Baked Italian Kale Chips

So I have heard tons of people raving about how awesome Kale chips are. I know that a lot of my friends really like Kale and I’ve just never tried it. Before I went on my diet, I just didn’t eat a lot of fresh vegetables or fruits. But I’ve been working hard to branch out and to try new things- because you just never know when you might find something that you love!

That being said- I wouldn’t say that I love these chips. They’re good, for sure- but not as awesome as real potato chips. The more you eat, the better they taste. But I think that’s because I’m not familiar with the taste of kale and wasn’t really sure exactly what was going to come out when I made them. I think I expected a different taste. I’m going to try this over again with spinach leaves. Because I know I love spinach leaves.

At any rate- they’re low calorie. 105 calories for two cups of leaves plus what they are tossed in. I definitely suggest that anyone who is on a diet or who is trying to find alternative snacks give it a try. You might love it. I think I’ll learn to love them after I eat them more often.

You need a bunch of kale and some Italian dressing. I use Kraft Light Zesty Italian Dressing because it’s only 25 calories for two tablespoons of dressing. Pull the leaves off of the stems of the kale- I used about half the bunch. It is roughly two cups of leaves. Make sure they’re bite sized if you yank bigger leaves. Pour two-three tablespoons of the dressing in a bowl. Toss the leaves for an even coat. Bake at 300 degrees for about 15-20 minutes- or until the leaves are dry and crispy. Then devour!

209 Calorie Pancakes

Don’t those just look scrumptious? I think they do, And they are, if that matters to anyone at all. These are a new favorite of mine for breakfast. It makes 3-5 pancakes (depending on how you pour) that are about five inches in diameter. The calorie total for just the pancakes is 209. When I added syrup and the strawberries it was only 271 calories total. An excellent number considering how good these are and how filling. 16 grams of protein, too! (From the eggs.)

Ingredients:

• 2oz of 1/3 Fat Cream Cheese (or whatever you prefer)
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp granulated sugar (or truvia/splenda/etc.)

Directions:

• Get a non-stick pan hot and ready to go!
• Blend together all of the ingredients. I actually used a blender for this- I found it to be easiest.
• Pour onto the pan in small amounts. It will create a very thin pancake- much like a crêpe.
• Cook as you would a regular pancake. Flip it when the bottom is brown. Then cook the other side.
• Top with topping of your choice! For syrup, I like to put it in a small condiment dish and dip it, I use less syrup that way. Though I definitely suggest fruit. Strawberries are great. You can roll the pancake around a strawberry slice and it’s heavenly.

Oops!

I lost my hosting for my website, and my pictures went out along with it. I’m going to periodically go through and re-upload and re-add pictures to some entries. Also I am going to start posting new entries! I’ve been doing some more cooking lately- mostly healthier recipes- that I’ll be sharing.

Soon There Will Be… An Update!

My good friend DL Dzioba is going to come on as a co-blogger/guest blogger. We’re going to start cooking dinner Friday nights for our group of friends, and dropping some recipes on here. Expect an update Saturday!

Reese’s Cookies Revisted

So I made these cookies for the first time in March. They were amazing. Last week I wanted to make more, and got half way through the process when I realized I did not have enough regular sugar for what the recipe called for. So I ended up doing some tweaking- and somehow came up with a cookie that was twice as delicious as the first batch! It was a total accident- and I thought for sure as I was making them that they would be awful. The dough wasn’t as thick and dry as the first time I made it- in fact, it was similar to the consistency of chocolate chip cookies dough.

The Original Recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. What I ended up having was 1/4 cup of sugar and then 3/4 cup of brown sugar. I’m not sure how this changed the consistency of my cookie dough. I might have done something else. But it ended up being wetter than the first go round.

So what I ended up doing was refrigerating the cookie dough over night. The next morning it still wasn’t solid enough to roll into a ball to pop the peanut butter filling into it that way. In fact- the peanut butter filling ended up thinner as well. So what I did was flatten the dough into a round disc, put the peanut butter on top of it, and then put another round cookie on top of it and pressed the edges together- much like a sandwich cookie.

I baked the cookies for 9 minutes. The middles were risen because of the peanut butter. And I let them cook. And they tasted so much better. The peanut butter in the middle was much more prominent this time, and the texture of the cookies was indescribable. They were the best cookies I have ever made- and I seriously thought, the entire time, that it would be a huge disaster!