ArcaMax

Crunch!

While developing Plan Z, I never really thought much about what I now call the Crunch Factor. I was never the kid in our family that face-planted in the bag of potato chips. I left that to my brothers. I went for the donuts.

I never wanted to eat the hard candy. I’d rather have a brownie or ice cream for my treat.

After designing Plan Z, doing it several times, and taking in all the data from dieters, my mind has totally changed. My taste has changed, too.

Watch this video on why crunchy foods taste so great and why you come back for more...

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Apple Chips

This is a recipe from the creative mind of ZTeam member, Jen. When we were at lunch the other day, Jen mentioned how dieters miss their crunch. She wondered if we could come up with a recipe for apple chips. I will tell you they worked. They are crunchy if you eat them quickly. If you let them sit overnight they become chewy. Still good, but not crunchy.

I like the ones cut with the apple placed on its side. I feel those look the most like potato chips. The rings are fun, too. Use any kind of apple. I used Granny Smith for the chip style and Golden Delicious for the rings.

Servings: Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 apples. Don’t bother to peel them.
2 tsp of ground cinnamon mixed with
2 tsp of Truvia

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

You’ll want to slice your apples very thin or they won’t get crunchy. To do this I used my mandolin slices and set it on level 1 which is the thinnest setting. Without a mandolin slicer this will be tricky but you can get them fairly thin by hand, too.

Take out a 2 cookie sheets. Cover each of them with a piece of parchment paper. Without the parchment paper the apples will stick terribly.

Place your apple slices on the paper. Try not to have them touch each other unless you don’t mind them sticking together. In the pictures you’ll see they stuck some but they are easy to pull apart. Each cookie sheet contains one apple portion.

Sprinkle the top side with the flavor mixture. I put mine in a leftover shaker jar so it sprinkled on very evenly. Don’t worry if it’s a bit messy. They will still taste great.

Put the cookie sheets in the oven and bake for 2 hours. Watch them a last few minutes to make sure they don’t burn.

Serving Suggestions:

Serve hot or cold. I can see all kinds of flavors. You can use nutmeg for another sweet flavor. You can use cumin for an East-Indian version, use cayenne for a spicy version. You can even use the barbecue rub and make barbecue flavored apple chips. Use your creativity to find flavors you love.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola