I've become a big fan of making large batches of food then storing it in meal-sized portions in our freezer.  For some foods, the effort to make one large batch is not that much more than making enough for a single meal.  And, many foods reheat well and taste almost the same as when I first made it.  I do this with lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and soup.  Lots and lots of soup.  Just recently, when I found myself with ten pounds of potatoes that needed to be used, I decided to try to find a way to freeze and save the potatoes for future meals.

Knowing that the kids always love mashed potatoes, I decided to make a huge batch and see how it worked out.  I've made mashed potatoes ahead of time before and know that extra moisture is required to keep them from drying out when reheating.  With that in mind, I decided to try making them with a non-dairy buttermilk, loads of non-dairy butter, and roasted garlic and bacon for extra flavor.  Just in case they needed it after the freezing.  And because bacon makes everything better.

The only drawback with making five pounds of mashed potatoes at a time is that it really takes a long time to peel and dice all those potatoes.  Other than that, it is pretty darn easy. 

After the potatoes were done and cooled, I divided them into three large ziplock bags (about 3-1/3 c. per bag), smoothed them out and placed all three bags in a 9 x 13 pan (to keep them flat) in the freezer.  Once they were frozen, they were easy to stack and store in the freezer, barely taking up any room at all. 

To thaw the potatoes, I placed the flat bag on the counter for about half an hour at room temperature.  At that point, I was able to break it into chunks that were small enough to fit into a microwave-safe bowl.  From there, I microwaved it until they were warm enough to serve.  EASY and DELICIOUS.

Print it: Non-Dairy Buttermilk Bacon Mashed Potatoes