Kale Chips

KALE CHIPS

De-stemmed and torn into bigger-than-bite size (cause the bitches shrink) and then sprinkled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and kosher salt.

Baked at 350 for 15 or 20 Min until the edges are brown. These are so freaking good.

Roasted Chickpeas

Roasted Chickpeas

A little experiment- I found this on a cooking website, and they turned out pretty good. It's a nice change up from roasted nuts for munching, and i kinda think they'd be good on salad.

SO- can of chickpeas rinsed really well, and patted dry. I then seasoned with a little olive oil and lots of garlic powder, a little kosher salt and added a little paprika for color- though that didn't really work out. Next time I'd nix that and add onion powder and maybe some dill.

Dumped it onto a cookie sheet (this one I lined with tin foil because it has been used for grain products before and some of my very gluten-sensitive buds can get sick from it.).

Baked at 450 for 30 min- but I think they would have been better a little crunchier- so next time I'll be adding ten min or so. But! they were still pretty darn good, and looked just great!

Summer Rolls!

SUMMER ROLLS
My friends Wendy and Dec came over for dinner to meet our new dog Apple. As usual, everyone at the table has some sort of special dietary needs. Wendy can't have gluten, Dec and Yakov (my boyfriend) are lactose in tolerant and I'm a vegetarian. This as a main course worked beautifully. AND it fit within my rules of healthy:
1. As close to unprocessed as possible.
2. as much raw vegetables as possible
3. no corn syrup
4. responsible calorie load.

These took a little bit of practice to get the freaking wrapper to work, but it was awesome to not have to have the stove on in the heat, and it was all kinds of tasty.

So first off the wrapper needs to soak for about 15 seconds before wrapping, and can tear if you don't do it all speedy- so I set everything out ahead of time. you can put whatever vegetables you want in the things, but this is what I had on hand.
tofu, mint, basil, cucumber, and bean sprouts. I recommend adding baby spring mix greens or cabbage to get it a little more crunchy and add some volume.

Soak the darn thing, and lay it onto a damp workspace. If it's dry, the wrapper tends to tear easier.

roll it like a burrito.

By watching a few how-to videos, I saw this as a way to control the portion size of the sauce, which is really the thing that can turn this into a calorie bomb- I took two table spoons of peanut sauce and spread it on the roll, and then wrapped the whole thing in another wrapper.

the peanut sauce was super easy, too:
-a few spoonfuls of natural peanut butter
-a table spoon of gluten free soy sauce (it's a big deal, some makers put that shit in everything)
-a table spoon of sugar
-clove of minced garlic
-some water added till it got to a consistency I liked.
I just mixed it with a fork till I was happy.

They kept in the fridge great for the five hours before my guests arrived. I just wrapped them in damp paper towels and put them in a Tupperware.

Because they weren't all that colorful I pared it with cut fruit (peaches, kiwi and cantaloupe) and a quinoa strawberry salad- which I think I'll put up here anther time.