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ANNOUNCER: Before you start cooking,
wash hands and surfaces often.
Separate raw meats from other food.
Cook to the right temperature, and refrigerate promptly.
Hi, I'm Robin LaCroix,
dietician at the Healthy Teaching Kitchen,
at the White River Junction VA.
Here we are today making home baked fries.
This is a great alternative to french fries,
kind of a healthier way to make potatoes and enjoy them.
Potatoes are a really nutritious choice.
They're high in fiber, potassium, Vitamin C,
so they're a great thing to be eating.
So, we're going to start by cutting our Russet potato first.
So, you'll start by cutting it in half,
and then once you cut it in half,
you always want to work with the flat side down,
so it's not rolling around as you're trying to cut it.
And we're just going to cut pieces
like you would have the normal size of a french fry.
The larger your slices, the longer it will take to cook,
but if you prefer a larger piece,
that's perfectly fine.
All right, and then I'm going to also show you
how to cut your sweet potato.
Sweet potatoes are a bit firmer than a regular potato,
so just be cautious when you're cutting.
And then again, flat side down.
People often ask me, are sweet potato fries
better than regular fries?
They're often ordering them at a restaurant,
thinking they're making a healthier choice.
Nutritionally, you do get a little bit extra,
but in general, they're going to have the same amount
of calories and fat as a regular potato.
All right, so we've got our potatoes sliced up
in our bowl here, and to them we are going
to add one tablespoon of olive oil.
You could use canola oil if that's what you have.
A little bit of this heart healthy oil, or any oil,
will help you absorb the fat soluble vitamins
that come out of the potatoes, so some fat in your potatoes
is actually a healthy thing.
We have a quarter of a teaspoon of each of these:
salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Again, if you were really mindful with your sodium,
you could leave the salt out.
And then, I have nice clean hands here,
so I find the easiest way to mix these up
is just using your hands.
It really spreads out all of the seasonings
and the oil nicely.
Meanwhile, I have preheated my oven to 425 degrees.
These take about 25 minutes.
All right, so now we're just going to lay them out
on our baking sheet.
You don't need to add any other oil,
because the oil that we've added to the potatoes
themselves will help prevent them from sticking.
And, just make sure they're in a single layer here.
All right, and now they're ready to go in the oven.
You want to bake them on the center rack,
and you want to stir them halfway through,
at 10 or 15 minutes.
This helps them crisp up on all sides.
So, to go with our oven baked fries today,
we are making foil packet fish.
This is an easy way to cook fish.
I often find that veterans say they want to eat more fish,
but they don't really know how to cook it.
So, this is a nice simple method.
We are using cod today, and we have two-thirds of a pound.
This serves two people.
So, we're going to lay our fish down
on a sheet of tinfoil significantly larger
than your fish, because we're going to wrap it up.
And then, just put that on top of a baking sheet
or a casserole dish.
On top of our fish we are adding one tablespoon of olive oil.
Just drizzle that over your fish.
We have just an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
Again, if you watch your sodium really closely,
you could leave that out.
Then, we have lemon zest.
So, we're going to take a fresh lemon and zest,
a teaspoon of zest.
So, we have our lemon zest here.
It adds really great flavor.
And then, we have two tablespoons of fresh parsley.
If you don't have fresh parsley, dried parsley,
at a quarter of a teaspoon, will work just fine.
You always want to use less dried herbs than fresh.
So, our fish is ready and we are going to wrap up the tinfoil.
So, you want to take your long sides here
and fold them together.
Just wrap that down
and then, kind of like you're wrapping a present,
just tuck the other sides in.
So, I've turned down my oven to 400 degrees,
which is the temperature for the fish,
and the potatoes are done,
so I'm going to put the fish in and pull the potatoes out.
This is going to go in the oven for about 15 minutes.
These potatoes are nice and crispy, and looking great.
I would just let them set for a couple of minutes
before you put them on your plate.
All right, so our fish is done
and ready to come out of the oven.
And it will be a little hot, so just be cautious
when you're opening up your tinfoil.
All right, so we're going to start by taking some slices
of lemon and squeezing them over the fish for a nice,
bright finish.
All right, and to test if your fish is done,
I always use a fork and just pull back,
and that will show that the fish,
if it comes apart easily, it's done.
So, we've already put our delicious looking
sweet potato fries on here,
and now we're just going to carefully lift up
our piece of fish, and plate it here with some steamed broccoli,
and our sweet potato and regular potato french fries.
This looks delicious!
It's really tasty, it's healthy, a great meal,
and I hope you try it.
ANNOUNCER: The preceding video was published
by the White River Junction VA Medical Center.
Contact Robin.LaCroix@va.gov.
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