Betty Crocker has a line of mashed potatoes box mixes that come in a variety of different flavors from sour cream and chive to cheesy potatoes to my favorite the home style creamy mashed potatoes. All the mixes are available in both boxes and packets, and the boxes include two packs of potato mix while the packets have a single serving of the potato mix. Also, Betty Crocker has started offering double the amount in the boxes, but I am not sure if the same is done for their packets.

Although I am capable of making mashed potatoes from scratch, during the week I like to prepare quick and easy meals that I can get on the table and take off just as quickly. The potatoes are pre made and are ground finely and it requires is a water, milk, and butter.

The thing I hate about the mashed potatoes mix is the cooking. The box instructs you to heat up the water, milk and butter until it starts to boil and then add in the ground potatoes. The problem with that is you never know what the temperature of the milk, butter and water mixture is so you have to be careful about putting in the potato mix because there have been times where I dried out my mashed potatoes and then I had to correct it, or I did not allow the mixture to boil enough so when I add the mashed potatoes that came out soupy. Despite me having to fix the mashed potatoes I like eating them because they taste like genuine, authentic homemade mashed potatoes and they go great with any meal.

What I discovered from using the Betty Crocker mashed potatoes mix is that it does not matter if you add the potato mix to while the water, milk and butter are heating up or if you do it afterwards because at some point I always find myself having to fix my mashed potatoes. By fix I mean I have to add either extra milk or heavy cream to the mashed potatoes to make them creamy again.

Also, I have noticed that the mashed potatoes become thicker after being in the refrigerator. I usually correct it by add extra milk to them when heating them up. However, I just discovered that if I add heavy cream instead of milk that the mashed potatoes retain their creaminess even after being refrigerated.