Getting back to work after a 3 day weekend is never easy, especially with freezing temps and a massive sinus headache. But I survived after a wonderfully relaxing day yesterday resting my stuffed head inside in front of the fireplace. Miko was happy to join balled up in my pink fuzzy bathrobe.
Hubby got me a gorgeous new super soft bathrobe from Victoria’s Secret for Christmas, but Miko likes it more than me following me around the house when I’m wearing it waiting for me to sit so he can jump into my lap. I ended up taking it off just so he could stay warm in it yesterday, spoiled dog!
I did get some play time in the kitchen between feeling like a stuffed up zombie and brought out all the kale I bought at Whole Foods. Overboard? Hey, it was on sale! :-)
And decided to turn it into kale chips trying this Tangy Tahini Kale Chip recipe that looked amazing to me, but I could eat tahini right out of the jar.
It was pretty easy just dumping the ingredients into the Vitamix, no nut soaking required. The time consuming part was washing, de-stemming, and chopping the kale leaves into chips.
There was something satisfyingly therapeutic about making a mess hand mixing the leaves with the tahini sauce until each leaf was coated, I was whisked back to my junior high days of watching Double Dare.
And I loaded all 9 of the trays in my Excalibur dehydrator and almost did not have enough space, whoops! :-)
I let them dry all night until they were super crunchy.
The flavor is wonderful, very tangy and savory and a nice change from the traditional cheesy kale chip recipes using red peppers and seeds/nuts.
The sauce coated the chips nicely and stuck during dehydrating.
Thumbs up for this recipe, I will definitely do it again. Try it if you’re a tahini fan.
Tonight’s dinner was pretty lazy since I was feeling especially fried after a busy day. Thankfully Trader Joe’s has a few vegan-friendly products for these occasions. I’m not huge on fake vegan meat products, but occasionally pick them up for something I can enjoy with my non-vegan hubby. Last week I impulse-bought vegan Chicken-Less Stuffed Cutlets that were calling to me in the chilled tofu section because there were two per package and the simple heat-and-eat instructions, perfect for a busy night.
And the nutrition info appealed to me – low cal, but high protein and fiber. The sodium level isn’t so great, but I don’t worry about that too much since I don’t use a lot of salt in general.
When I opened the package, I saw why they were so low-cal – they were pretty small, smaller than an average burger. But that’s great portion control I guess and perfect since I didn’t want something too large before going for a run. I followed the directions and heated them stove top.
Only to have them still be cold on the inside after I served them – oops!
We had to stick the plates in the microwave for 50 seconds to fix that, I guess I didn’t have the burners high enough even though it seemed like the outside was cooked. I can create complicated raw recipes, but fail to follow simple heating directions – go figure. :-P I served them with the sesame-ginger steamed broccoli recipe from this months Vegetarian Times and hubby actually liked the vegan cutlet, the black bean and corn mixture inside has a nice level of spice while the included tomato sauce for topping added moisture and a savory, salsa-like kick. We found them slightly rubbery, but was fine with that. I would grab these again, makes a nice and quick healthy option for anybody, just don’t be shy about turning the heat up when cooking. :-)
the kale chips look wonderful. I need to get some patience and dehyd a batch, soon.
And I want to be Miko in your soft pink robe: COZY!! :)
Thanks, they were surprisingly good, but didn’t last long. :-)
I like the stuffed fake meat products generally – these sound decent!