Sweet Potato Chips with Blue Cheese Sauce, Stuffed Pizza Burger

So, what was on your game day menu???


This year was very low key.  Just Jackie and myself for the first 5 minutes of the game and then just me for the rest (she tried).  We had a bit of a party the night before, so... Like I said, low key.


Actually, the inspiration for this meal came from something Jackie did for me.  She went shopping and bought me a bag of Vinegar Salt Potato Chips to eat for the game.  I LOVE those.  But before I opened them, I took a look at the nutritional information...

Good Lord.  First, I knew they would be less than perfect, but good Lord...


First, 11 servings in a bag.  Are they serious???  11 people can eat one bag of chips.  Unless I am hosting super-models, I can't think of 11 of my friends that would be content with one bag of chips.  But then I dug a little deeper, one of the stats on the bag that is the nutritional information based on 2,000 calories a day.  I did the math.  If I were to eat the entire bag (it's a long game, I would have), had a beer (or two... it's a long game), that was the entire day's worth of calories.


Again... Good Lord.  No wonder America is fat.


So, I pondered...


And this is what I came up with.  Now, I am not very good at figuring calories, but I would bet dollars to donuts that this plate has less calories than the entire bag of chips.  Just instinct, but pretty sure.


The chips are fried, and have a blue cheese sauce, but they are sweet potatoes.  Just a little bit better and incredibly tasty.  Why don't chip makers make sweet potato chips???


And they are easy.  I just peeled a bunch of sweet potatoes (4).  Then I used a mandolin to get nice even thin slices.  Not too thin, I wanted these crisp on the outside, but meaty on the inside.
filled a pot about 1/3rd full with Canola Oil


And fried away.  there is a trick...

Use medium high heat to fry them.  It seals them up fast so they do not have time to get oily.  the photo above shows the taters as they cook at the beginning.  The moisture in the potatoes reacts to the hot oil.  lots of bubbles.


But the photo below shows the same potatoes after about 5 minutes...

Nice and calm, with the oil just crisping up the outside.  Just keep an eye on them, stir them every once in a while so they do not stick together as they fry.  Eventually, there will be no water to make the bubbles and the chips are done!!!


Drain on a paper towel.

The blue cheese sauce is simple... 2 ounces of blue cheese mixed with 3 heaping TBS of sour cream and heated till everything is melted...





As to the burger, I made two very thin patties.  Topped one with some pepperoni slices, some slice mozzarella cheese and a bit of BBQ sauce.  I took the other patty and topped those toppings.  Then seal the edges and fry.  Now, the trick to these is to fry slowly, with the lid on the frying pan.  this way, the thick (double remember) burger cooks throughout, including the stuffing.

All in all, combined with the Packer victory, it was a pretty good meal!
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