Kale Chips Made Easy

I enjoy dabbling with raw food recipes that preserve each and every enzyme naturally found in tasty fruits and veggies. Delicious and nutritious to the extreme! But sometimes raw food recipes can be even more intimidating than their cooked counterparts if for no other reason than most of us didn't grow up creating these culinary delights, so it's a bit unfamiliar. For example, I thought for the longest time that those crunchy and addictive kale chips I'd get at raw food restaurants were beyond my reach. There's no way I could recreate that signature flavor or incredible crispiness on my own, I would think... so I never tried.

Well, a few weeks ago I decided to pull out my trusty Excalibur dehydrator (ok, who am I kidding, this thing is huge and doesn't fit in any of our cabinets so technically it required no pulling out, only plugging in) and give homemade kale chips a go. A few hours later, and my world was forever changed. It is the easiest this you could possibly make and so freaking good! So I thought I'd share this remarkably easy, 3 step technique for making incredible kale chips on your own.

1. First, rinse a giant leafy bunch of kale. Tear the leaves from the tough stem, and toss into a salad spinner for a quick ride.

2. Next, transfer the leaves into a large bowl a handful at a time, spritzing each pile with just a little extra virgin olive oil (I recommend using a Misto sprayer). Then, once you've got your bowl filled with kale, add a few shakes of soy sauce and toss the leaves to distribute that liquid flavor!

3. Finally, throw that leafy goodness onto your dehydrator trays and set the heat to 105-110 degrees. That's it! And a few hours later....

Oh baby. It's time for some crispy, crunchy, savory kale chips! Such a simple process yields such major return. If your chips taste at all chewy, get them back in the dehydrator - stat! When they're ready they will crumble to bits the instant they hit your tongue. Pairs perfectly with a good movie or as a prelude to a creative raw dinner.

Autumnal Eats: Breakfast Edition

This weekend the temps dropped and fall hit like a Hefty-bag full of leaves. Granted, we're supposed to see some relief from the sub-50 degree weather soon, but until then I'm going to be enjoying this perfect fall breakfast... Carrot Cake Oatmeal with Maharaja Chai Oolong Tea.

Carrot cake lovers rejoice - there really is a nutritious and delicious carrot-cake-inspired breakfast option, all thanks to the amazing Angela of Oh She Glows. Seriously, you need to make this tomorrow. No excuses. It is so yummy and filling and will keep you energized all morning long. The recipe is below, but you should definitely go check it out on Angela's site for the gorgeous photos on Oh She Glows.
While I suppose any chai tea is nice to wash down the delicious oatmeal with, my favorite has to be Teavana's Maharaja Chai Oolong Tea. As I may have said before, the flavors are so intense and complex, and you get the sweetness without having to add anything but water (a much healthier alternative to boxed chai tea mixes which contain major amounts of sugar). This blend is so good it'll instantly warm you from the inside out.

And now on to the recipe...

Carrot Cake Oatmeal from Oh She Glows
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup regular oats
• 1 cup almond milk (or soy, rice, etc)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 large carrot, finely grated (1 heaping cup)
• 2 tbsp coconut milk cream (use the cream off the top of the full-fat can only)
• 1/2-1 tsp ground cinnamon, to taste
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8th tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 2 tbsp crushed walnuts, divided
• 1 tbsp coconut milk cream + 1/2 tsp pure maple syrup (to drizzle on top)
• Shredded coconut, for garnish
• Cinnamon, for garnish
• Raisins, for garnish

Directions: Finely grate the large carrot to yield 1 heaping cup of grated carrots. Note that you want to use the fine grate, not the large one so the carrot shreds are very small.

In a medium sized pot over medium heat, add your almond milk, lemon juice, and coconut milk cream. Stir well. Add in your spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger) and salt. Stir again until mixed.

Stir in your grated carrots and oats. Adjust heat if necessary or bring heat to low if it starts to boil. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. When the mixture has thickened up, stir in the vanilla extract, 1 tbsp crushed walnuts, and 2 tbsp of maple syrup. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.

Top with 1 tbsp of crushed walnuts and 1 tsp of shredded coconut. Prepare your coconut milk cream + maple syrup mixture and drizzle it over top. Sprinkle with cinnamon for garnish.

Serves 1 large portion or 2 small portions.

How To: Make Awesome Oatmeal

What's that? You're looking for an easy, inexpensive, delicious, healthy breakfast? Well, my sweet, you've come to the right place. I've been making this awesome oatmeal every weekend lately and it's the perfect combination of tasty heartiness to power you through a morning of errands. The recipe is crafted out of items you're likely to already have lurking in the pantry, all of which are quite inexpensive when you realize just how many breakfasts you can squeeze out of one tube of Irish Steel Cut Quick Cook oats (say that five times fast) - I like the Country Choice Organic kind which works out to be $.20/serving or less. On to the recipe...

3/4 Cup water
1/4 Cup Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats
Granny Smith Apple
Small Handful of Raisins
3-4 Dashes of Cinnamon
Drizzle of Maple Syrup

Bring the water to a boil in a small pot, and stir in the oats. Reduce heat to medium-low so that the oats can simmer, covered, for 5-7 minutes. A word to the wise - opt for a longer cooking time and lower heat.. I can't tell you how many times I've let the oats boil over and that will really kill your early morning meditative state. While you wait, cube 1/2 of the apple and eat the other half (or get a little crazy and cube the whole thing!). Toss apple cubes in your favorite cereal bowl, and top with raisins, cinnamon, and maple syrup. When your oats have finished cooking, pour them right over top of your fruity mixture and mix well. Makes 1 serving.


This breakfast is totally filling and so much better for you than prepackaged oatmeal packets, as handy as they may be. On a seemingly unrelated yet completely related note - do you have any odd habits that bring you great joy? The top of my list includes finding spelling or grammatical errors in print. I found this little gem on the back of the oatmeal canister I used to make the breakfast above...

What can I say - it's the little things in life.

Baking Fun

Green tea pistachio cupcakes! I was in a baking mood this weekend so I whipped up some of these very St. Patrick's Day appropriate cupcakes from the fabulous Color Me Vegan cookbook (which I highly recommend). I also made a batch of delicious gluten-free almond flour breakfast bars from Elana's Pantry. A great alternative to store-bought processed protein bars or granola bars, they're filled with whole foods including sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, raisins and pumpkin seeds. Seriously yummy stuff! Note, if you make the breakfast bars, be sure to let them cool fully before cutting them up or they'll get really crumbly. It will be hard though... they smell SO good out of the oven.

Culinary Cheap: Homemade Hummus

found

Hummus is a middle eastern chickpea-based spread that is delicious on wraps and sandwiches, alongside falafel, or smeared on pita chips, carrots, and other cut veggies. I love hummus and it's a regular in our fridge, but it also runs $4-$5 a pop at the grocery, so this weekend I made my own and was quite surprised with the result! It tasted just like the store brands, but can be easily tailored to your own taste preferences (spice it up, or not so much) and nutritional needs (less olive oil, more, or maybe water packed roasted red peppers instead). The best part was I had nearly all the ingredients in my kitchen already:

Can of chickpeas - $1
Garlic - a few cents
Juice from one lemon - $.60 *less if you use bottled lemon juice
TBS Tahini - $.16
Tsp Salt - a few cents
2 TBS olive oil - $.20
Black pepper - a few cents
Sprinkle of cumin - a few cents

Approximate total cost: $2.10

We just tossed it all in my VitaMix, but you could use a food processor or hand mash it together with a potato masher for a chunkier variety. The result? A yummy hummus that measured up to the store brands for less than half the price I typically pay. You can bet I won't be buying pre-made hummus again any time soon.

Lime & Pepper Marinated Portabello Mushrooms

found

It probably comes as no surprise that enjoying tasty meals at home beats the pants off dining out when you're keeping a close eye on spending. But having fun by experimenting with new recipes - when you're also trying to pare down the grocery receipt bottom line - can be daunting. Often times those glossy recipes found in award winning cookbooks involve well over 10 ingredients and a smattering of herbs and spices that can do some serious wallet damage. However, I'm not about to advocate consuming inferior fare.

Here's a new recipe I've been enjoying lately that's extremely versatile: Lime and Pepper Marinated Grilled Portabello Mushrooms. You can find the nitty gritty details of the recipe I used here, but the basic idea is to marinate a few portabello caps in olive oil, lime juice, and some seasonings (in this case fresh chopped cilantro and serrano pepper, plus salt and pepper) for an hour or so then toss 'em on the grill outside or a George Foreman.

What works well about this recipe is that it's easy to tailor depending what foods you have on hand. Maybe instead of a lime and pepper marinade you opt for garlic or make it easy and use some pre-made dressing as your marinade instead. I sliced up the grilled mushrooms and tossed them into a taco shell with some beans, romaine lettuce, avocado slices, and homemade pico de gallo - but you could use whatever items you have available or are on sale at the store. You don't have to make it a Mexican-inspired dish either: serve the mushroom caps whole alongside some wilted greens and polenta for a home-cooked feeling, make a yummy sandwich or wrap with long slices of mushroom and grilled bell pepper, or top a salad with mushroom bits alongside artichoke hearts and olives.

Convenient Guacamole

As a general practice I try to stay away from your standard gas station "convenience foods" and grocery-side "100 calorie packs" as much as possible. These seemingly innocuous quick-consumption treats typically bring zero nutritional value to the table, do nothing to curb our appetite for genuine sustenance, and are a waste of wrapper. After all, fruit is nature's own 100-calorie (or less!) pack chock full of fiber and nutrients and it comes in a biodegradable (nay, soil sustaining) wrapper. But there's one convenience product I have been loving lately and thought I should share - Wholly Guacamole 100 Calorie Snack Packs. The ingredients are simple and recognizable (Avocados, Jalapeno Puree (White Vinegar, Jalapeno Peppers), Dehydrated Onion, Salt, Granulated Garlic) and the result is delicious. Since guacamole is pretty messy and tends to go brown and inedible if made in advance, the single serving packs are a great way to get some more avo into a busy lifestyle. Many people don't realize that avocados are high in fiber, Vitamin K, Folate and contain heart-healthy fats. Of course, eating fresh, raw avocado is best, but when your day calls for a more convenient option, the Wholly Guacamole packs are a good choice. Lately, I've been squeezing them on top of salads as a dressing, scooping them over bowls of brown rice and sauteed veggies, and plunging carrots and pepper strips into them. Yum! What's your favorite nutritional convenience food?

PS - For fellow raw-foods enthusiasts, I just discovered the Raw on $10 a Day (or Less!) blog and have been drooling over the menus all evening. You've got to check this one out!

Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice"

Photo via Learn to Cook

I just got back from a great raw foods pot luck and immediately jumped online to find the recipe for one of my favorite dishes of the evening: Ani Phyo's Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice". This is a super easy recipe that beautifully blends the flavors of autumn in a fresh and unexpected way - one that leaves you feeling satiated and radiant at that, not bloated and tired like many heavy harvest meals do. This would be a great dish to bring to any holiday party as it won rave reviews tonight from raw food enthusiasts and skeptics alike. You can find the recipe here, learn more about Ani here, and find many more of her delicious, fresh, whole food recipes here.

Mid-Week

Yikes! This week is getting away from me. What have you been up to? I've been...

Photo via Chappaqua Crunch Granola

Making this yummy granola recipe and eating it with bananas and almond milk (my favorite cruelty-free milk) for breakfast, mmmm.

Joining a new gym right next to my office so I can get a workout after work and miss all the rush-hour traffic; win-win, no?

Photo via Twelve

Trying Twelve and being pleasantly surprised by how light yet flavorful it is. You can find this gently carbonated tea and juice infused non-alcoholic beverage at Whole Foods, Wegmans, Food Emporiums and more.

Shopping (well... more like window shopping in the digital sense of the word) at Scandinavian Design Center. One of my favorites? Trond Svendgård's Snowball Lamp.

Apple Cider

Photo via NCAGR

Not only is apple cider mighty delicious, but it may well be named the official drink of my fine home state of New Hampshire. That's right, as the Boston Globe reports, Apple Cider is on track to secure its spot as the preferred brew of the Granite State. Looking to enjoy a little of the sweet nectar for yourself? Try this recipe for mulled cider from Epicurious - I made it this weekend using fresh apple juice made with my Breville juicer and it was so good! If you've never tried fresh cider before, now's the time to do so. It tastes nothing like standard juice-box style apple juice and is at its best this time of year, so enjoy while you can.

What's Cooking?

Photo via How Stuff Works

What's cooking? If you think you're too busy to cook, you might need to be a little more strategic in the that meals you choose. For example, it can be helpful to make a big batch of something yummy that can be easily re-served as a convenient lunch or fast dinner all week long. Bonus points for making a multi-tasking meal that uses up extra bits of this and that you have lurking in the fridge. Case in point: Homemade Soup.

I made a big stock pot full of soup tonight using this Ellie Krieger recipe which made a delicious dinner served with garlic bread. The soup was fast and easy to make, low in calories, brimming with nutrients, and could easily accommodate a few substitutions depending on what produce you need to use up. Better yet, what didn't get eaten tonight can be reheated alongside a salad or sandwich for lunch tomorrow or even used to fill up a store-bought bakery roll like a bread-bowl for dinner on Friday.

Soups, especially homemade soups that are lower in sodium than their canned counterparts, are a great way to fit more veggies into your diet too - especially as the weather cools and salads start to lose their luster. So go ahead and make a pot-full this weekend, and you'll have a healthy and quick option for even your busiest of days.

Lazy Sunday: In The Kitchen

Today has been a very lazy Sunday for me, so while my homework waits neglected on the coffee table I'm in the kitchen trying out some new recipe ideas. I have to say, it would be a little easier if the counter space exceeded 2 feet and my 1970's fridge didn't cryogenically freeze any produce that dare enter it's avocado-toned "crisper" drawers - crispy indeed. Despite the cramped kitchen space, I managed to concoct a super easy and so yummy sweet treat... stay tuned, I'll be posting the recipe soon! What are you up to this Sunday?

Food for Thought, and Your Stomach

After finishing some reading at the park the other day, I noticed an inscription on the plaque below the bench I'd been sitting on. There could not have been a more timely question for my thoughts that evening, and I enjoyed the words so much I had to go snap a photo today to share with you. In case you have trouble seeing it, the plaque reads: What are you most passionate about in your life? How would people know it? 

I made some delicious Spicy Sunflower Seed Dip as a filling afternoon treat today. The dip (pictured in the red bell pepper) is a combination of raw sprouted sunflower seeds, lemon juice, fresh garlic, cayenne pepper, and a little soy sauce for some added punch. It turned out so well - a really healthy alternative to prepackaged dip and super easy to make. All you have to do is soak the sunflower seeds for about 12 hours, then drain the water and allow them to sprout for another 2-4 hours*, and finally blend them with whatever seasonings you like. Next time I might try making a cool version with fresh dill - the perfect compliment for some sliced cucumbers on a hot day.

I served my dip with cucumber slices and purple bell pepper. Yes, PURPLE! Have you tried this before? I'm a big fan of red, yellow, and orange bell peppers but when I saw purple I had to give it a try. It was yummy, nothing crazy different though and unless it was on sale I probably wouldn't go for it again. However, the purple color did make for a gorgeous addition to the spread. Once I'd finished dipping all my veggies I ate the whole red pepper with the remaining dip. Yum! It was the best part.

*In case you're wondering what this soaking and sprouting business is about, it is a great way to get major nutrition out of seeds that are brimming with enzymes and easy to digest. It also makes the seeds easy to blend for a creamier texture. I realize the process may seem a little daunting, but it is worth the wait. Plus, think of all the extra love that went into your meal!