Garlic Kale Chips

Confession time.  I've been eating pretzels lately.  Not just some pretzels.  BAG.  AFTER.  EFFING.  BAG.  Of pretzels.  The evidence?  A canker sore the size of Mount St. Helen on my tongue.  I've tried to stop several times but have had no luck finding a replacement snack.  Until today.  Oven baked garlic kale chips to the rescue.  I love them!  I love them so much that I'd like to wear them on my body.  Lady Ga Ga probably beat me to it though.  These little suckers are crunchy and tangy and totally addicting.  

GARLIC KALE CHIPS

1 bunch of kale (torn into 3 inch pieces)
grapeseed oil
garlic powder
sea salt


1.  Preheat oven to 300.  Prep two large baking sheets with cooking spray.
2.  Trim kale stems and cut or tear leaves into 2 - 3 inch pieces.  Place in medium bowl.
3.  Drizzle kale with grapeseed oil and toss well.
4.  Arrange kale in a single layer on two baking sheets.  Sprinkle with garlic pdr. and salt.
5.  Bake 15 minutes or until crispy.

This Post Brought To You By: conviction

I started writing this post yesterday but I only got about half-way through before my baby who is riddled with reflux started breathing fire.  I guess it's not always a bad thing when babies develop dragon like behaviors because as I was putting out the flames in her throat, I completely revamped the whole idea behind this post.  Kind of.  Not really.  But enough that I had to start over.  Which I obviously have already done so I'm not sure why I felt like I needed to tell you that.  And here's where you become acutely aware of how sleep deprived I truly am.  Someday, if you really try hard, you can make as much sense as me.  Maybe.  Probably.


Let me tell you a little story.  This story may or may not be true.  And it may or may not have happened this week while I was watching my 4 year old's dance class in a room full of moms.  3 of whom happened to have brand spankin' new babies in tow.  


As a general rule, when I take my itty-bitty out on the town I keep her covered up in her car seat.  Like a bear.  In a cave.  Who is hiding from germy 4 year olds.  But on this particular day she decided that her car seat pretty much blew.  So I took her out.  And of course the crowd was all, "gasp...whoa, oh my word she's SO tiny and small and puny!  Are you nursing or bottle feeding?  Why is she so little?  What's wrong with YOU?  How do you even find the will to live when you have such miniature offspring?"  That last one might have been an exaggeration.  But still.  I've actually gotten used to these kinds of questions.  And usually when I tell them that she was almost 6 weeks early, it satisfies their curiosity.  But noooo.  Not this time.  I got into a bit of an...exchange with one of the moms who just so happened to be sporting an uber-chubby 4 week old that could have consumed my itty-bitty in one big "NOM"!  I explained calmly that my baby was early and preemies tend to gain slowly but that breastfeeding was important to me and was actually going quite well.  What I didn't say was that I had no idea what to do with this itty-bitty child of mine who is obviously malnourished and that even though she's my 4th child and this was her 2nd child could she please share with me her wisdom regarding my clearly unfortunate infant.  But somehow, that's the message this woman got.  So naturally, she gave me all her best advice.  She rather forcefully told me that I should stop breastfeeding immediately and switch to formula.  That I needed to double up the scoops of formula for every ounce of water.  And the kicker?  That I needed to melt butter and add it to the formula.  


blink...blink blink


silence...


Now, normally I'm pretty quick to respond to ignorant nutritional advice, but this?  I had nothing.  Not even a yeah, mmm-hmm, kthnksbye.  You guys!  She actually told me to feed my 6 week old, premature infant melted butter.  And I said NUH-THING!  I have to blame this one on the lack of shut eye because my neurons and synapses really do fire more quickly than that on an average day.  I haz stupidz.


You might think that the point of this story is to provide evidence that there are some seriously misinformed individuals out there.  But it's not.  In fact, the more I thought about it the more I realized that she probably wasn't misinformed.  I'm guessing that at some point, a doctor or nutritionalist probably told her to feed her baby a bottle of hot grease.  Because...yum.


What I'm getting at here, albeit slowly, is that I'm super thankful that I'm the one who get's to make decisions regarding the health of my children.  It doesn't really matter that I didn't say anything to Wacko Dance Mom when she gave me such sound advice because it was only that.  Advice.  I could take it or leave it.  And in case you weren't sure, I left it.  


There's a small window of opportunity we have as mothers to get our kids off to a healthy start in life.  A time when we are solely responsible for what they put into their little bodies.  A few years ago, after having dealt with several "mommy advice" run-ins, I decided that I needed to be more confidant in my convictions.  I didn't want to get into any scuffles with anyone, but I also didn't want to let every well intentioned comment or bit of criticism get to me.  And you wanna know something?  I think I'm there!  The "butter in the bottle" experience reminded me that I really do trust my own lifestyle.  I believe in the decisions I make for my family.  I honestly don't care what anyone else says or does.  But you might want to be aware that if at some point you share your own convictions with me and all I do is stare at you like a deer in the headlights?  I most likely think that your advice blows a big fat fatty.  And that your pant are weird.

Six pounds is huge.  YOUGE I tell you!

  

Fabulous Find at Whole Foods!

So I have to tell you that last night I woke up, and was awake for a couple of hours, just laying in bed.  Part of the reason I couldn't go to sleep was the fact that I had about five different songs playing in my head, and part of the reason was that I had about ten different blog posts writing themselves in my head...AUGH!

In my last post I wrote about Sunbutter, which is a great alternative to peanut butter because it doesn't contain mold (aflatoxins) that peanuts carry from growing in the ground, particularly in wet and warm climates.  You can read more about aflatoxins here.  I am not totally anti-peanuts, but do try to limit them in our family's diet, especially since my kids have cousins and fellow students at school who are allergic to them.

Anyway, Sunbutter is made from roasted sunflower seeds, and tastes amazing!  I actually like it better than peanut butter.  So today, when I saw this Sunbutter on sale at the Cottonwood Heights Whole Foods for $2.99 vs. $4.99, which is the cheapest I can find it anywhere (besides Azure Standard for a few cents less), I knew I wanted to tell you right away.  And I also knew that if I didn't sit my bum down and carry through, I would be up again tonight with this post in my head.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure :)

P.S. I bought 17 of them so I can have them in my food storage for later, so you might want to call and make sure they still have some left before you head to the store :)  Hopefully I didn't rob any of you from cheap Sunbutter!

A Filling Breakfast

Annie told you all a little while ago that I was sunning myself in warm Arizona (or warming myself in sunny Arizona) and I'm so excited to post about that, give you a couple of raw food restaurant reviews, and share about all of the exciting things happening lately, but right now, I'm going to write a quick post on the easy yet delicious breakfast I've had for the past two days.  Usually, breakfast for me is a green shake and whatever else I feel like; a muffin that I've made (which is a rare), creamy buckwheat, a handful of almonds, etc... But the last couple of days, I've felt like something different.  Along with a piece of fruit, I've eaten this:

Sunbutter Oatmeal with drizzled Agave

Ingredients:

1/3 cup rolled oats, cooked according to package (I used Gluten Free Oats)
2 Tbsp. crunchy sunbutter
Drizzle raw agave to taste

Before I dig in, I mix it all around.  So quick to prepare and so yummy! 


On a side not, I just had to add this pic of my almost 3 yr. old wearing my bike helmet yesterday!  I told her to smile for the camera and she automatically stuck her thumb in her mouth for the pose.  I have no idea why, but I was laughing. What a ham :)