I think I need to bring menu-planning back.  And probably the monthly goals.  Maybe I'll work on that next week.

In the meantime, I am working on finding ways to get good, healthy dinners on the table quickly, when I teach piano till 5:30 or 6, and have a boy who needs to eat sometime before his 8pm bedtime.

Yesterday, I baked some Italian chicken, which I love, and baked at least twice as much as I needed for dinner.  Tonight, my plan is to saute some of the leftover chicken with some veggies and serve that with some brown rice.

That plan meant I needed figure out something for the rice, because I switched to using the "real" rice, the kind that has to be cooked for 30-40ish minutes.  Thirty minutes of rice-cooking is not conducive to a quick meal, so instead I made a HUGE pot of rice while I was making myself lunch, and it cooked while I was eating.

See?  Isn't that a huge pot of rice? This picture somehow doesn't do it justice, but I'm telling you, that's a lot of rice.  I'll keep some of it in the fridge for meals that we'll have soon, and freeze some of it for meals later. I added a little bit of olive oil while it was cooking(in lieu of butter), so that it would reheat well.

So, that's the plan for dinner tonight.  Does anyone else figure out a plan by working backwards?  I often figure out what I want the end result to be, and work backwards.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things by cooking ahead again.  I'm looking forward to having a freezer full of easy, go-to meals that are already prepared!

Cheese-making: The results

I said awhile ago that I was going to try making cheese from home, in effort to make more items in our house hormone-free.  And I'm certain that you have been checking back here every day, just to see how it turned out, right?  

Well, today is your day.

We tried cheese-making, and it was really fun!  It kind of took forever, so once I get the process perfected (or at least to a point that I'm happy with), I could see making it in big batches and freezing it. 

Isaac and I did it together, which was fun.  He was a little skeptical that we could turn milk into cheese, so he kept staring into the pot.

Honestly, there wasn't any particular step that all that hard, it was just something that you had to pay attention to constantly, so that the milk didn't scorch.  

That being said, there are a few things I need to work on with my technique.  Some of it will be easier as I do it more often - it's hard to read and focus on all 25 steps that have to be done with precise timing with a 6 year old constantly asking questions.  But as I get more familiar with it, I think it will be easier to do.

I forgot to add the cheese salt until the very end, so next time I will make a point to remember to work that into the cheese as soon as I can, as that would add a lot to the flavor.

I think I would also consider using the microwave to heat it for stretching, rather than the hot water, so that the stretching could go faster.   I think I also stretched it too much in general (in effort to work the salt in a little late), so it was tougher than I would like.  

Even with all of those "next-time's," it was still pretty tasty!  Isaac wanted to taste our results, fresh from the ice-water bath (which is the bowl in front of him).

Isaac voted yes on the cheese, and wants to make it again! (pardon the messy kitchen, cheese-making got messy!)

Once I get the process down a little better, maybe I'll put up a post on what I did.  We've been doing a LOT of made-from-scratch stuff lately - grilled fruit for dessert, cinnamon peach sauce for ice cream, spaghetti sauce with tomatoes from the garden (which I'll also use for pizza sauce), and even dog treats.  I'll also be working on home-made noodles, and a few other things on the list.  It's been a fun way for Isaac to learn where our food comes from, and a cheaper way to eat healthy, hormone-free, soy-free food!

A trip through the garden

I have had ridiculous amounts of fun learning how to garden this year.  I really didn't know if I would like it when we started.  I'd had a lot of pots of stuff on the patio, with varying amounts of success, but a garden is a little more of a commitment.

And it turns out I've really enjoyed it a lot.  I've picked a couple of zucchini, lots of lettuce and kale, and am getting ready to have an overwhelming amount of tomatos.

One thing I've got to get better at is spacing.  As you can see, it is a small jungle, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  You can't really see it from this shot, but there are all kinds of vines trailing over the fence and out the back of the garden.

Doesn't Yarbo look relaxed?

I kept planting more tomatos because they never looked like they were going to do anything, and I got very impatient (which I know must be quite a surprise....).  Eight tomato plants later, they are taking over about half of the garden.  Next year I will try to be more patient while waiting for them to grow.

We have lots of leafy things...

Lettuce

Parsley

Kale

We were supposed to have 12 plants of yellow string beans, but only 3 of them ever came up.  Those three are now overshadowed by the massive tomatos, as are the beets that are supposed to be growing. One of my bell peppers are making it, but they're just barely out of the reach of the tomatos.

Yellow beans (there are 2 more beans on another plant.  So sometime we'll have 4 beans with dinner...)

Sad little beet plants

Pepper

One of my favorite parts of the garden to watch grow is all the vine plants.  I truly should have had about 4 times the space for the plants that I have, but I'll know that for next year.  I planted cucumbers, spaghetti squash, zucchini, and yellow squash.  The plants are HUGE.

Tiny little cucumber

Aren't the cucumber flowers pretty?

The spaghetti plant is getting out of control, but I love how the tendrils curl so tightly around anything they touch

How many zucchini can you find? (I think there's 3 in the photo)

A squash blossom that hasn't opened yet

I also planted eggplant, but the plant that grew in that space hasn't produced any signs of an actual eggplant yet, so I'm not sure if it's really an eggplant, or a weed that has gotten ridiculously huge.  If it's really an eggplant, I'm kind of wondering when the vegetable will start appearing.  If it's not an eggplant....well, the size of the weed will be kind of embarrassing.  Time will tell!

Anyway, that's most of my garden.  I have a few other things growing there, but most of the rest of my plants are in containers on the front porch or the back deck, including a bunch of herbs.  

This fall, we have plans to add more garden space and raise the beds to make it nicer to look at and easier to work with, and we'll do more landscaping at the back of our yard then too.  In the meantime, my first-ever garden has been a lot of fun, and the vegetables I've picked so far have been so fresh and tasty!

Do you have any good gardening tips?  I'd love to hear them!  

Food: The good, the bad, and the revolting.

Isaac has been exploring a lot of new foods since coming to our house, but he's also kept asking for some of the old favorites, one of which was a whole new um... experience for me...

The good food that he's liking:

• "Cheesy-ranch stuff" (really steamed cauliflower with a little low-fat cheese and a little ranch flavoring, blended to the consistency of mashed potatoes)
• Whole wheat bread
• "Healthy Ranch Dip" - greek yogurt with ranch flavoring
• Homemade Yogurt
• Smoothies for breakfast (just healthy yogurt, strawberries, and bananas!)

The bad:

• Toast with butter, peanut butter, cinnamon, and strawberry jelly.  I could take 2 or so of those, but the whole combo kind of weirds me out somehow.
• McDonalds - the whole menu.

The revolting: 

• Bologna. 

Source

I don't think I had ever had bologna in my entire life, but he has been telling me how much he loves bologna and cheese sandwiches for weeks, so I finally caved and bought some of the vile stuff for him.  Believe me, it will not be a staple in this house.

Aside from the questionable nature of the ingredients (why in the WORLD is it so....rubbery?), I thought maybe it was one of those foods you know is awful in theory, but actually tastes amazing, so in an attempt to be open-minded, I thought I would try a bite.

I almost threw up on the spot.

Now I know why we didn't have bologna growing up; it's because it's incredibly gross.  Thanks, Mom, for not making me eat bologna growing up.

But, despite the grossness of the mystery meat they call bologna, Isaac sat there eating his lunch, as happy as a clam.   So....maybe, every once in a LONG while, we will get that weird stuff to put on our sandwiches.  But the next time will probably be at least into 2012, because I just don't know if I can handle it any sooner than that.

Hold the Mayo....

I don't typically eat a lot of Mayo.  In fact, the only time I ever eat it is during the summer, with a thin layer on a whole-wheat (with home-made bread of course!) turkey sandwich, piled with tomato slices, lettuce, and, if I'm lucky, a slice of smoked provolone cheese.

And, since it is nearly summer (or at least it feels like it), I went to the store to get mayo, since I didn't have any in the fridge. As per the usual these days, I checked the ingredients, and the first ingredient was soy oil.

On every single bottle, of every single brand.  

Including the kind made with olive oil.  And the fake mayo (what's the called again?  I can't remember...)

Sigh.

That thin little layer of mayo adds so much flavor to my summer sandwiches, so it's kind of a downer that mayo isn't an option anymore.

So, for now, I am on the search for a mayo substitute.  Please don't suggest mustard.  I'm trying to like it, but it's not going well.  But if you have any non-mustard, soy-free suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

A little help?

Overall, Isaac does really well with the types of food that we have around here.  He eats homemade bread and muffins, likes it when I cut up apples and cook them with his oatmeal, and he had a great time when we made homemade ranch dip together using greek yogurt.

One thing he really likes, though, is fruity granola bars and snacks.  I've looked through some snack options, but haven't found a good "fruity" snack that I'm happy with nutritionally.  Of course, we have a lot of healthy snacks in general, and eat actual fruit as well, but I'd still like to find some good fruity snacks to have on occasion.

I don't care if a food is organic or not, but I'm adamantly opposed to high fructose corn syrup, and prefer that most or all of the ingredients are recognizable and pronounceable.

Anyone have any healthy, fruity snack ideas to share?

Dinner plan this week.

I know it's already half way through the week.  But, I actually had most of this week's dinners planned before I wrote this, so I'm totally counting this as one of my two weeks of meal planning for the month!

Here is what we have eaten or are planning to eat this week:

Breakfasts:  Some combo of apple-cinnamon muffins, home-made yogurt with strawberries, cereal, oatmeal, and fruit.

Lunches:  Salads, leftovers, or sandwiches, with fruit and/or veggies with yogurt-ranch dip (tastes better than it sounds!)

Dinner:

• Monday: Baked Italian pasta/veggies
• Tuesday: Roast/veggies
• Wednesday: roasted Jamaican chicken & potatoes, salad, veggies, and healthy(ish) chocolate peanut butter balls!
• Thursday: Leftover roast with sautéed veggies and salad 
• Friday: Home-made pizza with whole wheat crust and turkey-pepperoni

Now, since it's Wednesday, and we're having people over for dinner tonight, I'm going to go work on prepping the chicken and potatoes, and make the chocolate peanut butter balls. Yum!

Trip to Amish town

On Saturday, Dave and I went on a day trip with a couple of friends.  We to the Amish settlement that's about 2 hours away, then went to some other attractions in the area.  We went to the Amish grocery store, complete with the gas lights, large stash of canning supplies, and array of home-made goods.

I found some great deals on healthy foods.  And...a couple of non-healthy foods too (not sure how those ended up in our basket....).

Do you SEE those prices on the spices!? Sixty cents for ground rosemary, 81 cents for rubbed sage, $2.14 for cinnamon sticks!  And those little tubs seem to last forever.

I also picked up some vital wheat gluten, brown rice, raw sunflower seeds, and coconut oil for just a portion of what I normally pay for it in the store.  For the wheat gluten alone, I calculated that I normally pay $4.69/lb (it comes in 6oz boxes), but it's only $2.13/lb at the Amish store - less than half the price!

And here we have our extras, chosen for their deliciousness and not necessarily their nutrition or value. Still a pretty happy with the purchase though!

I've always enjoyed going to the Amish grocery store, but as we keep working on choosing healthy foods at a good price, I'm going to definitely keep this store in mind.  While it's not economical to drive 2 hours for groceries, it's actually not that far out of the way when we go to my parent's house, so we'll probably stop by when we go there.

I love getting good deals!

Field Trip!

In my quest to eliminate soy, artificial hormones, and such from our diet in a way that doesn't drain our bank accounts, I am going on a field trip today with some friends.  

We'll be checking out a local creamery (well, half hour a way.  We do live in the middle of the city, after all), in effort to find good foods and a good price.  I'm specifically looking at milk and eggs and such, all of which are hormone/anti-biotic free.  They also said they offer foods locally made by 99 different Iowa families!  I love the chance to buy fresh foods and support local farmers, but also have to keep our budget and spending caps in mind.   Fingers are crossed!

I'll have to let you know how it goes.  But until then, do any of the rest of you have any tips on how you find local foods at a good price?  I'm taking any and all ideas!

How I made yogurt

Some of you said you were interested in how I made my yogurt.  Some of you said you kind of grossed out by thinking about making it at home.  If you're in the former group, read on, and if you're in the latter group, um...well, I'd skip the rest of this post.

To give proper credit, I took a lot of ideas from this post, and a lot of the comments to that post.  I made quite a few changes though, so I'll tell you what I did.  To give fair warning, however, in making yogurt, you are working with healthy bacteria, but without proper cleaning and care, you are also susceptible to allowing unhealthy bacteria in your yogurt as well.  So, please make sure you take caution when experimenting with this process, and keep everything extra clean so it's extra healthy!

My ingredients:
1/2 gallon 2% organic milk
1 small carton Chobani vanilla yogurt

You will also need:
A glass container with a lid
A food thermometer
Cooler


I used organic milk, since it's important to me to have any animal-based products hormone and anti-biotic free.  Dave recently pointed out to me, however, that Walmart offers non-organic, but hormone-free milk, so I'll have to do some research to see if that's just as healthy of an option.

To turn milk into yogurt, you have to have some kind of a starter.  Some people buy starter drops online, but for right now, I chose to use a yogurt from the store.  I chose Chobani, for several reasons:

• It has 2 different active cultures, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus
• It has 3 pro-biotics, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidus, and Lactobacillus casei
• While not certified as organic, they use hormone-free, anti-biotic -free milk from family-run dairy farms
• They do not add any sugar
• No artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors
• It tastes good, which means good things for my yogurt

If you are interested in trying this, you can go here to get a coupon for Chobani! (and no, unfortunately, no one is paying me to say this.  Just trying to pass along the results of my research!)

Instructions:
I boiled water in my tea kettle, and filled my glass bowl that I would be using for the yogurt, and added the utensils I was planning to use to sterilize everything.  Let it sit for a few minutes, then drain and let dry. It's important that only the good and healthy bacteria should be in my yogurt!

Next, pour the milk into a very clean pot, and stirring constantly, slowly heat the milk to between 170 and 180 degrees, so that the proteins in the milk change, and are ready to turn into yogurt.  Do NOT let the milk get any hotter than 180, it will affect the taste of your yogurt. I only let mine get to about 175.

You can see my lovely (sterilized) meat thermometer hanging off the side.  Not pretty, but it worked! I've read that the longer you hold your milk at this temp, the thicker your yogurt will be.  I didn't really care about that, so I just let it cool.  Keep stirring it for a few minutes while it cools, so your milk doesn't get scorched.

While the yogurt is cooling, I "pre-heated" my cooler by placing 4 glasses of hot water in the cooler and put the lid on.

Once your milk cools to 100-110 degrees, put it in your sterilized glass container, and gently stir in your yogurt starter.  I actually only stirred in about 2/3 of my yogurt starter, because by that time....well, I was ready for a snack.

Anyway.

Gently stir until it's pretty well blended, but do not over-stir. Put fresh hot water in the cooler, add your milk mixture, and let it sit for at least 8 hours.

I've heard of people who got yogurt faster, but it actually took closer to 9 for me.   Try to not look in the cooler until you think it's done, as you want the heat to stay constant.You can tell if it's "done" if it holds its shape a little when you tilt the bowl.  Do not stir it until you're done letting it sit.

Put it in the fridge overnight, and it will thicken more.

It cost me about $4 to make 1/2 gallon of yogurt, which should keep for up to a couple of weeks in a covered container in the fridge.

A couple of extra things you can do with your yogurt:

Greek-style yogurt:  Put some yogurt in a fine-mesh strainer with a bowl under it, and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Some of the whey will drain out, and you will have a thicker, creamier yogurt.  I think this could be good to make healthier dips with, as well as to eat plain!

Yogurt cheese:  Layer a fine-mesh strainer with a flour-sack type towel (not the terry-cloth kind, or something that will be fuzzy, because fuzzy cheese is always gross), and put some yogurt in.   For the first 6-8 hours, put some saran wrap against the top of the yogurt, then gently pile the towel over top.  Put the strainer over a bow, and keep in the fridge for awhile!

After the first 6-8 hours, you can take off the saran wrap, use a very clean spoon to shape it into more of a ball, then wrap the towel back around it and let it sit until the next day, or until firm.

Your yogurt cheese will be about 1/3 of the amount you start out with, so if you're making it for a recipe, keep that in mind.  It has a similar texture to cream cheese, but I don't know that it would melt the same.  If you have recipes that call for cold cream cheese, I think it would work.  It's also good with fruit and whole wheat crackers!

So, that's my story on yogurt for right now.  In my online research, I found a LOT of different ideas, options, and opinions, so I know there are other ways to do this, but this yogurt has tasted delicious (to me, anyway!), is cheaper, and feels healthy, so I've been very satisfied.  I'd be interested to hear from you, if you try any of this, or have other tips and tricks to share!

Yogurt Success!

I successfully made yogurt!  It tastes better than it looks. So far I've been eating it plain (though it has a hint of vanilla from my starter yogurt), but I think it would also be good with berries, or possibly other flavors as well.

I decided to make yogurt from organic regular milk, rather than almond milk.  I did a comparison of the nutritional info of almond milk and regular milk, and as long as the milk is organic (or at least hormone/anti-biotic free milk), I think the nutritional value is better for regular milk.  So, I'll probably stick with that for now, because it turned out great!  I liked the taste much better than store-bought yogurt, and there wasn't any added sugar in it at all, making it much healthier.

I tried making some of the yogurt into more of a greek-style yogurt, which was easy, and tasted good.

Since that went so well, I decided to also try making yogurt cheese from part of the yogurt.  I LOVE cream cheese, but it's not so good for you, and you can use yogurt cheese like you would cream cheese. It was amazing!

As easy as it was, I think this will be a regular thing at our house now, since it fits the rules I have for making food from scratch versus store bought.  Score!

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

I bake pretty much all of our own bread at our house.  Partly because I like how it makes the house smell, and partly because it fits really well within the rules of how I decide when something is worth making from scratch versus store bought.  As we have worked on eating healthy, I have made an effort to make more food from scratch, at least when it makes sense to me.

I have a few basic guidelines for scratch versus store bought, and they are as follows:

• Is it significantly cheaper to make it at home? (at least $15 savings per hour of hands-on time?)
• Is there a notable health difference?
• Is there a notable taste difference?
• Is it enjoyable to make?

If I can't say yes to at least one, preferably 2 or 3, of those guidelines, I skip the guilt, look for coupons, and buy it at the store.  Bread, however, fits pretty much all of those guidelines (for me, anyway!).   

For us, the whole-grain bread we had been buying at the store was around $3 per loaf.  The ingredients for a loaf of bread is about $0.50.  And, since it only takes about 15 minutes of hands-on time per 2 loaves, that's a savings of $20 per hands-on hour (2.50 per loaf x 2 loaves at a time = $5 /15 minutes = $20/hour).  

There's a significant health difference, as it's 100% whole-wheat, and I know for sure that there is no soy oil used in the bread.  

We love the taste. A lot.

And I enjoy making it!

So, bread is a from-scratch item at our house, pretty much all the time.  I've had a few people ask me about my bread recipe, and I've kept tweaking it enough that I was hesitant to share until I was happy with it.  However, I finally arrived at a recipe I love!  The bread that I made this week was the softest loaf to ever come out of my oven.

So, whether you're thinking about making all your own bread at home, or are just interested in trying a loaf every now and then, I hope you enjoy!  

100% Whole Wheat Bread (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 5 T of hot water

2 rounded T evaporated fat-free milk

1/4 c canola oil

1/4 c raw sugar (turbinado)

1/4 c pure honey

2 t sea salt 

6 cups whole wheat flour (See notes for more on flour)

4 heaping T of Vital Wheat Gluten (available at Walmart, in the flour area)

4 teaspoons yeast

*2 T whole flax seed (optional, but we love it, and it's oh-so-healthy!)

Notes:

I use my kitchen-aid mixer for this recipe.  If you use a bread maker to make the dough, you will want to cut the recipe in half, and I would recommend baking it in the oven and just using the dough cycle.  If you don't have a stand mixer with a dough hook, you could also knead it by hand (at least, you could if you are stronger than I am).

If you're not familiar with Vital Wheat Gluten,  the kind I get looks like this:

*Check it out on Amazon

It really helps the texture of a whole wheat bread, and also adds protein.  Great stuff!

Flour.  The type of flour used in bread will make a HUGE difference in the end consistency.   Ultimately, I really, really would like to get a small grain mill and make my own flour.  Until then, I have used Wheat Montana's Bronze Chief 100% whole wheat flour.  It makes the softest bread.  They also have another line of flour, Prairie Gold.  The difference in flours is explained on their Amazon page:

The difference between 'Bronze Chief', (Hard red Spring Wheat and Prairie Gold (hard White Spring Wheat). Nutritionally both the Hard Red Spring, Hard White Spring, and Hard Red Winter varieties that we grow are the same (15-16% protein and 9-10% moisture). Basically the difference is in the end product: Bread made with Hard Red Wheat is darker and denser (more of a brown traditional look). Items made with Hard White Wheat "look a little more like white bread". They bake up a beautiful golden color and do not possess the stronger taste associated with the traditional whole wheat breads. Chemical Free. GMO Free.      

Directions:

Add the ingredients in the order listed, and mix until everything is just mixed together.  Let dough rest for 10-15 minutes.  

While your dough is resting, turn your oven on "Warm," or whatever the lowest setting is for a few minutes.  You don't want it to be super hot, but it should be nice and warm.  Do remember, though, to turn the oven off before actually putting towel-covered dough in there.

Knead on speed 2 for about 4 minutes.  Sometimes I finish the kneading by hand.  Lightly oil your bowl (I spray the bowl with olive oil), set your dough in it, cover with a towel, and set in your warm oven for about 40 minutes, or until it's about doubled in size, like this:

At that point, use a sharp knife to cut the dough in half.  Flatten it out a bit, then roll it up into a loaf, tucking the ends under and pinching the seam.  Put both loaves into oiled loaf pans, cover with a towel, and put them back in the oven to rise.

Let them rise 40 minutes to an hour, until they are about doubled in size.  

Then bake them at 350* for about 20 minutes.  You will know they are done when you tap lightly on the top and it sounds hollow. 

Slice and enjoy it while it's warm!

Final note:  This bread has no preservatives in it, so for best results, store in the fridge.   We usually microwave a slice for about 8-10 seconds before eating, and it tastes just like it's out of the oven all over again!

 *This is my referral link. 

Vanilla-Cinnamon Pearsauce

Last week I had pears I wanted to use up, and wasn't sure what to do with them exactly - I can only eat so many pears!  So, inspired by a post from MoneySavingMom, I decided to create my own version of pearsauce.  I was happy with the results, and thought I would share!  I believe you could also do this with apples for a similar effect.

Vanilla-Cinnamon Pearsauce

Ingredients:

6 pears

1 cup water

1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon 

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 Tablespoons agave nectar, depending on taste.

Directions:

Core and cut up the pears, and place them in your crockpot.  For faster cooking time, you could cut the pieces smaller, but I left my pieces pretty large.  Also, while many people peel their fruit before making sauces, I left the peels on, as they contain valuable nutrients.  

Add the water, then sprinkle with cinnamon.

Cover, then let the crock pot cook on low for several hours.  Every crock pot is different, but I think I cooked mine for about 4-5 hours.  It's done when it's very soft and tender.

If you like your sauce thicker, use a slotted spoon to scoop the pears into a blender/magic bullet.  If you like it a bit thinner, you can use a soup ladle to scoop the pears into the blender.  Either way you should have at least some juice left (which I think I might try making into a glaze for something else....not sure yet!).

Add in the vanilla and agave nectar (try adding in only a couple of tablespoons first, to see if you like it, and add more as needed).

Blend until it's at the consistency you want it!  If you want SUPER chunky sauce, try mashing the scooped pears with a potato masher instead.

It should keep for several days in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Kale Chips -a tasty alternative

I'm always trying to find new healthy foods to swap out for junk food that I love.  One junk food favorite is potato chips.  I could eat them all day long and be happy (or at least, I'd be happy until my pants stopped fitting!).

Then a friend of mine told me about kale chips.  I'm not going to try to convince you they taste just like potato chips, because they don't.  They taste nothing like them, actually.  But, they're crunchy, salty, help fill the void after cleaning out our junk food cupboard, and are very, very low-calorie!  They have a roasted flavor that somehow reminds me of roasted pumpkin seeds.

And, I think they're cheaper than regular chips.  Score!

So, for anyone interested in trying them out, here's how I make them:

Ingredients:

• Fresh Kale
• Sea Salt
• Non-stick spray (I think it would taste really good with the olive oil spray, though I don't use it because it also contains soy oils).

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Wash the kale, making sure that it's completely dried (if it's at all damp when you bake it, it will just steam itself into a soggy mess!).  I usually take a paper towel and pat it all dry.

Spray a large baking sheet (I usually use a jelly roll pan - something with a small lip on it will be easier to use).  Then, just start tearing up the kale into chip-size pieces and pile it on the pan.

I usually do one bunch of kale per pan - your pan will be piled high!  Spray the leaves with Pam, then sprinkle generously with sea salt.

Bake 8-12 minutes, stirring once.  You'll know when it's done when it's crisp - when you shake the pan gently, they should slide easily across the pan and make a dry noise.  They'll probably be green, with areas that have toasted to a brown color.

They cool pretty fast, so you can eat them almost instantly!  I like them plain, but you can also eat them with ketchup.

I love these!  However, I want to be clear that they're still a vegetable, and taste like vegetables!  They're a good crunchy, salty option, but they still taste healthy (because they are!).  But, if you try them with those expectations, you just might find yourself hooked!

Next recipe coming up:  HEALTHY brownies.  Yes.  I said healthy.   I fed them to Dave, and he couldn't tell they were healthy!  As soon as I finish tweaking the recipe, I'll be sure to post it!

Smoked Salmon and Artichoke dip

Last night, I decided I was hungry for smoked salmon.  I then remembered that I had cream cheese in the fridge, and the wheels in my mind started turning.  So....here is my new, super-easy recipe for smoked salmon and artichoke dip!

You'll need:
1/2 block cream cheese, softened a little
about 1 tablespoon capers
2 artichoke hearts (or equivalent, if they come in halves or pieces)
2-3 oz smoked salmon pieces

Start with the cream cheese.  If you can stir it with a fork, it's about perfect.

Next, grab your capers (don't they just look delicious?  They are, I tried one).

Mince them, then add to the cream cheese.

For the artichoke hearts, I sliced them thinly lengthwise, then added them to the cream cheese and capers.

Last, the salmon!

I buy the smoked salmon pieces, because I found them to be much cheaper than the whole kind, and you're just going to mash it up anyway.  You can either coarsely chop it, or just pull it apart with your hands and add to your cream cheese mixture.

Mash it all together, and enjoy!  I paired it with stone-ground wheat crackers.  You could also toast thinly sliced french bread and put it on that.