Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Potatoes

I've been called a lot of things in my days, but sucker isn't generally one of them. That is until a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful day, the hubs and I were working outside and up comes a lady with a load of fruit... apples, oranges, grapefruit and tomatoes. They were super delicious and juicier than anything I've ever tasted - no lie. Fifteen minutes later we had two uber expensive cases of fruits and vegetables that were said to be organic from a farm nearby. Now that was a lie. When we came inside to eat some of our bounty we found grocery store stickers and a ton of stuff we didn't want and don't normally eat. One of those veggies just happened to be potatoes. Loads of potatoes.

What in the world was I going to do with all these over-priced starch? Mid-way through the week I realized that many of the potatoes (not to mention tomatoes) were already going bad. Mad was an understatement. To prevent being screwed over twice, I was going to have to use up the potatoes STAT. Pinterest and potato soup to the rescue! I followed some pretty generic crock pot recipes with minor modifications. (I added a cup of milk to the chicken stock, replaced

 cream of chicken with cream of mushroom and used chive and onion cream cheese instead of plain.) Oh and I added a half a stick of butter, because everything tastes better with butter. YUM!

Because a lot of the potatoes were half rotten, I decided to do some potato stamping instead of tossing them in the trash! Using a paring knife, I cut out two simple triangles to make a tepee and began stamping my little heart out... unbleached heavyweight canvas and pillowcases.

I added the little twigs at the top with a black fabric marker and filled in the tepee with a paintbrush where the paint hadn't transferred well. I absolutely love how it turned out. I plan on putting the pillowcases in the boys room. TIP: make sure you dry the potato off before you add ink and begin stamping; otherwise it bleeds a bit.

So simple. So easy. That's my favorite kind of craft. PS - did you know March is national craft month? Over the next few weeks I hope to tap heavily into my crafty side and bring you lots of fun stuff. 

Do you prefer regular potatoes or sweet potatoes? I'm a sweet potato gal. xo