Kitchen Experiements: Kale Chips

Yummy!!

Fine, I'll admit it...I'm on a total kale kick. It is perfect to hide in foods for my little guy so he still gets his veggies. Plus, its nutritional facts are awesome. The most impressive fact I found was that per calorie, Kale has more Iron than beef (more benefits of eating kale). Alternate sources of iron is super important for my family since I don't eat red meat which spills over to the things I cook for Sawyer and John.
This week I decided to try Kale Chips and they are Oh My Word delicious, addictive and the best snack. I know I am a pretty adventurous eater so maybe I am over-hyping but I recommend trying them for a healthy snack. They remind me of flash fried spinach. I know they have to be good because John LOVED them...almost ate the whole bag. Sawyer hasn't tried them yet, he has issues with the way they look since it still looks like grass...

KALE CHIPS

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch kale (I use curly kale)
• Olive Oil (extra virgin oil oil)
• sea salt
• lemon juice - I added this for my flavor preference but feel free to leave out or use Parmesan

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. Wash Kale completely
3. dry completely. I laid mine out on paper towels in stacks and let sit for an hour

dry completely!

4. cut off stems and cut into desired size for chips
5. In a freezer bag, I added a bunch of the dried, cleaned kale and poured in olive oil and lemon juice, toss until all leaves are completely covered. May have to do a few time to get the whole bunch

Toss to cover all leaves

6. After Kale is covered in oil/lemon juice mix, lay out on nonstick baking sheets and dust with sea salt (as desired). I had to use 2 sheets for the whole bunch
7. Bake for 8-12 minutes, they cook fast so check often. Do not let them burn! As soon as they look rigid and crisp, take them out. I took mine out at 8 minutes and they were perfect.

Crispy and reading to snack

Enjoy!

Ooh I like that: Kale Smoothie

Jokes on you Sawyer!

I am always trying to think of ways to incorporate veggies in an indiscreet way for Sawyer. He is going through a phase of judging food by its cover (lettuce looks like grass so it is yucky!) I decided to invent my own kale smoothie with some high nutrient dense ingredients to see if he would like it and to my surprise, he did. Looks like I was able to pull a fast one on our smart little guy so he can still get the fruits and vegetables he needs, score!
It may not look pretty but you could always add more blueberries to hide the green.

INGREDIENTS
(for 1 smoothie)
1 cup Baby Kale (cleaned, de-stemmed)
1 banana
1 cup blueberries
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup milk/almond milk/soy milk (your choice)

Looks so pretty!

DIRECTIONS
- put all ingredients in a blender and blend, easy peezy!

Enjoy!