Foodie Friday - Low Fat Chips And Reusable Chip Mesh

Hey Loves, x I hope you've all had a lovely Good Friday x The sun has been shining today which has been a bit of a rarity over the last few month. It's still chilly but the glowing ball in the sky has made a real difference. This morning I was up bright and early to head into Durham with Mummy Lou to pick up her new car :) very exciting x I hadn't been out of the house for a week because of a hideous throat infection but I'm starting to turn the corner now bar a tickly cough, and a bit of a husky voice.

We nipped into a few shops because shock of horrors we hadn't managed to get any Creme Eggs before heading hope to wrap pizzas and hot cross buns. I know it's traditional to eat fish on Good Friday but I don't eat it and my mum couldn't be bothered to stand in the queue at the fish and chip shop.

Ahhhh chips, how I love thee. Since January though I've only had two portions of real chips, my word did I enjoy them but the calories - you fish supper eaters do not want to know the damage lol! Ever since I was tiny, weeny my mum always tried to temper my dads chip addiction by making a healthier version cooked in the oven. The idea is simple parboil some potatoes, then toss them in a little bit of oil and then bake in the oven. Nice and a fraction of the calories of fried chips but that tablespoon of oil makes a real difference to the overall calorie count

I think I've mentioned this before but when I started trying to lose weight this time round I looked everywhere I could think of for inspiration, including instagram, and something that I saw mentioned quite a lot was Slimming World Chips. Basically what it is, is what my mum used to only instead of tossing the chips in oil, you use low calorie cooking spray aka Fry Light. I tried it a few times and they were nice but they seemed to take forever to go and I could never get them that crispy. I searched for answers, and solutions and found them courtesy of Poundland.

Reusable Chip Mesh - it's basically a sheet of mesh, that you put your chips on directly onto the oven shelf. Dishwasher and freezer safe, and built to withstand temperatures of 260 , this simple product promises perfectly crispy chips.

I was cynical it feels a bit, well feeble, but the theory made sense. By putting the mesh directly onto the oven shelf it allows the air and the heat to fully circulate around the oven hitting every surface on every chip. Did it work? well see for yourself this is how I did it x

Slimming World / Lower Fat Chips Using Reusable Chip Mesh

1. Chop your potatoes into either wedge or chip shapes and parboil in boiling, salted water for about 5 minutes, you don't want them to be cooked you just want to start to see a bit of give. In the meantime heat your oven  to between 180 - 200 C depending on how hot your oven is

2. Drain your in a large colander or sieve

3. You want your chips to be as dry as possible the best way to do it, is to allow them to cool for a few minutes, and then wrap them in a tea towel to try and soak up the excess liquid.

4. This sounds odd but put them back into the empty pan, add a few squirts of Fry Light, pop the lid on and give the pan a good shake. It's really good to do this with roast potatoes too, what it does is give the potatoes a bit of texture, on the surfaces which helps them to crisp up.

5. Then put your chip mesh on top of a baking tray or over a pan, and tip the chips onto the mesh arranging them as even a layer as you can. then spray liberally with Fry Light and sprinkle with salt, or seasoning.

5. Then pop the chips and chip mesh onto the top shelf of the oven, and on the second shelf place the empty baking tray. This is just to catch any residue from the mesh eg. seasoning, bits of excess chips, any drips etc.

How long it takes depends on the size of your chips, and your oven. If you've done wedges they'll take longer. I normally start looking after about 20 minutes. You want them to be soft in the middle and crisp on the outside.

6. Voila - chips :) okay they aren't exactly like fried chips but they are a nice combo of fluffy and crispy and very tasty

You can serve them anyway you would serve normal chips x Here are mine with some Quorn and mushy pea curry.

The mesh to me really does make a difference, they were crispier and they cooked a lot quicker than they did without it. Since then I've experimented a bit more and used different flavours of Fry Light, and different sprinkles, my fave is Garlic Fry Light and a sprinkle of garlic and chilli flakes yum:). I've also experimented with leaving the skin on, cutting the potatoes into different sizes, and by using different varieties of potatoes.

The chip mesh also works really with sweet potatoes, they cook a bit quicker than normal white potatoes, so I probably wouldn't cut them quite as small as I have done here.

If your trying to cut down on fat or lose weight or if you buy oven chips I would definitely recommend that your pick up a reusable chip mesh, they've made a real difference to my "oven" chips and they've really helped keep on the straight and narrow x I hope you enjoy the rest of your long weekend and if you have any questions x please leave me a comment x