Homemade Potato Chips

Homemade Potato Chips sounded like a good idea. My husband had recently suggested we drop processed snacks from the grocery list and I obliged. As a result, I found myself baking and cooking snacks from scratch so that my kiddos could still enjoy a treat now and then.

Homemade Potato Chips was among the list.

The picture and recipe, which I found on a blog named food for my family, was enticing and simple. Whole food and ingredients was the draw for me.

So, I got right to work.

I gathered my ingredients: Potatoes, Olive Oil, Sea Salt, my food processor, two baking sheets, & parchment paper.

Easy, breezy!

I preheat the oven to 400 degrees (convection). Easier yet.

I sliced the potatoes, brushed them lightly with the oil, and salted them. All is good.

I baked them just as the recipe below called for.

Then a problem occurred. Some were turning brown, really brown on the edges, but staying soft in the middle. When we tried the first batch, they tasted really good….as long as the brown didn’t get too big. The mild softness in other parts of the chip wasn’t a problem, but my mind went straight to food safety rule regarding cooked potatoes at room temperature.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest “The most common produce items associated with outbreaks [of food-born illness] are greens-based salads, lettuce, potatoes, unspecified fruits and sprouts”(OUTBREAKS BY THE NUMBERS: FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, 1990-2005). The Washington State Food & Beverage Workers’ Manual suggests keeping cooked potatoes out of the danger zone (41-140 degrees) for extended periods of time to avoid illness from a potato. The recipe, on the other hand, called for these somewhat soft chips to be stored in a air-tight container*.

So, my concern was that with an unevenly cooked potato, I would need to refrigerate the chips to keep them safe. The really brown, crispy part would be safe, like from a bag of Lay’s chips from the store. But the soft part…that would be like keeping potato salad on the counter for a day or so then eating it. The chips would have to be kept cold.

I tried turning off the convection oven and to no avail. Still the same result. 

My final decision about the Homemade Potato Chip….unless we were going to consume the chips immediately and until I find a way to cook them evenly, we’ll just be leaving them out of the regular family diet all together. Who wants to eat refrigerated potato chips?


(directions as listed on the above named blog)
2 pounds potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
sea salt

Preheat oven to 400° F. Using a mandoline or vegetable peeler, shave potatoes into very thin slices. Lay slices onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush lightly with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

Bake at 400° F for 15 minutes or until potatoes start to turn golden on one side. Flip the slices and continue baking for another 7-10 minutes. Flip again and bake until potatoes are golden brown and crisp, another 5-10 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm or cool completely and store in airtight container*.

Makes 6 cups potato chips.

Vegetable Picorino Skillet

Ingredients:
safflower oil
red & green peppers 1/2 cup chopped
carrots 1/4 C finely chopped
Braising Mix 1 Cup (kale, leafy greens, swiss chard)
brussels sprout 1 finely sliced
mushroom 1 chopped
picorino cheese
sea salt
black pepper

Directions:
Heat safflower oil in an iron skillet over medium low.
Add peppers and carrots & saute for 3 minutes.
Add kale and brussels sprout & saute 1 minute.
Add mushroom & saute 1 minute.
Remove from heat and season with sea salt, black pepper, and picorino (or parmesan) cheese.
Serve with an egg on the side if desired.

 Low Carb Pancakes

Processed grains have been out of my diet for about a week now. My intentions are to get my blood sugar to a neutral place where I have consistent energy and am not storing excess abdominal fat that could result in poor health. I want to keep the carbohydrate-weight off of my body. I do that by increasing my protein intake, eliminating overly-processed grains, and reducing my intake of foods with whole grains and high natural sugars. That means lots of eggs, nuts, & vegetables. I also add cardiovascular activity and muscle conditioning into my daily life.

It’s hard to stop eating overly-processed foods. I like cereal, bread, crackers, & baked goods very, very much, and I can over consume them. I get to a point where half of my food intake is bread or starchy carbs. This week, however, I changed my sights. Which led me to the point, this Sunday morning, where I stood in front of my griddle, making my children pancakes from scratch and I was just dying with the desire to eat those sweet, little, soft, crunchy-edged pancakes.

I didn’t do it. I kept my reserve. Instead, though, I turned to the internet for a way to make pancakes that were high in protein and low in grain. That’s when I came across the Almond Flour Pancake.

I got the original recipe from Brandon and Megan Keatley's blog, but like always, I felt a need to change the recipe to meet my own needs. In this case, I didn’t want to waste five eggs on a test run of this pancake. So, I tried to cut everything into thirds. Then I made a mistake and had to adjust the flour. I also didn’t want any sugar, so I replaced it with Stevia. I don’t use coconut milk, so I just used milk. However it came to be….it came to be, and the below recipe is how I did it.

These were sooooo good. They do not taste like almonds and I cannot believe there isn’t any flour in them!

A nutritional note (see below for complete nutrition label): These pancakes are high in mono-unsaturated fats. According to the American Heart Association, “Monounsaturated fats can have a beneficial effect on your health when eaten in moderation and when used to replace saturated fats or trans fats. Monounsaturated fats can help reduce bad cholesterol levels in your blood and lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. They also provide nutrients to help develop and maintain your body’s cells. Monounsaturated fats are also typically high in vitamin E, an antioxidant vitamin most Americans need more of.” In a nutshell: Don’t eat these everyday, but use them to replace your Sunday-morning regular pancakes. These pancakes have GOOD fat ☺.

Low Carb Pancakes

Makes 6 pancakes
Serving Size: 3 pancakes

Approximate nutritional content per serving size: 
315 calories
27 grams fat
3 grams saturated fat
179 grams cholesterol
11 grams carbohydrates
4.5 grams fiber
4 grams sugar
10.5 grams protein

Ingredients:

 3/4 C Almond Flour
1/3 t baking powder
1/3 t baking soda
1 packet of Stevia
2 eggs (please read the directions before adding eggs and milk)
½ C 2% Milk a stick of butter toppings of your choice

Directions: 

1. Preheat a skillet to 400 degrees or medium high heat.
2. Mix the almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, & stevia together in a medium bowl.
3. Gently beat the eggs in a small bowl. Slowly beat in the milk.
4. DO NOT add all of the wet ingredients to the dry. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture until it resembles the consistency of salad dressing or ketsup (it should pour easily and slowly out of a cup, but not run out like water). Discard the remaining wet mixture.
5. Unwrap the stick of butter and quickly rub the smallest end across the griddle. Set aside.
6. Pour the pancake batter onto the heated, buttered, griddle in ¼ C increments.
7. Let sit until bubbles form and the edges begin to form a harder ridge, then FLIP (about 4 minutes). 8. Let sit another 3-4 minutes and remove from heat.
9. Serve with toppings of your choice (example: small pats of peanut butter and a drizzle of sugar free syrup).

Kale & Brussels Sprout Salad

I subscribe to a organic produce delivery service from Klesick Family Farm. This week I received a bag of braising mix. Braising mix is a mix of kale and other leafy greens that are a bit overgrown, meaning they are bigger, heartier, and less tender. Usually braising mix is used for heated dishes but I chose to use it for a salad. This is what I did with it:

First, I downloaded a recipe from Bon Appetite called Kale & Brussels Sprout Salad. I had to go to the store to get some of the items on the list and I got started.

I squeezed the lemon and crushed the garlic and added it to the dressing ingredients. I also crushed the almonds in preparation for toasting them. 

Following the directions in the recipe, I sauteed them and they turned out sooo delicious...and I don't even really care for almonds.

Next, I chopped the kale mix and the Brussels sprouts.

This cheese, Pecorino, was $10.99 at Safeway, so it was a pretty spendy purchase. The deli attendant, who had been married to an Italian man who used fine cheese religiously for 15 years, convinced me not to substitute it for another cheese. I didn't.

I served it all as described in the directions and it wasn't the biggest hit. My husband, who doesn't really like veggies, grimaced twice while eating it. I, who had loaded a huge salad plate full of the mixture, had a hard time getting through it all. The reason:

Kale is such a hearty leaf. I'm not sure its for me in raw form. Maybe I could use just a handful in a whole bowl of regular salad greens. Or perhaps add it to a hot dish. The dressing in the recipe is DELICIOUS and so are the toasted almonds. The cheese was excellent, too. By all means, give this recipe a whirl...at the very least, your body will thank you for the vitamins, phytochemicals, and fiber.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt plus more for seasoning
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large bunches of Tuscan kale (about 1 1/2 lb. total), center stem discarded, leaves thinly sliced
• 12 ounces brussels sprouts, trimmed, finely grated or shredded with a knife
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1/3 cup almonds with skins, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup finely grated Pecorino

Preparation

• Combine lemon juice, Dijon mustard, shallot, garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a pinch of pepper in a small bowl. Stir to blend; set aside to let flavors meld. Mix thinly sliced kale and shredded brussels sprouts in a large bowl.
• Measure 1/2 cup oil into a cup. Spoon 1 Tbsp. oil from cup into a small skillet; heat oil over medium-high heat. Add almonds to skillet and stir frequently until golden brown in spots, about 2 minutes. Transfer nuts to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle almonds lightly with salt.
• Slowly whisk remaining olive oil in cup into lemon-juice mixture. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Dressing, kale mixture, and toasted almonds can be prepared 8 hours ahead. Cover dressing and kale mixture separately and chill. Cover almonds and let stand at room temperature.
• Add dressing and cheese to kale mixture; toss to coat. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Garnish with almonds.

• nutritional information

  10 servings, 1 serving contains:
  Calories (kcal) 195.6
  %Calories from Fat 70.3
  Fat (g) 15.3
  Saturated Fat (g) 3.2
  Cholesterol (mg) 8.0
  Carbohydrates (g) 8.7
  Dietary Fiber (g) 3.3
  Total Sugars (g) 2.0
  Net Carbs (g) 5.5
  Protein (g) 8.1
  Sodium (mg) 303.9

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/11/kale-and-brussels-sprout-salad#ixzz1pDCCr6jg 

Make Granola Bites 

I originally saw this recipe on Pinterest.com and it was called Energy Bites. Due to the fact that I can barely stand coconut, I took a very long time to getting around to making them. I knew they were a healthy alternative to granola bars bought at the store, but was hesitant to start at all because of the coconut issue. 

So, as a fix to my problem, I toasted the coconut. A quick web search led me to a spot in front of my stove where I poured an entire bag of Baker's Angel-Flake Coconut (sweetened) into a oil-sprayed, non-stick skillet. I turned the coconut over and over while the pan sat over medium heat. Soon, the white flecks turned a gold brown and I had high hopes its chewy texture had been eradicated.

In the picture below, the toasted coconut sits in the two bottom left measuring cups. 

I gathered my ingredients as shown (forgot to include the vanilla in this shot):

Once it was stirred well, I took a nibble and squeeked a little squeek of happiness. It was so good. Sweet & crunchy with the earthy, mellow flavors of peanut butter to even it all out.

After an hour in the fridge, I began to roll them into 15g bites. This uniformity helps me track my calories...I have a feeling I could really eat these in excess! In all, it produced 64, 15g, bites.

Here is the recipe I used, which is a modification of the Energy Bites recipe listed on other websites:

Oatmeal, old fashioned          2 C
natural peanut butter              1C
agave nectar                          2/3 C
coconut flakes, toasted          1 1/4 C (a whole bag of regular coconut toasted on the stove)
flaxseed, ground                   1C
chocolate chips, mini            1C
vanilla extract                       2 tsp

Here is a list of the ingredients in nutritional form. Dividing each by 64 will give the total nutrition per bite:

***Nestle mini choc chips has 96 grams of total sugar

Total Servings in this recipe: 64
Per bite:
     calories: 85
     fat: 5g
     sodium: 24g
     carbohydrates: 9 g
     fiber: 1g
     protein: 2
     sugars: 5g

So, in conclusion, this recipe is a nice replacement for processed, sweet snacks. It will curb your craving for a sweet treat, like chocolate, while keeping the total sugar in check. Eating three of these brings this healthy snack to a new level at 255 calories, 15 grams of fat, and 15 grams of sugar. If they are going into your child's lunch, however, this is a great way to infuse some protein into their diet.