When the balanced meal options include two side dishes, but you opt for just potatoes, you have skipped out on the critical component of the green vegetable.

I am not complaining about potatoes. I love potatoes. If I was stranded on a desert island, potatoes would be on the top of the list of foods that I would miss…

Unless it was like being stranded on a desert planet, like Mars in The Martian, and all you had to eat were potatoes, in which case, I would then miss the wide variety of options that are available to us at any given moment (for the most part.)

• Mashed.
• Smashed.
• Served with cheese, scallions, bacon and sour cream, in a martini glass.
• Baked.
• Fried.
• Julienned and then French fried.
• Sliced and pan sauteed with onions.
• Boiled and stuffed into a pastry (pastry dough or mmmm, phyllo.)
• Boiled, chopped and mixed with raw crunchy vegetables, basic seasoning a squeeze of lemon and mayo.
• Chopped and baked on top of pizza (oh, that is probably a cheat, but still utterly delicious.)
• Scalloped.
• Au Gratin.
• Hash browned, regardless of typically being served with eggs and toast (again, I could skip the others if needed and just take the side.)

With all of that said, and I know I left a ton of options off the list and someone will chime in with their favorites which were blatantly excluded from the list, but…

If you could live on just potatoes, would you? Think about all of the vitamin B12 you would be missing out on in your life.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl