Easiest recipe ever: sea salt and vinegar kale chips

When I saw this recipe for super healthy kale chips I knew I had to try it immediately, and I am so glad I did! (click here if you have no idea what kale is!) The chips were a total hit with not only myself, but Hank too, which was awesome. Baking the kale in the oven transformed the green, leafy vegetable into a delicious, slightly salty snack that totally hit the spot as a crunchy side dish to our risotto and "chicken" tonight. Tomorrow we're going to try the same thing with spinach, so I'll let you know how it goes.

First off, buy a bunch of kale at your local grocer. If your regular store doesn't carry it, try your natural foods store, but it should be pretty easy to find.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Tear the leaves off of the long stem running down the middle. I tossed the leaves into a colander as I tore them off. Rinse the leaves WELL and dry thoroughly. We don't have a salad spinner, so I just used a paper towel to try off each individual piece.

Place the leaves in a single layer on parchment paper, on a cookie sheet. Below you'll see that I accidentally used wax paper at first...no big deal until the oven started smoking! haha. When that happened I just moved the kale straight onto the cookie sheet and it was just fine. But anyway, drizzle olive oil and vinegar all over the leaves, then top with sea salt. If you don't want to do the vinegar you can just do olive oil.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until you notice the leaves shrinking and looking crispy. We had no issues with the kale being soggy whatsoever, and each chip was crispy and REALLY delicious!

Enjoy!

Guest post from Ainsley/My Little Artichoke!

Today my gal pal Ainsley is here to bring a super delicious-looking vegetarian recipe your way! It's funny because Hank has been really wanting me to figure out a way to make one of his favorite holiday dishes from childhood fit into his veggie lifestyle, and Ms. Ainsley came right along with this awesome meal. I can't wait to try it out! Ainsley is such a sweetheart, and if you don't follow her blog, I definitely recommend you do. Actually, I should only recommend her blog if you have good self-control...because whenever I peruse her entries I find myself suddenly craving all sorts of delicious treats from donuts to amazing looking Asian food. You've been warned! But really, thank you so much Ainsley, for sharing this mouth-watering dish with all of us! :)

Hello all, it's Ainsley from My Little Artichoke! It's that wonderful time of year again... layers of clothing, bundles of blankets, comfort food and family time. I am more than ecstatic to share with you one of my favorite dinners to make! Vegetarian Chick'n pot pies!

You will need:

2 small pot pie pie tins

1 package veg chicken flavored gravy mix (we used a package from Henry's)

3 small potatoes

1 large carrot

1/4 cup corn

2 chick'n cutlets (we used Quorn)

2 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening (we used Crisco - All Vegetable)

1/2 cup soy milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

(Pie Crust)

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.

2. Cut in shortening, a fork works best.

3. Add soy milk.

4. Knead dough.

5. Roll dough into a ball.

(Pie Filling)

6. Cube chick'n and potatoes, slice carrots.

7. In a medium saucepan, bring vegetables to a boil.

8. In a small saucepan, bring gravy to a boil (see gravy instructions, as they may differ).

(Back to Pie Crust)

9. With a rolling pin (we used a cup!), roll out dough large enough to fit in base of pie tins.

10. Form the dough to fit the base and trim the excess dough.

11. Start with a little gravy in the bottom of the pies.

12. Add potatoes, carrots, corn and chicken.

13. Top with gravy.

14. Roll out remaining dough to fit the top of your pies. Once the dough is placed over the top, trim the excess dough and smooth the edges. Thumb the dough into the sides to seal pies. Either use thumbs to form dimples or use the fork method to seal pies.

15. Optional, use scraps of dough to make personalized pie toppers.

16. Be sure to poke a few holes in the top to allow ventilation.

17. Bake for 45-60 minutes.

The finished product will look something like this (minus your personalized toppers):

Enjoy!

Delicious baked ziti (and some chicken-less chicken too)!

I have a not-so-healthy recipe to share with all of you today. It may not be the most waist-friendly dish, but it's the perfect recipe if you are craving a bit of comfort food and want to indulge! We usually eat this dish around the holidays, and my Mom always makes it for Hank at Thanksgiving as a another option outside of his customary Tofurkey. I made it this weekend for a family dinner, and as usual, it was a hit! There are multiple ways to make it healthier- less cheese, whole wheat noodles, adding tons of veggies, etc...but this time I made the full-fat version in all of its cheesy goodness.

Here's what you'll need to make this SUPER easy dish:

1 box/bag of penne pasta
1 jar sauce
1 15-16 oz. container of ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 regular sized bag of mozzarella cheese
spices to taste- oregano, sea salt, basil, etc.

1) Preheat oven to 350.
2) Cook pasta
3) In a small bowl, mix the ricotta cheese and one egg.

4) Spread about half of the ricotta cheese and a third of the jar of sauce in the bottom of a deep baking dish.
5) Add about 1/2 of the noodles on top.

6) Next, layer as followed: mozzarella cheese, sauce, rest of the ricotta cheese, rest of the noodles, rest of the sauce, mozzarella cheese. Don't forget to add your choice of spices as you go.

7) Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake for 50-55 minutes, taking the tinfoil off the during the last 5 minutes of cooking to give the top a nice crispy, cheesy layer. Baking times may vary a bit, so just be sure that the middle is hot. One way to tell is to see if the ziti is slightly bubbling. That's always a good indicator.

I forgot to take photos of the finished dish before I served it, but rest assured it was delicious! Tonight Hank wanted to enjoy the leftovers, so I heated him up Gardein's Chick'n Good Stuff marinara and vegan cheese stuffed "chicken." Hank LOVES this stuff, and anything from this brand, so he was happy. Basically it's s piece of breaded vegetarian chicken, stuffed with marinara sauce and Daiya vegan cheese...AND there's 22g of protein per piece! Check out their website by clicking here- after the jump you'll discover a million of their delicious products, tons of ideas, and a lot of nutritional information! I really feel like some of their dishes would fool a meat eater, so if you're looking for a family friendly veggie dish, or just something a bit healthier than all of the scary meat on the market today, Gardein products are such a good choice.
The lighting in our kitchen tonight was really, really bad, but here's Hank's meal (leftover ziti and Gardein chick'n). Doesn't it look like real chicken?

Have you tried Gardein products? If so, which are your favorite? Next I am excited to try their Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n. It looks amazing!

a Sunday treat- vegan and delicious!

raw, vegan pie from the raw food festival last fall!

Lately I've really been enjoying the change in season. All summer I anticipated the first chilly night, green leaves turning gold, and the first day I could wear tights, a scarf, and have an excuse to bundle up a bit more. When I think of cold weather I think of comfort food, and when I think of comfort food I think of pie, which is one of my most favorite indulgences in the entire world. I love pie so much, especially in the fall and winter. An indulgence now and again is great, but often when the weather gets cold I find myself craving it a lot more often and daily pie probably isn't the best idea. The following recipe is one of my FAVORITE things to eat and a favorite treat my Mom makes for me when I come home for a visit. I think of it as a pie substitute- it tastes similar to the inside of a juicy apple pie but without any of the added sugars. It's super healthy and incredibly delicious. I could eat it by the bowlful, which I usually do! If you're looking to be even more health conscious you can omit the raisins, or if you want a little something different you could also add walnuts. Really, you could go crazy and add anything you could dream up. I think that some shredded coconut would be delicious too. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup raisins
• 6-8 apples peeled, sliced, and diced

Directions:

1) Put quarter cup of water into a pan

2) Add in fruit and put lid on pan

3) Turn the heat on until water is simmering, then turn heat to low

4) Cook for about 5 minutes on low (lid still on but taking off to stir occasionally)

5) After 5 minutes add about a teaspoon of cinnamon, stir, and continue to cook on low for another 5 minutes or until apples are done to your liking. 10 minutes is ideal for me.

...and wa-la! You have a quick, super easy, and tasty dessert (or great topping for oatmeal, or even vanilla ice cream, etc.!) I eat it hot, but I've had it cold before too. Enjoy, and let me know if you decide to try it. Here's a photo of the batch I ate today:

DELICIOUS!

Hank's Coconut Curry

Fortunately not only do I love to cook, but Hank does too. When he gets into chef mode he's the most adorable thing in the world and he almost always makes up his recipes as he goes. In fact, when he and his friends get together, they most often "cook it up," as they call it, and make some amazing dishes. This one in particular is adapted from his friend Matt's curry that he made at our house a couple of weeks ago. Hank went off memory so I don't have much of a formal recipe to share as far as amounts of spice, etc, but it turned out absolutely delicious and I thought I would include the process he used (thank you Hank!).

For this recipe, you'll need the following:

1 can of coconut milk (I insisted that Hank use light coconut milk, but regular would be SO much better for a curry, since it thickens up a lot more)
veggies of your choice- we used broccoli, onions, and carrots
minced garlic
curry powder
generic "Thai" spice blend
chili paste
sea salt
1 block of extra firm tofu
brown rice (or quinoa)

1) Add the entire can of coconut milk to a wok.
2) Add about 2 tbsp minced garlic to the milk (we LOVE garlic so we go overboard, but do this to your liking).
3) Add about half of a chopped onion (also add amount according to taste).
4) Bring to a boil.
5) Add everything else (chopped broccoli, carrots, other veggies, and drained/cubed tofu, spices- all amounts of spice are to your taste, we add tons).
6) Boil it for awhile until veggies become tender- the longer you do this, the longer the tofu will have a chance to soak up the flavor.
7) While this is cooking make some brown rice.
8) Curry should thicken up during cooking time- light coconut milk will be more watery.

And done! You have a quick, healthy meal. I really enjoyed it and I hope you do too!

Tattoosday's Brush with Greatness: Joan Jett in Union Square

"Timing is everything," goes one saying, and "it's the little things" is also a phrase true to my heart.

Before we venture on a little diversion, let's remind ourselves that Tattoosday is about "meeting and appreciating body art (okay, tattoos) in the New York City area". Unless I go on the road, of course.

There are numerous sites that can give you a road map to celebrity tattoos, for example, but I generally don't encounter star ink, so it rarely graces this site.

Yet yesterday found me down by Union Square, seeking out a copy of Ina Saltz's Body Type 2, which I hope to bring with me tomorrow night to the Upper West Side where Ms. Saltz will be discussing the book.

On the way back to the subway, I had the pleasure of running into a cluster of people milling about a tattooed individual who is a genuine rock star: the lovely Joan Jett.

I was going to just gawk and move on, like a polite New Yorker, but Ms. Jett was there for a reason, she sported a black tank with an "I ♥ PeTA" slogan and she was talking to folks about a cause near and dear to her, vegetarianism.

Unbeknown to me, this was a bit of public relations, as indicated by a PeTA press release.

At some point, I thought, well maybe I could get Ms. Jett to talk about one of her tattoos, in exchange for some publicity on Tattoosday.

Good idea, and even the PeTA people seemed to think so, but I only managed to squeeze in a mutual "hi" and eye contact, as I competed with fans with much more passion than me. But more on them later.

I took these shots of one of her tattoos as I stood nearby:


I even took the obligatory self-portrait of myself with Ms. Jett being interviewed in the background, just to see how dorky I could make myself appear in public:



I had a great post formulated about the piece, but found myself a little late to the party, based on this great entry by Marisa over at Needles and Sins, which includes links to discussion about the meanings of her tattoos.



But, remember, here on Tattoosday, it's often as much about the encounter as it is about the tattoos.

Remember the fans I mentioned before? I met Danielle, who sports a black heart tattoo (similar to one worn by Victor here), but had just shown Ms. Jett this cool Runaways piece in the center of her back:


Danielle co-hosts a web show on the Hunter College radio station called Activity Grrrls' Radio Revolution on Tuesdays at 2:00pm here (whcs.hunter.cuny.edu), "where to go for your weekly dose of rock n roll".

She was thrilled at meeting Ms. Jett and loved that it was in conjunction with a PeTA promotion. Danielle is a vegan and the tattoo artist in New Jersey used vegan ink for the tattoo.

Danielle updated me with the following information:

I got the tattoo done in Lola's Tattoo Shop in New Jersey, the artist's name is Charlie. He's also vegan. I told him I wanted a tattoo of the words 'The Runaways' through two cherries and he came up with a design.

So it was quite a productive lunch for me. I got my book, ran into Joan Jett, took a picture of her tattoo, and then got a photo of a piece inspired by her first band, The Runaways.

Thanks to Joan, Danielle, and the folks at PeTA for helping make this post possible here on Tattoosday!

If you're interested in Joan Jett's testimonial about her commitment to the vegetarian cause, check it out below:


You can order a FREE 'Vegetarian Starter Kit' at GoVeg.com.

More vegetarian testimonials here.

And here's a link to the PeTA Vegetarian Starter Kit which Ms. Jett was distributing.

And finally, here's a link to a news brief on the event with some video in which I do not appear.

Full disclosure: I am married to a vegetarian, but I am not one myself. I possess not the willpower to commit to such a cause, but I support and commend those that do.

Yesterday, Thursday

Last night Hank and I decided to drive down to Phoenix for a little impromptu date night. We left right when I got off work, and drove straight to Green for a delicious dinner. If you live in Arizona, and haven't been to Green yet, I highly recommend it- it's one of our favorite restaurants and we've been going since it opened. I usually get the Green burger, but this time I got the Spicy mock chicken sandwich (on an Ezekial bun), with a side of pasta salad. Hank got some sort of ginger tofu bowl and both choices were delicious. If you're curious about the restaurant, click here to visit their website and definitely try it out as soon as you can! We there, we spoke with one of the counter-workers about a vegan restaurant in Sedona that we will hopefully we trying out soon. The name of it is escaping me at the moment, but once we try it I will be sure to post a review.

After dinner I had Hank stop by Yogurtland so I could try the new Red Velvet flavor. I wasn't a huge fan, but it wasn't bad by any means. I always think I am going to branch out, but usually end up with plain tart and a lot of fruit. Either way, I love that place. After I got my yogurt fix, we headed over to ASU to listen to Johnny Cupcakes speak. I didn't know very much about the guy, besides the fact that he once put Hank and the dudes up while on tour, we know some of the same people, and he runs a highly successful tee shirt business. To be honest, I was slightly apprehensive- I didn't know what to expect and I wasn't in the mood to sit in a lecture hall and listen to some guy speak about how he became inspired to put cupcakes on tee shirts. But...once we got into the room and Johnny began speaking, I found myself truly enjoying my time. His story is inspirational, he's an extremely "real" guy, and I liked that he was so personal and forthcoming while sharing with all of us. By the end of the night, I was a total convert, and now consider myself a fan of him, and his brand. Super cool dude, awesome story, and his lecture was extremely entertaining (all four hours of it). I definitely recommend checking him out if his lecture tour comes to a university near you.

I also have to add that while we were standing in line to get in, a blog reader/friend of mine came over and introduced herself! The lovely Chelsea and her boyfriend John Scott were just adorable, and it was really neat to meet yet another blog friend in real life. Two in two weeks is two more than I've met in my entire life, so I'm wondering who I will meet next week! ;) But really, it was wonderful to meet both of them, and Hank and John had a lot to talk about. Chelsea put it best in her blog about it, "It seriously made me so happy about how easy conversation came, and I really believe that it was due to already feeling that we knew one another (thank you blogs, flickr, and twitter!)." :)

After the lecture we headed home to Prescott. One of my most favorite things to do with Hank is go on drives, go on road trips, really just go anywhere with him. We always have the best conversations, listen to great music, and have have such a good time. Sometimes it's little moments like last night that kind of snap me into reality, and remind me just how good I have it. I written about this before, but I think people are blessed with different things in their lives. I would say one of my main "blessings" is this love in my life. I'm very grateful.

When we got home it was past 2am, and I wasn't feeling very well, so I decided to call in to work today. I've spent most of the morning in bed, and it's about 1:30pm right now, and I'm feeling much better. Sleep did me well, and I'm glad I stayed home. Later tonight Hank is playing a show at Sundance's which should be fun.

What are your weekend plans? Are you experiencing nice weather wherever you are? Whatever you do, I hope it's amazing!

I'll leave you with some photos from yesterday...

top: J. Crew
skirt: Leifsdottir (you can find this brand at Anthro or Nordstrom)
shoes: Target







on the drive down


Hank, me and Chelsea :)