I’m not the most interesting person. When asked what I do for fun, I often have trouble coming up with an answer. My best friend is my dog, Twinkie, and I can’t imagine my life without her. She tries to talk to people because I constantly talk to her. I think Japanese ramen is absolutely fantastic. I’ll never turn down a red velvet cupcake. And kale chips beat potato chips anyday. I love foresty hikes more than walks along a beach. I'm not sure what else to say...
Kale chips are one of my favorite snacks. They’re super easy to make and pretty much idiot proof. And trust me, I’m horrible at cooking/baking…it’s not even funny…the first time I made cookies, they were salty. I swear to bob, they were salty and I don’t even remember putting in any salt!
I normally use dinosaur kale (no lie! That’s what they’re called. Okay, the proper name is lacinato kale, but that’s just boring right?) to make kale chips because they’re flatter than traditional kale so they bake more evenly. But I had baby kale left over so I decided to chip them up. Baby kale is a lot thinner than umm…adult? kale, so they do get crispy faster, which is great if you can’t wait to gobble them up. But boy do they take forever to spread out on the baking sheet.
I’ll sometimes make plain salt and pepper kale chips, but sometimes I add other spices, like curry! Yes, the house smells delicious, or gross, depending on how you feel about curry.
Ingredients
baby kale
olive oil
salt & curry powder to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 275 F. Wash and dry kale.
In a large mixing bowl, lightly coat kale with olive oil. Add salt and curry powder to taste.
Spread kale evenly on parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes or until kale is crisp and dry.
Tips
* You may or may not want to destem your baby kale. The stems are thicker so they won’t crisp up as quickly as the leaves. If you leave them on, just let them bake a little longer until the stems are crispy.
* If you’re not using baby kale, you’ll need to bake longer since the leaves will be thicker.
* It is important to dry your kale well before tossing them in olive oil. You don't want extra moisture on your kale because that'll lead to steaming inside the oven, which means you'll get soggy kale, not crispy kale chips. A salad spinner is very helpful in this situation, but you can also lay some paper towels out and pat your kale dry.
* Remember to use parchment paper! Otherwise you’re going to have a grand time peeling off bits and pieces of kale off your foil.
I love sandwiches. I used to be obsessed with turkey sandwiches, that is, until I ate too many and got sick of it. But I still love sandwiches! I mean, you got your meat, your veggies, and your carbs all in one. You can put anything your heart desires and well, it's just perfect to me.
Ingredients
1 French roll
6 medium shrimps
Panko bread crumbs (or cornmeal!*)
1 egg
2 teaspoon Cajun Seasoning
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 teaspoon Tabasco Chipotle Sauce1/2 cup baby kale1/4 avocado, sliced
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel, devein, and wash shrimps.
Beat egg, mix in Cajun seasoning , and coat the shrimps in the egg mixture. Cover shrimps in panko breading.
Spread shrimps evenly on baking sheet. Bake for 10-15mins.
Toast the bread rolls for a few minutes until warm.
Mix mayonnaise and Tabasco Chipotle Sauce. Spread on bread rolls.
Place baby kale, then avocado, then shrimps in the roll.
*There's only one reason I used panko bread crumbs, and that's because I mistakenly thought I had cornmeal at home. But I was determined to make a shrimp sandwich, so I ended up substituting panko. Not bad but panko bread crumbs are large and don't coat very evenly.