eat your veggies: kale chips

Today I tried to sew a cute top like this one....and it bombed.

Then tonight I tried to sew another skirt like this one....and it bombed.

To be honest, I think I know what went wrong on both counts.  And I can always try again.  But it stinks to know that I wasted a whole naptime doing battle with the shirt, and then another hour and a half tonight trying to make that skirt.

Here's something that did go right today.  Awhile back I saw a quick blurb about oven-baked kale chips in a magazine, and then a week ago my mom mentioned seeing them somewhere too.  I can't recall ever even trying kale, perhaps because the only way it was ever presented to me was a yucky, sloppy mess (and yes, I know I'm a weird Southern girl because I don't like collard greens or turnip greens or any other kind of slow-cooked stringy green stuff.  But since I mostly grew up in Florida, I think I can be excused just this once).  But apparently kale is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet, and while I try to eat spinach regularly I usually don't eat any other dark green leafy veggies.  So today when I was grocery shopping, I bought a little bunch of kale for 98 cents and figured I'd given it a try.  Here's how I did it.

The Ingredients.

Kale (figure two or three leaves per person)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

The Method.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with foil for easy clean-up.  Depending on the amount of kale you use, you may need more than one baking sheet.  Since it was just me, I only used a few leaves of kale and one baking sheet.
Make sure the kale has been washed, and then cut away the stem and the tough inner "ribs" of each leaf of kale.  Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and place in a large bowl.  Add olive oil and seasonings and toss.  Lay out in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until crispy and brown at the edges.

So these were surprisingly good.  The chips actually do get very crispy, almost to the point where they are more fragile than potato chips.  Now they do still have a slight "kale-ish" aftertaste, but if you like vegetables already it shouldn't bother you.  Even my toddler ate a small bite.  My main gripe with mine was that some of them ended up being a little too salty, but I still ate them all.  Next time I'm going to try just spraying the leaf bits with nonstick spray and then sprinkling them with the seasonings and see if that works just as well.  It might also be fun to experiment with different seasonings, like cumin or cayenne pepper or garlic!  I still have a TON of that 98-cent bunch left, so this is also a very economical side dish.

I did google a few recipes for this, and one called for baking the kale chips at a lower temperature (275 degrees) for 20 minutes, stirring them halfway through.  Not sure if this is a better way to do it, but if anything it may help keep you from burning them since they seem to brown up pretty fast at 350!  They should be yummy either way.  Enjoy!