Monday, September 5, 2011

Let food be thy medicine...

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. " Hippocrates, 431 B.C.

Some of the wisest words outside Scripture, in my humble opinion, and some that America would do well to heed. And in honor of those words I thought I'd share with you all one of my favorite snacks, which also happens to be one of the healthiest foods you can eat.

Kale Chips.

I know, it sounds weird. Most people don't have any idea how to fix kale, or have no desire because it sounds gross. But kale is an awesome super food, and eating it gave me all sorts of energy with my pregnancy with Audrey. Ridiculously high in Vitamin K, Vitamin C, good dose of iron... a massive dose of dietary fiber. I won't go into all the nitty gritty. You can easily figure that out on google. But trust me, it is good stuff. And regarding flavor, these kale chips are awesome.

First, you'll want to buy one or two big bunches of kale. It shrinks down a LOT in the oven. If you have more than few people who will be munching on these, get more than one bunch.

Cut off the stalks, and tear up the leaves (leaving the tough stalks behind) like so....





Then, once you have them torn up into snack size pieces, put them in a colander, and then in a larger bowl and rinse with a mixture of vinegar and water (water alone won't cut it). Kale is one of the "dirty dozen" types of produce that has the most pesticides on it. Vinegar will get the pesticides off, but water alone won't.







Then lay the kale out on a paper towel and pat it dry.












Next, arrange the kale on an oiled baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with whatever type of seasoning you prefer. I like it with seasoned salt (without MSG, of course), but we were out of it this time so I used garlic salt and onion powder. A friend said she put cumin on hers. Experiment! Put them in the oven on 350 for 5-10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them because once they start to burn they quickly disintegrate.







Et voila! See how much they shrink up? When they're done they should be green (not black) but very crisp, like a potato chip. If they are chewy at all like a leaf would be, they're not fully done.

Enjoy :-D