I threw my hands up in the air and said “to kale with it” for a couple reasons this week. First, I had gone to the farmer’s market and I was lured in by the seduction of all that gorgeous fresh produce. Clearly my eyes were bigger than what we could eat this week. In fact, they were almost bigger than my bike basket.
Second, I love salty snacks, but truth is these days I am really trying to watch what I eat and it’s hard to find much in the snack aisle that is lower on the calories (sure – you can have 8 tortilla chips for 140 calories but really, who can eat just 8?) let alone with much nutritional value.
An easy answer that does double duty for the crisper than overruneth over + a salty snack fix is kale chips. They really couldn’t be much easier to make.
- 1 bunch of kale – whatever variety suits your fancy
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Salt
- Preheat oven to 275°.
- Wash the kale, and remove the stems and tough center ribs. Cut or tear the leaves into large pieces, toss with the olive oil and spread on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until crisp (keep in mind, they will crisp up even more as they cool).
And these are totally guilt free. I ran them through MyFitnessPal and they said that a cup was 58 calories, 5 g of calcium, 1 g protein and 1 g fiber.
On a complete side note, one of my cats seems to find these as tasty as I do. Go figure.
So, the next time the salty craving hits, no need to curse. Just say, “to kale with it!”.
Yum, yum! They are also great tossed with sesame oil and whatever spices. Once again, your blog has inspired me to get back into the kitchen for some yummy goodness!