Healthy Snack of the Week

Today's post is short and sweet, and focuses on one of my favorite times to eat. Snack time! I will graze throughout the day sometimes, and usually eat something before bed or else I will lay there with a gnawing stomach. I know this isn't the healthiest practice - eating at night, but don't foresee myself giving it up anytime soon. So, I try to motivate myself to eat healthy snacks. If there is no motivation, please pass on over that bag of chips, or some cookies. Or if there is not anything to instantly gratify my snacking rampage, that bag of chocolate chips.

One of my old favorites is this light lemon pudding. Monday night I motivated myself to pull out the blender and whip up this quick satisfying snack. All that is needed is a banana, half of an avocado, and some lemon juice. Easy!

Here is the recipe.

Light lemon pudding

1 banana, roughly chopped (or 1 and 1/2 depending on how small your bananas are)

1/2 avocado, peeled and roughly chopped

juice of half a lemon

1/2 banana, sliced for garnish

1 Tbs or more unsweetened shredded coconut (optional for garnish)

Toss the banana, avocado, and lemon juice into a blender and blend until smooth adding water as necessary to help the blending process ( just be careful not to add to much water, therefore making it to runny). Pour into a bowl and top with banana slices and coconut. Enjoy!

variation: Use lime juice instead of lemon for a key lime like flavor.

Amazing Kale

I absolutely adore kale. Although I do tend to buy it every week and then put off using it, and therefore feel bad about it sitting in my fridge wilting and losing nutrition. Something to work on!

It is such an amazing powerhouse of nutrition. Kale is high in calcium, iron, vitamin A,C, and K, and lutein. It has lots of beta-carotene and is a cancer fighting vegetable. You can't beat all of that! I use kale in green smoothies, green juices (my favorite being kale, apple, and lemon), and my all time favorite Kale Chips. Kale chips can be made raw using a dehydrator or baked in the oven. I prefer them raw as it keeps the nutritional enzymes in tact and has more of a fresh kale taste. They are still delicious baked, just make sure that you don't let them burn.

Try this recipe even if you don't particularly warm to kale. You might enjoy eating it this way. It definitely dispels my chip cravings as it is salty and crisp.

Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale

1 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

Seasonings of choice to taste (garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, season salt, ect.)

Wash kale thoroughly and dry with a clean towel. Tear into fairly large pieces (these shrink down a lot in the drying or baking process) and discard the big parts of the stem. Place in a large bowl. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Drizzle on the olive oil. A little goes a long way in this dish. With clean hands, get in there and massage the oil into the leaves so that each leaf is coated.

Sprinkle in your seasonings and distribute evenly using your hands again.

Spread them out on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until crisp. Make sure you watch them so you can prevent them from burning.

These are how mine turned out. They shrink down a lot.

Alternatively spread out the prepared kale onto dehydrator sheets. Dehydrate for 4-6 hours at 104 degrees F. Once the kale is crispy it is ready to eat.

This is how the dehydrated ones turned out.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. I know it doesn't seem that exciting being that it is a dark green vegetable and often viewed as tough and bitter. But give kale a chance, you might be glad that you did!