First Trimester and Kale Chip Snacks!

Kale Chips

Prep time: 5 minutes

Bake time: 5 minutes

Cost: $1.29/bunch + olive oil and seasoning

1/4 bunch of kale, cut stems away, wash and dried

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Suggested seasonings to taste (can add/substract, etc):

1 squirt lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, etc...

sea salt

pepper

nutritional yeast

parmesan

In a bowl, whisk EVOO and acidic liquid (lemon juice or vinegar) until it makes a vinaigrette. Toss kale until coated. Season with your choice of seasonings to taste.

Bake at 450C for 5 minutes, or dehydrate (either in a dehydrator, or in the oven at extremely low heat). I hear that dehydration is much healthier, only I did not have the time.

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When I found out I was pregnant (right before my first miscarriage), I went to a friend's party, and she made kale chips in her oven!

Incredibly convenient and incredibly tasty, for some reason I couldn't eat enough. I highly suspect it may have had something to do with the baby draining the folic acid, Vitamins A and C, etc... that's all found in kale.

Kale - it's so bitter when raw. It's cheap ($1.29/bunch at Superstore - thanks for the tip ginja ninja - but buy organic to cut down on pesticides). It looks kind of weird when dry on the shelf, and when it gets wet, it still looks weird. But those curly edges are the BOMB when they crisp up.Now, having to rinse, wash and dry a whole batch before seasoning, and putting it into an oven that needs 10 minutes to preheat, that's totally inconvenient. Ovens waste so much electricity!

This morning, I was nauseated from not having eaten, and I didn't want sugar-y breakfast foods, or a carb loaded/sodium heavy bunches of saltines, and I craved a little crunchy salty goodness. I didn't want to use that much electricity, so solution? TOASTER OVEN!

We have an awesome cute toaster oven (I think it's my roomate's). It's efficient, it takes 1 minute to preheat to 450 degrees, and it takes 5 minutes to dry the kale. So I only made a tiny batch, cutting the leaves straight from the stem by folding them in half, and making a diagonal cut (1 cut instead of 2!).

I rinsed and dried them in no time, seasoned with a little olive oil, sea salt and pepper, and then lay them out in a single layer on the tray. I baked for 5 minutes, and then ate. Took a whole 10 minutes to get this snack into my preggo belly.

I think the baby rolled over a few times, I apologized to it for the initial bitterness (I can't imagine eating kale and then breast feeding...) but then I ate the whole batch in without taking time to sit down.