The Road to FISE: Making My Own French Fries! – Dr. Plastic Picker
 

The Road to FISE: Making My Own French Fries!

| Posted in Personal Finance Blog - Financially Free to Save the Earth (FISE), Vegan Dreams - Less plastic, More plants, More Fiber

So many good things about this food project.

July 6, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It’s amazing what you can learn on the internet these days. It’s Plastic-Free July. We are using this month to really try to reduce our plastic waste. One thing that we have been buying lately is premade frozen either sweet potatoe fries or regular fries. We usually pair this with some sort of easy vegan burger. But since yesterday’s home made black bean burger project was a success, I have decided to try to make our own frozen french fries.

Again, I looked at several recipes online and mostly used this one from Frugally Blonde. Anything with the name Frugal is great. A long time ago, I used to call myself the Frugal Pediatrician but never really used that name other than to comment. That was 10 years ago. Then when I wanted to start blogging I found Dr. McFrugal who I now know in real life, and I thought better come up with something else. Mr. Plastic Picker suggested Dr. Plastic Picker, and this blog was born. But anyway, this is the link from Frugal Blonde who is a stay-at-home lifestyle blogger https://www.frugallyblonde.com/homemade-frozen-french-fries/.

Dr. Plastic Picker’s Modified How To Make Frozen French Fries

  • Bought a bag of Russet Potatoes in Bulk, 5 lb bag was about $3.50 at Vons.
  • Washed the potatoes well with water. I kept on the skin because a medium potatoe has 2.3 grams of fiber. Keeping the skin, a medium potatoe has 3.4 grams of fiber. Why waste the 1 g? There is pediatric fiber deficit and constipation crisis https://drplasticpicker.com/pediatric-advice-eat-your-vegetables-to-get-your-fiber/.
  • Cut the potatoes in what I think my french fries should look like.
  • Boiled them for 5 minutes.
  • Then rinse them quickly in cold water.
  • Saved the water from the washing of the potatoes, boiling of the potatoes and rinsing them to water our garden. Make sure the water has totally cooled down. Water is super precious. https://drplasticpicker.com/rain-barrels-are-awesome-rain-water-harvesting-sounds-very-romantic/
  • Then spread the partially cooked fries to cool (you can pat dry if you want) on a baking sheet and used a silicon baking sheet for the 2nd layer.
  • After cooled, put in freezer compartment for 1 hour.
  • Then reused an old sandwhich bag to freeze them.
  • Then voila!
  • Ready for the air fryer and to season however you want!

Here is my nutrional, financial and environmental analysis:

McDonald’s Fries
(4 oz)
Ore-Ida Precut Fries
(~3 oz)
Dr. PP Frozen Fries
(~3oz)
Fiber4.6 g2 g2 g
Salt266 g3100
Iron02%
Cost$1.79 $0.53 per serving,
$3.50 a bag
$0.15 per ,
$3.5 a 5lb bag
Plastic++++++++++++++++

The big win for the homemade precut fries is that I reduce the amount of plastic waste. The fiber content and iron is probably all the same, but I can control the salt content and oil better in the Dr. PP Frozen Fries. We are using our air fryer and I usually season with some salt, but also add in vegetables and season with some cumin and garlic salt at well. The price markup from homemade frozen to Ore-Ida Precut Fries is 3.5X, and the market to the Fast Food Version 12x!!! Plus I got to reuse an old bread bag to freeze the fries.

What did our teen son say? “They were very good. I would say they were very well seasoned. Not too soft and not too hard.” When I asked how these fries were compared to the store frozen ones? “These fries were more like baked potatoes. And more healthy.” And when I asked him if he was okay with this swap. “Yes. I’m okay with it. Are you good now?” He is wanting to return to his virtual world. Yes my son. I am very good now. Thus ends our family’s adventure as we learn one more way to reduce plastic this Plastic-Free July!

A few years ago. Before I knew how to make home-made frozen french fries. A quick trip up to Huntington Library.

Click here to see how the home-made vegan black bean burgers went! Wow! https://drplasticpicker.com/the-road-to-fise-homemade-vegan-chipolte-adobo-black-bean-burgers/

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4 thoughts on “The Road to FISE: Making My Own French Fries!”

  1. Your son sounds just like mine. Teenaged children are funny. Gotta love that restrained annoyance with their pesky mothers, LOL!

    I tried to make my own frozen hash browns once, but didn’t look up instructions… so just froze them without first blanching them.

    They turned black in the freezer, so I had to compost them. 🙁 I’m going to try again so that I can also avoid the plastic bags, and control the oil and salt!

    Thank you for helping to educate and inspire me.

    1. drplasticpicker says:

      I honestly feel like our virtual meeting is kismet! I had written and deleted a post called the “arrogance of youth” LOL. I am so enjoying our virtual friendship. In all seriousness but half kidding, maybe in 10 years we should arrange a marriage between our kids. I think I would love to be in-laws with you! I don’t say that lightly. Hugs and hope you are well in all this craziness.

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