Monday, May 21, 2012

Crispy Kale "Chips"

I keep hearing about kale "chips" and the other day someone handed me one to try at a playgroup for my little boys. It was crispy and tasty.  So, I made a batch today. Yummm.  The only thing is that unless you have a 5' x 5' baking sheet, you will need to do what I did, which is do multiple rounds on your baking sheets in the oven. I used my salad spinner (thanks Britta!!) to dry the kale, which I think is important (but you could just use a towel). And I didn't have sea salt on hand, so I just used regular table salt.  I think these will be repeats in our house!

Ingredients
  • 1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt, for sprinkling

Directions
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes. Serve as finger food.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Nikki's Healthy Cookie Recipe

You can use unsweetened carob, or grain sweetened chocolate chips, or do what I did and chop up 2/3 of a bar of Scharffen berger 70%. I sort-of shaved half the bar with a knife and then cut the rest into bigger chip-sized chunks. You can make your own almond meal by pulsing almonds in a food processor until it is the texture of sand - don't go too far or you'll end up with almond butter. And lastly, the coconut oil works beautifully here, just be sure to warm it a bit - enough that it is no longer solid, which makes it easier to incorporate into the bananas. If you have gluten allergies, seek out GF oats.

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid (or alternately, olive oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don't worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - just shy of 15 minutes seems to be about right in my oven.

Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies.

Revisiting

So, I don't have a new recipe to post (for now). But yesterday I spent some time going back over old recipes posted here, and tried a few out for the first time. Last night we had Sarah's black bean burgers and Sally's red cabbage salad, and both were excellent! Alan dragged his feet making the salad because he "thought it would be gross," but he loved it. Thanks for the recipes, everyone - keep trying old ones, and keep sharing!