Potato Pancakes

What do you eat for breakfast when you’ve eliminated nearly everything from your diet?

Well, you look at what you can eat and try to figure something out.

We can have white potatos and beef…well, steak and hash browns is a popular breakfast, right?

Except, we don’t have any steaks.  Hmm…

Then I remembered something the Geek said once about a breakfast dish his grandmother used to whip up: Potato Pancakes.

It was basically leftover mashed potatos from dinner thinned out with milk and fried up.  Not too hard, right?

Except – no dairy in our house!  No problem!  So here’s how I do it:

You’ll need a bunch of potatos, about 8 ounces of ground beef (or whatever meat you can use – this is optional, of course!), and you can add onion and garlic to ‘up’ the flavor.

Potatos and Ground Beef, peeled, defrosted, ready to go

Peel and dice the potatos, put into a pot to boil.

Potatos boiling – they’re very starchy!

If you’re using onion and garlic, throw them into a frying pan to soften, then add the ground beef and brown it off.

Ground beef in the pan – I didn’t add onion or garlic this time

Drain the potatos in a strainer into a bowl.  Start mashing, adding BACK the liquid you took out as needed for consistency.  Of course, if dairy isn’t a problem in your household, you could make these creamier by draining the potatos and adding milk.

Once they’re mashed, dump in the ground beef mix and stir until well combined.

(I do everything up to this point ahead of time and store it in the fridge.)

Many breakfasts, sitting in Tupperware waiting for morning!

Take whatever oil/fat is safe for you (olive, coconut, canola, etc.) and heat it in a frying pan.

Using a spoon, scoop out small amounts of the potato mix and flatten into a pancake shape –  approximately 3-5 inches around (it’s not precise!) and place in the frying pan.

Be patient!

Now, be patient!  I always try to flip them too soon, but if they don’t want to slide easily onto the spatula, they aren’t ready.  Wait!

Once they’ll slide onto the spatula in a solid, barely moving piece, flip them over.

Be patient again!  Once they’ll slide onto the spatula, plate them up and eat.

Yummy!

For something so simple, they’re really quite delicious!

NOTES:

I use imprecise amounts because I make up a huge batch of this and leave it in the fridge.  It makes breakfast much easier!  What I usually look for is a ratio that looks about 70% potato, 30% meat.

We’re now experimenting with adding other things into the mix.  Finely grated carrots did pretty well, so feel free to tweak it with whatever veggies are on your safe list.  Bell peppers chopped finely might be delish!

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POTATO PANCAKES

-bunch of potatos
-8 ounces ground beef
-onion (optional)
-garlic (optional)

What easy breakfast dishes do you make for your allergy/FPIES kids?  Tell us about it in the comments!
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This post has been shared with Allergy-Free Wednesdays, Real Food Wednesdays, Whole Food Wednesday, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.