I can’t find a link right now, but Publix carries a few brands of non-powdered ready-made mashed potatoes. Just microwave for a few minutes and you’ve got a pretty tasty tub-o’-potato. I actually prefer some brands to the homemade stuff.
I like boxed mashed potatoes; I just consider them a different food than real mashed potatoes.
Just don’t ever, ever, eat them like this.
(Is it lame to link to your own post? I hope not…but I’m still new-ish, so forgive me if so! :o )
Dahling, have you tried the Betty Crocker Three Cheese mashed potatoes? They are simply divine.
Really, they’re also very good. 
Totally off topic but I can’t help but pronounce “Publix” as “Pube-Licks”.
Get a potato ricer- the one I have is similar to a gigantic garlic press.
Just peel the potatoes (use a child for this), boil them, and squeeze them through the ricer, then stir. No more mashing, beating, etc…
Why on earth would I eat rice when I want mashed potatoes?
I haven’t had boxed in decades. From the way this thread is tending, maybe I should give them another shot.
Oh, those things are gooood. When the store has a good sale, I buy boxes and boxes of them to last us for a few months. Definitely a staple in the bodypoet pantry.
Instant mashed potatoes are nothing like the real thing, but they are very useful, although usually needing something flavourful added to them.
And, am I the only one to whom it matters that they are lighter to carry? Seriously, being a car-less Celyn, then adding a box or packet of instant mash to my shopping instead of several pounds of real potatoes does tend to leave space etc for other important stuff.
I think I don’t eat it all that often but I DO like having some in the cupboard by way of “emergency food”
Hmm, now I want to eat something potato-y. Why does every single internet message board manage to make me hungry? Oh, I’m greedy, yes, that’s it.
Because I prefer any type of potatoes over rice? They’re not interchangable in my view.
Potatoes over rice? lisacurl, I’m guessing you weren’t born and bred in Baton Rogue, then.
I don’t particularly like boxed mashed potatoes. OTOH boxed potatoes au gratin are really quite tasty.
Because potatoes are potatoes and rice is rice. I don’t use them interchangably. Mashed potatoes are lovely as comfort food, plus they’re easy to make and work better with meatloaf, hamburger patties and gravy, and that sort of thing. I make rice often, too, but mostly as a side dish for chicken and more solid meats, or for main dishes that would be better served with a lighter side dish.
Robin
Well, yeah, but a 5 lb bag of Russsets is $3, or less than 4 cents an oz. Reds are even cheaper. Add your own garlic and spices and you’re up to maybe 5 cents. You’ll end up with a better, cheaper product without whatever added salt, MSG, sugar, silicon dioxide and perservatives are in the prepackaged junk. Just real butter, milk or sour cream, potatoes and whatever seasonings you want.
Is the convenience really worth that much?
from the General Mills website
INGREDIENTS: IDAHO POTATOES, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, MALTODEXTRIN, MARGARINE (PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, NONFAT MILK, LECITHIN, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, ANNATO EXTRACT COLOR, AND NATURAL FLAVOR), CORN SYRUP, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, GARLIC, WHEY, DEXTROSE, SODIUM CASEINATE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, NATURAL FLAVOR PARSLEY, SILICON DIOXIDE, COLOR ADDED, SOY FLOUR, WHEAT FLOUR, FRESHNESS PRESERVED BY SODIUM BISULFITE AND BHT.
Well, the convenience of having mashed potatoes right now with no time spent washing, peeling, boiling, mashing, and spicing is easily worth the extra $1 total that such a meal might cost. And I don’t think the cost is all that great. On safeway’s website, I saw Betty Crocker boxed potatoes for as low as 14 cents/oz. Even if you directly compare the weight of actual potatoes which have a lot of water in them to the weight of dehydrated potatoes, it’s still only 3 times as much. While that’s a decent factor, I’d guess that the cost of bulk starches aren’t a significant expenditure. Unless you’re really hurting on your grocery budget, this choice of potatoes won’t put you into the red.
Around our household, it breaks down to:
wife at home = real mashed potatoes
wife on business trip = instant mashed potatoes.
I just don’t have the patience to boil, peel, mash, etc. The boxed stuff is good, and as others have so eloquently noted, really easy to make! 
Corii - At last! Someone else who makes Glop like I do!
Yes, to some of us. I don’t care about preservatives, artificial ingredients, or any of that stuff. What I care about :
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Does it contain dairy products? (In that case, I can’t eat it with meat or poultry)
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Does it have a lot of fat and calories?
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Does it taste decent?
[QUOTE=Homebrew]
Well, yeah, but a 5 lb bag of Russsets is $3, or less than 4 cents an oz. Reds are even cheaper. Add your own garlic and spices and you’re up to maybe 5 cents. You’ll end up with a better, cheaper product without whatever added salt, MSG, sugar, silicon dioxide and perservatives are in the prepackaged junk. Just real butter, milk or sour cream, potatoes and whatever seasonings you want.
Is the convenience really worth that much?
[QUOTE]
First of all, I do know how to make real mashed potatoes from a potato. And I do.
However, I’m often responsible for feeding two people. I can’t go through a bag of potatoes fast enough to make it worthwhile. For a $3 bag of potatoes, I get maybe two or three meals before the rest go bad. (That’s two potatoes per meal, BTW.) My choices are to buy potatoes as I use them, which is more expensive, or to keep boxed mix in the cupboard, which keeps longer, and which allows me to make them at my leisure, without a separate trip to buy potatoes.
Robin
I cannot comprehend the people who go on about how much effort it takes to make real mashed potatos. For someone who considers themselves reasonably adept in the kitchen, mashed potatos are absolutely the freaking easiest things to make in the entire world and require almost no tending whatsoever.
Yep. Best utensil in my kitchen. Well, maybe behind the garlic press. And the block of Chicago knives. And, uh… okay, it’s a very good utensil.
Best part is you can make mashed potatoes in pretty much any quantity. I live alone and tonight I’m going to make mashed potatoes for one, as a side dish to my salmon with pear-and-green-peppercorn sauce. Peel, chop, boil, squish, stir. Done. (If you get an industrial-strength ricer, you don’t even have to peel.)
Oh, and here’s a recommendation if you want to jazz them up a bit: Make them as normal, salt, butter, etc., but instead of cream or half-and-half or whatever you use for the dairy component, use coconut milk. It’s wonderful.
I don’t think I’ve ever met a child sharp enough to peel a potato. Some are abrasive enough to sand off the skin, but peel? Dunno.
Maybe my friend David’s kid. She’s smart as a whip.