finally.
My friend Janet asked me to make her cheesy kale chips. I will admit I’ve seen them around for a while now and thought meh…maybe one day. Then Janet bought me a bag of the cheesy kale chips at Whole Foods. I tried them and was wowed. So I finally made kale chips today.
Cheesy Kale Chips (adapted from Gone Raw)
1 large bunch of curly, green kale, washed, large stems removed, torn into bite size pieces
1 cup cashews, (soaked 2 hours)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lemon
2.5 T. nutritional yeast
1 t. Celtic Sea Salt
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
Put cashews, red bell pepper, lemon, nutritional yeast and 1 t. Celtic salt in food processor. Blend until smooth. Using your hands, massage coating onto kale pieces getting it inside of curls. Put on baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray. (Don’t worry about flattening them, they’re better bunched up) and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Flipping halfway through.
***Updated to add: we now have a dehydrator and it makes these a lot easier. Follow directions above and place them on dehydrator trays and let them go for about 4-5 hours (or until desired crispness) rotating the trays halfway through.
What’s the latest “trendy” thing you’ve made? (and yes I consider kale chips to be trendy)
winner winner chicken dinner
Last week I saw this recipe of Jessica’s. It made me drool. My computer keys are still not working correctly. So I decided to make it with a few small changes based on what I had on hand. (Allena…Trent will LOVE these!!!)
Crispy Chicken Nuggets adapted from How Sweet It Is
serves 2
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
3 egg whites
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/8 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast, optional
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Cut chicken into cubes. In a bowl, combine egg whites and lightly beat with a fork. In another bowl, add breadcrumbs, flour, 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, and nutritional yeast. Lay a wire rack on a baking sheet and spray it with non-stick spray.
Season chicken with remaining salt and pepper. Dip each piece in egg whites then in the breadcrumb mixture. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces, and lay on the wire rack. Spray with non-stick spray or spritz with olive oil. (Jessica’s brilliant note: “I find that spraying them with spray gives them crunch but does not cause the oven to smoke at the high temperature.”)
Bake for 12 minutes, flip over, and bake for 12 more. Serve with ketchup, BBQ sauce or dip of choice!
Please do yourself a favor and make these now!
best vacations
April is such a special month for me because April 30th is my wedding anniversary. This year Keith and I will have been married 5 years! I am so excited! I love to look back on all the fun times Keith and I have had together and all the really fun places we’ve been to together. So I am going to start a series for the month of April and once a week I am going to recap a fun place we’ve traveled to together. Our first stop:
New Orleans, Lousianna (circa 2005)
First, we stayed at this adorable apartment right in the French Quarter! It was adorable!! And we felt right at home! This was the sitting room!
And of course we had to check out the infamous Burboun Street! We are such tourists!
We walked to the local (and large) flea market where we scored some fun (New Orleans) must haves:
We explored Jackson Square
We also dined out at some fabulous places! We ate Cajun Seafood at Ralph & Kacoo’s
We ate a fancy shamcy dinner one night at Emeril’s New Orleans
And we explored some night life!
It was such a fun little get-a-way and I felt very fortunate to experience New Orleans before hurricane Katrina. I think that having spent some time there and really enjoying all this great city had to offer made me feel even more of a connection to the city of New Orleans when they were faced with tragedy. We have so many places on our bucket list we want to explore but I definitely plan on getting back to New Orleans one day!
Have you ever been to New Orleans?
who i am crushing on
I am not gonna lie…I am slightly obsessed with the celebrity world. Maybe it is because I know I will never actually BE a celebrity and the fame, money and clothes (oh the clothes) fascinate me. And I have my fair share of celebrity crushes…don’t you?
My all time GIRL crush: Keri Russell (I just think she is so classically beautiful)
My Foodie Crush: Tom Colicchio (don’t ask…it just is, k?)
My TV crush: Taye Diggs (need I say more?)
My MUSICAL Crush: Josh Groban (I just find him to be adorable!!)
And the last and most important..dun dun dun…my all time MAN crush: Peyton Manning!
I love hearing who other people crush on…so tell me some of your celebrity crushes?
What Kelly Said 