First: Looks like big manufacturers are listening about no nitrates in our food. Here's some goodies from Oscar Mayer:
Yep, uncured, no nitrates, bacon and beef hot dogs. If you are like me, you want to go grass-fed, pastured, and free range, but financial constraints make that really difficult. We do the best we can. Although I am not eating these yummies, the family is and we have two enthusiastic thumbs up from the Peanut and Pookers, who are my harshest critics!
Bacon: $2.99 Chicago Recipe Hot Dogs: $1.49
Major steals as both are sold in regular store for $6.00 each!
Larabars. The On the Go snack food for the P/P crowd. Grocery Outlet is selling these gems by the box for $5.99. Our store only had Carrot Cake (turns out The Colonel HATES carrot cake, who knew?!) and I picked up two boxes for those grab and go times.
I made P/P burgers with lettuce as buns. But what is a burger without fries? So I improvised. With the Internet, there really is no excuse to not learn how to cook something new. This time it was shoestring sweet potatoes. Most recipes are for baked wedges, which aren't really "fries", they are baked sweet potatoes. I wanted something greasy and crispy, you know, french fries (or freedom fries, if you prefer).
Looking online, I found a lot of different opinions on how to do this. Some were so detailed and long, with lots of steps about cooking then recooking, that it didn't seem worth it! Here's how I did it:
Note: if you don't have a mandolin, get one, it is worth the money.
I peeled the sweet potato. Then cut it in half (long way) for easy handling. Using a mandolin set to french fry (1/4") I cut the SPs. I placed the SPs in a bowl of cold water and added a handful of ice, and let them soak for 20 minutes.
Take them out and place on some paper towels. I used three sets of paper towels: #1: to put the SPs on right out of the bowl. #2: to wick off the extra water before frying. #3: to put over the SPs waiting to fry. It's really important to get off as much water as possible.
Heat up about 3 Tbsp of coconut oil (over med-high heat) and put in a light batch of SPs. Don't add too many, or crowd them together. They cook quickly.
wicking the excess water, very important
keep you batches small and uncrowded
this is less than a minute later, they cook FAST
Stand with the fries while they cook. SPs will go from golden brown to burnt in a heart beat. As they start turning brown, pull them out and drain on paper towel (don't you wish you had stock in Bounty?).
MMMM french fries
Yes, they did taste as good as they look! The only set back was that I didn't make enough.
Never be afraid to buck "conventional" wisdom and try something different.
That advise goes with changing your diet over to P/P. Yeah, some are going to be militant about it. Others are going to think that you cannot live that way forever. Here's what I know: we make our own choices. As a Mom, I have to do what's best for my family. Will my children live a stunted life because I don't make cakes from Betty Crocker? I doubt it. Are they really missing anything from McDonald's? No. We rarely bought them Happy Meals, so they don't miss the "toys", and they would only eat part of a McDouble (usually split in half) and a few fries (one small order, split between them). Now, I just skip McD's altogether. Along with anything else that they will beg for. Does it suck? Sure, no one wants to "deny" their children. I have turned that around and instead of "denying" them, I am giving them the gift of good health! Me saying No is a gift, not a punishment. I am so unappreciated in my own time, oh, wait, that's all Moms!
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