Potatoes

Potatoes. So many delicious ways to enjoy this most unique root vegetable. Make some chips. Make some fries. Mash those potatoes! Load up that potato with butter, bacon bits, chives, and stuff like that. Also, you can make one of my personal favorites- sweet potatoes (sweet potato pie!). This is a great root vegetable that can be turned into so many delicious foods.

This blog topic post was created by me per the request of certain interested readers. The blog post here is more of a digest (no pun intended) rather than a seriously-detailed post regarding potatoes. It is a special shout-out to MountainKing Potatoes.

--- Potato Basics ---

According to Wikipedia, there are over 4K varieties of potatoes worldwide. Among that number of potato varieties, there are many ways to enjoy potatoes. There are many more things you can do to turn a simple potato into something special. I usually know of Idaho as the potato country of the United States (hello to all of my Idaho readers who may be seeing this post). You can really come up with loads of meals based on potatoes. Potatoes also offer some health benefits. I won't excessively bore you with health information, but I will make a brief overview of facts. Among others, they are rich in potassium. They have very low fat and no cholesterol. Eating potatoes can reduce stroke. Purple potatoes could lower blood pressure. While the popular form of enjoying potatoes are in having potato chips and fries, they are generally NOT considered as healthy ways to enjoy potatoes.

This blog post is more of a digest on potatoes rather than something (for example) good enough for some book report or research assignment. Visit the following link for a more complete look at potatoes: Potato - Wikipedia.

--- The Many Ways to Enjoy Potatoes ---

How many ways can you dress up (or dress down) a potato? Here are some of the many ways:

Potato Chips.

^ from: www.kettlebrand.com - Potato chips- I'm sure you've had some of these before.

I'm sure my reading and viewing audience has eaten some kind of chips before. If there was a survey of foods made from potatoes, I'm sure the #1 answer would be chips (guess what game show I'm making reference to). These potato chips come in a number of flavors and styles. Everything from plain to Lord-knows-what gets baked into potatoes to make quality chips to eat.

Fries.

^ from: jonathanturley.wordpress.com - Care to enjoy some French fries? Those potatoes make some sweet fries, don't they?

While not considered healthy, fries are one of the most basic ways to enjoy potatoes. I had a McDonald's meal this past weekend that included French fries. Fast food restaurants usually have their own style of fries. McDonald's and Burger King have their usual fries, Jack in the Box have their tasty seasoned curly fries, Wendy's has been offering fries recently with sea salt (I wasn't sold on sea salt fries), and you go from there. Thick steak fries can be made from potatoes. Fries are about as common of potato-based foods as chips. I prefer eating fries without ketchup. It's actually been a while since I had ANYTHING with ketchup. And if you ask me, McDonald's has the best fries. They have just the right amount of salt with such a good taste. I also like those seasoned curly fries from Jack in the Box.

Hash Browns.

^ from: jamiestamm.wordpress.com - You may have had hash browns to go with your breakfast. These are the kind of hash browns I am used to.

Usually, I think of the times I got a McDonald's Big Breakfast; which comes with a hash brown, those tasty hotcakes, and that sausage patty. I am used to the hash browns served in those paper packages. Those are good and are a nice compliment to any sort of fast food breakfast.

Tater Tots.

^ from: www.rolemommy.com - Tater tots are a fun way to enjoy potatoes.

I feel absolutely dumb for not even thinking about tater tots (tater = potato) when preparing this post! The wake-up call for me to feature tater tots was when I looked around on Wikipedia. Embarrassment spared- here they are. Delicious, tasty, and fun; tater tots are usually great to enjoy.

Mashed Potatoes.

^ from: www.simplyrecipes.com - Mashed potatoes are delicious to eat with a meal or on its own.

Nothing like mashed potatoes. I usually prefer mashed potatoes with either brown gravy or country gravy. It wasn't until one time when I was younger when I wanted to have mashed potatoes with country gravy. Before then, it was always brown gravy with mashed potatoes for me. Mashed potatoes with butter always made for a satisfying eating experience when having mashed potatoes. I usually have just mashed potatoes without gravy except when at restaurants.

Baked Potatoes.

^ from: www.easyveganmeals.com - Go ahead- stuff a spud with a bunch of edible things. Eh, maybe you'll have something delicious to eat.

If you really want potatoes you can dress up any way you like, go with baked potatoes. Most traditional baked potatoes are usually loaded with butter, sour cream, chives, bacon bits, or almost anything you can dream of. You haven't had a baked potato unless you've had one of these... check out this baked potato that only Central Texas BBQ can provide:


^ Now THAT is a baked potato!

It is almost as if you can experiment with stuffing baked potatoes with any sort of edible items to make a baked potato delicious to eat. Experimenting with various food items to stuff a baked potato is a good way to enjoy baked potatoes. Play with your food once in a while and have a little fun. Just look at the tasty massive baked potato stuffed with chicken I posted in the above image!

Sweet Potatoes.

^ from: www.self.com - A sweet potato can be sweet to eat for a number of purposes.

Sweet potatoes can provide a sweet and indulgent way to finish off a meal. Or, they can be something you reach for as a late night snack. I have had some sweet potato fries from... I think Burger King. They were alright to me. Such sweet spuds satisfy sufficiently. If you believe in the saying, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," then one of these is a good way to my heart:


^ from: care2.com - Sweet potato pie is the sweetest and most satisfying way to enjoy sweet potatoes.

Nothing like sweet potato pie. It is a delicious dessert that is sure to satisfy. My only problem is that I sometimes can't tell between sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie. All I know is- nothing like sweet potatoes, especially sweet potato pie!


Told you there are many ways to enjoy potatoes. Now you know some of the many ways!

--- Potato Resources and Links ---

Here are some resources for you if you want to know more about potatoes...

• Potato - Wikipedia
• Are Potatoes Good for You? - nutrition.about.com
• Potatoes Goodness Unearthed - all you need to know about potatoes including recipes


More links may be provided in future edits.

--- Cross-Promotion and Other Reading ---

Here is some other material of mine that might interest you. Because after all, you made the effort to read this post. Why not see more of my work in case you enjoyed your time here? So here you go:

My Favorite Houston/Galveston Eateries (John's Blog Space)
^ Find out about my favorite Houston-area eateries. One of those eateries was highlighted earlier in this post!

Latest "Food and Drink" category posts
^ Hungry for more "Food and Drink" posts of mine? Click on the above link to see the latest posts in the "Food and Drink" category!


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What are some of your favorite potato-based meals and foods?

I'd like to send a special shout-out to MountainKing Potatoes, for which this blog post is dedicated to. The table below features links for you to visit my other blogs, a link to my Facebook fan page, and a link to contact me in case you have any serious inquiries or just want to say hello one-on-one. Be sure to use this material to connect with me. You may not know what I'll blog about next! So if you want to keep tabs with John's Blog Space- a blog about anything and everything, make sure you're Subscribed and Followed! Thank you for reading!

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