Make Your Own Healthier Recipe Potato Chips

For most of us who are on a diet, potato chips would seem a prohibitive addition to our daily intake. However, these potato chips are an incredible way to cut calories and still feel like you are 'indulging' a bit. Just remember to keep in mind the calories and make sure that they are not in excess of your daily allowance. Watching your diet is one thing, but any weight loss or weight maintenance plan still has to be fun.  You can't eliminate everything! With this recipe, you are able to do both. I found this recipe in a Cooking Light magazine some time back and modified it a bit to my own tastes. They also add a blue cheese dip to the recipe, which I will note below but I find that they are fine without the dip - or use a dip more to your personal tastes.

Photo: Flickr Stu_spivack

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds of peeled potato done in thin slice (about 2 large russets) DIVIDED
  (Can also substitute Yukon gold potatoes or red potatoes or even leave skin on red potatoes - just scrub roughly)
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

NOTE: You can use a mandolin to slice the potatoes or any good slicer to get good thin slices.

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place 2 baking sheets in oven.
3. Place potato slices on paper towels and pat dry.
4. Arrange half of potato slices in single layer on preheated baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
5. Then season with 1/4 teaspoon salt or to desired saltiness. (Or add a few spices to taste)
6. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Turn potato slices over.
7. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until golden.
8. Repeat procedure with remaining potatoes and remaining teaspoon salt or spices.

Probably way more information than we ever will want to know about chips but here it is!

• Reportedly Cornelius Vanderbilt spurred the invention of the potato chip in 1853 when he complained that a cook's fried potatoes were not crisp enough thus prompting the cook at the restaurant to crank it up a notch and improvise - basically stir-frying the potatoes.  Look where it ended up!
• In the US, our most common varieties of the potato chip are sour cream and onion, BBQ, cheese and ranch.
• In Asia, they favor wasabi chips.
• In Germany and Poland, they rave over beer-flavored chips.
• In Serbia, they favor pizza, bacon or ketchup-flavored chips.
• In Russia, crab and caviar-flavored chips are the rage.
• In Spain, Mexico and many other countries, they do a variety of various herbs and flavors and find those most palatable.
• In Canada, bacon, BBQ, curry, dill pickle, ketchup and salt and vinegar are favorites.
• In the United States alone, we sold $16.4 billion dollars in potato chips in 2005 - more than 35% of the savory snacks sold in the United States. That's a lot of chips!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup of fine crumbled blue cheese (or substitute Gorgonzola or another crumbly cheese)
• 1/3 cup fat-free sour cream
• 2 tablespoons of light mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of nonfat milk
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine the ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Stir well.
3. Cover and chill.
4. Serve with the potato chips when done.

Calories for 1/2 cup chips and about 2 tablespoons of the dip approximately 120.