Smoked Paprika Kale Chips

Smoked Paprika Kale Chips.....could my house smell any better?  Whether you make them in a dehydrator or your oven, you are going to want to try these. Addicting, I tell you.

I make these, as you can see, in the dehydrator, on 145 for 2  1/2 hours. If you use the oven, it's at 325 for 20-25 minutes and I usually stir them once and put them back into the oven somewhere near the end of the cooking time. If I forget, and any kale isn't crisp, I just stir them gently, spread them back out and put them back into the oven for a couple of minutes after I've turned it off.

This recipe is so simple! In a LARGE bowl, I put:

1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP smoked paprika (nuts.com)
1 tsp garlic nuggets (garlicgold.com)
 1/4 tsp sea salt

I stir this up and then tear one bunch of organic kale off the stems and drop into the bowl. Next, I take my hands and mix the kale into the oil and spices, turning the kale over and working it almost like kneading bread.
I spread the kale onto a dehydrator rack, maybe a rack and a half.

I measure out my oil and spices and continue this process again. My dehydrator has 4 racks and I use 3 bunches of kale, usually two of organic purple kale and one of green kale.  When we eat dinner, we just each take a rack and transfer it to our plate!

You can use the dehydrator with less racks, or you can make a lot and keep the leftovers in in a big Ziploc bag.

Now, I'm all about sharing ideas to save money, and I have another one for you. I spend a lot on spices - it's crazy. So, the last time I sent in a big order to nuts.com for nuts, I thought I would try  a couple of their spices in one-pound bags. So, let's look at the math here:

Smoked Paprika - around $7 for 1.62 oz
Nuts.com Smoked Paprika - $9.99 for one pound! (that's 16 oz for those of you who forgot - you know who you are....)
Organic Cinnamon - around $7 for 1.4 oz
Nuts.com Organic Cinnamon - $8.99 for one pound!

The quality is at least as good, if not better!  I will be filling up my little glass bottles with nuts.com from now on!