Kale Chips Recipe

I finally got around to making Kale Chips for the first time ever!  Go figure it would be in the middle of winter.  I first discovered recipes for Kale Chips this past summer and was very curious to how they would taste.  However I wasn't growing any and never got around to grabbing a bunch at the grocery store.  Now that I have my new Juicer I needed to make a healthy green juice, so I bought some red curly kale and some Swiss chard at Whole Foods.  Well, I've been juicing with both of them all week and they make an excellent green juice, then it dawned on me to try making Kale Chips!

Kale Chips are just torn up pieces of kale baked in the oven to make a crispy treat similar to potato chips but so much more healthy!  Curly kale is the best variety to use for kale chips because it won't lay flat on the baking sheet.  Besides being an healthy alternative to potato chips, it was a very easy and simple recipe.  And just imagine how simple it would be if you are growing Kale in your own backyard (which hopefully I will be doing this coming summer!).

Kale Chips Ingredients-

You only need three ingredients: 

Kale 

Salt (Sea Salt is the best) 

Olive Oil (although coconut oil would work and might give an interesting taste!)

Kale Chips Prep: 

10 minutes: 

• Wash and dry Kale leaves (wash good if not organic) 
• Cut leaves away from stem (Save stem for juicing or place in compost bin) 
• Tear leaves into small pieces the size of potato chips 
• Grab your salt and olive oil
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

Kale Chips Directions: 

1. Place dried, torn up Kale leaves in a bowl
2. Drizzle olive oil (a little more than a tablespoon) on to the leaves
3. Toss leaves with hands to coat all in oil 
4. Sprinkle salt on leaves (as much as you desire but be careful too much salt isn't healthy!) 
5. Toss leaves again to get salt on all leaves 
6. Lay leaves individually and spaced out evenly on a baking pan (non stick)  
7. Place baking sheet in oven for 10-15 mins depending on how moist the leaves are 
8. When leaves begin to brown on edges, remove from pan and scoop onto a plate or bowl for cooling 
9. Enjoy the delicious and crispy Kale Chips!!

Future Plans: Raspberries

Now that the growing season is coming to an end with a freeze watch up for Friday October 12th I'm already looking forward to expanding my edible gardens next year!  One thing ideally want to do is start growing more berries in my backyard!  I have 4 blueberry bushes, a blackberry bush and some strawberry plants but what I'm aching to grow is Raspberry bushes!  I will go further into what varieties and where I want to grow them in a future post but right now I wanted to share. A link to a very simple raspberry recipe which I'm super excited to try once I have enough berries and a dehydrator lol!

I just came across this online about using raspberries for Raw fruit leather and how it's very similar, yet healthier then fruit roll ups of my (and probably your) childhood!  This recipe calls for just organic raspberries, organic honey, a blender, wax paper and a dehydrator!  Simple ingredients and some pricier equipment.  All you do is blend the raspberries and honey together till its a paste then place flat on wax paper in the dehydrator for hours and then wait till dry yet sticky.  Once it's done you can roll them up like fruit roll ups and they can last up to six weeks!!! (That is if you don't eat all of them!)

http://www.yumuniverse.com/2010/08/16/raw-raspberry-fruit-leather/

Putting the cucumbers and tomatoes to use!

As a side to dinner I took some of my Juliet tomatoes & picklebush cucumbers, sliced them up and covered them in balsamic dressing! A delicious late summer side!

Eggplant Parm using my Eggplants!

Made some eggplant parm today using my Japanese eggplants from my garden! It was amazing! I hope I get a few more this summer and definitely will plant more plants next year!