Easiest recipe ever: sea salt and vinegar kale chips

When I saw this recipe for super healthy kale chips I knew I had to try it immediately, and I am so glad I did! (click here if you have no idea what kale is!) The chips were a total hit with not only myself, but Hank too, which was awesome. Baking the kale in the oven transformed the green, leafy vegetable into a delicious, slightly salty snack that totally hit the spot as a crunchy side dish to our risotto and "chicken" tonight. Tomorrow we're going to try the same thing with spinach, so I'll let you know how it goes.

First off, buy a bunch of kale at your local grocer. If your regular store doesn't carry it, try your natural foods store, but it should be pretty easy to find.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Tear the leaves off of the long stem running down the middle. I tossed the leaves into a colander as I tore them off. Rinse the leaves WELL and dry thoroughly. We don't have a salad spinner, so I just used a paper towel to try off each individual piece.

Place the leaves in a single layer on parchment paper, on a cookie sheet. Below you'll see that I accidentally used wax paper at first...no big deal until the oven started smoking! haha. When that happened I just moved the kale straight onto the cookie sheet and it was just fine. But anyway, drizzle olive oil and vinegar all over the leaves, then top with sea salt. If you don't want to do the vinegar you can just do olive oil.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until you notice the leaves shrinking and looking crispy. We had no issues with the kale being soggy whatsoever, and each chip was crispy and REALLY delicious!

Enjoy!

Quinoa!

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is one of my favorite, favorite things to cook.  I probably eat it about 4-5 times a week, and both Hank and I absolutely love it.  I mention it a lot on this blog and I swear I even posted how to cook it before but I can't seem to find that post!  But one of the main questions I often get after "what on earth IS it?" is, "how on earth do you cook it?!" I grew up eating it, so it's normal to me, but for most people it's definitely not a common dish and might even seem a bit intimidating to tackle.  Surprisingly though, it's very quick and simple to prepare.  Quinoa is an interesting little power food; it's protein content is high (at close to 18%), and unlike rice or wheat/rice products, quinoa contains a complete set of awesome amino acids.  It's very rare that a plant-based food supplies all nine of the acids, and it even includes lysine, which makes it a complete protein.  What does this mean for you?  If you are a vegetarian or vegan, or just someone who wants to be a little healthier, quinoa is an incredibly healthy option that you can eat in place of heavy pastas, or even enjoy as a main dish.  We've used it in many different ways including but not limited to: stuffed peppers, in place of spaghetti with a super chunky homemade sauce, a simple version with just sea salt and butter, cooked in vegetable broth to kick up the flavor, baked in spiced quinoa cakes, the list goes on.  Simply google "quinoa recipes" and you will be overloaded with tons of delicious and nutritious ideas for this power protein. 

So, you may be wondering: how DO I make it?  Well, it's simple:

1. Add 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of quinoa into a pot. 
2. Boil together until all the water is boiled out of the quinoa.

Yup, that's it. 

We typically use Trader Joe's brand quinoa but just yesterday we found a huge 4 lb. bag of organic quinoa at Costco for $9.99!  That is an amazing deal for an amazing brand (I love Bob's Red Mill products), so if you have a Costco head over and see if your local store carries it.  You can also typically find quinoa in the bulk section of your regular grocery store, and you can be sure to find it in your local natural foods store.

 Have fun, and good luck quinoa-ing! Let me know if you decide to try it! xoxo

Delicious baked ziti (and some chicken-less chicken too)!

I have a not-so-healthy recipe to share with all of you today. It may not be the most waist-friendly dish, but it's the perfect recipe if you are craving a bit of comfort food and want to indulge! We usually eat this dish around the holidays, and my Mom always makes it for Hank at Thanksgiving as a another option outside of his customary Tofurkey. I made it this weekend for a family dinner, and as usual, it was a hit! There are multiple ways to make it healthier- less cheese, whole wheat noodles, adding tons of veggies, etc...but this time I made the full-fat version in all of its cheesy goodness.

Here's what you'll need to make this SUPER easy dish:

1 box/bag of penne pasta
1 jar sauce
1 15-16 oz. container of ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 regular sized bag of mozzarella cheese
spices to taste- oregano, sea salt, basil, etc.

1) Preheat oven to 350.
2) Cook pasta
3) In a small bowl, mix the ricotta cheese and one egg.

4) Spread about half of the ricotta cheese and a third of the jar of sauce in the bottom of a deep baking dish.
5) Add about 1/2 of the noodles on top.

6) Next, layer as followed: mozzarella cheese, sauce, rest of the ricotta cheese, rest of the noodles, rest of the sauce, mozzarella cheese. Don't forget to add your choice of spices as you go.

7) Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake for 50-55 minutes, taking the tinfoil off the during the last 5 minutes of cooking to give the top a nice crispy, cheesy layer. Baking times may vary a bit, so just be sure that the middle is hot. One way to tell is to see if the ziti is slightly bubbling. That's always a good indicator.

I forgot to take photos of the finished dish before I served it, but rest assured it was delicious! Tonight Hank wanted to enjoy the leftovers, so I heated him up Gardein's Chick'n Good Stuff marinara and vegan cheese stuffed "chicken." Hank LOVES this stuff, and anything from this brand, so he was happy. Basically it's s piece of breaded vegetarian chicken, stuffed with marinara sauce and Daiya vegan cheese...AND there's 22g of protein per piece! Check out their website by clicking here- after the jump you'll discover a million of their delicious products, tons of ideas, and a lot of nutritional information! I really feel like some of their dishes would fool a meat eater, so if you're looking for a family friendly veggie dish, or just something a bit healthier than all of the scary meat on the market today, Gardein products are such a good choice.
The lighting in our kitchen tonight was really, really bad, but here's Hank's meal (leftover ziti and Gardein chick'n). Doesn't it look like real chicken?

Have you tried Gardein products? If so, which are your favorite? Next I am excited to try their Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n. It looks amazing!

Quick and easy quiche!

Hi guys! I hope you're all having a great day. Today I thought I'd share another one of my favorite things to eat, straight from my Mom's kitchen, into mine...and maybe into yours! It's incredibly simple, very healthy, and looks so pretty if you host a brunch or breakfast get-together. Plus, there are a million ways to change it up and add variation.

Here's what you'll need:

1 pie crust- I prefer spelt for not just the taste but the health benefits (click here for info on it)
10 egg whites
Veggies of your choice- today I just used 2 bunches of broccoli that I pre-steamed
shredded cheese

When I make pie I typically make my own crust, but for this one I got the frozen version from our local health food store's freezer section. The cost was about $5 for two crusts, but you can always go the less-expensive way and make your own, or buy generic, regular old pie crust that works just as well!

1) Preheat oven to 350.

2) Set out one frozen pie crust.

3) In a large bowl, mix egg whites (add yolk/s if you'd like- I prefer straight egg whites), cooked broccoli, and a small amount of shredded cheese. The cheese amount is up to you, I'd say I used about 1/4 of a cup.

4) Pour mixture into pie crust.

5) Place pie tin on a large piece of tin foil, and fold the foil up and around the pie crust edges, to prevent the crust from getting burnt/too brown while cooking.

6) Bake for 40 minutes at 350, removing the tin foil edging at 35 minutes to let the edges brown for 5 minutes.

7) At the end of the 40 minutes your quiche should be firm to the touch and a tiny bit browned.

8) Enjoy your healthy, protein and nutrient packed quiche!

Hank's Coconut Curry

Fortunately not only do I love to cook, but Hank does too. When he gets into chef mode he's the most adorable thing in the world and he almost always makes up his recipes as he goes. In fact, when he and his friends get together, they most often "cook it up," as they call it, and make some amazing dishes. This one in particular is adapted from his friend Matt's curry that he made at our house a couple of weeks ago. Hank went off memory so I don't have much of a formal recipe to share as far as amounts of spice, etc, but it turned out absolutely delicious and I thought I would include the process he used (thank you Hank!).

For this recipe, you'll need the following:

1 can of coconut milk (I insisted that Hank use light coconut milk, but regular would be SO much better for a curry, since it thickens up a lot more)
veggies of your choice- we used broccoli, onions, and carrots
minced garlic
curry powder
generic "Thai" spice blend
chili paste
sea salt
1 block of extra firm tofu
brown rice (or quinoa)

1) Add the entire can of coconut milk to a wok.
2) Add about 2 tbsp minced garlic to the milk (we LOVE garlic so we go overboard, but do this to your liking).
3) Add about half of a chopped onion (also add amount according to taste).
4) Bring to a boil.
5) Add everything else (chopped broccoli, carrots, other veggies, and drained/cubed tofu, spices- all amounts of spice are to your taste, we add tons).
6) Boil it for awhile until veggies become tender- the longer you do this, the longer the tofu will have a chance to soak up the flavor.
7) While this is cooking make some brown rice.
8) Curry should thicken up during cooking time- light coconut milk will be more watery.

And done! You have a quick, healthy meal. I really enjoyed it and I hope you do too!