Source: Tango-mango courtesy of Tumblr
Everyone has them. Some are debilitating and life changers. Some are comparatively harmless.
I have an addiction that comes and goes. Sometimes I have complete control. Other times, it’s bombs away!
I have a potato addiction.
No, don’t laugh. This is serious. Usually it is in the form of potato chips but I love potatoes any way. Never met a spud I didn’t like. Mashed, smashed, fried, baked (well, not so much baked), scalloped — any way will do. I even liked them boiled.
The potato chip is the elite member of the potato family. There are preferences. I like my chips thick so I love Ripples with Ridges. The all-time best are the ones that are folded over. Those are mine, mine, mine!
Chips are a part of the white food group which unfortunately doesn’t have the same marketing team that the orange or green food groups have. I have never heard anyone say that you need to make a smoothie out of potatoes for your health.
Yes, I know it would taste like crap. So what does a kale smoothie taste like?
Maybe it’s the salt. I love salt and I am fortunate that I have low blood pressure. I asked my former doc what I could do if I get side effects. He said to get some salt. Perfect advice and I prefer my salt on the rim of a margarita. It’s healthy. There’s fruit in a margarita! It’s a win-win.
Back to potatoes.
About a year ago an in-law introduced me to kettle fried potato chips. Until this encounter, I did not like kettle fried. They were the redheaded stepchild of regular potato chips.
These were different. They didn’t taste like grease and they were so crunchy and salty. OMG. I was in love. Or addiction.
I buy the smallest bags possible and split it into several days of nirvana.
I recently bought a bag of kettle fried chips. Every day (every single day) for a week or so, it was my 3 p.m. snack.
I would farm out a reasonable portion and eat them one by one savoring each crumb. I was sad when it was over, sometimes licking salt off my hands.
Over the days I noticed that I would get a stomach ache before supper. I didn’t figure out what caused it until the bag ran out and my snack returned to a pretzel stick (still salty but technically part of the tan food group).
There is something wrong with the world when something as wonderful as a potato chip gives you a bellyache!
The white food group (which also includes bread, pasta and rice) is looking for a new marketing team. Please inquire if interested.
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
I’m with you about potatoes! I try to satisfy my potato craving with baked potatoes that I fill with salad or veggies. I am happy with a baked potato, but ti doesn’t do much to take care of a potato chip craving! I rarely have a bag in the house because I can’t stop at just a few! It would just be the whole bag. I think we should comfort ourselves with the notion that as addictions go, we could do much worse than potatoes, right? 🙂
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There are much worse addictions (I’m thinking of ice cream here!). Baked potatoes are a tough thing to love. Many places don’t make them good (or don’t use the right potato). Done right, they aren’t bad but they can’t compete with fresh cut French fries or chips or scalloped or homefries or…….
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Kate Im right there with you I have salt cravings and use to be a chippy monster. Now I try popcorn and pretzels too. But some days I need more salt. I do have to watch my cholesterol so Chips are a treat these days. Sad when we age, we should be able to eat whatever we dam well please.
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As we age we should be allowed to eat whatever we want without it affecting our weight or our health. That’s just how it should be.
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I so agree with you about potatoes… I can eat them all kinds of ways! My favorite way is after we have had mashed potatoes for dinner… have them as fried potato cakes the next morning. I could live on potatoes. And chocolate chip cookies… the chocolate chip cookies that CH makes.
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I notice none of those belong in that healthy green food group! My kinda girl!
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I do like steamed broccoli with buttah… 😀
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Well…ok….as long as it has buttah!
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I wish I hadn’t read this blog. I have not chips in the house and I’m craving, That means a trip to the nearest market. Maybe I’ll stop my your house, it’s 4 o’clock somewhere!!! Mix up a batch of Margaritas to wash them down.
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Come on over! Bring some chips too!
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I’m going to remember this “salt on the rim of a margarita. It’s healthy. There’s fruit in a margarita! It’s a win-win.” Totally logical.
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It’s all true!
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Food . . . glorious Food! It adds sparkle and salty goodness to our days.
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Yes, food! I eat pizza every week. Slight addiction to that too.
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I hate to correct you Kate, but the potato chip is not really the elite member of the potato family. I realize that many people accept that as fact, but the truth is, Mr. Potato Head is. Sorry. but that’s how the chips fall.
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I stand corrected!
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Your very wise… to not argue with Don Rickles, I mean Mr. Potato Head. :O)
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Potato chips are my nemesis but unlike you, there is NO WAY I can do portion control. No matter WHAT the size of the packet, each and every chip must be consumed THEN and THERE. It’s at the stage I really can’t even eat a large packet anymore, it’s WAY too much, but does that stop me… NO! I keep shovelling, one after the other into my mouth as I know that once they’re gone, I will no longer have this battle… 😦
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So sad! I can for a couple weeks without them but then the salt bug bites.
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Blahahaha! Hilarious! I love your description of the healthful fruity margarita. And being “in love/addiction”, and the cartoon is priceless. My addiction is popcorn. It also comes and goes but is always on my mind. And I get the stomach ache too…. but then devouring a whole bag in mere seconds might be the cause. 🙂 P.S. I think they use popcorn to fatten up pigs for market. 😦
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I always though popcorn was a lo-cal snack! I can eat them without butter but my husband likes the grease.
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I still don’t know anyone who can walk away from an open bag of chips or really good fries. I understand the addiction.
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Some people prefer sweet to salty. Maybe they can walk away. Not me!
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Potato Chips…the words should all be in caps!!!! And why are the folded ones the best???? (I so agree) Potatoes compliment any meal. I can’t think of a food they don’t go with! I enjoy them unsalted too, so I am truly a pure potato lover!!!!!!
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POTATO CHIPS YAY! Maybe the folded ones are thicker? I have no idea why but I always eat them first. Maybe I can get a job doing quality control at a chip conveyor belt.
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I don’t theeenk so Lucy! Nothing would make it into the bag! Love, Ethel 🙂
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So Ethel, what’s the problem with that other than we will need bigger clothes?
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Kate, I love your posts and I am starting to believe that we are twins separated at birth! If I commented every time one of your posts hits home with me, I’d be posting almost every time. I too am addicted to kettle chips and especially love the salt and pepper ones but I’ve also been plagued with stomach aches sometimes from eating too many……I also love good dark chocolate and can recommend Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt….perfect combination of chocolate and salt…….I’m salivating……
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Hmmm chocolate….hmmmm potato chips. There is such good food around. I am always glad to find someone who makes me feel normal!
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Skinny Pop Popcorn! If you haven’t tried it, Kate, you must head to the store immediately. It’s so good and it doesn’t taste like cardboard.
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Yes, yes, yes that’s one of my additions too!
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But popcorn doesn’t have a lot of calories to begin with! I’ll check it out!
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Oh, I love salt-n-vinegar chips. Delicious. You’ve made me hungry and I don’t think I have your self-control. Wait until 3 PM? The agony!
Have you had your potatoes the Canadian way? Poutine is french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. Heart attack in a bowl, but so, so good. Especially in cold weather.
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A new restaurant called Frites opened here and all they do are variations on French fries. They have this same dish made with French fries. I love a good French fry and they have great ones along with Five Guys Burgers. Most places make them from frozen. It’s got to be fresh. I like most chip flavors although I usually buy just regular. I was at a picnic where they had the barbeque chips and I made a meal out of them. So embarrassing.
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Oh, Five Guys have the best fries! In-N-Out has the best burger around here, but Five Guys for fries. Andy says it’s because they fry them twice. (Andy makes his own french fries sometimes and they are the bomb.)
Yeah, I could make a meal out of fries or chips, too.
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Sometimes I don’t finish the burger so I have more room for fries. You have to set your priorities!
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Chocolate and/or ice cream is my addiction of choice, Kate. But when I’m in the mood for a potato chip, it’s never good! Oh, I mean the chips are delicious but I eat waaayyy more than I should. I’m impressed you were able to dole them out for a week. Sorry they upset your stomach, though. Here’s to moderation and hoping I find it! 🙂
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Ice cream is a favorite of mine too. I go through spells. I crave salt, then it’s dairy (and cheese is included along with chocolate milk which kills two birds with one drink!), then it’s fat like in sausage, bacon (yum!) or pastrami. Sometimes I will eat watermelon for a whole week. I am fortunate my cravings are harmless (sort off) and I don’t usually overeat at one time. Mostly.
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I love cheese! I broke up with it once for a little while but it didn’t stick, so I just have to be mindful of my intake. I’ll eat watermelon if someone else cuts it. 🙂
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I cut the whole watermelon when I buy it because it doesn’t last long. I try to temper my affair with cheese but it’s hard.
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OMG, I can relate! I LOVE potato chips. I never keep them in the house because I have no self-control, but my 91 year old mother buys them (mainly for me) and when I visit her, I love her more than ever!
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I rarely keep them in the house too. I love your mother! Can I visit?
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Oh mine is Ghirardelli chocolate bark with sea salt and almonds.
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Chocolate is a favorite of mine but most chocolate candy is too sweet. Now give me a chocolate cake or pie, all bets are off.
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I haven’t tried kettle fried chips. I better stay away because I’m a huge potato chip and taco chip eater. Thanks for the warning — seriously.
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Maybe you wouldn’t like them (ha! like that’s gonna happen!).
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Oh, yum. (Wiping drool…)
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Lick up that salt!
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Love the comic. If only…
I once read an interview in which Dolly Parton said that she adored potatoes. She mentioned that she liked creamed potatoes– which was boiled, cubed potato in a white sauce made with milk + flour. I’d never heard of such a thing, but maybe that’s the way you can start marketing the white food group!
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I have the same addiction. I can’t purchase any more than a single serve bag because I can’t control the urge to eat just one more.
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Unless you are in a food place it’s hard to get single serving bags in a grocery story but those are my favorite. I get two days out of one of those and then I’m good for a while.
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OMG! That sounds like making a healthy thing very tasty! It sounds a lot like scalloped potatoes but made differently.
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I volunteer YOU to find a recipe and try it!
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That’s one of the few things my mom could cook – but only when it was cold or you were sick. Sort of like potato soup, but not. It was just milk and flour with cubed potatoes…maybe a little bacon grease…that seems to have been in everything.
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Hmmm….bacon grease makes everything better! (except your heart!)
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