Our deep freezer has been looking a little low as the summer months come to an end. I haven’t had the urge to batch cook or shop sales to add to my stock. I decided to start simple with my re-stock and focus on breakfast. First on my list for this series is breakfast potatoes! Made with sweet onions and colorful bell peppers, breakfast potatoes are perfect with bacon and eggs on a Sunday morning or (my favorite) good ol’ breakfast-for-dinner.
Keep reading to see the best way to freeze and save breakfast potatoes so that they’ll last for months!
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That was a convincing intro, right? Did I make it seem like I really know what I’m doing? Because the truth is that these are panic potatoes. Panic breakfast potatoes. This is not a food blog post.
I have found that certain natural disasters, catastrophes, or major life. Events have sparked an inner panic within me. I’m not sure if it’s post-Covid anxiety (like the all encompassing trauma that is/was Covid as a whole, not to be confused with long-Covid) or becoming a mom or just my slow descent into madness, but over the past few years, I have felt an extreme desire to take care of my family. Along with this comes with a desire to have enough food and supplies in case of an emergency.
Stocking Up
When I think about it, I can point to several major news events that have triggered panic buying and me. I have an over supply of children’s Tylenol from the winter of 2022. I have an over supply of pet food since getting a dog last year. And I have a very large amount of toilet paper, as most of us do in a post-Covid world.
I got a deep freezer for Christmas ( isn’t that every 29 year olds dream?) and I have to say I’m very impressed with how cold it stays. Unfortunately it’s in our garage and I only go out to visit it every few weeks.
I am trying to find a way to write this that captures the sheer insanity of this feeling. I don’t want to state what emergency recently happened in this country to prompt me to cook 10? 20? pounds of potatoes in between my daughters library class and soccer practice, but I will say that it was a big fire.
Now, all of us know that in the situation of fire, evacuation is the only solution. So please, tell me why I decided we needed POUNDS of breakfast potatoes is the deep freezer immediately?
I’m still searching for an answer.
Prepping like a normal person
In reality, I’ve done my prepping research and I know the most important things I can do is be financially prepared to evacuate/pay cash for goods, and to be nice to people. Those really are the most important things you can do.
I have no interest in surviving or participating in the end of the world. You will find no bunker in my backyard.
I also know that my biggest threats in my area are hurricanes (hi, Sandy), the occasional blizzard, the occasional pandemic, and power outages. In my 8 years of living here, we only lost power once last year for 1.5 hours, which is nothing.
But, all it took was another natural disaster last week to remind me that I need to restock my life. I am low on everything from soap to paper towels, and especially low on extra food.
So, this is my journey to restocking my pantry and deep freezer.
Panic Breakfast Potatoes
Ingredients:
- Irrational panic
- an absurd amount of potatoes
- a bag of onions
- a few scraggly sweet potatoes
- overpriced bell peppers
- and of course butter
Interested in more recipes? Check out this post on how to make “Easy Oatmeal Round with Sliced Fruit and Whip Cream Drizzle“.
Tools:
- a very sharp knife (the Global Classic Chef’s Knife was a wedding gift, and I’ve gone 5 years without sharpening it and it cuts like new)
- chopping board
- a deep freezer (any freezer will do, but food will not last as long as it will in a deep freezer)
- sheet pan
- huge saute pan
- something to push the absurd amount of (chopped) potatoes around with
- a very busy toddler (I don’t have an affiliate link for this one)
- a very needy dog (or this either)
- food saver
- food saver bags
Hear me out on the food saver
This part is optional but I have a food saver and it is MESMERIZING. How did I go so long without one? Why doesn’t everyone have one? Why is this not a registry staple? The people are sleeping on food savers. More on that later.
Compost, compost, compost
I absolutely love my compost bin! It has adjustable sides and can mold into any shape. The holes allow ventilation without letting the compost out, and the open top allows rain to soak the pile.
This book taught me everything I know about composting. It’s not as simple as dumping leftover food and leaves in a heap.
There are a lot of factors that dictate the success of compost, like moisture level, heat, layering, etc. I like to think of it as a living organism that has to be fed and watered and nurtured.
I use this aerator tool (kind of like a huge corkscrew) to turn my compost every ten days. We’ve had the compost set up for a little over 6 months and haven’t had any issues so far.
My favorite thing about composting is seeing my pile of food scraps in the kitchen and seeing it all go back into the garden rather than a landfill.
How to Prepare Breakfast Potatoes for Freezing
I started by peeling and chopping up 2-3 potatoes/sweet potatoes at a time. As I was working, I would put them into an ice bath so they wouldn’t brown before cooking. My hand hurt so bad about 4 batches in. After peeling my third potato I started questioning my sanity…
I then cut up the bell peppers and onion. Next, I heated olive oil in a large skillet and added garlic and onion for five minutes, followed by the potatoes. In addition, I added salt, pepper, and seasoning. I tried my best to only stir the pot a few times, ensuring a golden brown crisp on the potatoes.
Jamerrill Stewart
Shoutout to my girl Jamerill. This woman is influencing me to have 10 kids, raise my own chickens, and shop at the John Henry General Store in the Shenandoah Valley (iykyk).
How to Cool Breakfast Potatoes for Freezing
I put my cooked potatoes on a baking sheet to cool before storing. I didn’t have room in my freezer for the sheet pan, if I did I would’ve used it to speed up the process.
How to Prepare Breakfast Potatoes for Frozen Storage
Here’s where the magic of the food saver comes into play. The food saver keeps food fresher for longer and saves space. You can create any size “bag” you want, as well as choose different settings for wet or dry food. I recently started doing this with chicken breasts (we go through an ungodly amount of chicken) that I buy in bulk.
How to Freeze Breakfast Potatoes Long-Term
According to Still Tasty, “Properly stored, they will maintain best quality for 10 to 12 months, but will remain safe beyond that time. The freezer time shown is for best quality only – cooked potatoes that have been kept constantly frozen at 0°F will keep safe indefinitely.
Notes
- Patting the potatoes dry before placing them in the skillet led to a crispier skin during cooking
- This is too many potatoes. No one needs this many breakfast potatoes
- Freezer space to pre-freeze the potatoes would’ve saved a lot of time
Have you ever panic cooked? How does your family prepare for natural disasters?
Let me know below!
O.
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Thank you for the recipe! can’t wait to try this.
…and there’s no such thing as too many breakfast potatoes!