So I’ve been complaining about my busy season and not getting enough sleep and exercise. I confess the weight has been creeping up so it was after a medical appointment recently that I decided that I needed a “control-alternate-delete” radical reset for my diet. I’ve been doing low carb for more than 6 years but it is true you can slide with snacking on nuts or ignoring sauces and condiments. I know that 6 years ago one thing that really helped me with the diet was to keep a food diary. It helped me make better food choices for the day and it’s very hard to argue with a food nutrition calculator.
So one thing that came up again was the issue about the snacking. I confess I am an inveterate snacker…and it’s always associated with reading or watching television. Nuts and cheeses are often my go to and I confess once I start, it’s hard to stop. And there is something about the crunch which is really important in snacks; it gives an additional sensory quality to happy eating.
I had a little foray to the wet market yesterday – I actually had the intention of buying buah keluak for making some dishes in the future but the shop’s stock was old and the shopkeepers recommended that I return the following week. So because it was a bit of a wasted trip I decided to meander around the market and found some really ginormous king oyster mushrooms. They were going at a dollar a mushroom, which was a pretty decent price because these guys were literally the length of my hand. These mushrooms are pretty much what I would choose for making mushroom chips because mushrooms really shrink with roasting and you would want something decent-sized to eat. Helper D has made many batches of mushroom chips with variable outcomes ranging from the soggy to the over-browned, using the oven, the stove and the airfryer to try to nail the right texture and colour. I think this effort has shown the best outcome so far and I think the trick is the right kind of mushroom as well as a kind of slower roast which dries out the mushrooms more effectively.
I think this was the best iteration of the mushroom chip that we’ve achieved so far. I was kind of happy that kid#1 was not at home so I could hog the jar. Both of us are rather passionate about mushrooms (a little like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings). The best thing was that 1 cup of mushrooms is only 2.3g of carbs and 15 calories. Definitely a win for the snacker within!
Roasted Mushroom Crisps
Ingredients
- 2 large king oyster mushrooms
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 150 deg C.
- Slice the mushrooms thinly on the diagonal. Each slice should be not more than 3 mm thick.
- Toss the mushroom slices in olive oil.
- Lay the mushrooms on a baking rack placed over a tray to catch drips. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chips.
- Bake for 60 minutes in the oven. You may need to rotate the tray 2-3 times during the baking, depending on the evenness that you oven is able to achieve. Check the mushrooms especially in the last 10-15 minutes just to make sure they don’t get burned.
- Remove from tray and serve. This recipe has no crisping agent like flour, so the crunchiness does decrease over time. But then the chips don’t last that long to be an issue.
Still Feeling Peckish 
What an interesting post! Things can be so different from one person to another, but they can also be so very similar! nomnomprincess, I have a question for you: when it comes to keeping a diet, what’s the hardest part? Where do most people fail?
I think it’s 1. Consistency (little cheats creep in after a long time); 2. Clarity – one of the best predictors of sustained weight loss is actually checking your weight regularly because it’s a reality check and 3. Conditions of life – a lot of people eat emotionally or socially. I think personally stress eating is a coping response and I struggle to remember to use other strategies to deal with ongoing stress.
Yes, stress eating is a horrible way to cope with the struggles. That’s why I started keto (http://bit.ly/AwesomeKetoDiet). It really helped me re-visit my “relationship” with stress.