All Hail Kale!

I've heard about a billion and one good things about kale chips in the past year. Kale, being a leafy green veggie, is pretty much a nutrient filled rockstar in the veggie world.  I mean, check out some of what kale can offer you!  Vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese. It is a very good source of copper, tryptophan, calcium, vitamin B6, and potassium; and a good source of iron, magnesium, vitamin E, vitamin B2, protein, vitamin B1, folate, phosphorous, and vitamin B3. It's also said to be an anti-inflammatory! With alllll that good stuff, how could I not try it?  


I'll admit, I'm not all that huge on a lot of leafy greens.  Different lettuces and spinach is about as leafy green as I get.  But they're so so good for you, and I figured, hey, why not?  Kale isn't terribly expensive and all the recipes for kale chips I've seen were terribly easy. 


Oh, after you buy your kale, be sure to put it in the fridge.  I didn't know you had to if you wanted it to not get a little wilty.  Next time!


So to make kale chips....


Preheat your oven to 275F.


Wash and DRY your kale thoroughly.  It's really important you dry it!!  


Tear bite sized pieces off the big stem.  You don't want the big stem.  I mean, I guess you COULD eat it later, but I have a feeling it won't be all that great since pretty much every kale recipe I've ever seen says to just toss that sucker.


Line a baking pan with foil (or parchment paper.  Or nothing if you like to bareback it. Woot!)  My pan ended up looking like this:

Toss the leaves in olive oil.  I only used maybe a teaspoon of oil which MIGHT have been too little.  And then sprinkle with salt.  I have been using sea salt for cooking lately and I like it a lot.  I'd REALLY like to get some of that Himalayan pink salt but with it being like $7 for a little package, Morton's salt is going to have to do it for me.

Pop the kale in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, giving the chips a little toss maybe about halfway through.  WATCH THE CHIPS.  It's very easy to burn and you don't want burnt chips!!  You want them light and crispy.  

They will be a little smaller when they come out.  Kinda like Shrinky Dinks!

The verdict?

Well, surprisingly good!  They were definitely crispy.  They ARE very light but it's kind of like very thin cut potato chips.  But I won't lie.  After eating a couple, I thought, "This must be what eating leaves off the tree in autumn must be like."

I made another bowl of yesterday's rice salad for my dinner tonight and I ended up crumbling some kale chips in the bowl.  It was a great addition to the meal!

Next time, I think I'll toss them with a little more olive oil and perhaps use garlic salt on them.  One of my facebook friends was making sriracha salt (kosher salt mixed with a some sriracha sauce spread out on a cookie sheet to dry for a few days) and I think I may make a little batch to sprinkle some on some chips.  It's always great to find a new healthy snack!

Thanks, Sriracha!

Do you love Sriracha sauce? I'll admit, I use it a little more than I should. A little squirt into taco meat. A little squirt into spaghetti sauce. Yum!  I'd be dirty and make a joke about "cock sauce" right now, but once in a while you just have to take the high road.

Last night as I was looking around for dinner ideas, I came across a soy glazed chicken and rice salad dinner plan.  It sounded pretty good, but I knew I'd want to change things up a little.

Btw, if you expect exact measurements in any recipes I show, you'll be disappointed. I deal in splashes and dabs, not in grams and fluid ounces.

I used the French rice salad recipe that I found on the Food With Kid Appeal blog.  The blog, unfortunately, hasn't been updated since September of last year, but there are plenty of decent recipes there.

If you're using a whole grain brown rice, get your rice started now. It takes a good 30-45 minutes to get it done. Once it's done, put it in a strainer and run cold water over it because the salad should be at least just room temperature. I think I ended up with about 5 cups of rice, so I took 3 cups out and saved the remaining rice to eat later as a snack.  Brown rice is terrifically chewy and has a nutty flavor, so it makes a great warm snack if you microwave it a bit, then splash in some milk and drizzle a little honey over it.

To my rice, I added in 1 diced tomato, 1 diced avocado, half a can of corn, and half a chopped green onion.  In a bowl, whisk together some red wine vinegar (or balsamic or apple cider. Just whatever you have on hand.), a bit of olive oil, a squirt of sriracha, and a little salt and pepper.  Then dump it over the rice, mix it up, and taste it.  Good, right??  If it's done before your chicken is done, pop it in the fridge.  This is also a great recipe for the vegetarians in your life! This is what mine looked like.

For the chicken:

I used chicken thighs for this mostly because they were on sale and I couldn't find just a pack of legs, which was what I wanted to use.  You gotta roll with the punches.  Of course, if you want to be totally healthy, you can use your boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Preheat your oven to 375F. (If using the breasts [dirty!] then preheat to 350F).  In a bowl, put in some low sodium soy sauce, sriracha, honey, and garlic powder.  You'll need at least enough to coat your pieces of chicken.  If you like more spice, put more sriracha.  If you like more of a sweet taste with your spice, add in more honey.  It's really kind of up to you.  I LOVE honey and sriracha together as a marinade so I tend to go a little heavier on these.

If you're doing bone in chicken pieces like I did, it will take about 45 minutes to bake.  Boneless chicken would probably only take about 20-30 minutes.  If you wanted to and you're good at it, you could pop the chicken on the grill.  I never seem to be able to get chicken on the grill done properly, so the oven was my best bet.  About 30 minutes in, if you want, you can baste the chicken with a little more of the marinade.

I didn't get a pic of the chicken when it came out because I suck, but it had a lovely coating and was totally delish!

My mouth is totally happy with tonight's meal. The boyfriend called the rice salad "edible, but it's not tacos." Oh well. Baby steps!

And somewhere to go to laugh:  The Oatmeal: Dear Sriracha Rooster Sauce