Kale in the House

It’s Friday, Friday, getting down on Friday! Oh man, don’t get me started with that disaster of a song.  Yup, I’m not even going to expand on that.  Moving on…

I have been quite the kale optimist lately.  A few weeks ago, kale was on the list of vegetables I want to try and incorporate into my diet.  After recently discovering that Publix sells kale by the ridiculously ginormous bagful, I picked one up and have enjoyed using it in a few different ways.

Why kale?  For starters, it is loaded with nutrients.  With over three times the amount of Vitamin A recommended for your daily intake, over 150% of Vitamin C, very few calories and almost zero fat, kale seems like the perfect green to choose.  I do not particularly enjoy the taste of kale by itself, but paired with the right foods or seasonings, it can be quite enjoyable!

Kale in Eggs

The morning after stocking up on kale, I put it to the test in an eggbeater scramble.  I often use spinach, so thought this would be a good way to test the waters.

Using my egg scrambling technique, I placed the veggies in a small skillet first, then poured the liquid eggbeaters over it.

Accompanied by Al Fresco Country Style Breakfast Chicken Sausage and a bit of a diced tomato, the combination tasted great.

Win.

Kale in Green Smoothies

You may remember me posting my Glamour Green Smoothie.  Although I only used a half a cup of it, the kale added a punch of nutrition and texture the spinach couldn’t do alone.

Lean, Green Goodness.

Here is the recipe, but I miiight add a little more kale next time… just to see what happens.

Kale Chips

Since I had a ridiculously ginormous bagful of kale to use, I needed something to do with the rest of it.  Kale chips it was!

I have seen kale chips pop up on blogs, Instagram and all over Twitter lately.  Inspired, I had a spike of interest and 3/4 of a large bag of kale to use.  Let’s do it!

After searching for what ingredients to season the leaves with, I chose to go with what I had on hand which was olive oil and Morton’s Nature’s Seasons Seasoning (instead of plain salt).

You can opt to leave the salt out completely and substitute other seasons like cumin, chili pepper, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, etc.  Next time, I might get a little crazy and even add some Parmesan.  Who knows!

My biggest mistake with this batch was trying to cut corners on the olive oil.  All the recipes I read suggested using 2 tbsp, and I only used 1.

The olive oil is what makes the chips crispy, so I only had a few crispy chips in the bunch.

Next time, I will be using 2 tbsp olive or even substitute coconut oil.

Ingredients

1 bunch kale

2 tbsp olive oil

sprinkle of salt and/or seasonings of choice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Rip kale leaves into bite size pieces.

3. Wash pieces and thoroughly dry in a salad spinner.  *For best results, make sure all pieces are extremely dry.

4. Drizzle kale pieces with olive oil and seasonings.

5. Bake in oven for 10 – 15 minutes, or until edges are lightly brown.

A new kale fan I am, and with another attempt at the chips I’m determined to get Scott on board with it too.

I’m looking forward to experimenting more, and would love some ideas of how to incorporate it into more meals.

Questions

Do you like the taste of kale?

If so, how do you prefer to eat it?