Plantain Chips

My blog yesterday was about a place to eat in Wichita, so today, I thought I’d focus on my KC peeps!  In my short time blogging you have already read about my love, sometimes infatuation, with Trader Joe's.  I am a very happy lady when I go there.  Last weekend while in Kansas City I had a couple hours free in the afternoon so I headed to Trader Joe's and enjoyed the rare opportunity to look around and really take my time.  I found a new item that will be added to my regular list-plantain chips.  I stumbled upon them while I was in line to pay.   I should start by saying I just learned what plantains were several months ago.  I attended a cooking class at a restaurant in Wichita called Taste & See.  (Great place to eat, but that deserves an entire blog entry dedication so I’ll get to that one of these days)  I went to the class with my friends Brittany and Katie and one of the items we made was called Poke Tini.  It was ahi tuna atop Thai slaw in a martini glass topped with cilantro and plantain chips.  My friends knew my love for traveling to Mexico and were surprised when I shared with them I did not know what a plantain was.  They could not believe I had not seen them or eaten them on one of my trips to Mexico.  (Side note...that's probably because I am so busy stuffing my face with guacamole I am oblivious to anything else)  They filled me in and I learned a plantain is part of the banana family, just much smaller.  We made our plantain chips fresh at the class and they added to the presentation and taste of our dish. 



It tasted as good as it looks!



I looked plantains up when I got home and turns out they are much firmer than regular bananas and therefore are used mostly in cooking, rather than eaten raw.  They are also lower in sugar that regular bananas.  Until last weekend at Trader Joe’s I had no idea these came in a bag and could be eaten as a snack.  Bonus! 

As I waited in line and saw this package I was intrigued.  While we fried our homemade plantain chips these were roasted so I figured they had to be somewhat healthy.  I flipped the package over to the nutrition facts to further investigate.  You can eat 20 of these bad boys for a serving size.  Spectacular!  There’s nothing worse than flipping a package over and seeing 7 chips as the serving size.  I mean, really?  I can take care of that in 2 bites and it’s not going to fill me up.  I scanned down to the fat-6 grams.  I can deal with that.  Scanned a little lower to the sugar and it said zero.  Now, I was really interested.  All that was left was the ingredients.  I try to buy/eat as many things as I can with less than five ingredients and I like to be able to pronounce them.  Three ingredients were listed: plantains, sunflower oil, and salt.  I looked up to check the price and it was only $1.69.  Trader Joe’s product placement worked on me; the package was added to my cart. 

I am big on snacking, but not in a bad way.  I just get hungry frequently.  I usually eat breakfast, have a snack (or two) mid morning, eat lunch, have another snack in the afternoon and then dinner.  Two to three snacks per day means I am always looking for healthy items to eat.  I usually eat fruit or vegetables for one of them, but the other is granola, yogurt, or nuts, and these plantain chips fit right in to give me some variety.  I am also pleasantly surprised by how filling they are.  So far, I have enjoyed them plain, but they would also be great mixed with some nuts and dried fruit to make a homemade trail mix.   If you live somewhere near a Trader Joe's pick some of these up soon…and, Mom, feel free to grab me another bag.  I only bought one and it’s almost gone. :)