Kale Chips

I have to apologize for my complete absence from the blogosphere! I haven't disappeared completely! Just haven't had time to update.

The husband and I are going to this amazing event this weekend for my work. Every year the company I work for (it's a non-profit) has this giant gala sponsored by Safeway as a fundraiser. It's normally $1100 a PLATE!! But all of our employees get to go for free! It's black tie, so we get to get all dressed up and fancy, wear a formal gown, and act like real grown ups for the night. It's a super fun event, and I can't wait to go on Saturday.

Of course that means I have to fit into that fancy gown! Which means a little diet friendly foods were in order! :) No baked goods and pies, cakes, or yummy sweets. But it doesn't mean I haven't been eating good food. Just good for you food!

That's where the kale chips come in. Saw this idea in an email newsletter I get from self.com, but it didn't include a recipe, so I just experimented a little, and they came out sooo yummy. I'm sure there are probably a million other ways to make this, so if you have ever done it, or have some suggestions, let me know.

These taste like crispy little potato chips - or maybe kind of like those veggie chips you can get from whole foods, but you made it yourself, for a whole lot cheaper! Best way to describe them: Really crunchy, a little bit of a tangy taste to them, yummy! :)

What's your go-to food when you are watching what you eat? With summer right around the corner, I need some ideas! :)

Kale Chips (By: Me)

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale - freshly washed and dried

olive oil

sea salt (I used my coveted, only use for special occasions because it's $13 a bottle fleur-de-sel sea salt!)

Directions:

1. Peel kale away from hard inner vein into chip sized pieces.

2. Lay dried pieces on baking sheet lined with silpat or parchment paper.

3. Drizzle with olive oil.

4. Bake chips in an oven heated to 350 degrees for 12-25 minutes, (I know this is a very wide range of time, but every oven will cook differently, chips should be crisp like potato chips) turning over gently with tongs in the middle of cooking.

5. Salt chips to desired taste with sea salt.

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Chunky Guacamole

YUM! Guacamole! The world's best "healthy" snack!! And this one is SOO super easy!

You know avocados are good for you right! I just heard on the Biggest Loser they are 50 calories per ounce of pure heart healthy fats!

Of course it doesn't count if you eat 15 ounces of avocado's right?!? All in the form of this super super yummy guacamole! (This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled! :) )

I lived on it during our Daniel Fast, because it was something that seemed normal when we couldn't eat anything! I won't tell you how much of it my husband ate! :) Especially after I taught him how to make it for himself! (P.S. That's how easy it is - sorry babe!)

By the way, did I mention my mom is coming in 16 days?? YIPPEE!!

Super Easy Chunky Guacamole: (By: Me)

INGREDIENTS:

1 large avocado

1 plum tomato

sprinkle of sea salt

juice of 1/2 lime (you can add more if you like)

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

5-6 small slices jalapeno from jar of sliced jalapenos, very finely diced

bunch of cilantro, chopped (use amount to your liking)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Peel avocados. Place in medium bowl and sprinkle with sea salt.

2. Using a fork, mash the avocados to desired texture - I like mine pretty smooth since the texture will be added by the other veggies!

3. Cut the plum tomato in half and seed the middle using an ice cream scoop. Discard seeds. Then chop the tomato and add to bowl.

4. Juice 1/2 lime or more if desired and add to avocado/tomato mixture.

5. Add chopped onion and cilantro

6. Mix till desired and serve with warm tortilla chips (I also LOVE this in a black bean soup!) YUM!

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A Unique Pair

There are so many yummy foods that taste absolutely divine together -

Chocolate and raspberry

Peanut butter and jelly (or peanut butter and chocolate)

Strawberries and chocolate

Coffee and chocolate

Chocolate and oranges

I think you get my point, chocolate tastes good with just about anything, so when I saw this recipe on Joy The Baker's website, I seriously had to try this. So what's the unique pairing, you ask??

Chocolate and Avocado!!!

I know, I know, that sounds disgusting - but don't take me off your google reader because I said chocolate and avocado together... or because my cake is green and looks like snot.... or because my cake might be better suited at a kids birthday party than a fancy adult dinner party. Because I'm telling you, this is at least worth a try.

Why, you ask, should I even keep reading this, let alone try cooking this crazy recipe with avocado in the cake and the frosting?

1) Because chocolate is amazing with anything.

2) Because it's vegan, and since the avocados are the "fat" instead of butter - it's heart healthy fat, and that's a good thing.

3) Because it's still dessert.

4) Because maybe, just maybe you trust me by now and you think you might wanna give it a go.

5) Because it's chocolate.

You can't taste avocado in this cake at all! I promise! The cake tastes like chocolate cake and the frosting tastes like buttercream frosting with a little citrus flavor.

I will admit that the cake was not my favorite - but not because it tasted like avocado, or even bad - I just didn't like the texture. It was so moist, that it was almost a little mushy. My husband is in love with it. But the frosting... mmm the frosting - I won't tell you how many times I licked a spoon full of the frosting. It's my little secret!

So go make it, and then come rave to me how yummy it really was, and tell me how you doubted me that chocolate and avocado could really actually taste good! :) Of course you can tell me if you didn't like it too!

Vegan Chocolate and Avocado Cake with Avocado Buttercream Frosting: (By Joy the Baker)

Ingredients:

For the Cake -

3 cups all purpose flour

6 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup well mashed avocado (about 1 medium avocado)

2 cups water

2 Tbs. vinegar

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For the frosting:

8 oz avocado meat (about 2 medium avocados)

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 lb powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 cake pans and set aside.

2. Sift together all the dry ingredients except the sugar and set aside.

3. Mash the avocado meat VERY well, trying to get as smooth as possible.

4. Mix all the wet ingredients together, including the super well mashed avocado. Add the sugar into the wet ingredients and stir well.

(I know this looks disgusting, but bear with me)

5. Combine all the wet ingredients with the dry in a bowl and mix by hand with a whisk until well combined.

6. Pour batter into greased cake pans and bake for ~ 30 min. or until toothpick comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool for 15 min. in pans, then carefully transfer to wire racks to completely cool before frosting.

For Buttercream Frosting:

1. Peel and pit the soft avocados. It's important to use the ripest avocados you can get your hands on. If they have brown spots in the meat, avoid those spots when you scoop the meat into the bowl.

2. Place the avocado meat into the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment. Add lemon juice and whisk the avocado on medium speed, until slightly lightened in color and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl several times in order to get smooth. (I even used my hand mixer for a minute or two because it made better contact with the avocados, and I didn't want lumps of avocado )in my frosting.

3. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time and beat. Add vanilla extract until combined. If not using right away, store in the refrigerator. Don't worry, it won't turn brown!

4. Frost the cake!

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Celebrate Good Times

Yes, we're celebrating all right! We're celebrating the last of the vegan posts.... at least for a while. Coincidentally, my husband and I decided that we actually really like the vegan diet. We've really explored a lot of new food options, tried many new recipes, and decided we even like soy milk more than regular milk.

We might start eating all vegan...Ha, "Don't get crazy"

However much we do like eating vegan, we did decide to celebrate the end of the three week fast. It happened to work out perfectly that Saturday was day 90 of P90X, Sunday was day 21 of the fast, and our friend's Aimee's birthday was Thursday. We did a lot of celebrating! :)

Cheesecake Factory, Coffee, Friends, Chicken, did I mention COFFEE!!!! And yes, it was Peet's.

So, for the last vegan post... for awhile, I decided on this yummy Black Bean Salsa:

I originally made a recipe similar to this a few years ago off the back of a Libby's black bean can. It was good, but needed a bit of tweaking. I also discovered during this fast that I don't think Libby's black beans exists anymore! Do they still make Libby's black beans in your area? What about the pumpkin puree from Libby's?

Anyway, here is the recipe of what I can remember, and a little bit of extras. We made the salsa, heated up some corn tortillas, and made tacos with the bean salsa, brown rice, and guacamole! We didn't even miss the sour cream and cheese... No really, we didn't miss it! (Can you hear me trying to convince myself!) You can also just eat this as an appetizer with chips!

Black Bean Salsa: (Adapted from Libby's Black Beans)

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans

  1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans

• 1 (15 ounce) can corn
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 small red pepper, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Mix everything together, let rest for 20-30 minutes, and enjoy!

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The Sweet Tooth Within

So, it's Day 16 of 21 of our Daniel Fast.

I can hold out from sweets for a while, but SIXTEEN DAYS!!! That's asking a lot!

Around Day 14, I was seriously craving some sugar. Everyone who's an expert in sugar detox says your body will decrease cravings for sugar after a few days, well mine increased! :) It might just be the comfort of something sweet and yummy after dinner, or the cold rainy weather we've been having in the NorthWest, or maybe the stress of life in general, but it was time to get creative and I needed something sweet.

So how, do you ask, did I make a dessert when I'm not allowed any breads, sugar, dairy, or eggs???

Very, very creatively!

So, Holly Furtick, the pastor's wife of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC had a recipe on her blog for a bread pudding from when they did the Daniel fast several years ago. She made hers with stewed apples, but if you know me at all, I hate cooked apples, and "the taste of hot apples in my mouth"! (That's for you, babe). So, I went with the idea of strawberries and breaking it down to make a strawberry sauce to go over it. I pretty much followed Holly's recipe for the pudding, and then came up with my own recipe by messing around with the sauce. This recipe is also vegan for all you vegan followers out there!

But I have to say, I'm kind of sad the fast is almost over. It has been an amazing time of growth physically and spiritually, and my husband and I are looking forward to keeping up a lot of the ways we've been eating.

Don't panic, it won't only be vegan recipes from now on!!!

I can't wait to tell you what we're doing to celebrate the end of the Daniel Fast! It's gonna be good!!! :) Can you guess??

Vegan Bread Pudding with Strawberry Sauce (Pudding adapted from Holly Furtick, Sauce by Me)

Ingredients: BREAD PUDDING

4 slices Ezekiel or any brand sprouted bread, chopped up (Trader Joe's has several brands as well)

Soy or almond milk - enough to cover bread

~ 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

~ 1 1/2 Tbs. honey

1/3 cup pecans

STRAWBERRY SAUCE

2 cups strawberries, sliced

~4 packets natural stevia (This is a natural plant extract, but can be found near Splenda at the store. This should be to taste, it can be your preference. If you don't like the aftertaste, go with less.)

2 tsp. vanilla extract.

1 Tbs. cornstarch

FOR BREAD PUDDING:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Cut slices of Ezekiel bread into cubes and place in 8x8 baking dish. Pour enough soy/almond milk to cover each piece. Allow to sit for 15 min.

3. Top bread and milk mixture with cinnamon, honey and pecans.

4. Bake in oven for approximately 20-30 minutes or till desired doneness (I like mine a little crispier with most of the milk absorbed).

FOR SAUCE:

1. Slice strawberries.

2. In medium saucepan combine strawberries, stevia, and vanilla extract.

3. Cook over medium heat till strawberries break down.

4. Mix 1 Tbs. corn starch with ~ 1 TBS water until smooth. Add to strawberry sauce and combine for 2-3 minutes until sauce thickens.

5. Place in food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Serve warm with bread pudding.

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Don't Stop Reading Because It's Vegan

I knew that would catch your attention!

I know a lot of people turn up their noses and won't give this recipe a try because it's vegan, but I'm here to tell those people to give this recipe a second chance! It's delicious, it's yummy, it's good for you, and it's packed with protein!

My church, Southbay Church, is doing a 21 day Daniel Fast, which we are right in the middle of. Actually Day 13 of 21. The Daniel Fast is based off of Daniel chapters 1 and 10, and includes not eating any meat, breads, sugars, and additives in food. So, as you can imagine, the meal planning and eating has been VERY creative. It's very close to a vegan diet, but take out the sugar, flour, etc. Lots of whole grains, legumes, salads, fruits, and nuts have been on the agenda for us, and this recipe is part of that.

It's hard to write up the exact measurements for everything, because I basically opened the fridge, looked in there for a few minutes and pulled out every veggie I thought might be good in this and chopped away. So I'll give you an approximate, but the good thing is that there isn't really a right or wrong way to cook this - customize the veggies to your liking - my favorite way to cook!

Do you have any good vegan recipes I can add to my repertoire?

Vegan Stir Fry (By: Me)

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. sesame oil, divided

3 oz. firm, extra protein tofu, thinly chopped

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs. grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 cup raw broccoli florets

1 cup raw baby carrots

1 red or green pepper, chopped

1 8 oz. packet sliced portobello mushrooms

~ 2 Tbs. soy sauce

1 cup brown rice

Sea Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

In a small sauce pan, combine sea salt, 1 cup brown rice and 2 cups water. Place on high heat until boiling, reduce heat to low and cover. Cook until water is absorbed, about 30-40 min.

Meanwhile, it medium sized skillet or wok, heat 1 Tbs. sesame oil. Add chopped tofu and cook until golden brown. Place on a separate plate and put aside.

Heat remaining oil in skillet, and add chopped onion, cooking until tender. Add garlic and ginger and cook for another 2 min. Add remaining vegetables, cooking until crisp tender, approximately 5- 10 min.

Aren't the colors in this dish amazing!!

Add the soy sauce to the pan of vegetables, continuing to cook until vegetables are fully tender. Place cooked tofu back into pan and cook over low heat until heated through. Remove from heat.

Place cooked vegetable mix over cooked rice. Season with additional soy sauce if desired.

The delicious dish! Happy Cooking

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