Kale Chips, An Inexpensive Crunchy Snack

Our first kale is up and ready, along with a handful of sugar snap peas.  Yum!  I brought it our first small bunch and turned them into kale chips.  The kids gobbled them up in a matter of minutes!

Making Kale Chips is exceptionally easy...

First, pick your kale from the garden.  Wash and pat dry. Pinch of stems and any bad bits.  Lay in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle/spritz with olive oil or melted real butter.  Finish off with a sprinkling of seasoning (celtic sea salt or a garlic/salt/herb blend, or something spicy, maybe salt and grated Parmesan cheese).  Bake at 350F for a few minutes, watch close. You want them to get dry and crispy but not burnt.  This took about 5 minutes in  my oven.  I pulled the pan out and flipped about halfway through for even baking.

Enjoy!

Chicken DIVINE (Gluten Free)

Or at least that's what we call this in our house!

First make 4 cups brown rice in a rice cooker.

Now, make your cream of mushroom soup.

*1 lb mushrooms, washed and sliced into desired size
*5-6 green onions, diced (greens and whites)
*6 Tbs real butter unsalted
*5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
*several small sprigs fresh herbs (I use Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, & Basil)
*6 TBS Tapioca Starch/flour
*1-2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt (go by taste)
* Pepper to taste
*2 cups heavy cream (not ultra pasteurized, raw if possible)
*6 cups chicken stock

Melt butter over medium heat. Add minced garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper, saute for about a minute. Add tapioca flour and create a thick paste (roux). Add sliced mushrooms and green onions. Allow to cook for about 2 minutes until they begin to get soft and give up a bit of liquid. Add cream and stock while whisking. Continue to whisk as soup heats and thickens. Reduce heat and allow to simmer until desired thickness is achieved. This should give you a nice creamy soup consistency, adjust as desired using more or less starch/flour in the roux.

Now, prepare your chicken.

To serve 8 for dinner, I prepare 4 chicken breasts or use leftovers from roasted chicken. I like to add some minced garlic, Celtic sea salt, and pepper in the pan. Cook and dice into bite size pieces. Set aside.

Place the rice, chicken and about half the soup (reserve the rest for later use) in layers in a glass casserole dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese and additional seasoning if desired. Bake at 450 for about 30 minutes until hot and melty.

Serve with a salad full of fresh, green veggies.

Menu Week of May 24 (Gluten Free Options)

This weeks menu for Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie... our focus is on fast or prepared in advance because Spring sports and end of year dance is keeping us HOPPING!

Day 1~
Breakfast: Overnight Steel Cut Oats w/ strawberries, cream, and honey
Snacks: Airpopped popcorn w/ coconut oil, kefir smoothie
Lunch: Tuna and grated cheese on salad & carrot sticks
Steak Stir Fry: Thin sliced grassfed steak on brown rice w/ GF Teriyaki sauce, sprouts, carrots, snap peas, mushrooms, zucchini & asparagus (brown rice instead of rolls for gf)

Day 2~
Breakfast: Honey Oat (GF) Pancakes w/ maple syrup & applesauce
Snacks: HM Not Grahams (gf) w/ nut butter, kefir smoothie
Lunch: Egg omelet w/ mushrooms & cheese, apple slices & carrot sticks
Dinner: Crockpot roasted chicken w/ brown rice, steamed broccoli and salad

Day 3~
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on toast, cantaloupe
Snacks: Kefir Smoothie, banana w/ nut butter
Lunch: Leftover chicken sandwiches, salad, kale "chips"
Dinner: Crockpot Roast w/ sweet potatoes, mushrooms, carrots & salad

Day 4~
Breakfast: HM sausage, Whole wheat rolls & gf biscuits, mixed frozen berries
Snacks: Kefir smoothie, cheese on flax crackers
Lunch: Chefs salad w/ leftover beef roast, hard boiled egg, cheddar
Dinner: Black beans and brown rice w/ salsa, sour cream, cheese and guacamole, salad

Day 5~
Breakfast: Eggs in a hole, applesauce
Snacks: Kefir smoothie, cucumber slices w/ kefir dip
Lunch: Black bean/rice leftovers in whole wheat or gf brown rice tortilla, salad, apple slices
Dinner: Shrimp, whole wheat soaked pasta & brown rice pasta, Parmesan cheese sauce, salad, broccoli

Day 6~
Breakfast: Maple Sweet Potatoes and scrambled eggs w/ fruit salad
Snacks: Kefir smoothie, veggie sticks w/ kefir herb dip
Lunch: Turkey burgers on a bed of lettuce, kale "chips", snap peas and carrot sticks
Dinner: HM creamy mushroom soup w/ ground beef & brown rice, salad, asparagus

Day 7~
Breakfast: GF oat flour waffles w/ maple syrup and strawberries, scrambled eggs
Snacks: kefir smoothie, hard boiled eggs
Lunch: Creamy mushroom soup leftovers, salad, apple slices
Dinner: Oven roasted chicken w/ mashed potatoes and soaked biscuits, fresh veggie tray, asparagus and mushrooms.

Easy Chicken Dinner

Early this week, I roasted two whole fryer chickens at the same time.  We enjoyed one that night with herbed mashed potatoes (whipped up with REAL butter, whole milk, garlic, and snips of my window herbs). 

The following day, I set the remains to simmer into a delicious chicken stock.  That night, (after straining the bones and not tasty bits) we added veggies, 1 cup of brown rice, and herbs for a yummy soup.

The second chicken was stripped and shredded for chicken tacos.  It's a simple matter to add a bit of olive oil to a large frying pan, toss in some garlic and onion, add the shredded chicken and some lacto fermented salsa.  Then enjoy on homemade soaked wheat tortillas with black beans and kefir sour cream.

The remains were also simmered into a stock, frozen and saved for later use!

4 chicken dinners = $10.00 (plus veggies, potatoes, beans, flour and condiments $2-3 per meal).