I just wanted some Cheetos.

I hate cravings. I don't have overwhelming ones a lot, but today there were Cheetos calling to me. "Why on earth do you have Cheetos in your house when you have no self-control?" you may ask. Because the stupid Frito Lay people put them in the assortment packs we buy for the kid's lunch. They were there, and I wanted them. For about three hours, I used grapes, blackberries, and grapefruit to distract myself. Then it was dinner time and I had to do something. I decided to make my own chips. I had no idea if this would work.

I grabbed a potato and my handy-dandy mandoline slicer. [Is it "man-do-LEEN" or "man-do-Lin"? Anyone know?] I set it on the narrowest slice - 1/32 and came up with a whole pile o'taters out of one. Nice.

I put those into a Ziploc and grabbed some spices: kosher salt, paprika, pepper, of course. That packet you see in front is a garlic mix I got at the Tea and Spice shop in the Stockyards - if you haven't been, you must go! Then, because I need to be Weight Watchers friendly, I got the Pam instead of the olive oil.  Spray the bag, toss in the spices until it looks/smells/feels right...


Then spread it on the pan. I got a little concerned here. Maybe I needed a single layer to make them crispy, maybe the foil was a bad idea...but I was committed, so into the oven they went. I also wandered to the pantry to stare at the bag of Cheetos, but I did NOT open them.

I started them at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes, then turned/mixed them a bit. They were soft, so I made a better effort to separate them and get that single layer, and I turned the oven up to 450. After about 8 minutes, I removed the ones around the edges that were crispiest (we had to try them!) and turned on the broiler. Five more minutes and we had...


crispy potato chips! Garlicky, salty, crunchy! It worked! Who needs Cheetos!?!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 10, 2012 at 8:56 PM

    That's awesome! I'm so proud of you! You can do the same thing with squash and okra.

    ReplyDelete

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