No Bake Cheesy Bacon Hash Brown

Dates with my lil’ Ms. GJG has become a regular thing for us. She insists on accompanying me when I do errands around the neighborhood just because. I take this opportunity for my firstborn and I to bond and have quick lunch dates or enjoy an afternoon snack together. So one Monday, after finishing our errands, we wandered around Fully Booked and decided to try Press Cafe.

Press Cafe is located right inside Fully Booked at Promenade in Greenhills Shopping Center.

The quiet ambiance is perfect to get lost in your current read.

One side of the cafe holds a vignette of books and doodles. It’s such an interesting wall.

No cafe visit for me is complete without coffee.

While my date ordered her favorite mango shake.

Banana Nutella Pancakes for lil’ Ms. GJG.

Press Cafe Burger for me.

If I had nothing else to do & I mean really nothing else to do (no chores, no driving duties, no errands aka donya duties!) I would spend my days hanging out with this little girl and my little boy. I tell you, you get to discover a lot from your child when you spend good quality time with him/her. Even if it’s just 10 minutes, it pays to listen to what he/she has to say. Most of the time, she babbles ‘coz she’s a curious cow. The never ending why questions always caught me off-guard & these prompt me to learn the answers together with my children. One of the things my lil’ Ms. GJG observed during our date was the potato chips. How mundane yet interesting our conversation was.

“Mom, why is potato chips always so yummy?!”

Well, I think potato is really yummy whether it’s potato chips, fries or hash brown!”

“I think so too! Why is potato always a side dish? Can we make it the star dish next time?!”

Sure!

Medyo na-challenge ako dun ha. There’s always potatoes in our pantry because it’s an ingredient I use in most of the dishes I usually cook.

Whenever I cook, there’s always a dish that needs some potato loving’- Afritada, Bulalo, Tortang Giniling, Menudo, Nilaga, and Pork Giniling are just some of the dishes I prepare for my family that requires potato as an ingredient. So when my lil’ Ms. GJG gave me that follow up question, I was challenged to show to her that potato can be a dish itself.

So off we went to the supermarket to check out frozen potatoes that we can take home with us and experiment on cooking.

Fries, wedges, basket weave, straight cut, chips, hash browns, taters and mash are just some of the variants of frozen potatoes that you can find in your leading supermarket and these are actually imported from the US. Potatoes are known for “America’s Favorite Vegetable” and is naturally fat-free. Yes, it is!

photo source: The Peach Kitchen

I asked lil’ Ms. GJG what she wants and she insisted on getting chips, fries and hash brown. Since chips and straight cut fries are really good as a side dish, I focused on what else we can do with hash browns.

We decided to give the good ol ‘ hash brown a lil’ makeover.

Hash brown is good enough to eat on its own but since my kids love anything that has cheese, we tried creating a no-bake cheesy bacon hash brown. This dish only requires three basic ingredients.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Hash brown (depends how many you want, but 6-8 pieces will do)

Cheez Whiz spread

Bacon bits

*oil for frying*

WHAT TO DO:

1. In a small pot, heat at least 1 cup of canola oil (or any cooking oil you prefer). Once oil is hot, deep fry the hash brown. Fry until it turns golden brown. To make it healthier, you can use an air fryer instead.

2. In a small pan, fry the bacon bits until it’s crunchy. Drain and set aside.

3. Spread a layer of Cheez Whiz on top of the hash brown and sprinkle with bacon bits.

Serve and enjoy!

“Mom, look! It’s my very own yummy burger!”

Since my lil’ Ms. GJG mentioned burger, it gave me an idea to turn my cheesy bacon hash brown into a burger. I added another hash brown and topped it with bacon bits and parmesan cheese. Next time, I’ll make mini-beef burger patties and name our dish MINI CHEESY BACON HASH BROWN BURGER!

Did you know that fries isn’t really the source of trans fat?