Day Three: Oil!!!! (and Sweet Potato Chips)

After a trip to one Harris Teeter and a phone call to another, plus a call to Trader Joe's, I finally found sunflower oil at Berrybrook Farm on East Boulevard. She even had the bottle of oil waiting for me behind the counter. I poked around the store a little bit, and good lord, granola has never looked so good. And the frozen foods! Burritos!! Argh!!

No wonder there are so few published large-scale studies of diets like this one - getting people to stay compliant would be a nightmare.

But the oil really has made everything better. I had no idea how much I was craving fat until I found myself running my finger along the inside of a bowl to lick up sunflower oil as if it were chocolate frosting. It doesn't even really taste like anything; it's just a plain sort of salad oil. But it has made my food infinitely more tasty.

Look! I can roast vegetables! Turnips aren't even so bad when they've got crispy edges and lots of sea salt! (They kind of taste like a big, bland radish.)
And sweet potatoes! I can make chips!!

Sweet Potato Chips

Sweet potatoes
Sunflower oil
Cast iron skillet

Peel sweet potatoes, and slice thinly. I like them a little thick (like in the photo) so they get chewy in the middle.

Heat up the oil in a cast iron skillet or pan. It doesn't need to be very deep - about a quarter inch.
Cook the sliced sweet potatoes in batches, turning them over until they're browned and crispy on both sides. Put a bunch of paper towels on a baking sheet and put the chips on that as they're done. This will let you drain them and keep them warm in the oven while each new batch cooks.

If you do more than one or two medium-sized sweet potatoes, you'll need to add more oil as you go along. Let it get hot again before adding more potatoes.

If you aren't on a wacko diet, you can put salt on them, or cinnamon and sugar.

I marked on my new 2011 calendar which days I reintroduce which foods. First up are avocado and chicken. That's on Thursday. Next day is green beans, grapes and broccoli. But Saturday is what I'm most looking forward to... tomatoes and beef!!

Of course, really I'd rather have one of those things cause some reaction than the more likely culprits: wheat and dairy. But in any event, it'll be good to eat foods that aren't root vegetables again. The grocery store was torture today. There were Ding Dongs by the check out at Harris Teeter. I don't think I've ever even had a Ding Dong, but holy hell did they look good.