Day 129 of our Green Year: Making Pita Chips

A few weeks ago, Layla and I talked about how bad some potato chips are for people, especially considering that several potato chip companies have pledged not to get rid of a cancer causing ingredient, but only lower it.
We enjoy some pita chips from a pita chip company located in Cranbrook, but Layla raised the point that we buy those chips from Cranbrook, which is then transported to here, causing greenhouse gases to go into the atmosphere.

As a result, we decided to make our own pita chips and it is incredibly easy. All you have to do is buy some pita bread, rip it up into thin little slices and put it into the oven. You can use some butter on the pita bread to help hold a variety of spices on the bread while it cooks. We are going to use Cinnamon on our pita chips.
Leave it in the oven for several minutes, until the chips become hard and crunchy. At this point, take the chips out and let them cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, you can eat them!

That is all it takes to be environmentally friendly with your pita chips. You may have to use the oven, but if you have a solar cooker like ours, and it goes to 400 Fahrenheit, then you can use the solar cooker and make pita chips that are very environmentally. Going a step further, you can even make your own pita bread!

Let us know how your pita chip test goes if you do it! Contact us at crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 103 of our Green Year: No More Chips

In the move towards going organic and green with what we eat, Layla and I have decided to get rid of a lot of the foods that we enjoy. We no longer eat certain types of snacks, and most types of pop are far gone for us because of what they contain. This progression to completely healthy and organic foods continues with our decision to no longer buy chips that are not all natural. The move to do this comes from a highly disturbing news story we read yesterday about a well-known chip company.

Three potato chip companies have agreed to lower the levels of a chemical that causes cancer in their products, after a settlement lawsuit. In case you did not read that properly, it said "LOWER" not "REMOVE". This means that the cancer ingriedient is important enough to the process to make the chips, but not bad enough (according to the company) to remove. There is an equation many companies use that tests if it is more profitable to leave something in that is danger, than it is to take it out. So, if the removal and changing of the process costs more than the estimated lawsuits, a company will choose to simply pay the lawsuits, despite how it ruins lives.
The chemical is acrylamide and that does not mean that acrylamide is out of the food you eat if you don't eat those chips. It was reduced by 50 percent in Pringles potato chips in January, and McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's and Burger King all will be posting warnings.

So, there will be no more chips for us unless they are all natural. We were able to find a great company in Cranbrook that makes all-natural pita chips, but we are also going to make our own. All you need is some pita bread, then you rip it into pieces, bake it in the oven (or solar cooker) and then sprinkle cinnemon and hummis on it. It gives great flavoring, it is very healthy and it tastes amazing.

When you see the ingredients of some of the products we used to eat, it is no surprise that cancer exists all around us in growing numbers.