Kale Chips

Kale Chips?  Yes, Kale Chips!!

I have not eaten much kale.  I bought more than I needed for the detox salad and thought I would try kale chips.  I used a recipe I found via Advocare (we will be starting the Advocare 24 Day Challenge soon).

kale
salt & pepper
parchment paper (this is important)

Wash and dry kale.
Tear kale off of stems and into bite-able pieces.
In a bowl mix kale leaves with as little olive oil as it take to partially coat leaves - you can always add more, it's hard to take it away - mix and mix and mix - if you have a Pampered Chef Kitchen Spritzer it would help this process a lot!
And salt and pepper and mix some more.
Place kale on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper - don't overlap the leaves.
Bake at 375 7-10 minutes - watch them closely so they don't burn.

It took me about 5 sheets of leaves to finish 2/3 of a bundle of kale.  I just alternated between 2 parchment lined sheets.

The bowl at the top is most of a bundle of kale - is shrinks a lot. But is delicious!

Pesto Chicken

Chicken is my go to meal.  You can bet every week we are going to have chicken.  But with making it so often we get bored, so I have added another chicken dish to our rotation: Pesto Chicken.  (I have a couple of pesto chicken options, this one if the healthiest and easiest of my dishes.)

First I like to slice my chicken breasts in half, so they are half as thick as a hey were originally.  I have three reasons for this:

1) it gives you more seasoning per bite

2) the chicken cooks faster

3) it results in a more appropriate single portion.

2 chicken breasts, split in half (4 pieces)

2 T pesto

Place the chicken in a freezer bag.

Add 2 T pesto to the bag.

Mush it around (very technical term)

Make sure the bag is sealed and throw in the the fridge for a little while (up to 1 day).

I have made this on an electric griddle and in a ceramic skillet.  I preheated both, but neither needed and oil, butter or cooking spray - trust me there is enough oil in the pesto.  Whichever choice you make, cook chicken thoroughly. (I leave it on the first side a while to get good color on it.)

Enjoy.  

Detox Salad

Robert said this tasted healthy, he added a little maple syrup ... gross.

2 broccoli crowns, cut into florets
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
4 carrots,cut into large chunks
1 small bunch of kale, stems removed
1/2 c parsley
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/2 c almonds, chopped
1 c  craisins (or dried cherries or dried blueberries)
juice of 1 lemon
2 T rice vinegar (other other mild vinegar)
2 T honey (the original called for maple syrup, but ... no)
salt and pepper to taste

Put broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, kale and parsley into the food processor - this will take multiple batches.
Mix up all ingredients. Eat.  Yummy.

Be Happier!

I have posted before about a very entertaining TED Talk  by Shawn Anchor called The Happy Secret to Better Work.  And based on that I have created a document to try to to stick with these ideas for 21 days.



Download and print the document and join be to try to have a more positive outlook in 2015.

In case you want to watch the video here it is again.