Homemade Healthy Hot Cocoa

I'm up late working and needed a snack.  So what if it's summer?  The house is air conditioned!  Time for Homemade Healthy Hot Cocoa!

3 cups milk of your choice (works great with almond, rice, coconut, and other non-dairy milks)
half a cup water
heat the milk + water to your desired temp  (Not a purist, I heat it in a glass container in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes.  You could use the stove top, just be sure not to let the milk scorch.)

add:
two-thirds cup coconut sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
a pinch of sea salt

Whisk it well and serve.  Mmmmmmm.  If you thought Swiss Miss was hot cocoa, this will set you straight.  :)  Very yummy, easy to make, and kids love it too!

Baked Potato and Veggie Casserole

I made this last night, tweaking (of course!) from another recipe I found somewhere that wasn't quite what I wanted.  The finished product was good and worth recommending.  This is a hearty vegetarian casserole that would work great for potlucks as well as at home.

Ingredients:

5 pounds of organic potatoes:  You can use russet or thin-skinned varieties like I did

approximately 3-4 cups of veggies, such as
--cubed or shredded zucchini
--diced carrots
--corn (non-GMO only)
--peas

a half-cup (or more) diced onion

a half-cup thinly sliced celery

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 1/2 cups either plain yogurt, Greek yogurt, or sour cream

half cup organic milk

1 cup Parmesan cheese

8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1.5 teaspoons ground mustard

1.5 teaspoons garlic powder

half teaspoon onion powder

2 dashes cayenne pepper

1.5 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon course ground pepper


Method:

Scrub and bake the potatoes.  Generally 350-400 degrees for an hour will get the job done.  Don't forget to poke each one with a fork or knife so they don't explode all over the inside of your oven!

After baking, let the potatoes cool so that you don't burn your little fingers while you make this yummy dinner!

After taters are cooled, dice them up into smallish chunks, maybe around 3/4 of an inch.  Think of potato salad sized chunks.  Think of a forkful of casserole, and know what size makes sense for eating with ease.  :)

In a large (I mean it) mixing bowl combine the diced potatoes and all the veggies.

In a separate, smaller mixing bowl combine the yogurt/sour cream, milk, cheese, and all the spices and seasonings.  I will say that if you're aiming for something lower in calories, you could go halfsies on this sauce.  However, it will not be as creamy and wonderful and you will probably wish it was!

Mix it up good and then pour it over the potatoes and veggies and combine it til it looks beautiful.  Like this:

Get a 9x13 pan and oil it up nicely.  Pour in the casserole goodness and bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour.  When it's done it'll be nicely browned around the edges. Looks something like this:

Yum!

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

I found the original inspiration for this recipe here.  However, I've tweaked it some and for ease of sharing I'll post the recipe I'm using right here.

This salad looks lovely since it's colorful, you could totally tweak it with other summer veggies from your garden, it can be vegetarian or vegan, and would be great for taking to a potluck or cookout.  I have added some of this salad to big bowls of organic greens as well.  It works by itself or as a salad topper.

Did I mention that it's super duper easy to make, too?  You can't go wrong with this one.  (Unless you think green olives are "stinky" like my boys do.  Then you will not like this.  But for parents of children with an aversion to stinky olives, this is great, because nobody else will eat this up when you aren't looking!)

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups or more of cubed tomatoes
• 1 cup of cubed cucumbers
• 1/2 cup sliced green or black olives
• 4 ounces feta cheese (about a half cup)  (or leave it out to have this be vegan)
• 1 cup (or less) raw cashews
• 1 tablespoon of the olive juice from the jar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Combine the water and quinoa in a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and let cook for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Fluff with a fork.
2. Well the quinoa cooks make the dressing. Combine the olive oil, olive juice, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the cubed tomatoes and cucumbers and the sliced olives. Add quinoa and mix well. Drizzle the dressing on top and add cashews and feta cheese.  (or don't.)
4. Toss everything together. Serve immediately or store in the fridge until serving.

Banana Chocolate Chip Brownies

I make these anytime I have bananas that have aged past the point where I'd be willing to use them in smoothies.  This is quick and easy to put together, and the kids like it!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Get a 9x13 pan to be non-stick.

Combine in a mixing bowl:

half-cup butter or coconut oil
1 cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (or just throw in 1-2 smooshy bananas and let your mixer do the work)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder without aluminum
half teaspoon baking soda
half teaspoon sea salt
half teaspoon cinnamon or ground cloves
half cup of one of these: chocolate chips, raisins, dried cranberries, pecans, walnuts

Mix it all up and then smooth it out into your pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Easy!

Refrigerator Oatmeal in Large Quantities

You may have already seen the awesome, beautiful varieties of refrigerator oatmeal that are featured on The Yummy Life.  Fridge oatmeal has been a huge hit with my boys.  It has been a wonderful item to have on hand for breakfast and snacks all the time.

One thing that I did not find very convenient for me was to make the oatmeal right inside the jars.  It was hard to mix up, and seemed to not be as convenient as it sounded like it would be.  For my family I make a bunch most days, so I figured out the portions to get it done the quick-and-easy way.  This is my base recipe, and then you can tweak it for various flavors as you like.

In a mixing bowl combine:

2 cups yogurt  (I buy organic milk and then make my own yogurt in the crock pot)
2 and 2/3 cup milk (you can use rice, almond, hemp, oat, coconut, or dairy milk)
12 teaspoons chia seeds
8 teaspoons honey or coconut sugar (or to taste)

And then you build from there.

The most common one that I make includes two bananas, cubed up smallish, plus a variety of freeze-dried fruits that we have on hand.  Most commonly we use mango, pineapple, and pear.  The freeze-dried items soak up some of the moisture, as do the chia seeds, so the end product isn't runny or soupy. This also allows me to get away with using my homemade yogurt instead of thicker Greek yogurt that would cost a lot more.  Even without freeze-dried foods, you can go ahead with the regular yogurt, possibly cutting back the milk to just 2 cups.

Once the base of yogurt, milk, chia, and sweetener is done, I find that I can just wing it with how much stuff I add to it.  Also, I've found that the full half-pint jar can be a little too much for some in my family, so I tend to fill the jars about 3/4 of the way.  I get 9-10 jars out of this recipe.

Have you ever tried refrigerator oatmeal?  What variety do you love the most?

Thrive Sweet Potato Pie recipe

I know that lots of people enjoy sweet potato items for the holidays.  This is a great demo video showing how to use the convenience of freeze-dried foods to make a classic sweet potato pie!  What I love about it is that this recipe is easily "healthified"!  My version of this recipe follows the video.  You can easily print the recipe using the Print Friendly button!




Healthier Sweet Potato Pie

Base:

1 1/2 cups Thrive Sweet Potatoes (rehydrated with water)
1/3 cup coconut sugar
half teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons Thrive whole egg powder + 4 tablespoons water

Topping:
1/3 cup coconut sugar
half cup whole wheat flour
half cup chopped pecans
quarter-cup melted butter
quarter-cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Combine the base ingredients with mixer until nicely mixed and fluffy.  Pour into greased 8x8 casserole dish.

Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle evenly over the base.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Homemade Ketchup

This recipe for making homemade ketchup looks easy and interesting!  The full ingredients and instructions are here.  I am thinking about trying it, using regular apple cider vinegar, and making it in the crock pot instead of on the stove top.

Will you try it?  Let me know how it goes!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

So let's just say that you have a lot of zucchini from your garden that needs to be used up, and you and chocolate have a friendly relationship.  Why not put 'em together and make this simple cake?

(yes, yes, I KNOW that I just posted another chocolate cake recipe the other day.  WHAT'S YOUR POINT?!)  Lol

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  No-stick spray a 9x13 pan.

Stir together:
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups coconut sugar
three quarters of a cup of unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder without aluminum
half teaspoon sea salt
4 eggs
one cup natural applesauce
half cup melted coconut oil
3 cups grated zucchini

Once you mix up all of the ingredients just pour it all into your pan and make for 50-60 minutes, until the center tests as done.  Very moist and delicious.

Zucchini Quinoa Patties

I tweaked a recipe from eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com to get this.  Turned out so. darn. yummy.  A lovely way to use up your garden zucchini!

2 heaping cups of cooked quinoa
three-quarter cup Mexican blend shredded cheese (or similar)
half cup small curd cottage cheese
1 cup shredded zucchini (try to press the water out of it first)
3 eggs
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
half a cup of Thrive freeze-dried onions, or about a half of a small onion, chopped
half a cup Thrive freeze-dried celery
half teaspoon coconut sugar
a little sea salt and black pepper and garlice powder
a sprinkle of Lawry's seasoned salt

To cook quinoa:  Bring 2 cups of water plus a little salt to a boil, then add one cup of quinoa.  Reduce heat to low and keep covered while it cooks for 15-20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.  Let cool for a couple minutes.

I use an electric skillet at 250 degrees for this, but you could also use a skillet on your stove top.  You'll just have to work on finding the perfect temp. to cook these at.  Use no-stick spray to coat your skillet and let heat up before you drop the patties onto it.

Combine all the ingredients and then drop about a quarter-cup of mixture at a time onto the skillet, kinda patting it down just a little bit.  Let cook for about 4 minutes on each side.  Easy and so delicious!

Healthified Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

Let's say, theoretically, that you have PMS that is telling you FEED ME CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!  What should you do?

I'll tell you what to do.  You make this cake and eat it too, with no guilt to cry about tomorrow when the PMS roller-coaster takes you over another loop.  ;)  (also TAKE YOUR VITEX ladies!  It will help you not want to kill people quite so much during that very special time of the month, and that's worth a whole, whole lot.  Just ask your husband.)

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1-1/2 cups oatmeal
• 1-1/2 sticks butter
• 2 cups coconut sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the dry oatmeal into a medium bowl. Pour in the boiling water. Add the butter, sinking it into the hot water and oatmeal so it will start to melt, and set aside.  Spray a 9 by 13-inch pan with no-stick spray. In a large mixing bowl combine all of the other ingredients and then add the oatmeal and butter mixture.  Mix well.  Pour it into your 9x13 pan and bake for 35 minutes.  You can eat it without frosting.  It is moist and yummy just as it is.  :)  

Black Bean and Zucchini Taco Bake

Just created this tonite and it turned out to be quite good.  Kind of like a taco lasagne!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a 9x13 pan with no-stick spray.

You will need:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
a little olive oil
22 ounce salsa verde
10 ounces diced tomatoes in juice (or you can whiz them up smoothly in your blender if your kids hate tomato chunks like mine do)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 cups of cooked black beans
1 medium zucchini, thin sliced and then quartered, or you could shred it
1 package of ten 8 inch whole wheat flour tortillas
grated cheddar cheese or mexican blend cheese

Using a large skillet, saute the onion and green pepper til soft.  Stir in salsa verde, tomatoes, spices, beans, and zucchini.  Stir well and frequently so the bottom doesn't burn.  Bring to lightly bubbling and let cook for about 5-10 minutes.

Rip up 5 of the tortillas into bite-sized pieces and cover the bottom of the pan and layer over each other.  Then pour half of the tomato/bean/zucchini mixture on top and spread out.  Sprinkle half the cheese on top.  Then do another layer of ripped tortillas, followed by the rest of the tomato/bean/zucchini mixture, followed by the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.  Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.  Cut into squares or rectangles like you would for lasagne.  Could serve with sour cream.  Yum!

Nutty Granola

Any of you that have taken my class have already seen my standard, super-easy granola recipe that I've enjoyed since my childhood.  I've also shared a Cranberry-Walnut Granola recipe that was pretty good, and a gRAWnola (raw granola) recipe here.  You'd think I would be satisfied with those, but no.  The other day I saw a recipe for a crock pot granola that was supposedly so good, so I decided I'd like to give it a try.  The first challenge was to find a block of 3 hours when I was going to be home and available to tend to the stuff.  I think it took three days before that happened.  (sigh)  Then I made the stuff, and proceeded to be a slave to it's stirring schedule (every half an hour for the first hour, and then every 15 minutes for the last two hours, or some such).  By the time I was done tending to it, I was thinking that it sure would be disappointing if it didn't turn out that great.  Sure enough, it wasn't.  It burned a little, sealing it's fate as a recipe Not Worth Repeating.  And while I was doing 3 hours of tending and stirring I was finding it kinda puzzling that anyone would think it would be worth it to make granola in the crock pot when you can make it in 10 or 20 minutes while you clean the kitchen and then GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE!  :)

I remembered a very yummy granola recipe that was shared with me by a Mennonite lady that I once knew, and I was inspired to try to make a healthified version of it, because I now have wonderful and versatile Coconut Sugar that I thought would work well in it.  Woe and alas, I looked all through my tattered binder of personal recipes and *could not find that one granola recipe anywhere!*  :(  Sob.  (Don't worry. If I find it I'll do my experiment and see what happens.)

So I turned to the internet, poked around looking for something that looked like what I remembered, couldn't find anything quite right, but found some ideas that I thought were worth stirring together, healthifying, and seeing what magic might happen.  And this is what I got:

8 cups old fashioned oats

1.5 cups wheat germ (one and a half...not fifteen!)

1.5 cups shredded coconut (ditto.  NOT 15!)  Unsweetened would be healthiest.

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup chopped walnuts

1.5 teaspoons salt (see that decimal?!  NOT 15)

half cup coconut sugar

quarter-cup maple syrup

three-quarter cup honey

1 cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix up all the ingredients in a big bowl.  Stir well to combine.  Spray two 9x13 pans with non-stick spray and then put half the granola mixture into each pan.  Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once at the 10 minute mark.  Easy!  Delicious.  Flavorful.  Good texture. Satisfying.  :)

Awesome Dinner!

We had such a beautiful and delicious dinner tonite, I just had to share!  Sadly, I took no pictures.  Still, I want to tell you all about it.

Let me preface this by saying that my children are not always that excited about NEW or HEALTHY recipes that are different from what we usually said.  But, what I always tell them when we are having one of *those* meals:  This is a meal for open hearts and open minds!  :)

Strawberry Pecan Salad was beautiful and the kids looooooved the dressing.  The salad basically consists of a large bowl of mixed organic salad greens, or you could go with all baby spinach.  Add in 2 cups sliced strawberries, half a cup sliced raw pecans, and a half cup sliced or diced red onions, if you like.  (I left them out.)

The dressing was made in the small food processor:
1 cup sliced strawberries
quarter-cup fresh orange juice
4 dates
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of chia seeds

Mix it up and voila!  It's done.

3 out of 4 of the boys at my table tonite loved this salad so much that they said they would like to take some in their lunch boxes on the days when we go to our homeschool group!  THAT, my friends, is high praise coming from my kids!

I also made brown rice and kale with a peanut sauce.

For the rice, I cooked it in veggie broth, and added in Thrive freeze dried carrots, onion, and celery.

For the kale, instead of doing the usual sauté, I decided to try going oil-free and boiled it instead.  I used a large bunch of kale, chopped up, and plunged it into the boiling water, left to boil for 3 minutes.  Then drained and plunged it into cold water to preserve the color and stop it from cooking any more.  I'm not sure if I would do the cold water step in the future because it made the kale cold, and I think I would have enjoyed it even more warm.

For the sauce, again I used my small food processor and combined
2 tablespoons honey,
2 tablespoons natural peanut butter,
3 tablespoons organic shoyu (organic soy sauce, you could also use Bragg's liquid aminos),
1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (go easy!),
half a teaspoon ground ginger, and
 3 cloves of garlic.
Whiz it all up and done!  I mixed some of this sauce in with the kale, and saved some.

I plated the food with a generous amount of the rice, placed the kale on top of the rice, and then for those that really like the sauce, added more on top.  Mix all of that up and YUM!  It was so hearty, flavorful, and delicious.

Other than the cost of strawberries out of season ($3.99), this was a pretty economical meal, and fit with our current healthy eating goals.  It was easy to make as well. :)

I got the strawberry salad recipe from a wonderful collection of resources from Frederic and Veronica Patenaude that I would highly recommend to you if you are looking for fresh ideas for eating more delicious raw foods.  Click here to read a review.

Carrot Cake Waffles

I saw this interesting recipe posted by Crystal over at Money Saving Mom, and since I just happened to have some cooked carrots left over from dinner, I decided to try it for breakfast the next day, with some healthy tweaks, of course. These were really good, so I'm excited to share this with you:

2.5 cups whole wheat flour

3 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

half teaspoon sea salt

4 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

(Or if you are in a pinch like I was, use 5 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice instead of the ginger and cinnamon)

4 eggs

1 cup pureed cooked carrots

1.5 cups milk, nut milk, or milk alternative (I used fresh cashew milk)

1 cup coconut sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

6 tablespoons of melted butter (or you could use olive or coconut oil)

I used my ninja food processor to puree the carrots along with the nut milk and eggs, then mixed everything else together and cooked in our waffle maker. These smell and taste great! You don't notice the carrots at all. We used pure maple syrup on them. Perfect!

Vegetarian Alternative to Ground Meat!

So today I have made a pretty cool discovery that will be great for vegetarians or anyone who is just looking for a plant-based and raw alternative to meat every once in awhile. Before today I have only used it as "meat" in a raw chili recipe, but today when my boys were wishing for meat with their pasta, I decided to experiment.

I got the main idea for this concept from Ani Phyo, one of my most favorite raw food recipe people, and tweaked it for my own needs. Here's the recipe:

1 cup raw walnuts--run through your food processor until they are in small little bits, like chopped up cooked ground meat would be

then add in

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Bragg's liquid aminos

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

half a teaspoon of sea salt

Mix it all up and voila! you've got a nice meat substitute! We just added it to the pasta and it definitely did the trick of giving the visual, textural, and flavor of ground meat. Mixing this stuff up takes just a minute (less than cooking meat!) and is certainly less expensive than meat. If you wanted this to taste more like taco flavored, you could add cumin and chili powder. If you wanted it less salty, leave out the Bragg's.

You could use this in salads, chili, casseroles, etc. I hope that you will tell me how it has worked for you!

Walnuts are tremendously healthy for you, especially when raw. (so I would suggest adding this to your cooked and heated foods right before eating, and not heating it, though of course you could) Even if you aren't vegetarian, this is a great way to occasionally add in a powerful nutrient into your diet. Right now we have raw walnuts for sale, so this is a perfect time to stock up.

Leftover Soup

Tomorrow I am making leftover soup! I thought I would tell you a little about how it goes.

Leftover soup is delicious, easy, and thrify.

The base for the soup ingredients is....leftovers! After meals when you have a little bit of rice or veggies or broth or meat that nobody wants to eat, stick in the freezer til soup day. Eventually you'll need a crock pot meal, and you should have a nice variety of items to go into your soup.

Start with some liquid. Whether you have homemade broth, or an organic broth like Imagine brand (please none with MSG), or a creamy soup base (I often get Imagine brand organic soups marked down at Kroger), any of it plus some water will work. Pour it into your crock pot.

Now is the time to empty all of your little containers and ziploc baggies of leftover bits and pieces. Put it all in the crock pot.

Then add in any fresher leftovers that you have in the fridge as well.

Then if you aren't happy with the amount of stuff in there, chop up some onion, carrots, celery, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc. Toss in some frozen veggies if you like. I now like using my Thrive freeze-dried veggies--I have a really nice variety, so it makes my soups so much more flavorful and colorful than I used to have when I didn't have so many different veggies on hand all the time!

You can add cooked or uncooked brown rice, wild rice, or barley. If you want to add pasta it does best to go in toward the end of cook time since it gets pretty mooshy after being in the crock pot all day.

Once you've added all the food bits that you want, add more water or broth if you feel that it's needed. Then add seasonings like parsley, a bay leaf, marjoram, sea salt, pepper, or any other herbs or seasonings that you think will add to the taste.

Cook it on low in your crock pot. Come home to a beautiful dinner!

It's never the same soup twice, but it's really good regardless. As long as you get the liquid-to-food ratio right, you can't really go wrong.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Balls, take 2

Those of you that have taken my class have my original peanut butter ball recipe that I grew up with when my healthy-eatin' grandmother would make them. I found a new recipe recently that I adapted and enjoy. Here's the original source, with several variations there that you might enjoy. Personally, my family and I didn't really like the almond butter versions, but your taste buds may vary!

1 cup healthy peanut butter (I like the crunchy kind and it works fine, but creamy would work too)

half a cup + 2 T raw honey (you could use agave if you don't have any honey available)

1 teaspoon vanilla

half cup + 2 T coconut flour

6 T ground flax seed (I use my coffee grinder for this purpose)

half teaspoon sea salt

optional: half cup chocolate chips or raisins

Mix it all up thoroughly and then form into balls and store in the fridge in a covered container. Once again, I use my pampered chef scoop to make this easy and mess-free!

My kids and husband scarf these up! Not low in calories, though, so go easy if you're needing to watch the waistline.

Delicious Raw Scones

I've had this recipe for awhile, though I'm not sure where the original inspiration came from. This is easy to make and is such a yummy healthy treat to have on hand for a quick grab on the way out the door, for a light snack, etc.

2 cups grated carrots
2 cups grated apples
2 cups chopped walnuts
2 cups raisins
1 cup cranberries
1 cup ground flaxseed (I use a coffee grinder to grind these up quickly)
4 tablespoons agave or honey
quarter-cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Generally I measure the carrots, apples, and walnuts dry, going a little above the 2 cup amount. I throw all of these ingredients into my food processor, pour it out into a bowl and hand mix if it isn't evenly mixed already. Then I use my pampered chef scoop to make nice even mounds of the dough onto my teflex sheet on a dehydrator tray. Since nothing gets bigger in the dehydrator, you can put them really close together. This recipe fills one tray plus usually makes about a dozen more scones on another tray.

Dehydrate at 105-115 degrees for 15-20 hours, then turn them over (remove the teflex sheet) and do another 3 hours to get the bottoms finished. Store in a covered container in the fridge.

Cheesy Kale Chips

I have pulled myself away from devouring the latest batch of these delicious yummies in order to share the recipe with you. You will need a dehydrator that you can adjust the temperature on. I use and recommend the Excalibur dehydrator. (link to the left side of the blog for you to check it out)

First you need one of those big bags of washed, cut kale (or you could use collards) from the produce department. They are probably about 2 gallons in size.

At home you need to mix up the following ingredients in your food processor, blender, or whatever similar equipment you've got:

2/3 (two thirds) cup raw cashews

4 tablespoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons water

half a cup extra virgin olive oil

1.5 teaspoon sea salt

half cup nutritional yeast (this is what gives it the cheesy flavor and is a good source of vitamin B12)

about a half cup finely minced onion (I used Thrive freeze dried onion and added a little extra water to the mixture)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

2 cloves minced garlic

half a teaspoon black pepper

Mix all of that up until it's mixed well. It'll be a little chunky because of the onion and cashews.

I used two very large bowls to put the kale in. If you take the time to rip the kale leaves away from their big stems, it will make for more convenient eatin' later on. (Those stems are very tough and not nice to eat. You can leave them on and just rip them away later as you're snacking, but once you see how fast you want to stick these in your mouth, you'll wish you could do so without the unpleasant surprise of those tough stems!)

I split the kale in two bowls just because the mixing goes a little easier. Pour half of the cashew and liquid mix onto each bowl of kale and just mix it up with a big spoon or spatula. You want to get all the pieces coated as much as you can.

Next you need your Excalibur dehydrator and the teflex sheets* that go with it. For this size batch I usually fill 3 trays with the now-coated kale leaves. Just gently plop them on the teflex and try to spread them out to be fairly even and not too lumped up on each other. When you put the trays back into the dehydrator you'll need to use every-other rung in order to have space for the height of the kale.

Put the door back onto your dehydrator and turn it up to 115 degrees and let it do it's thing for at least 12 hours or until not damp at all. It's a weird smell to wake up to, but very convenient to do overnight, since you can just let the dehydrator go til lunch time when you want some of these for a snack.

Warning: Turn off the dehydrator before you remove the door to check on the kale. The blower will blow the delicate, dehydrated leaves right out if you aren't careful. :) (ask me how I know)

Store these in an air-tight container. If they lose some of their crisp-ness, just throw 'em back in the dehydrator for a little while and that'll take care of that.

The large bag of kale costs less than $3 at my Kroger, and the ingredients for the sauce are quite economical. Such an easy way to enjoy your greens, and an easy way to sell them to your kids!

*If you don't have the teflex sheets, you could use parchment paper if you needed to. I've done it in a pinch and it worked fine, though not as convenient.

**I adapted this recipe from one I think I got from Green Smoothie Girl. I have tried some other kale chip recipes, but this one is the best tasting and most successful one I have tried.

Let me know how it goes for you.

Go Make This...STAT!

I just made this awesome healthy caramel dip to go with the Macintosh apples my in-laws brought back from NY state. SO GOOD! Plus, enjoy the video interview from two years ago....especially my rambunctious boys in the background. True to life, folks!