Everything Goes With Green

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Any salt lover would likely say that potato chips are one of the indulgences they can’t resist. Unfortunately as good as potato chips taste, we know the high amounts of fat and sodium that comes along with the chips.

Well fret no more, kale chips are the healthy version of potato chips. If you’ve ever eaten kale, you are probably doubting me right now because it’s a leafy green vegetable thinking how can leafy greens taste like a chip. Trust me. You will love this recipe once you give it a try.

Here are a couple of tried and true recipes, the first is your basic kale chip, the second is a smokey version:

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Smokey Baked Kale Chips (courtesy of gluten free girl)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
3 large handfuls lacinato kale, torn into shreds
1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preparing to bake. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Combine the salt, smoked paprika, and garlic in a small bowl.

Wash the kale. Rinse the kale leaves, then put them in a salad spinner and spin until the green becomes a blur. Round and round, spinning and spinning — let the kale dry. After it comes out, dry it even more with paper towels. Those leaves should be bone dry.

Oiling the kale. Put the kale leaves in a large bowl. Drizzle over 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Massage the oil into the leaves. You might need more. Bake the chips. Arrange the kale chips onto the sheet try and slide it into the oven. Bake until the leaves are crisp to the touch but still a dark green. (When they turn brown, they turn bitter.) Check at the 12-minute mark, to be sure.

Remove them from the oven. Sprinkle with the garlic smoked paprika salt.

So before you say get mad and say how dare I diss extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), let me preface and say that olive oil has some great benefits and I cook with it all of the time, but recently I have switched over to avocado oil after doing some research on it and am loving it.

Firstly, avocado oil has the highest smoke point of all of the oils.  For those of you culinary challenged, an oil’s smoke point is exactly that, when it starts to smoke and burn. This is important because of two reasons: one is that a food will brown easier when it’s cooked at a higher temperature. Second is that an when an oil burns, it actually becomes rancid and toxic to your body releasing free radicals and reversing the benefits of why you are eating it in the first place. Because of its high smoke point, the oil is not releasing harmful free radicals in your food. When you see any oil start to smoke, it is releasing harmful carcinogenic properties and vapors into your food and kitchen environment.

In addition to the smoke point, avocado oil has a light, delicate and buttery texture which will bring out the flavors in your food instead of masking it. In terms of health benefits, avocado oil is considered to be one of the healthiest oils on the market. It is rich in monounsaturated fats, omega 3’s, beta-sitosterol and antioxidants.

Avocado oil can be used as a replacement to cooking with olive oil because of it’s versatility. It can be used directly on salads because it will not make your salad oily like EVOO and will bring out the flavors of your salad if left to sit for a while. I read one article where the author used avocado oil to make grilled cheese instead of butter and he said it turned out fabulous and almost had the same taste as if the sandwich was cooked in butter.  I have yet to try, but will next time I am hankering for a grilled cheese….mmmmmm.

In addition, avocado oil is used widely for skin care. It is great for  dry or mature skins, or people suffering from eczema or psoriasis, and is very useful when treating sun or climate damaged skin  because it helps with regenerating the skin and softening the tissue. Heck you can even use it on your hair to condition and help treat split ends, though I recommend having one bottle for cooking and one for your hair.

Go on, swap it in for your beloved EVOO and let me know what you think.

Hi Loyal Readers

I wanted to say sorry for my blog being down the last 10 days and let you know that I am up and running now and should never have this problem again. Let’s just say I know enough about websites to get myself into trouble. I was switching hosting sites and clearly encountered many issues and was stressing out but am back now and have lots of information to share so stay tuned for my posts.

xoxoxoxoxo

Pam

Sick of the same old thing for breakfast? Between sugary cereals and carb loaded muffins and croissants, these foods leave you with an insulin spike and sugar crash as well won’t sustain you to lunch. Think about trying steel cut oats.

Steel Cut Oats - A Delicious Breakfast Alternative

What makes these oats different from regular oatmeal? Well Steel cut oats are the whole grain oats which contain the inner portion of the oat kernel unlike rolled oats. 

These essential grains are inherently full of nutritional value and are high in B-vitamins, calcium, protein and fiber while low in salt and unsaturated fat. One cup of steel-cut oatmeal contains 8 g of insoluble fiber.

Steel-cut oats are the whole oat kernel, which is cut into two or three pieces using steel discs. They are a better source of fiber than rolled oats, but take longer to cook.

Rolled oats have the bran mostly removed and are rolled flat to make them easier to cook. With the         bran removed, they have less fiber than steel-cut oats.

Taste – Steel cut oats have a sort of “nutty” flavor that rolled oats lack. You’ll know it when you try them. But the big difference is with texture…

Texture – Steel cut oats are definitely chewier – it takes a while to chew each bite. “Chewy” sums up the steel cut oat texture quite well.

Whether the texture of steel cut is “better” is a matter of personal opinion. But I definitely do enjoy the heartier texture of steel cut or rolled oats over instant oats.

Amount of Processing – If there is one area where steel cut oats have a real health edge, it’s the lack of processing. Both types of oats are cut, but the rolled oats are steamed (which cuts down cooking time later.)

One downfall to steel cut oats is the amount of time it takes to cook, up to 30 minutes, which if you are like me you are running around your house in a panic to find your keys let alone taking 30 minutes to cook breakfast. To avoid this I have found a great recipe for crock pot steel cut oats where I make them overnight and make enough for 3 or 4 mornings.

Crock Pot Steel Cut Oats

1 cup steel-cut oats
1 cup raisins, cranberries, or dried fruit of choice
4 cups water
½ cup milk, 2 tablespoons of cinnamon or pumpkin spice
2 tablespoons of maple syrup

In a crock pot, combine all ingredients. Cook on low heat (covered) for 7-9 hours. Stir and serve. * I substitute the maple syrup for stevia and use almond milk instead of regular milk to make the recipe dairy free. As well somedays to change it up I throw in a banana.

Best part is, steel cut oats usually don’t affect celiacs. I am celiac and have no problem so I rely on steel cut oats to get my carb component at breakfast and I am full right through until lunch. I used to buy a 780 gram bag for $6.00 at the grocery store but on the weekend I found a 5 kilogram box at Costco for $7.99. This will last me for months instead of one week! 

Give them a shot and let me know what you think!

Courtesy of The Huntsville Times

Natural egg dyes are a popular trend this Easter season. With endless online tutorials and magazine features, this technique seems easy enough. You simply boil down different foods to extract the color, let cool to room temperature and dunk the eggs.

This dye took me by surprise as well. I wouldn’t have expected the thin, almost translucent peels to make bright orange. Some tutorials say to boil the eggs with the dye, but I didn’t find that to be necessary. Ingredients: Peels from about 6-8 yellow onions with 4 cups of water, boiled for 30 minutes. Turmeric This spice makes a pretty yellow but takes more time to stain. Since I didn’t have any turmeric on hand, I first tried boiling down the skins of five yellow apples. That didn’t work at all – I ended up with a pot of clear water that smelled like apples. Not to worry: Turmeric is fairly inexpensive and is easily found with other spices. Ingredients: A few shakes of turmeric into a jar of tap water. Raspberry This made a bright red dye, but I was disappointed in how the egg turned out. It took a long time to get any result and I was left with only a brownish color that easily rubbed off. I was determined to get a pink or red egg, so I tried straight beet juice, cherry juice and cranberry juice – all either had no effect or left the egg gray. Next time, I might try red onion peels, given how well the yellow worked to make orange. Good luck! Ingredients: 1/2 bag or raspberries with 4 cups water, boiled for 30 minutes. Spinach The color of this dye had me skeptical from the beginning. I made the first batch with fresh spinach, which simply did not work. On the second attempt, I used a block of frozen spinach. Finally, I rubbed the egg with some of the spinach leaves, which left it with a weak grass stain look. Ingredients: 2 cups of chopped spinach with 4 cups of water, boiled for 30 minutes or juice from 1 block of frozen spinach. Green tea Another attempt to get a light green color. The tea had little effect, if any. The light brown color was not very pretty and kept rubbing off. Black tea makes a brown egg, but still not very attractive among the other colorful eggs. The bright side? I added water and ice to what wouldn’t fit into the jar and made a nice pitcher of green iced tea. Ingredients: 5 tea bags in 4 cups of water.

Have Fun!

Yogurt from scratch: Fresh and satisfying.

We all know that a good night sleep is the key to good health, right? Well this depends on what kind of pillow you are sleeping on. Synthetic pillows, commonly found in many big box stores, can contain high amounts of polyuerethane foam which is added to make a pillow fluffy and comfortable. The concern comes from the fact that to create this foam, large amounts of harsh chemicals are used and released while you sleep on your pillow. These noxious VOC chemicals are concerning for healthy adults as they can lead to respiratory problems, but if you have children or anyone who suffers from respiratory concerns, you need to be aware because in studies with rats, the chemicals caused irratation and decreased air flow.

So if you are thinking about buying a new pillow, where do you start. The easiest way is to look for pillows with the following label:

Confidence in Textiles is a global testing and accreditation scheme for the screening of harmful substances within consumer textiles. It is the leading label for textiles that have been screened for harmful substances.

It verifies that the articles listed have been successfully tested according to Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and satisfy the requirements of a common product class.

Harmful substances banned under the Oeko-tex Standard 100 include:

• Specifically banned AZO dyes
• Carcinogenic and allergy inducing dyes
• Formaldehyde
• Pesticides
• Chlorinated Phenols
• Chloro-orgainc benzenes and toluenes
• Extractable heavy metals
• pH value
• Phthalates in baby articles
• Emission of Volatile components
• Odour
• Organotin compounds (TBT) and (DBT)

For further information visit www.oeko-tex.com.

Or if you don’t want to search pillow labels at the store, check out http://www.thecleanbedroom.com/A_healthy_pillow.htm where they have every type of pillow or mattress that you could want.

Welcome to Everything Goes With Green! A site where health is on the forefront and I write from personal experience about products I love and research I find both compelling and scary. If you meet me, at first glance you wouldn’t think I was proponent  of natural living as I love make up and hair products, but, rest assured, that I believe you can be concerned about optimal health through eliminating toxins while still using great products. This is part of what I hope to share with you along my journey!