Zucchini Chips

Meal planning has gotten to be even more fun now that Pinterest allows me to have basically a visual cookbook. This is one of the first recipes I tried: zucchini chips.

Ingredients:

• 4 small zucchini or 1-2 large zucchini
• olive oil/cooking spray
• salt (or garlic salt, or dill weed, however you want to season your chips)

Instructions:

1. Clean and trim the zucchini.

2. Use a food processor (or very steady hand) to slice zucchini in thin even slices. I'd definitely recommend the smaller zucchini so you don't have to worry about seeds or trimming the sides to fit your food processor.

 3. Brush olive oil on parchment paper (spray with cooking spray. Then place the zucchini slices very close together. They should touch, but not overlap.

 4. Spray or brush with oil again and then lightly season with the flavor of your choice. I liked dill week the best. Hubs like the garlic ones. Season lightly because the flavor will intensify as the chips dehydrate.

5. Cook at 170 degrees F (as low as my oven goes) for 3-3.5 hours. The chips should be crunchy when ready. If they are still a little soft, keep checking them every 15 minutes.

 6. Enjoy!

Garlic zucchini chips

Dill zucchini chips.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

I found this recipe while off a cooking blog bunny trail. Since we've been cutting down on processed foods, we haven't had a lot of chips around the house. I bought a jar of locally made salsa a few weeks ago for the Super Bowl, and forgot to buy chips. When I found this recipe, it sounded like a match.

And...WOW! Super duper easy, and really, really tasty. Not so good for the diet, but it does offer automatic portion control. As the hubs said, "I think we can put corn tortillas on the staple list." I'm looking forward to making the again and playing with the seasonings.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Adapted from How to Cook Everything

Ingredients:

• Lard or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, for deep-frying. (I used veggie oil, because that's what we had).
• 12 corn tortillas, 6 or 8 inches in diameter
• Salt

Instructions:

• Put at least 1 inch of oil in a deep pan on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high; bring to 350°F. The broader the vessel, the more of these you can cook at once, but the more oil you will use. (They cook very quickly, so don't worry if your pan is narrow.)

It took about ten minute for my oil to get to 350 degrees.

• Stack the tortillas and cut them, pielike, into 4 to 8 wedges.

I should have taken a picture of my brand spankin' new Wusthof knife that made quick work of these tortillas.

• Fry as many at once as will fit without crowding, turning if necessary. Total cooking time will be about 2 minutes; the chips should not brown but just begin to darken in color.

Sizzle, sizzle!

• Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels or paper bags. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot or at room temperature.

Not diet friendly.

Eet Smakelijk!