Loaded Mashed Potatoes

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I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Hood. I received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

When I think about winter foods I think comfort foods.  Roasts and soups and stews.  Good hearty meals to get you through the cold winter months.  And there has been no shortness of cold in much of the US this winter.  So anything that warms the house and warms the heart this winter has been great.

And when I was offered a chance to create an original recipe highlighting Hood sour cream I couldn’t pass this up.  My head swirled with ideas.  I thought about going with a cookie recipe because baking really is my forte, but I decided traditional would be best.  And what’s more traditional than sour cream and potatoes?

Of course it wouldn’t be very original to just slap some sour cream on top of a baked potato.  I had to take it to a new level.  So since we were having a roast chicken and I usually make mashed potatoes I decided to save my milk for drinking and to use the sour cream in them instead, but I did not stop there.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 4 large russet potatoes

• 1 16-oz container Hood sour cream

• Bacon bits

• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters.  Place them in a pot of water and put on the stove to boil.  Cook until they are fork tender.
2. Drain the water and mash the potatoes.  If you have a potato masher that’s great.  I do not so I put them in my stand mixer and mix. 
3. Add the sour cream and continue to mash, it should get creamy.  Add more sour cream for creamier mashed potatoes if you’d like.  Add in the salt and pepper to taste, bacon bits, and cheddar cheese.  Mix it all until nicely incorporated.

We had this as a side with roast chicken and broccoli.  I also made gravy, but these mashed potatoes were so tasty it didn’t even need the gravy.  However, they were good with the gravy too.  You can add all sorts of things to these mashed potatoes and really make a meal out of them.  A little bit was very filling.  Add some scallions or chives to the potatoes or even broccoli pieces to make it a well balanced lunch.

These were a hit in our house, although more so with the older kids and the adults.  I think perhaps next time I do this I’ll either keep the bacon bits out entirely or just for the little ones portion of mashed potatoes as I think that was the part they disliked about the potatoes.  But my husband couldn’t stop talking about them.  He said it tasted like a baked potato.  I don’t generally get much response out of him over something like potatoes though so I guess it went over really well with him.

Just a few points about Hood Sour Cream:

• Hood sour cream has a rich creamy taste.
• Their full fat variety sour cream is all natural.
• Hood sour cream has been used in households for 160 years.

And here is the nutritional information on the different varieties of Hood sour cream:

What is your favorite way to use sour cream?