Team Leah Bean Rett 5K Walk

It is October again, when people walk, run, or crawl, even, to support research on Rett Syndrome with the Team Leah Bean Virtual 5K.  I think this is the fifth year since it was initiated by Maren.  It has been my joy to participate at least three times...twice on our mission.

This year's performance on my part was a bit more difficult as the old pounds have added up since last year.  Having made that awful confession, I will also note that I am now down ten pounds from the mission high of a few months ago.

So last Friday I decided was the day. I have been walking to the office a couple of times a week for a while.  This week is the fourth week of walking.  Week One was twice walking to the office which is about a half mile or more away.  Week Two was three times (two zone conferences made it impossible).  Week Three was three times, with the 5K in there.

To get the 5K in, this year it was not all at once. I walked over a mile and a half to the office, buzzed around in the office all day (on a very small amount of broccoli to support my health!), then walked home more than 2 1/4 miles.  I used my stroller on all these walks to give me confidence.  When I returned to the apartment on Friday I barely managed to lift the stoller over the board and locked it to the crossbar then dragged myself and backpack up those stairs.  The top of both feet were rather screaming at me but I managed the trip up the stairs and sat down in the chair in a state of semi-collapse but with the most wonderful feeling of accomplishment, and love for Leah and her family and all the other children  and families with this impossible diagnosis.

I am not much of a selfie-taker but here I am about 30 minutes after arriving home.  Thankfully to a crock pot full of fabulous vegetable soup.  As it happens I was down for the count and did not eat any until much later.  It was great soup.  Even Dear One liked it.  Not enough to have a second bowl, but then, more for me!  No problemo!

Here I am the next day.  Don't I look like I had a fantastic walk?!  It makes me so happy to be able to support good causes, even if it is in just a minuscule way.  Dear One took this picture for which I am very grateful.

On Monday I walked again.  I thought I would find a shortcut to the top of the hill so I walked down 185th until I got to Whole Foods then turned left up the hill to find a way through the residential neighborhoods.  Nope.  No shortcut.  Fences everywhere.  So I got in another very long walk to the office.  It took me over an hour each way.  The good news is that my pace has improved by 4 minutes per mile. I won't tell you the actual pace because you will fall down laughing so hard had hit your head on the rocker and be out cold.  I cannot have that.  Just smile knowing that I am feeling pleased with progress.

Now, if I can get those tendons to stop shouting and keep up this walking...

Munchie Monday: Food Fail

How great it would be if  we could use the Crock pot for overnight cooking of a great breakfast.  So I did a whole lot of looking for simple, easy, cheap breakfasts in the Crock pot.  And found one that was touted as fabulous...so I tried it.

It turns out NOT to be overnight so I made it for lunch.  It took 3 hours to cook on low. I was thinking the missionaries could put it going before leaving their apartments and come home and have breakfast for lunch.  Not going to happen.

This is what it looked like in the Crock Pot when cooked.


This was a French Toast in a Slow Cooker recipe.  Sounds reasonable and doable.  

Slice French bread 1 inch thick.  Spread both sides with softened cream cheese and place in the crockery bowl touching each other.

Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar over the bread then sprinkle in 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice over the top.  Slice up 3-4 bananas and cover the bread with the banana chunks.  (That was the big mistake right there...)

In a bowl, mix together 4 large eggs, 1/4 cup milk, and 1/3 cup honey.  Pour over the top.  It should come 3/4 of the way up the bread.  Sprinkle on 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans then cut 2-4 Tablespoons of cold butter into thin slices and put on top.

Put it to cook on low for 3 -4 hours.  It looks like the above picture when it is cooked.

Even with a big glug of real maple syrup on it, this was kind of nasty.  We will not be making it again.

Food Friday: The Best Pumpkin Muffins

We were having a potluck at the office this week. (We do it as a reward for ourselves the week after zone conferences and two weeks after Transfers.  We need a little something about then...) I was making some vegetarian shepherd's pie and was not too confident it would be well-received.  What to make to go along with that delight?  I had some pumpkin so I looked for pumpkin muffin recipes.  This is what I found: 

The Best Pumpkin Muffins (Ever)

Tonight I am copping out a bit by not putting the recipe here, but on the other hand, I followed the recipe precisely.  Well, except that I used a heaping tablespoon of the homemade pumpkin pie spice I made last week instead of whatever she said in the recipe.

The other reason I am giving you the recipe as a link is that I think lots of people would love her blog.

As you can see, I put the muffins in a silicon muffin pan with jack o'lantern faces on them.  That part was not too successful though the heart pan turned out okay muffins. I will stick to using that particular silicon pan for molding chocolates.

You cannot see the faces here but they worked pretty well, and the messy smaller pan was pumpkins that were pretty much okay when they came out of the molds.  The ones in the orange mold were a little too thick, but then, it was not real chocolate.  It was that nasty candy melt stuff so it was possible to bite into it.  Real chocolate is too hard, in my experience.  At least, the way I do it, it is too thick so it is too hard and you worry about breaking off a tooth when you start to consume it.  Oh well.

Maybe I will go on an all-vegetable-and-fruit with a few beans and grains fast for a while so I won't feel the need to make junky food items like the above.  The muffins tasted pretty good, though, and were nice and moist. I HATE muffins and other things that are supposed to be moist but instead are dry.

And the shepherd's pie was quiet edible, in fact.  Dear One finished up the last of it tonight!  Big surprise.  Happy surprise.

Vegetation Near Us!

As I have been walking up to the office I have been able to see things up close and personal.  The newest thing I have noticed is that the moss is back.

All summer these little crevices have been dark as night.  Now with the "rainy season" more or less upon us, the little mossies must think it is safe to come out into the fresh air again.

 When I was crossing the bridge this morning there was some very thick lush moss. I did not take a picture because I was walking as fast as I could plus listening to "Saints" and was too much of a slug to stop and dismantle things so I could take a picture.  Another day.  Maybe it will be more impressive later...

Munchie Monday: "Poodles" and Zoodles!

Tried something new on Friday after a long week. SPOILER ALERT:  it was not totally successful!

We got home from the office late on Friday but I still wanted to make the zoodles and spaghetti sauce.  I pulled the three zucchini out of the refrigerator to spiralize.  Since I had just purchased a $99 Cuisinart Elemental 13-Cup Bowl Food Processor with Spiralizer Kit, I thought things would be great.  NOT SO.  I don't know how Cuisinart make such a piece of junk.  After multiple tries to put it together following the directions exactly, at the 8th time trying and failing to get the thing to start, I cursed silently to myself (though for some reason Dear One asked me if I was swearing....!  I wasn't but I was thinking mean thought...)  and put that piece of junk equipment back on the table by its box and hauled out my manual spiralizer.

This led to the next issue with supper.  The first zucchini spiralized beautifully.  The second one was okay.  The third one, which was less firm, would not spiralize at all. It just sort of ground off the end.  Rats! So maddening and my blood sugar was dropping like a stone.

Since I really did not think that was enough noodles for our supper,  I took two small russet potatoes and spiralized them, which worked beautifully.

On to the last trial with supper:  I put the zoodles and "poodles" in the saucepan to cook before adding the spaghetti sauce.  After about 5 minutes of cooking which is way more than necessary for the zoodles, and since the poodles were the same size, I thought I would speed up the cooking by tossing in the spaghetti sauce, a little garlic, and some Italian seasoning, and brought it up to a boil.  I let the mess boil for about 5 minutes, then threw in some grated Parmesan cheese, stirred well and was ready to serve it.

In the meantime Dear One, who was also starving (though a bag a "scary corn chips" had sort of blunted his hunger a bit) had wandered through the kitchen.  He looked in the pot and said, "It looks iffy."  Just what I wanted to hear.  Being a little bit snippy-feeling, I told him it was good and he would like it.  And it was what was for supper.

After dropping his bowl off to him where he was sitting on the couch researching something on the tablet, I started eating my bowl. It tasted good.  The only problem was that the poodles were not thoroughly cooked, i.e. not cooked to bits.  I had forgotten that when you have an acidic sauce the other food needs to be completely cooked because the acid stops the cooking.  Or something like that.  I had not problem eating it, however.    Dear One, on the other hand, ate a reasonable amount then told me it was not as bad as he had thought!  Well, at least he ate some, and there was plenty of other food in the house if he was really hungry.

On Saturday I returned the Cuisinart machine to Costco where I had purchased it.

Food Friday: Slow Cooker Apple Pie Cake!

With the advent of slow cookers in the missionary apartments, and having just seen a recipe for slow cooker Apple Pie Cake, I had to try it to see if was worth giving to the missionaries for their recipe archive.

Since I had the same Crock Pot as the missionaries this was a no-brainer to try.  The original recipe is in the link above.  This is what I did:

Apple Pie Cake

5 apples-I used Jazz apples, peeled, cored, and sliced and placed them in the slow cooker ceramic bowl.

In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over the apples and, WITH A WOODEN SPOON, stir well to coat all the apple pieces with cinnamon sugar.

In a medium or larger bowl, place one box of dried cake mix. I used Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix.  Melt 1/2 cup butter and stir into the cake mix, making it a nice crumble texture.  You will probably need to use your hands, but be prepared...it sticks to  your hands.

Pour half of the crumble mix over the apples and stir in gently with the wooden spoon.  Arrange the apple mixture in an even layer then spread the remaining cake mix and butter mixture over the top more or less evenly. 

Set the timer to 2 1/2 hours on low.  At the end of the time, pierce some apples to see if they are ready to eat.  Mine were not so I put it cooking another hour. It did not take a full extra hour.

REMEMBER:  don't lift the crock pot cover after you set it timing or you will be adding to the cooking time.

Things I will do differently next time:
1.  I will increase the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon in the apples.
2.  I will also add cinnamon to the cake mix itself.  You cannot get too much cinnamon.  Just cooking fills your head with that wonderful aroma and is good enough.  You don't even need to eat the pie cake to get the benefit of that cinnamon.
3.  I will use softened butter instead of melted butter to see if I can made a more crumbly cake mix mixture rather than a globby cake mix mixture.
4.  I will probably try a different apple.  These Jazz apples were pretty sweet. I much prefer tart apples, or at least on the more tart end of the spectrum.

Crockpot Missionaries!

Recently our missionaries have been making their own suppers Monday through Friday rather than eating with members of the congregation.  They will still eat with ward members on the weekends.  Our mission president thought the missionaries would eat better healthier meals if they had crock pots so all the senior missionaries went to Costco who was (and maybe still is) having a sale on 7-quart Crock pots that let you program them to a small extent.  We each picked up five so we would have enough for each apartment to have one.  (There are about 70 apartments in the mission...)

Today was the first of two zone conferences where the Crock pots were going to be dispensed.  Dear One and our local young missionaries plus some senior missionaries loaded 45 pots into the back of the truck.  We drove them to the zone conference in Tualatin.  During the conference a lady who is a crock pot queen gave a short presentation with tips on how to use the Crock pot.  She had previously sent us a number of quick and easy recipes to pass along to the missionaries, which I did.

For myself, I thought that was a good Crock pot so I availed myself of one and made some Apple Pie Cake. It has five ingredients.  I will be sharing that here tomorrow, I hope, and with the missionaries as it was okay eating.

This is the truck ready to hand out the crock pots to the missionaries.

If anyone has any quick and easy, with few ingredients, and inexpensive, recipes to share, please email them to me!  I will pass them along.  Especially good would be recipes that could be used for several meals in several different ways.  Thanks!

A Little Levity is Always Fun

A few minutes ago our eight-year-old grandson called.  He had some jokes for me...and I thought I would share them.

1.  What did the lion say after eating the clown?

2.  What did the computer do when it was tired?

3.  What did the cake say to the fork?





I tried to make the text turn upside down so you could have some time to think, but, while it worked in Word, I could not get it to paste here upside down.  Oh, well...




1.  That tasted funny!
2.  It crashed!
3.  Do you want a piece of me?

1.     

Afghan Update

Here is the afghan with two stripes of leftover yarn on each end.  They are not the same size stripes as you  see but they are fine in my book.  At this point I am stopping the afghan for a short (hopefully) gnome project for which I plan to use the other four leftover skeins of yarn.  If there is more yarn after the gnome project, I will probably add to the stripes. I really want to use up all the yarn. Soon.

Munchie Monday: Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

Monica/Yummly . Pumpkin Pie Spice recipe is slightly different from what I did.  Actually the only difference is that I did not find mace in the bulk spice bins so I left it out.

This makes a little more than a pint of pumpkin pie spice.

1 cup ground cinnamon
1/2 cup ground ginger
1/4 cup ground cloves
4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
4 teaspoons ground allspice


Mix very well.  You may have to put through a fine-mesh strainer to get the little clumps of ginger to cooperate.

You can turn this into apple pie spice by leaving out the ginger and cloves, but since I like those flavors, I will probably use this indiscriminately as either pumpkin or apple spice.

This is the oatmeal ready to eat with maple syrup and walnuts on top.  For Dear One.

Food Friday: Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats with Pumpkin and Maple Syrup

Monica at Yummly has some great recipes.  She put out a few pumpkin recipes this week.  I am trying the Crockpot Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats recipe.  Sort of.

This is what I did:

In a two-quart bowl, or maybe it is three-quart, I will have to check, I placed these ingredients:
1 cup uncooked steel cut oats
3 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
Half a can of pumpkin purée--about 3/4 cup
1/4 cup pure Vermont maple syrup
3 caps vanilla--probably about 2 teaspoons
Heaping tablespoon of homemade pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice)
Heaping tablespoon ground flax seeds
1/4-1/2 teaspoon himalayan pink salt
2 Tablespoons butter

The recipe called for grated apple or applesauce but I forgot this.  Since it is a new recipe anyway, I don't suppose it matters much.  I don't have very high expectations but would be pleased if it turned out to be tasty.  When it is cooked I can always add some applesauce to it if it seem needed.

Mix all these ingredients together carefully in your bowl then place in a large crockpot.  Our crockpot is 7-quarts and oval.  When the bowl is in the ceramic crockpot bowl, VERY CAREFULLY pour in warm water about half way up the bowl of ingredients, cover, then turn the crockpot to LOW for 8 hours.  I am writing this part after having put the porridge cooking.  More in the morning when it is, hopefully, cooked and delicious.

Pumpkin Oatmeal in the Crockpot ready to "double boil".

UPDATE:
I started the crockpot cooking at 9 PM.  This morning at 6:30 AM I opened the cover.  This is a crockpot that cooks on low for 8 hours then goes into warming mode.  You do the math to know how long this was in the crockpot.

In the night I woke up once and had the delightful benefit of smelling the cinnamon!  A great fragrance to enjoy. It put me right back to sleep.

Pumpkin Oatmeal after cooking

The pumpkin oatmeal had cooked to perfection.  The solids had solidified and some liquid was on top.  After stirring for a minute with our trusty wooden spoon it was nice and smooth.

Pumpkin Oatmeal after stirring.

Taste test:  well, it is certainly edible.  Not very sweet, which is a plus, though Dear One may want a spoonful of brown sugar or even maple syrup on it.  The pumpkin is there but not overpowering.  The texture is luscious and smooth.  I think this is a good recipe that I might make again.  I will add apple the next time, though, to see what difference that makes.  I think today I will throw some chopped pecans over the top and add some more ground flaxseed.

The Ugly Bug Infestation and What I Did About It

Bugs are not my favorite.  Some bugs are less favorite than others.  Arachnids, for example, are really really out there in terms of not being loved by me.  When Daughter M and Grandson J were here last week we were heading out of the apartment for someplace and M turned to me and said, "Charlotte is living in your doorway."  Those were NOT words I wanted to hear.  I have still not been able to read Charlotte's Web all the way through.  Please don't tell the grandchildren.  They think I am brave.  Well, I am not brave in the face of arachnids.  I can't even call them by their common name without cringing.

Well, we have had some other bugs here lately.  M saw a large black bug over the doorway and kindly brushed him down with the broom and off he went. I thought.

Night before last we were just going to sleep, when about to turn off the light a large black creature came whizzing into our bedroom.  AND DISAPPEARED ON MY SIDE OF THE BED!!!

Dear One kindly leaped out of bed...well, crawled out actually...and came to check. He could not find any bugs.  We knew it was not a fly and it did not move like a bee so I suspected an ugly bug.

Now, I do not know what ugly bugs actually are but they are about an inch long with a hard pointed-on-both-ends carapace and too many legs and wings.

Yesterday I came into the workroom to do some more changing audio cassette tapes into digital files.  I had just sat down at the computer when I saw that something dark moved out of the corner of my eye. Yikes!  I looked over and there was an ugly bug on the baseboard.  My heart rate accelerated magnificently. (It was good to know my heart is capable of such a thing...!) I happened to notice that I had an empty pill container near my hand on the desk so I gathered all my courage, squatted down...no small feat in itself...and managed to scoop up the ugly bug and imprison him in the medicine bottle. 

As I was writing the previous, M called.  I went into the bedroom to take the call and THERE ON THE BLINDS WAS ANOTHER ONE!!

Horrid creatures!  Here they are, all three that I have arrested, in their prison cells.  I am withholding food and drink and hope they will die soon. 

Why they are here I don't know, but they creep me out.

Please understand I am not complaining because there has been an amazing lack of unpleasant creatures for over a year.  Well, there were the ants, but like the pains of childbirth, once they have been gone for a while, it is easy to forget them.

Transfers Week--Bedding

Dear One and I are responsible for getting the right bedding to the meetinghouse where the incoming missionaries will arrive for interviews, a little training, supper, and assignment to companions and areas.

Last night Dear One and I had to purchase more sheets then went to the storage garages and loaded into our car comforters, fleece blankets, and sheets to round out the needs of the missionaries.  The trunk was already full of new Costco pillows.  Well, we only give them new bedding.

So, here are a couple of pictures of the car loaded for bear:

One of my responsibilities is to order bag suppers for the arriving missionaries and the Senior missionaries who help them get through the evening of interviews, bedding allocation, etc.  I usually purchase apples and/or other fruit and bottled water to go with their sandwich, chips, and cookie.

Here are 30 Pink Lady apples and 35 bottles of water.

We moved much of the bedding plus the water and apples to Elder and Sister J's car since Elder J will be going out to the meetinghouse early tomorrow to help with the actual parking lot transfers.  He will kindly bring in the water and put it in the refrigerator plus also put the bedding in the Relief Society Room where the arriving missionaries will pick them up.

Tonight is the Departing Dinner.  It is always a joy to help prepare for the missionaries. It is also always tough to say goodbye.  In fact, I do my best to avoid that.  Usually Dear One and I leave before the very last cleanup is done to go pick up the bedding.  That has already been done!  Tonight we need to get to the library to return a Library of Things item...since it won't work tomorrow when the item is due.

It occurs to me that this post is not very interesting.  Sorry.  I can't think what to write to make it better. This blog is meant to chronicle our missionary experiences.  Since some of it is mundane, well, what can I say more....Happy Fall to everyone!

Munchie Monday: Parkview Dutch Potato Soup

When I was at the Parkview Adventist Medical Center for their Lifestyle Choices program a few years ago we would meet together and make some food item sometimes.  What I liked absolutely the best was called Dutch Potato Soup.

We were having a  full-time Senior Missionary potluck supper at the President's home after General Conference...to get together, to eat together, and to discuss things we learned and were touched by in General Conference.  We do this at every Conference. It is such a lovely evening.  We brought this soup.  Some people enjoyed it, but it pretty lightly salted so I am always tempted to add salt and pepper to my bowl. I didn't actually eat any at the supper because there were so many other delicious foods to try. I was sure there would be some to bring home so I could eat it then.

Dutch Potato Soup  (the way I made it)

1. First thing to do:  put 1 1/2 cups raw cashews in a large measuring cup and fill with water.  Let sit while the next steps take place.

2.
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped sweet onions
4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

Put the above in a large skillet on medium and cook until the onion juice has been extracted and the onions are nicely translucent.  It look my skillet about ten minutes.  I stirred it frequently. When we were at Parkview they emphasized that you MUST put all the salt in with the cooking onions to extract juice and flavor...so I add that message here.

3. While the onions are cooking,  peel and thinly slice russet potatoes and press down in a measure cup to equal 8 cups of potato slices. Add 6 cups water to a large pot and carefully dump in the potatoes.  Bring to a boil then cover and turn down heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are soft.

4.  Add 4 teaspoons of granulated garlic to the cooked onions and stir well.  It might clump up but that will be all right. Stir well.

5. Drain the cashews through a mesh strainer then rinse well.

6.  Put 2 cups water in a high speed blender then add the cashews.  Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until a smooth cashew cream is ready.

7.  Add the cashew cream to the cooked potatoes.  Stir well and cook 1-2 minutes.  Add the onions.  Use a spatula to get  all the onion, garlic, and olive oil out of the frying pan and into the soup.  Stir well.  Serve.  It looks pretty with chopped parsley on top, even dried parsley.  We did not happen to do that at the potluck supper.

This makes enough soup for 10-12 large servings.  Dear One had seconds.

Food Friday: Treat Counter

Well, to call this food is really stretching it, but here is the story.

Sister J's daughter sent her and Elder J a box today. Inside were Halloween decorations, plus some chocolate-covered cinnamon bears from the BYU Bookstore and a Halloween checkers board with orange and black candy checkers.  We decided we should can the jelly beans and get some candy corn instead...so off I went to Winco.

This is what we now have:

It is possible that you cannot tell that the pitcher with wrapped caramels in it is a skull.  Very cute.  The covered bowl is unwrapped candy.  I am positive it will go down well.  I have it more than arms' length away from my own mouth, though.  No need for sugar on my side of the desk...not that I will be totally virtuous even though I set a new healthy goal this morning...

On the other end of the counter, right in front of me, is a bowl of vegetables plus today some fruit.  Plus you will notice an empty candy dish.  The dish was mounded up with wrapped mini chocolates this morning.  Now look at it!!  There were eight missionaries in here today.  Enough said!

On a different note: behind  my chair you will see a printer with some white paper on top of it.  I am feeling very smug this afternoon BECAUSE  for several days I have not been able to use that printer.  We were beginning to think we would need to get a new one.  This morning I decided that if it was broken anyway, I might as well try to fix it.

On YouTube I found a "Clean the Dirty Stripes Off You Printer Output"  or some such title.  Don't look for that because that is not even close to what the title was, but I put in the printer brand and type and found a 10:46 minute video on how to fix your printer.  Amazingly, I did all the steps one after the other and did not have to go to the last step which was calling in a service provider.  The printer is happily working again.  Or at least, I am happy it is working.

Vegetation Near Us, Plus Rocks

This beautiful tree lets us know that it really is fall.  Early autumn is such a beautiful time of year.  I love it.

For months now I have been meaning to take a picture for our grandchildren who love rocks.  There is a rock garden just outside our office building.  Every time I go by I smile thinking of the grandchildren who love rocks.  I mentioned to Dear One that there was one particular rock that I was sure one certain grandchild would love, and maybe we should bring it home.  He reminded me of all the signs in national parks that say not to touch or take with you anything when you leave...so I guess I will not bring a nice rock back to Vermont next summer.  It is a nice thought, though!  This picture is the best it is going to be.  Sorry, Chickadee!

Knitting Vicissitudes

The afghan is coming along.  Two stripes are on one end and one stripe is on the other end.  I noticed a problem on the one-stripe end.  I tried to fix it with a crochet hook, something that has worked many times before.  This time, not so much.  After taking the stitches back to the error a second time I think I have decided that the problem occurred when I picked up the knitting after having left it for a while, and instead of continuing on in the correct direction, I started back the other way.  This left a loop and a hole.

This is what it looks like now that I have "fixed" it.  Not very good.  Having said that, I am going to try not to think about it again.  This is just a throw blanket for Dear One for the couch.  It is not a blanket that I will enter into Tunbridge Fair next year...!

If I had been smart I would have taken a picture of the flaw before I started the fix.  I can tell you with absolute sincerity that it looked MUCH better before.  There was just a small pink bigger loop.  That there are two extra loops plus the problems all the way back to the  needles.  Oh well. Into every life a little rain must fall.

Munchie Monday: 3-2-1 Greek Kale Chips

Here is another recipe for kale chips.  I have made them twice this week as we had company I was trying to interest in kale!  The first time was way too salty, though I really do like salt.

3-2-1 Greek Style Kale Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a half sheet pan or other large rimmed pan by placing a silicon sheet on it or parchment paper.

In a small bowl place:

1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
3 teaspoons Greek Seasoning

Mix well with a spoon and set aside.

In a large bowl place all the leaves you have stripped off the kale ribs.  They can be any size you want, but you do want some larger ones as well as smaller ones.

Drizzle 1-2 Tablespoon of olive oil over the leaves then toss them well so that every inch of the leaves are shiny with oil.  It is amazing how small an amount of olive oil will do this.  1-2 Tablespoons is quite a lot...less is better.  You really just need enough that the dry seasoning will stick.

Once all the leaves are shiny, sprinkle the seasoning over the top, then toss again to get a good bit of coverage on the leaves. 

Greek mix on oiled kale ready to toss!

Spread on the baking sheet then bake for 10 minutes.  Pull out of the oven to check.  Some will seem ready but probably will not be chips yet.  Put back in oven for 5 more minutes then check again.  You might have to let go a final five minutes (20 minutes in all) but no more than that or you will burn it.  Burned is NOT good.  Trust me.

Kale chips ready to munch!

The second batch I made this week was also too salty.  I think the next time (there will be a next time!) I will make it 1-2-2 Kale Chips using only 2 teaspoons of the Greek Seasoning.  After all, the first ingredient is salt.  In fact, maybe I should use my own homemade Greek Seasoning which does not have salt in it.  Duh!  What was I thinking?!

Anyway, it is still good.