Cottage Potatoes

Made for the Club Potluck May 2011 - these potatoes disappeared so fast I barely got a spoonful to taste it myself since this was the first time I'd made this. With the green onions & red peppers, this is an attractive dish.

Note: Easily adapted to a lower fat version -  ingredient modifications for low fat are in parenthesis.

Ingredients:

• 1 (2 pound) package of hash browns - shredded
• 1 (10-3/4 oz.) can cream of chicken soup (or 98% fat-free)
• 1 ( 8-ounce) package shredded cheddar cheese (or fat-free)
• 2 cups sour cream (or fat-free)
• 2 Tablespoons butter/margarine, very soft (use your favorite low fat spread)
• 1 small bunch green onions, chopped, tops and all
• 1 red or green pepper, chopped (I used red - more colorful)

Directions:

1. Spray a crock pot with cooking spray (use nonfat)
2. In the crock pot, mix together the hash browns, soup, cheese, sour cream, butter/margarine, onions & pepper
3. Cover and cook on high until hot & bubbly, about 3 hours.

Yield: 16 (1/2 cup) servings


Recipe notes:

• If you mix this in the crock pot, you get a lot of the soup/cream cheese, etc. high up on the sides where it tends to burn. I mixed everything in a large bowl, then put it in the crockpot - much neater.
• Also, the recipe did not specify if the hash browns should be thawed or not. I did not thaw them (but you could - might have to adjust cooking time down). I would suggest you mix all the ingredients except the hash browns first so they are thoroughly blended, then mix with the frozen hash browns.