Kale

Now that Thanksgiving is over for us here in the United States, I'm really going to try to focus on making the holidays feel like the holidays.  Today that means braving the crowds this afternoon (when most of you Black Friday shoppers are back home taking a nap) and purchasing some lights for outside the house (the only lights we have are the tiny ones and darn it, I want icicle ones this year).  It also means planning out my holiday cookie tray (that Adrienne said she'd help me with - yeah!) and food related gifts.  This is going to be a busy next few weeks, but I want to make the most of it unlike most years when we hit New Year's Eve and I wonder just where the time went.

One of my early resolutions is to make sure we all eat enough vegetables to offset all the not so healthy choices offered this time of year.  Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables but it's rare that I make them the star.  I think because they just don't get me excited when I eat them.  Or serve them.

Take kale for instance.  It's a member of the broccoli family that's very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, and vitamin C.  It also provides a good amount of calcium (and heaven knows I could always use more calcium since I don't drink milk).  But how often do you hear people ask for kale?  Um.... not often I'd wager.

I love the raw kale salad that Whole Foods makes.  I wish I could find their recipe (anyone have it?) because unfortunately that's another one of those stores that I'd have to drive to New Jersey to visit (sigh).  I've tried making my own and haven't found the right mix of ingredients to satisfy my palate.  That quest will continue but until then I've found a way to make it that even Liam will eat.

I know, doesn't look like much but it's tasty tasty.  Oh, what is it?  Baked kale, of course!  There was a time when I believe it swept through the food blogging community and everyone was making it.  If you've noticed, I, um, didn't blog for a while so I think I missed that bandwagon so I'm a little late, but that's better than not at all I say.

This is so easy to make.  Take your kale and wash it then put it on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Sprinkle it with salt or any seasoning that you'd like.  We prefer garlic salt - it adds a little something more - and bake it at 300 for about 15-20 minutes or until the leaves start to dry out. You don't want them brown.  Across the web they've been labeled "chips" but they really aren't anything like that.  Don't try to fool your kids by telling them or you'll get that "I don't think so" look.  You don't need to tell them it's good for them, just tell them to eat them because they're delicious. 

Comments

[paula]

This has been on my 'to make' list forever. I just can't get to everything but I hope I eventually get to this. I just saw a big bag of kale for sale somewhere and it wasn't too expensive but I didn't buy it.

[Alisha]

Paula, I think Walmart has a big bag of kale and it's not too expensive (like $3.50?) and even better is that it's already cut into pieces!