Foodie Friday

We discovered an amazing, and fairly healthy snack/side a couple of months ago that I wanted to share with you. I've made "homemade" potato chips in the past by thinly slicing up some potatoes and putting them into hot oil in the pan. Well, that works decently, but (unless you have a deep fryer) it makes quite a bit of mess and it's sometimes difficult to get the oil at the right temperature and keep it there...not to mention all that oil that the potatoes soak up! Anywho, I discovered a great way to do it in the microwave with practically no oil! I didn't believe it when I first read about it online, but sure enough, I tried it and we liked these as much as the oil-saturated fried version! Here's how you do it:

Clean and thinly slice (1/16"-1/8" thick) potatoes. I found that about 1 small-medium potato per serving worked well, and I didn't peel them, since I'm looking for easy, not time consuming. Also, I used our food processor (which meant cutting the potatoes in half), but you could use a mandolin, vegetable/cheese slicer, or just a knife.

Rinse/soak the slices in cold water for 5-10 minutes. Some recipes I saw online don't call for this, but I figured it removes some of the starch and couldn't hurt. If you're looking to shave off a little more time, try eliminating this step.

Arrange a single layer of potatoes on a piece of parchment paper that has been lightly coated with oil (vegetable or olive), and try to keep the slices from touching each other since they will stick together during the cooking process.

Spray/drizzle a little oil over the potatoes and add seasoning (salt, garlic powder, chili powder, creole seasoning, etc.). Some recipes do not call for any oil at all, so you could try leaving this off, but I think it might help prevent sticking and potentially add to crispiness.

Microwave the chips on high for about 5 minutes until they are lightly browned and crispy. You might need to flip them over halfway through, but we had success even when we didn't do this. Make sure to check every minute or two (and maybe do a taste test) since cooking time will vary based on the thickness of your slices and your specific microwave.

Repeat until all the chips are finished, and store in an airtight container for 3 days. This is the one thing I've yet to try...for how long can they really be stored? We've always just eaten ours right away...in fact, so fast that I wasn't able to take a picture of the final product!

So, there you have it...a quick and fairly easy way to make healthy, homemade potato chips! Next, I want to try the salt and vinegar version, which involves dipping each potato slice into cider vinegar before putting it on the parchment paper, then sprinkling with salt before microwaving. :)