Good Thins

Update Review, 2020

I continue to have fond memories of the first Good Thins I ever tried, so I always try new varieties when I see them offered.  I recently tried a new base: "the corn one".

The Corn One

"The Corn One" is actually corn and rice flour based, not just corn, but besides oil and salt, there is nothing else added.  Gluten-free by nature.

Unlike "The Potato Ones" or "The Rice Ones", there is only one flavor offered, and it is ... quite plain. Sea salt only.

Sea Salt.

These were honestly a fairly boring cracker.  Square shaped, with some bubbles to them.  Very mild corn flavor ... I would have believed they were just rice crackers.  The corn was not dominant in any way.

They were crispy, salty, and healthy, and, if you were looking for something just slightly more interesting than a rice cracker they would fit that need, but for me, they were just ... boring.

Update Review, July 2019

After success of the sweet potato and spinach & garlic Good Thins, I was eager to try more varieties.  And many more varieties have popped up since, made with a slew of different bases: potato, rice, chickpeas, corn, and oat.

I tried several more, but also got another box of the sweet potato, since, well, they were just so good.  The sweet potato remain the best, no question, but I'm glad I tried a few more.

Beet

Good Thins dabbled in a veggie base, picking beets.  They have been discontinued however, clearly not one that consumers went for.  Still, I got to try them before they disappeared.

The Beet One: Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt.

"The Beet One" I selected was Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt flavor.  I got these thinking they would be more like actual beet chips, not realizing that potato flour was the first ingredient.  Ooops.  They really belong in the "The Potato One" product line ...

The Beet One.

They were much like the other varieties I had tried, a baked thin savory potato based chip, not greasy or fried, healthy tasting, well seasoned.  And they tasted like beets.  The color was that of beets.  But clearly weren't actual beet chips.

I wasn't a big fan, since I wanted real dehydrated vegetable chips, but, I think these will likely be better crowd pleasers (although I think they have been pulled from the market already?).  I didn't really taste balsamic, but they were savory.

My beet loving mother enjoyed them.

Potato

Potato based thins remains the largest product line, and since that is where I had found previous success, I decided to try more.

The Potato One: White Cheddar.

They were ... eh.

First, um, many were burnt?  My box had probably 50% burnt ones.  Not the best quality control!

But really, they were just ... boring.  Potato flour + cornstarch + wheat flour make up the base, which turned out to just be kinda starchy and plain potato chip seeming, just with a bit more body to it like  a cracker rather than a chip.

The white cheddar flavor was too mild, it was sorta there, but a cheesy snack these were not.

The Potato One: Sweet Potato.

Finally, I went back to my old favorites, the sweet potato.

These continue to be my favorite.  They are salty, slightly sweet, and have a wide variety of uses for me.  Sure, great as an afternoon or evening snack, or alongside a meal instead of chips, but sometimes, I even like a handful with my breakfast.  The sweetness from the sweet potato, and added brown sugar, really does make for a nice breakfast pairing.  They sometimes even taste like they have cinnamon to me, although I know they do not.

Original Review, February 2017

One day, I was walking down the street in San Francisco, and a little van pulled up, giving out samples of some cracker looking things.  They had little plastic cups, each with 2 or so crackers in it.  They turned out to be called "Good Thins", a product sorta like a cross between a cracker and a chip, boasting all the labels you'd expect: no artificial flavors or colors, no cholesterol, no partially hydrogenated oils, no high fructose corn syrup.  They have 60% less fat than standard potato chips.  A healthier snack.

While I do love snacks, these quasi healthy chip like things didn't really sound that interesting to me, but of course I tried some.  They turned out to be rather awesome.

Good Thins come in a slew of varieties, with all different bases: potato, chickpea, corn, oat, rice.  The rice and corn ones are gluten-free.  The ones being sampled that day were all potato based, which come in white cheddar, sweet potato, spinach & garlic, and "original".  (If you are curious, rice based varieties are salted, veggie blend, poppy & sesame seed, and sea salt & pepper), chickpea ones come only in a garlic & herb flavor, corn come only salted, and oat with flax).

I tried the spinach & garlic and the sweet potato at the sampling site.  I liked them both, so much so that when I saw them in the store later, I actually bought a box, a rare move on my part, since I don't tend to have a shortage of snack foods laying around the house.  I'd gladly eat more of these.

Sweet Potato.

"Sweet Potato GOOD THiNS are made with real sweet potatoes. So if you share them, you're sure to hear "Sweet. You're the sweetest."

The Good Thins actually look just like their box picture (those are the real things on the right hand corner here, on top of the box).  They are round, thin, and crispy.  The form is perfect for munching, much like a chip, but a bit bigger.

The flavor in the sweet potato ones was a bit sweet.  I really was impressed with how much sweet potato I could actually taste.

But the best part?  The salt level.  They were so salty, in a totally addicting way.

I thought these were remarkably good, and they hit all the check boxes for me - sized just right, crispy, salty ... just excellent snack food.  I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that a serving is only 130 calories, and a serving is a whopping 23 chips!

Spinach & Garlic.

I didn't take notes on the Spinach & Garlic when I tried them on the street, but I also liked the thin, crispy form, and the excellent salt level.  I remember finding this flavor quite savory, and appreciated that they tasted kinda healthy from the spinach, but also, actually tasty.

Waffling Leftovers: Mashed Potatoes & Potato Puree

Update, December 2019

As you know from my earlier posts, leftover mashed potatoes are something I often try to throw into a waffle iron, as they always seem like they should waffle beautifully, but they really do require a bit of extra love to get perfect.

This is a story of being lazy though, and not entirely putting in that effort.  The result however was still tasty!

The Original: Homemade Mashed Potatoes.

The original was my sister's mashed potatoes, served as part of our Christmas eve spread.  Butter, milk, and her "secret" ingredient: cream cheese.  Good, classic, creamy mashed potatoes.

The Leftovers: Cold Mashed Potatoes.

But we had a ton left over.  Trying to get others to help me eat them up, I kept offering them to my father in particular, who I thought liked mashed potatoes, but only learned then that he loves hashbrowns, homefries, fries, roast potatoes, baked potatoes, anything like that, but NOT mashed potatoes.  I somehow never noticed that in all his potato eating, he never went for mash.

I asked about potato pancakes.  He hadn't ever had them.  I offered to transform the leftover mashed potatoes into potato pancakes, and he said he'd try them that way.

But then I got lazy.

Very Advanced Prep!

I got VERY lazy.  Instead of making potato pancakes, forming patties, pan frying them ... I ... uh ... just dumped a big pile of mashed potatoes into the waffle iron.

Now, of course I know from my own previous experiences, that mashed potatoes don't usually waffle very well without crusting.  I knew I should crust them.

But, lazy.

Partway through cooking ...

I set the waffle iron to a standard 350*, and set off to gather other leftovers to pair with his mashed potato waffles.

When I checked once, they were looking pretty pale.  I knew better than to just do them this way ...

Golden Brown Potatoes!

Yet I left them, and let them go a bit longer.

They did get a nice light golden brown, and even extracted fairly easily.  Were they crispy though?  Not really.  But at least they didn't make a mess?

Waffled Mashed Potatoes & Mom's Meatballs.

I served them with some leftover meatballs, really, a meal that made no sense, but hey, it was leftovers season, and this was at least slightly interesting?  He had leftover meatballs the day before with leftover brunch hashbrowns on the side, so it seemed not much different.

I'd say he ... tolerated the mashed potato waffles.  Declared them better than mashed potatoes, but, as I knew, he wanted something crispier than this.

I really should have crusted them, or at least maybe oiled the waffle iron.

Original Review, May 2017

Do you really need an intro to my Waffling Leftovers series at this point?  By now, you know what I do.  I reheat my leftovers, generally as is, in my waffle iron.  And I usually love the results.  I've covered Italian main dishes (lasagna, pizza, etc), I've covered casseroles (tuna noodle, shepherd's pie, etc), and now, its on to side dishes (like the crazy successful grits from last week).

Mashed/pureed potatoes: Will it Waffle?  Yes ... but, like mac and cheese, some crusting is required to maintain structural integrity.  Or ... make it opened faced.  More on that below ...

Mashed Potatoes

The ingredient I had in mind for this experiment was simple: leftover mashed potatoes. 

Mashed Potatoes.

The potatoes actually came from leftover shepherd's pie, so there was a bit of peas, carrots, and corn also in the mix, but, just go with it.

Inside the waffle maker ...

I thought the mashed potatoes would waffle up and get a crispy exterior, like a potato pancake.  It sorta did ... except, there was absolutely no structural integrity.

I left it cooking for quite a while longer, and it got slightly more crispy, but it was clear that there was no way I'd ever be able to extract it as a full waffle from the waffle iron.

Tasty, and I liked the crispy bits, but certainly not a waffle.

Crusted Mashed Potatoes.

I had a tiny bit left of the mashed potatoes, that I was planning to just heat up and eat as regular mashed potatoes, but I couldn't resist trying to improve on my failed experiment.

Remembering how adding a cornflake crust made waffled mac and cheese a success, I added a crushed cornflake crust to the mashed potato and made a tiny little crusted mashed potato patty and waffled it.

And ... it worked.  While this was a small test, it held together fine and got super crispy on the outside.  I didn't mind the slight cornflake contamination of my mashed potatoes either, although I certainly wouldn't think of combined the two normally.

Next time, I'd certainly go for a crust again, although I'd try breadcrumbs.

Potato Puree

A few months later, I again had leftover mashed potato.  Ok, technically, it was potato puree, not mashed potatoes. 

Potato Puree.

The puree was incredible, loaded up with soooo much butter and cream, plus chives for even more flavor.  It was crazy creamy, crazy decadent, and oh so delicious.

Thus, into the freezer the leftovers went.

Leftover Potato Puree.

I pulled out the leftovers, and heated one block up in the toaster oven.  It came out fine, and I was impressed at the texture of the potatoes, even when frozen and reheated.  I think because it was such a smooth puree, no strange texture resulted from the freezing, as usually happens with mashed potatoes.

But you know me, I wanted to waffle things, so, into the waffle iron the other chunk went.

Almost there ...

Except ... I forgot to read my previous post, and failed to crust it.  I remembered this when I opened the lid to check on it, but actually, it looked like it was holding its structure fine, just obviously not done yet.

So, I let it go a bit longer, so the two halves would bind together.

Done!

I waited a bit too long though, as the top got a bit burnt.  Somehow the bottom side didn't though, which upset me slightly, because it means that my waffle plates aren't the same temperature ...

Anyway, even without crusting, this was a success.  It held together nicely, was super crispy on the outside, and a bit creamy inside.  It was kinda like hashbrowns or fries even.  I really enjoyed it, even if slightly over done.

Mashed Potato - Open Faced?

Another day, another batch of mashed potatoes to waffle, but this time, something didn't go quite as planned ...

The Original: Silky Smooth Mashed Yukon Golds.

I started with some seriously good mashed potatoes.  Just mashed yukon golds, with the perfect amount of butter and milk.  Creamy, with a bit of texture from a few chunks.  They were really fantastic potatoes, somehow not too decadent, but also still very delicious.  I think there was likely more butter than I realized, but, hey, they were great.

They were great cold the next day.  They were great warmed up in the oven.  But, I had to try waffling them too.

Cooking Underway.

I did not crust the potatoes.  I set the waffle iron to 350°  fairly randomly.  I was having them for breakfast, so I was going for more of a thin crispy hashbrown style than a big potato pancake, so I spread it in fairly thin.

After a few minutes of cooking, things didn't look good.  After 5 more minutes, it still didn't look good.  Because I did it so thin, the top grill didn't make contact with the potatoes, so it looked like a pool of mush, not crisping up.  I thought it was going to be a disaster to remove.  I didn't take a photo, and decided it was likely a waste.  I put another batch of potatoes in the regular oven, and returned to the waffle iron to clean up.

Lightly Waffled Mashed Potatoes!

And then I realized my creation was actually fine.  The bottom was in contact with the plates.  It did crisp up, lightly, and it didn't burn.  The waffle extracted from the iron with no problem.  And the top (now underside once I flipped it out), was creamy and moist.  It was the best of both worlds.

I actually loved this creation, and it inspired me to think about more "open-faced" style waffles, where I only intentionally waffle the underside, either by doing it thin like this, or, by not closing the top.

The evolution continues ...