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.

Stories from the dinner table

Family time at Christmas, including long car rides and all the stories that go along with this craziness make me want to start recording the stories I hear and the stories I tell.

I hope you heard a lot of good stories, and I hope you share them.

Fall wreath

I really needed some therapy ... I mean craft time.  So I finally made some time for crafts yesterday.  At the beginning of the school year, I bought a package of fall-colored card stock at Michael's (for about $3) with the intention of making this wreath.  So Friday night I started making flowers (like we did for Chelsea's wedding). 

First cut a circle (it doesn't have to be perfect). Then cut a spiral within the circle, again, perfection is not required.  Then start wrapping the paper into a cone from the OUTSIDE working toward the center - this seems odd, but the center will be the base you glue your flower to.  I usually unwind the flower some, add a lot of hot glue, press your flower down, burn your fingers, remind yourself that hot glue is hot. 

   

Admire you work, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Then Saturday, Xman and I ventured out to Michael's again.  This time I needed more hot glue (project took 10-15 glue sticks total - best guess), and something to glue my flowers to ... what I ended up with was more than $50 worth of other projects ... I need supervision.

So I found these wood bases.  I purchased two of this size and one larger one for a snowflake wreath (I will post that one right after Thanksgiving -- I like to let turkeys have their day.)  First hold it up by your face ... then act like it is a hula hoop for your neck ...

 

I glued the biggest flowers on first,  trying to create a random effect. 

Then I glued on the next flowers, then smaller, then smaller, then I had to make some ultra tiny flowers to fill in a couple of spaces.

I am very happy with this project.  I have enough paper to make probably 10 more wreaths this size. I like making all the flowers first and then gluing them on and just filling in as needed.  I will be making another one for my classroom ... but I should probably do my lesson plans and notes first, and maybe clean house.  When I hang this up I will add an update.

Gearing up to craft and cook!!

I am so ready for Thanksgiving Break!!!!  I keep pinning Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts and foods.  This picture makes me a little too happy ....

This is from the Pampered Chef site.  I want to make the melted snowmen (made with the scoop loop) and the brownie houses (uses 2 brownies from brownie pan) ...

I also want to make this Turkey Shirt from artsy-fartsy mama for Xman...

I am hoping to make Cranberry Pepper Jelly Dip from Life With the Crust Cut Off.  It's pepper jelly mixed with half a can of cranberry jelly, poured over cream cheese and served with crackers.  (My link isn't working at the moment - I will update the link as soon as I can get it working)

I also love these ornaments from By Stephanie Lynn

I would love to have this ribbon wreath from Dear Emmeline...

This is only a start to what I want to accomplish .. if only I had more than 3 days off!  I will take what I can get, and try to make the most of it ... maybe I could catch up on sleep also ... dare to dream ...