A Healthy Snack Recipe to Start Your Week

Kale Chips- $2.99 or $5?!

Madisyn is getting pickier these days with her veggies- and EVERYTHING else, really!  My friend Angie came over with her daughter Audrina for a play date last week, and Angie brought Kale Chips from Trader Joe's.  All the kiddos were loving them- and I LOVE the idea of Madisyn eating Kale!

Angie said she got hers at Trader Joe'- a small bag, and they were about $5.  I told her that my boss, the lovely Mrs. Patty has been making them for a while and says its super easy and we all agreed we should give it a try!

So, today at the grocery store, I picked up some organic Kale to give it a try myself!  $2.99 and 20 minutes later, YUM!
Its simple and SOOOO good for you!

Health Benefits of Kale

From WebMD:
One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.
Here's the article on WebMD if you are curious to learn more about its health benefits!

How To Make It Yourself

• Carefully use a sharp knife and cut the leaves off the rib.  I cut them directly into my salad spinner.

• Soak your Kale in warm water directly in your salad spinner for a few minutes.
• Dump water out of salad spinner and spin away to dry your kale.
• Line a cookie sheet with foil.
• Pull a handful of Kale out of your salad spinner and roughly chop.
• Place chopped kale on lined cookie sheet in an even layer-not stacked on top of each other.

• Spray with Olive Oil Spray (I love my Trader Joes Oilive Oil Spray beacause I don't have to worry about getting an even coat on things)
• Srinkle with Corse Sea Salt.

• Bake on 375 for about 15 minutes.  

When it's done the edges look slightly brown and when you move it on the tin foil it sounds crunchy!  This is what mine looked like!

I used a LARGE bunch of kale (2 salad spinners FULL once removed from the spine) and ended up with 1 quart sized zip lock bag after it was baked.  I did bake it in two batches so that it was a thin enough layer on the sheet to dry out completely.
Consider giving it a try, if you've never had it before- try it for $4.99 at Trader Joe's, then when you love it- MAKE IT YOURSELF!

I hope this helps you get a healthy start to your week-