Whether you take the easy route (potatoes) or get a little more involved (refried beans from scratch), mashing food creates both texture and flavor and adds both interest and comfort to your dinner.

Food Ideas

• Love to Cook: Refried red beans, chopped cilantro, onion and avocado on fresh tortillas (or corn cakes)
• Weeknight Reality: Mashed cauliflower, oven roasted asparagus, pan-fried pork chops
• Need a Miracle: Mashed potato bar and Caesar salad (use take-out mashed potatoes, if you must; but you can make mashed potatoes from scratch in less than 30 minutes, really)

Recipe Links

•  Homemade Refried Beans – The Vegan Crew (Note: look for Rancho Gordo dried beans at your market – excellent flavor)
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes – Martha Stewart (Note: substitute baby Yukon Gold potatoes for quicker cooking)
• Mashed Cauliflower with Garlic and Chives – Center Cut Cook
• Tyler Florence’s Velvety Mashed Potatoes – Food Network
• Pan-fried Pork Chops with Homemade Applesauce – Cooking Light via My Recipes
• Mashed Potato Bar: Blissfully Domestic

Parting Thought

“Just remember, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way.”

Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H