Delicious health food

nom nom ... Kale ... nom ... chips ... nom nom ... are the ... nom nom ... best ... nom nom nom ...

I'm serious. Kale has been in the news a lot lately. At least, I've been seeing it all over the internet. In particular, how to make kale chips.

Making kale chips is so very easy. You take a bunch of washed kale, remove the thick stems, toss the leaves with some olive oil and salt (sea salt is the best), lay them on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degree for 20-30 minutes, until crisp. They taste a lot like regular chips, especially when they are fresh out of the oven. And if you eat a big ol' bowl full ... it's okay! Kale is a super food, and as a leafy green veggie, it's almost impossible to eat too much (unless you continue to eat when you are full, which you should never do, of course).

I made kale chips for my husband and me one evening. We couldn't stop eating them. I had a very large bunch, though, so we did have a good bit leftover. We had friends over for a game night the next day and everyone loved them. I dipped mine in homemade hummus. The day after that, some of us went skiing, and someone said as we were driving home, "You know what I really want right now? Kale chips."

(I did notice some of the kale chips were chewy rather than crisp the second day. I'm wondering if this is because I put some still warm chips in a plastic bag to store. I think this may have lead to some condensation which de-crisped some of them.)

A great way to get some raw kale is to mix it in a smoothie. This is a good recipe.

Why should you put some kale in your diet? Kale is high in beta carotene, vitamins K and C,  lutein and is also a good source of calcium. As with other brassica vegetables (such as broccoli and cauliflower), kale is high in indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells. This chemical may also block the growth of cancer cells.

Nom nom!