I’m sure you’ve fallen into the same trap with your kids. No matter how healthy you try to be, as soon as they’re old enough to start ordering their own food at restaurants, they discover the kids’ meals… and the French fries. I really have a bone to pick with pretty much every restaurant in the northern hemisphere, because if they didn’t celebrate the French fry as a vegetable, then perhaps children across America would be eating more broccoli.

Nevertheless, the four-year-old loves French fries, so we give him French fries, often and in great, heaping quantities. But stop! Before you report me to the Department of Social Services, we make him oven-roasted potatoes cut in the shape of French fries, and he doesn’t know the difference. And yes, mine are as crunchy — sometimes crunchier — than the deep-fried versions at your local watering hole… uh, I mean restaurant where you’d appropriately take your kid. Yep, that’s what I mean.

Oven-Roasted French Fries

Ingredients:

• 3 very large and very fresh potatoes (I used Yukon Gold tonight)
• olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

I know, the list of ingredients is freakishly small, but go with it. They’re perfect.

Now here’s the trick: the technique, or should I say the process. Start by cutting your potatoes to a uniform size, using a mandoline if you have one. You can toss the cut potatoes in olive oil and spread them evenly on a roasting sheet, or you can spray the pan with olive oi, spread out the potatoes and spray again.

Then, season with salt and pepper.

Cook at 400 degrees convection roast if you have it, or 425 degrees bake, flipping potatoes halfway through cooking time. Cook for approximately 30 minutes or when potatoes are a deep, golden brown. Then shut off your oven and leave them in for 5 more minutes. You can also put the potatoes in the oven before it reaches the desired temperature. This is they key to getting them crunchy, so don’t leave out the low temperature cooking part.

Well, it’s also important to use potatoes as fresh as you can get and as starchy as you can get, because they will definitely turn out crunchier.

So go — make your kids happy and feed them healthy potatoes… they’ll never know.