Kale Chips!

Everyone is doing it. You should do it too. Oh yeah, this is peer pressure. Just try a little of this green stuff and I swear you will be hooked......KALE!! What the hell else did you think I was talking about? ;)

I have been hearing from my co-workers how good this stuff is and I just had to try it myself. I kid-you-not when I say I took a bit of my co-workers salad and was craving this stuff. I think that there is a vitamin or nutrient that I am missing that kale is rich in which is why I literally have been eating it like most Americans eat potato chips or french fries.




I will let you find your own information about how good this stuff is for you and what all it has in it. My goal is just to tell you how I made it tasted freakin' amazing!

Pick up your bunches of kale at the grocery. In the picture to the left, there are 6 bunches of kale that I got for .99 cents each at the store. Less than $6 for a food that will make you live longer. Can't beat that.
 




Gather your ingredients!

• One bunch of kale
• Coconut oil
• Sea Salt
• Large zip-loc bag
• 2 cookie sheets

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Wash your kale. Tear it into large pieces and shake off any water. Make sure that you tear your fluffy green pieces off the white-ish stalk in the middle. You do not want this piece as it holds a ton of water and will basically "steam" your kale if you put it in the oven. Notice how tough it is? Don't worry, it will not be like that when you eat it.

Take about 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil and put it in a glass bowl and melt it in the oven. It will only take a few minutes. (The first time I did, I followed some other directions where they said to use 3 tablespoons of oil and it was WAYYYYY too much. With the oil and salt, a little goes a long way- trust me.)

Load your kale pieces into the zip-loc bag, pour in about half of your oil and shake it up. Then pour in the rest and shake it up again. The goal is to get the pieces uniformly covered and not have any of it sitting in oil.

Break out your cookie sheets. You DO NOT need to oil them because the kale won't stick...as it is already covered in oil.

Spread your oiled kale pieces out over the 2 cookie sheets. Try to have them not over-lapping so they do not stick together.....if they do its not a big deal but if there is too much on the pan it will be too moist and again "steam" the kale. These things are going to shrink down a lot and you are going to flip them over so don't get all OCD on the placement :)

Shake a little bit of sea salt on them at this point. Remember, a little goes a long way.

Put both sheets in the oven at the same time. They will be fine and they will both cook the same. Bake them for 10 minutes on one side, then flip them over and bake them for another 10 minutes. Try not to eat them at the half time like I did. If you do, there will not be as much to share with your loved ones.

See how much they shrink? And the are so light! Weird...but delicious.

Just writing this is making me salivate! In my opinion, these are yummier than potato chips! I made them 2 nights in a row and ate an entire pan by myself.....both nights.

I am still experimenting to see how long these last after they are made. So far, they were still good the next day but 2 days after they had a different texture. Personally, I think right out of the oven they are the best and if you love them as much as I do, they will not last much longer than a few minutes.

So far I have tried my kale chips with sea salt, toasted sesame seeds, and chia seeds sprinkled over them. All 3 varieties were delicious!

Hope you enjoy! I also found that tossing some toasted sesame seeds on these was quite delicious as well!
I am going to try some "salad like recipes" with this stuff and I will post my findings when I get a good result.

Jen