I’ve been writing a lot lately about my quick dinners. One trick I keep up my sleeve is my Easy Potato Casserole. It’s easy because all you do is dump things in a bowl then bake. This is great for a family dinner, with leftovers, or to take to an event. The potatoes are soft, but it gets crunchy around the edges and nice and brown on top. I have lots of variations on this, which I’ll share after I give you the basics.

1 bag frozen hash brown potatoes

8-12 oz shredded cheddar cheese (depending on how cheesy you like things!)

1 tbsp dried minced onion

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 container light sour cream

1 can cream of potato soup

1 cup milk or cream

salt and pepper to taste

Cook in an 8×14 greased pan, covered with foil for 1  hour in a 375 degree oven. Then uncover and cook for half an hour more, until brown.

Now that you’ve got the basics, let’s talk about the variations. First of all, if I think of it in advance, I take the potatoes out of the freezer and stick them in the fridge. This cooks faster if they are unfrozen, although you can definitely make it from frozen. Sometimes I add chopped scallions instead of dried onion. I often vary the types of cheese. It’s really good with some smoked cheese mixed in. You could sprinkle cheese on the top if you like it that way. I  sometimes substitute plain yogurt for part of the sour cream. The last time I made this, I forgot to add the milk, so I just poured it on top before I put it in the oven and it worked perfectly. If you wanted to, you could add some chopped ham or bacon. Fresh herbs would certainly liven it up as well.  What I like about this is if I have a bag of potatoes and a can of soup, I can whip it up with whatever I have around for the other ingredients, so it’s very flexible.