maybe a lot less depending on what you add. For example, I recently got Del Monte vegetables for a quarter per can thanks to a coupon/instant store rebate combo. And I'm still finishing up the last of those infamous 40 free cans of pork and beans.
While you eat, figure out what you might have spent on takeout, or even on a more expensive home-cooked meal. Add that amount to your cash cache. You could also use it toward a Christmas free of credit cards.
Or you could simply feel smug about saving some dough. What's life without a little self-righteousness?
