Kale Chips! My Beloved!!

       Soooo.....I attempted to make kale chips earlier in the week. All of the recipes I read involved baking them for 10 minutes or so at around 300 to 350 degrees. Pssshhh! That sounded so easy! Well, I tried that method, and it tasted like the inside of a forest fire. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with these kale chips everyone keeps raving about. But, I bought a gigantic 3 to 4 lb bag of kale this week that was on sale for $2 (Seriously, would you walk away from that?), so I had to make SOMETHING of it! I wanted to try to make the chips again.. But I wanted to do it right. So back to Google I went.

     After some intensive Google research, I deduced (<---college education right there) that the best method of making these chips was by dehydration. I don't have a dehydrator so back to the Google I go. You can totally use your oven to dehydrate things! Jerky! Fruit! Chips! The possibilities are endless!

     One of the really cool things about kale chips is that you can essentially season it with any flavors you love. I decided to roll with parmesan and garlic.


Parmesan Garlic Kale Chips

Here's what you'll need:

Kale          I'm not sure how much. I probably used a pound.
2 Tbs         Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1-2 Tsp      Garlic powder
2-3 Tbs      Parmesan cheese
                 Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Put oven on "Warm" setting. This setting is less than 200 degrees, so that the food isn't baked, but we're creating a "dehydrator-like" setting. Let warm up for at least 10 minutes.

2. In the meantime, clean the kale. I mean REALLY clean it. I used curly kale, which has very curly leaves that dirt often gets trapped in. I filled my sink with water, soaked the batch of kale, and individually rubbed each leaf. I know it's tedious, but I didn't want to take any chances crunching down on sand that was stuck in the curly leaves.

3. Once properly cleaned, wrap the bunch of kale in a towel and squeeze/pat dry. Remove stems from each kale leaf, and tear leaves into "chip-sized" pieces. Place into a large bowl.

4. In a small bowl, mix together garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Add olive oil to mixture, and mix well until incorporated.

5. Add dressing to kale chips, and massage it into leaves, making sure each chip gets a little bit of love. Trust me, this will be worth it in the end. Each chip will be coated with awesomeness.

6. Arrange chips on a baking sheet, making sure they don't overlap each other. I had to use 2 baking sheets for this.

7. Place into oven. LEAVE OVEN SLIGHTLY CRACKED. This is imperative in making the oven act as a dehydrator. While the oven door is ajar, the moisture that leaves the kale leaf will exit the oven. The kale leaves will stay beautifully green, but get very crispy and crunchy.

8. Leave in oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour, occasionally checking it's readiness by sneaking a chip or two out of the batch for a "taste test". The chips will get a little more crispy once you remove them from the oven.

9. Enjoy your delicious healthy snack!!

See how they maintained their gorgeous green color?

I was actually surprised at how insanely delicious these are. Play around with more flavors. I know I will!

                         

Breakfast Bites!

             Mornings for me typically start around 5:30 am every day. I don't work, but I intern at a school for children with autism three days a week. You're probably thinking, "School doesn't start until around 9am. What the heck are you doing up that early?!?!". Two words: My. Husband.


              If he's up, I'm up. Partly because he puts every light in the house on while getting ready for work. Also, because he never gives himself enough time to make anything for breakfast or lunch, and ends up eating unhealthy crap 6 days a week for 2 meals a day. That's no bueno, so I tend to have to make breakfast shakes for him. I was intent on figuring out a way to make him a portable, relatively healthy breakfast. One day I was sitting on the couch, doing God knows what, and it hit me: BREAKFAST BITES! Breakfast items that could be baked in muffin tins for easy transportability (Wow...no red squiggly lines under that word? Thought I made that one up. hm.. ). I decided to make two of my favorite breakfast items: veggie omelets and whole wheat pancakes.

This is so easy, it's actually funny it took me so long to think of it.

Omelet Bites

5      eggs
salt and pepper to taste
various chopped vegetables
bacon, cooked and chopped (optional)
shredded cheese (optional)

For the love of all things sacred, use silicone muffin pans (and spray with cooking spray or oil) if you have them. Otherwise you'll end up with 1/4 of your omelet stuck in the pan. Trust me. I'm picking up some silicone bakeware over the weekend, because scrubbing muffin pans sucks. If thats not a viable option, use foil muffin liners and spray the hell out of them with cooking spray or oil.

Yield: 6 Omelet Bites

One of my eggs was a twin! 

Zucchini, mushrooms, spinach, bacon, green onion, red onion, yellow pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pan (Silicone pans!! Don't make the same mistakes I did! Save yourselves!!)

2. Add chopped veggies to the bottom of each muffin..uh..crater? muffin cup?? 

No liner was used. Muffin pan was almost thrown in the trash because of how much the egg stuck to it.

3. In a glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, salt, and pepper.

4. Pour whisked eggs on top of vegetables until full. If using cheese, sprinkle on top.

5. Bake 15 minutes. Voila!

Let cool, then remove egg from pan, place into air tight container. Put in the refrigerator, and reheat as many as you need in the morning. 20-30 seconds should be ideal for reheating 2 omelet bites.

Whole Wheat Pancake Bites

-Your favorite whole wheat (or regular flour...nobody's here to judge) pancake recipe. Here's mine.   I halved the recipe, since I didn't need to make that many pancake bites, however, I added 1/2 tsp more baking powder, since I wanted them to rise a bit more.

-Maple syrup (as much as you choose. I used 2 Tablespoons since my recipe was halved)

-Chopped fruit (I used sliced banana, and blueberries), or chocolate chips, or anything else you love to add to your pancakes.

Yield: 6ish pancake bites (since I halved the recipe)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make pancakes according to recipe.

2. Add 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup  and fold into pancake batter.

3. Pour a small amount of pancake batter into pan just to form a barrier between the fruit and the bottom of the muffin pan. Add some of your fruit or other toppings on top of this.

I made my omelets and pancakes in the same pan. Clearly I didn't pour any pancake batter at the bottom of the muffin tin. Lesson learned.

4. Pour batter into each cup until full or almost full. Pancake batter doesn't rise much so don't worry about that. 

5. Add more fruit or other toppings and drizzle more maple syrup on top of pancake bite.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

7. Let cool, remove, and place in air tight container. Microwave for 30 seconds or so until warm. Voila! Breakfast on the go! 

I'll totally do the whole breakfast bite thing again. This time with silicone pans, liners, and doing it the correct way! Lol! Also, I'm going to try to experiment with more breakfast options so that it doesn't become monotonous and boring.   Enjoy!

Chicken Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce

Often, at the end of the week, I have to scrape up ingredients to make a meal of whatever I have available. Yesterday (Thursday) was no different from other weeks. The only meat I had in the freezer was chicken breast, but not enough for everyone to have their own. I decided to make meatballs, but I didn't have any pasta sauce on hand--and quite frankly, tomato sauce is getting "old"--so I'd have to get creative here! I've made a mushroom sauce to go with pork chops before, so it should work for chicken meatballs as well! With my meat grinder ready to go, and my notebook on hand to write it all down, I came up with this tasty meal. Even though it LOOKS indulgent, chicken meatballs are very lean, and the recipe is mostly clean!

If you've never ground your own meat, and have a Kitchenaid mixer, get the meat-grinding attachment. I can't even explain how much it expands your cooking options--especially when you have a few pieces of meat here and there--and saves you money!


Chicken Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce

Meatball Ingredients

1 lb           ground chicken
1/2            medium onion, finely chopped
3               cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp          parsley
1 1/2 tsp    Herbs de Provence
1/2 tsp       kosher salt
                 black pepper to taste
1/4 C         parmesan cheese
1/2 C         italian bread crumbs
1               egg

Mushroom Sauce Ingredients

1 Tbs         unsalted butter (don't substitute with margarine. trust me)
1/2             medium onion, thinly sliced
2 C            sliced mushrooms
2 C            chicken stock
1 tsp          thyme
1 tsp          dried parsley
1                bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp     soy sauce
1/2 C          whole milk
1 Tbs          corn starch


1. Meatballs: Mix all ingredients with a fork or by hand until all are thoroughly combined. Form into 1" meatballs.

Clearly I didn't finely chop my onions. Ain't nobody got time for that. 

2. In a large non-stick pan, heat 1-2 Tbs olive oil over medium-high heat.

3. Add meatballs. Brown on all sides. You may have to brown the meatballs in batches, unless you have a ginormous pan. Once adequately browned and almost cooked through, remove and set aside.

Browned but not all the way cooked through, as chicken breast can easily become too dry. 

4. Reduce to medium heat. Add butter to pan. Constantly move it around until melted.

5. Add onions and mushrooms. Cook on medium until onions and mushrooms are soft, and browned (approx. 2-5 minutes). Stir occasionally.

6. Pour chicken stock into pan and stir. Add thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and soy sauce.

7. Put meatballs back into pan, and whatever juices they may have leaked while resting on plate. Stir so that meatballs are covered with sauce. Cover and let cook for 3-5 minutes.

8. In the meantime, whisk cornstarch into milk until smooth. After meatballs and sauce have been cooking for 3-5 minutes, whisk cornstarch/milk mixture into sauce until smooth. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

9. **had to come back and add this step** REMOVE BAY LEAF! Because chomping down on a bay leaf while eating isn't exactly my idea of fun.

You can serve this with egg noodles, couscous, brown rice, or any other side. I chose to stick to veggies and served it with roasted broccoli and a salad. For my step-sons, I served it with rice. The chicken meatballs were way more moist than I thought they would be. I'm glad I wrote this one down!

Yield: Approx. 20 meatballs
Calories per serving: 158 calories (2 meatballs with 1/4 C sauce)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

There's nothing better than a fresh, fluffy stack of pancakes on a Saturday morning. The beauty of pancakes is that you can honestly do just about anything with them! In the same week I made a batch of chocolate chip pancakes, and these beauties--Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes. The chocolate chip pancakes were the manifestation of my husband refusing to go to the grocery store at 10pm to get me the chocolate chip cookies I wanted. But these...these bad boys were the result of a mind in conflict: "Should I make oatmeal pancakes? Or whole wheat pumpkin pancakes?"   Why not make both?!

This recipe-writing thing is new for me. I usually just wing it and forget how I made it. But just for you, Uncreatively Conscientious, I wrote this one down.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

1    C        Quick Oats

1/4 C        Whole wheat flour

2    Tbs     Brown sugar

1/2 Tsp     Baking soda

1/2 Tsp     Baking powder

1/8 Tsp     Salt

1-2 Tsp     Pumpkin pie spice (at 2 Tsp, the spice gets overpowering to me, so adjust to taste)

3/4  C       Pumpkin puree

2     C       Milk, divided

1              Egg

1/4  Tsp    Vanilla extract 

1. In large bowl, mix oats, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, 1 CUP milk, vanilla, and egg.

3. Here's where it gets personal: Add as much milk as you need to get the consistency of pancake you want. Keep in mind that the whole wheat and the oatmeal make this a thick pancake to begin with, so thin it out as you see fit. I ended up using the entire 2 cups.

4. Heat skillet or pan over medium fire. Spray pan/skillet with cooking spray. Use 1/4 Cup of batter for each pancake. When bubbles appear on top, flip. Keep in mind these will take longer to cook than your basic pancake, as they are more dense. So make sure the fire isn't too high! 

5. Don't do these pancakes an injustice by serving them with "Pancake Syrup". Get the real stuff please!

Enjoy!!

Where's the beef??? Not here! Chicken/turkey burgers!

 Don't let the title fool you. I'm not anti-beef. I'm not anti-meat. I'm just pro-alternatives. I. LOVE. BURGERS. Hamburgers, turkey burgers, chicken burgers, sweet potato burgers, veggie burgers..As long as it's "burger-esque", I'll more than likely try to make it.
   Last week one of my friends posted a Facebook status about wanting a big juicy burger. Naturally, I began craving one too, but since I'm making an effort to eat more cleanly, I decided to make one myself. When it comes to ground meat, I prefer to grind my own. Especially with my deliciously sexy hot pink Kitchenaid mixer with grinder attachment. Anywho, I scavenged through the contents of my freezer, and found some undedicated (not reserved for a future meal) chicken! I searched some more and found ONE.. yes, ONE, whole wheat burger bun (My freezer has everything. I know if I looked deep enough, I'd probably find a portal to the land of Narnia). I'll make chicken burgers!!! I Googled and found a recipe for chicken burgers. This was all coming together so perfectly, as if orchestrated by the burger lords themselves!!...

Undedicated chicken breast

Sexy Kitchenaid with meat-grinder attachment

....Except the amount of undedicated chicken I found was barely enough to make 4 burgers. So back to the freezer I went. I found undedicated turkey breast cutlets!!! Turkey/chicken burgers were born.

  The beauty of non-beef burgers is that you can often shove as many chopped vegetables as you can into the mix.

Here's the recipe I used.  The only changes I made were using the turkey breast to make up for the   lack of chicken breast. Also, I think I added some chopped up zucchini.

NomNomNom... non-beefy deliciousness.

With the excess burgers I don't cook, I cut wax/parchment paper into squares, place each burger on a wax square on a baking sheet or some other flat surface. Transfer to the freezer, and leave until solid. Then take each burger and its wax paper, stack them and place them into ziplock bags for later use. Now, you have a 5-10 minute lunch in your freezer. :)   You're welcome.



Do you have a favorite non-beef burger recipe? Share it here!

Food Facts and the Horror of Fire-roasted tomatoes

Ok maybe the title is just a tad dramatic, but hear me out. Tonight, for dinner, I was in the mood for something Mexican-y. I was thinking enchiladas, but after having 2 slices of pizza for lunch--so much for being conscientious, huh?--I decided to roll with the chicken tortilla soup, since it's always a favorite of mine. This recipe called for fire-roasted tomatoes. Now, I'm not really a fan of canned vegetables, but tomatoes couldn't be so bad, could they?

My local grocery store was having a "can-can" sale, and most canned items were crazy cheap! So I'm thinking, "perfect, I'll buy the things for the soup, and save money in the process, yaayyy!". I Googled one of the canned tomato brands that was on sale, and found this splendiferous (I still can't believe that's a real word. I thought I made it up) website called Foodfacts.com . What this wonderful site does is rate groceries by their ingredients, nutritional content, and it also highlights ingredients if they are controversial. Also, if you click on any ingredient listed under a certain item, foodfacts.com will give you the information on it!

Herein lies the horror.

No. Brand. Of. Fire. Roasted. Tomatoes. Received. An. "A". Rating. Shocking, right? Neither did any chicken stock/broth brands. That, to me, is disheartening that we can't get an A rating on foods we all trust so easily. One of the ingredients found in several of the brands of fire-roasted tomatoes was called "calcium chloride". Sounds harmless, right? While it may be safe for human consumption, let's hear what my new friend Foodfacts.com says about calcium chloride.

"The anhydrous compound is commonly used as a drying agent, absorbing water until it dissolves into a liquid. This characteristic makes it effective in settling road dust. When spread in the form of a powder or flakes, it absorbs more than its own weight of water, forming a liquid that keeps the road wet. It also is used as a food preservative, treating aquarium water, and for de-icing roads."

Um...What? De-icing roads? Canned tomatoes? Nah, bro. I'm good on that. This has brought me to a whole 'nother level of awareness of how crappy the food industry really is. So I made my own fire-roasted tomatoes. Sans the road de-icer. Super easy. Here's how.

I bought 3 pints of grape tomatoes because they were on sale, but any tomatoes will do. I used two pints to make 16 oz of fire-roasted tomatoes. 

Pay no attention to the fact that only 1 1/4 pints of tomatoes are here. Use 2 pints. 

1. Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise and squeeze all the seeds out. (I later poured the seeds into my composting bin.)

2. Turn on broiler. 

3. Place tomatoes cut side down on cooking apparatus. If you're using large tomatoes, you can use the broiler rack. I don't have a broiler rack, because my oven is ridiculously old. I think it was used to make the meal at The Last Supper, but I digress. I just used a baking sheet/cookie sheet to place the tomatoes on, and made sure the oven rack was at least 9 inches away from the broiler flame.

4. Leave in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until skin is nice and roasted, and tomatoes are soft.

5. Let cool, remove from pan. Place on cutting board and roughly chop.

6. Add salt if desired.

Dassit!

And this was DELICIOUS! The only downside is you that these tomatoes can't defrost your car's windows.

I'll take this as a lesson to continue to make as much of my own food as possible, and continue to eliminate prepared foods from my diet unless they are "clean". It doesn't feel good to know that we put this kind of stuff in our bodies unknowingly. Lesson. Learned.

Let's get ready to compooooosssst!!

One day, as I was browsing Pinterest (what else is new?), I saw someone had pinned some "Composting 101" tips. Me being the Suzy Homemaker Martha Stewart wanna be that I am, I figured, why not find out more about this magical dirt-making process. As soon as I saw how easy it looked, I HAD to try it. With me being more conscientious and all, this was right up my alley! So, I begged my husband to come with me to Home Depot to get all of the supplies (Just kidding--what man do you know needs to convincing to frolic in the manly playground that is Home Depot?).

Here's what I got:

1   orange Home Depot bucket with cover
2   Rubbermaid garbage bins (only because they were on sale for $14 for 2. Who could say no to that??)
2   12" bunjee cords


That's all you need!

Before I go further, let me give you a little crash course in what composting is. Veggie/Fruit Scraps. Dry leaves/paper. Heat. Moisture. Time. BOOM, Composting.

Now that you have your composting degree, let's keep it moving. Next, I used a power drill to make holes in the "sides" and top of one garbage bin so that my impending compost pile would be nice and aerated.

You have no idea how long it took me to figure out how to change the drill bit size. But I was determined to do it before my husband realized I was struggling. 

Next, I used the bunjee cords to secure the lid to the bin.

In the other bin, I began to gather my "brown" composting items. This consisted of shredded newspaper, shredded cardboard, an old t-shirt (torn and shredded)...oh, and my entire Christmas tree. By the time I was done ripping up and shredding all the brown material, my hands were dryer than Gandhi's sandals, but this is why God invented lotion.

Ok maybe not my ENTIRE Christmas tree, but just the leaves. 

Over the next week, I collected all my scraps from the cutting board, salad that went uneaten at dinner, onion peels, fruit peels, used coffee grounds, used tea bags, corn husks, etc. Here's a nice comprehensive list of green and brown items you can compost. I was really surprised at the amount of space I saved in my garbage bag by collecting veggie and fruit scraps!

Just one week of green item collection

Before you just dump everything together, it's important to know that a certain ratio of browns and greens is desired in order for the bacteria to break down the composting items into dirt. From many of the sites I read, a 1:1 ratio is fine. Some even spoke of a 1:3 green to brown ratio. I chose to stick to a rough 1:1 estimate. We'll see what happens in time. I made a thick "bed" of dry brown items at the bottom of the compost bin (the one with the holes and bunjee cords), then added my green items. On top of that, I added some more brown items, mixed it all around, then sprinkled some water to the mix. I'm about 80% sure I did this wrong, but after some Googling, I saw that I was ok for the time being. The next time I add to my pile, I'll sprinkle some water on top of each layer of items. After everything was all mixed up and sexy, it was time for the fun step.

My puppy went nuts when I was rolling this thing around. And that, folks, is my first composting experience!! Let's hope it actually makes dirt! LOL. I have a tendency to mess things up the first time I try so here's hoping I didn't! I'll regularly post updates on my compost, and whether I'll have some deliciously rich dirt for my veggie garden this summer, or just piles of rotten crap sitting in my yard.

Quinoa Cake "Lazy Breakfast"

      So recently, I stumbled upon a delicious-looking recipe on Pinterest---as I often do. Being a consumer of all things burger-esque, this recipe for basil quinoa cakes was right up my alley. I made these beauties about a week and a half ago, and put the excess in my freezer. Another thing you'll soon discover is that I. FREEZE. EVERYTHING. I can't tell you how many times the contents of my freezer have saved the day. Anywho, on one particular morning last week, I was having one of those "lazy breakfast" days, when I want something delicious but don't want to put much effort into making something fancy.

Frozen quinoa cakes to the rescue! Oh, and if you haven't tried quinoa, yet, you need to.

Since these cakes are so versatile, I figured they'd be just as delicious for breakfast as they were for lunch the other day. With a little effort, and 10 min to spare, I came up with this.

If you, too, would like to join me in this lazy breakfast endeavor, follow along, grasshopper. I shall show you the way.

Things you'll need:

• your frozen or freshly made quinoa cake
• chopped tomato
• 1/4 of an avocado sliced
• half a cup sliced onion
• 1-2 eggs
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil or oil of your choice
• salt and pepper to taste

Bare with me, as I'm no Rachel Ray, and haven't the slightest clue about telling people how to cook things.

1. Heat oil over medium heat in pan. Add onions

2. Let onions brown under medium heat for 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally so they don't burn.

 When done, they should look like this.

3. While onions are browning, or after they've browned, reheat quinoa cake. If using microwave, make sure you sprinkle some water on both sides of the cake so they don't dry out in the microwave. 

4. Cook eggs to desired doneness, season with salt and pepper to taste. 

5. Assemble egg, then quinoa cake (or quinoa cake and then egg. No one's judging you, here.), avocado, sauteed onions, and tomatoes.

Voila!! Deliciousness and nutrition in less than 10 minutes! Lazy never tasted so good. 

My Uncreative Introductory Blog Post

What do you mean by Uncreatively Conscientious?
Uncreative:
         I'm not creative. Like, at all. But people seem to think I am, so I just roll with it most times. I am artsy and tend to dibble and dabble in just about everything, and probably have way too much confidence in my abilities. But me? Creative? Pshhh! Do you have any idea how long it took me to come up with this blog title??
        What I'm really good at is re-creating, and putting my own spin on things that are already in existence. This is a place where I'll come to share these recreations with those who care to read about them!

Conscientious:
        For the past year or so, I've been finding myself in a more conscientious place, and strive to make my life as fulfilling as possible. To me theres nothing more drab than monotony. I try just about everything, love DIYs, up-cycling, projects, and finding ways to eat healthy and delicious meals. My take on it, is that I want to feel good about the things I do in life, and believe that we get so caught up in our day to day, that we forget the abundance of things that are available to us! My plan is to experience as much as I can, be conscientious about the things I do to my body as well as what I put out into the environment! Life isn't just for taking, it's also for giving back.

Everything you'll find on this blog will have to do with my continuous effort in trying to live a more conscientious--(there's that word again)--life. Beauty products and tips will be as natural as possible. The foods will be whole, clean foods for the most part. The DIYs will often focus on upcycling, double-use products, recycling, and gardening.

I'm not great at a lot of things. But that'll never deter me from trying them and enjoying the fruits of my labor! I hope, at the very least, this blog can inspire you to step outside your box and do something that makes you feel a bit more fulfilled.

By the way, who the hell are ya??
Oh, hi. I'm Kimora.     :)