Magic Potatoes

Tonight for dinner we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. I have made this from scratch before, but it is quite a bit of work, and my kids really love the predone frozen ones. But we did make a couple of sides to go with that I thought I'd share. I had my daughter help me mix up some instant mashed potatoes.

 

She dumped the potato 'pearls' in the boiling water and stired them up. I told her to watch them become potatoes, "It's like magic".. so we called them magic potatoes, she was very excited to tell her big sister all about it!

 

 

Instant Mashed potatoes are really handy, but how to jazz them up? Well I decided we could each stir in our own choice of extras: cheese, bacon, ranch dressing, sour cream, Italian seasoning.. whatever you like its that easy!
And an interesting side note it ended up being a teaching discussion about flavor and taste. We put some stuff in and tasted it, then decided if we needed to add more, and even took tastes of each others to see who's tasted the best.

 

We also made a favorite at our house: Sweet Carrots
My mom made carrots like this for me when I was a kid, so I'm passing it on. It is so easy, but yummy! Just cook up (steam/boil) any carrots you have until they are fork tender, and add a couple Tablespoons each of brown sugar and butter. Makes a sweet glaze that no kid can resist...