Kale Chips, A Great Snack

Yesterday I made kale chips and basically ate the entire thing by myself.  You can think whatever you want, but I am a snacker and I'm always looking for something to munch on.  I also wanted to introduce it to my nephew who is fuzzy about everything green on his plate.  First I asked him if he wanted chips and a big smile came over his face, but after he saw that they were green I couldn't get him to try it.  I have made it before for my little one and she also refused to try anything green, but hey, she is drinking orange juice with broccoli rabb most mornings, so I am not going to force the issue.  So a few people asked about kale chips and I wanted to show them that it is easy to make and a great snack packed with vitamin K, vitamin C and beta carotene.   I truly find them delicious but don't take my word, try them yourself.

Ingredients:

Kale (not sure about the measurements on this, I probably used 5 or 6 leaves of kale)

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1/4 tsp Sea salt - use your own judgement 

Instructions:

Cut the kale in small strips, discard the stems

Then wash it and pat it down with a paper towel

Put into a Ziploc bag and add 1 tablespoon of oil to coat and sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Toss around in the bag so that the oil and salt covers the entire greens

Spread the kale in a baking pan in a single file

Bake on 400 degree oven for about 10 to 15 mins until the ends of the greens turn crispy.  

Keep a close eye on this, because they bake very quickly and you don't want to burn them.   If your oven is very hot  bake at 350 for 5 to 10 minutes.  

After they are done, snack it right away, you will see they will melt in your mouth.  Oh well, I am not sure if this is a big hit among the young ones in the house, but I am sure if they actually tried it they will have a different reaction.  Enjoy!!

Rhubarb Cobbler.....Sweeeeet!!

Red rhubarb in season now

Okay guys, haven't blogged in a long while.  My children are back from college for the summer so I have had less time to blog, but I really should get back to it.  Here is an update, I recently joined a CSA, which is a "community supported agriculture", an organization where I get weekly vegetables & fruits from a local farm.  I am so excited.  I truly forgot to take pictures of my first stash, but basically everything is grown organically and in season.  My first batch included fresh ripe strawberries, kale, bokchoy, turnips,  and arugula.  Next batch I will surely take pictures.  Strawberries were gone the second day and boy were they sweet and delicious.  The same day I made bokchoy with green apples with a dash of apple vinegar. Yum!  Now the exciting part of the CSA, is that some of the veggies are new to me, like rhubarb.  So here goes my first attempt at doing anything with rhubarb: a cobbler. I'm about to do it now and will give my verdict by the end of this blog. But first, here's the recipe:

Rhubarb cobbler recipe calls for: (recipe from recipe.com . ..I made some adjustments)

• 3/4 cup white sugar - I used Organic cane sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon butter diced (earth balance)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (Organic pastry flour)
• 1 tablespoon white sugar 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk (soy milk no eggs and apple sauce)
• 1 egg, beaten
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Directions:

Chopped up the rhubarb and mixed it with 1 tablespoon of water, sugar and cornstarch, boil for about 5 minutes.
Add to a baking dish then add a dash of butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Chopped and mix with cornstarch, sugar and water, boil for 5 minutes

Separate bowl, sift flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add the butter and mix with fingers until crumbly.  

Flour should look like this...crumbled 

In another small bowl mix milk and eggs.  I used soy milk and apple sauce for texture and excluded the egg.  Now add into the dry ingredients just to moisten.  


Spread onto the rhubarb mixture.  Sprinkle sugar..I used brown sugar on top.  Then bake.  Wait until it cools before you cut into it.  

Okay my children didn't know what rhubarb looked like and was skeptical trying anything new, but by the first mouthful, they were hooked.  They said it tasted a little like apple pie.  Even my fussy nephew, after much inspection tried it and cleaned his plate.  I was very pleased it was sweet and tart.  Hubby liked it a lot too.  The crust was also very good even though I left out the eggs,  it was perfect.  Okay guys I guess I will be making this again.  Enjoy!!.