Cheesy Potato and Tomato Skillet
Instant potatoes, two cheeses, and a crushed tomato base. Built from a grocery haul, rebuilt for a stove.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 min
- water
- 450 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 3/4 cup | stands in for the 20 lb bag of baking potatoes |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato powder | 3 tbsp | or 2 tbsp sun-dried tomato, chopped fine |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried mozzarella | 1 oz | |
| Colby jack | 1 oz | a solid block, not shredded |
| Butter powder or ghee | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Dried oregano | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Boil 450 ml of water. Stir in the dried onion, tomato powder, and oregano. Let it sit off heat for two minutes so the onion softens.
- Add the potato flakes in stages, stirring, until the pot holds a spoon upright. Add water by the splash if you overshoot.
- Stir in the butter powder and the freeze-dried mozzarella. The residual heat is enough.
- Cut the colby jack into small cubes and fold them in last. Cover the pot for a minute and let them go soft rather than fully melted.
- Salt and pepper at the end. Tomato powder is already salty, so taste first.
The source was a family grocery run: potatoes, onions, canned crushed tomatoes, and two kinds of cheese from a warehouse store. Those are good bones for a cheap dinner and terrible things to carry. Baking potatoes became flakes, the #10 can of crushed tomatoes became tomato powder, and the onions became dried mince. The romaine did not survive the translation.
Two cheeses do two jobs. Freeze-dried mozzarella dissolves into the potatoes and thickens them. The colby jack cubes stay whole, so you hit pockets of melted cheese instead of a uniform paste. Add the cubes off heat or they break and leave grease on top.
Packing
Potato flakes, tomato powder, onion, butter powder, mozzarella, and oregano go into one bag at home. The colby jack block rides in the lid pocket, wrapped, and keeps about four days in cool weather.
Variations
- A foil packet of salmon or tuna stirred in at the end takes protein past 40 g.
- Swap the tomato powder for a marinara-style sauce mix if you want it sweeter.
- Add a sliced pepperoni stick for fat and salt; it stops being vegetarian.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/living-on-a-food-budget