A little less crap

As you may have gathered from reading some of the stuff that I spew out here, I'm trying to 'de-crap' my eating as much as possible. Let me be clear. De-crap (another new word I think) means I still eat Fat, ok? That crap is not as bad for you as the pundits have been telling us... preaching to us over the years. So, Yes! I still enjoy full fat cheese, butter and eggs with the yolks still in them - Thank you very much. What is not so good for me though, and this is where I'm de-crapping, is all that #@*% that is in all the food that is 'ready to serve', 'just add water', 'simply heat in the microwave for 2 min', etc. You get the idea.

I've recently ended my year and a half long obsession with a certain fizzy drink - too much CRAP. I'm starting to think seriously about getting rid of all the chemical crap (well most of it anyway!) in my food. Check out my cupboard!

And I'm trying to buy as little with crap in it as possible, especially if I can just make it at home. Which brings me to my recent distraction. I've been baking like a fiend lately but it hasn't satisfied my little, nagging craving for something salty. I want chips. Ugh... dilemma. What about the crap in all that pre-packaged stuff? Well, I can make it right. It's can't honestly be that hard.

So, with an idea in my head of what it would probably entail, I scoured my favourite blog sites. It was really hard, my peeps! I thought that I would come across something immediately. But no! Finally I found this at Bread and Honey (also one of my faves!!! She is awesome!). Turns out that is isn't that hard - you just have to make sure that you slice the potato thin enough. That's truly the hardest part... I used the side thingy on my box grater that no one ever uses or knows even what to do with - Now it's got a purpose!!! Now what if I want to make Salt and vinegar??? I gotta try this. I'm going to try two batches. One plain and one where 3/4 of the way through the baking process I'll take the potato out and flavour it.


Potato Chips

5 potatoes sliced thinly and all sliced as evenly as possible
oil (I used canola and not olive b/c I didn't want any additional taste from the oil)
salt (I used coarse sea salt)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Slice potatoes and place in bowl. Drizzle with enough oil to make sure that when you swish them around the potato pieces get completely covered.
Place each slice on a baking sheet with Parchment (not Wax Paper!!! As I did here!) or a silicone baking mat (seriously what would I do without these things????). Sprinkle with salt and place in oven for about 7 min. but keep an eye on them. Remove from oven, turn pieces over and sprinkle new side with salt. Bake for another 7 min.


I was going to try a salt and vinegar flavour BUT as I said earlier I used Wax instead of Parchment paper. They are not the same thing apparently! The potatoes for my 'salt and vinegar' batch stuck to the wax paper! I could not get them off with out destroying them completely. It was more than a little disappointing BUT it made pretty cool potato wallpaper (see picture above - ugh!). So, my reader... please don't use Wax paper. If anyone has any other ideas send it off to me... I'd love to get them!


The silicone mat worked great and the potato chips turned out quite well. They are not as thin as the store bought ones but it would be cool to try sweet potato ones or something like that. Believe me, it's a nice alternative to popcorn once in a while. All in all, I would do it again. And next time... I'll try the salt and vinegar ;-)