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! 

Paleo Chicken Breasts in a Crock Pot

WE all are busy and need great food fast. So, here's a new one. We eat a lot of chicken breasts cooked in the oven and they are amazing, but I wanted that crockpot tender-thing. Here's what I did:

I rubbed the inside of my crockpot with coconut oil.
I rinsed 6 hormone and antibiotic-free chicken breasts then laid them close together in the crockpot, overlapping as little as possible.
I added 1 TBSP of coconut oil, 1 cup of organic chicken stock, and 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp rosemary, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
I turned the crockpot on low and left it for 5 hours. It was also fine at 6 hours. (I left it on just to see if it would be ok to go longer.)
That chicken breast is so tender and juicy - you have to try it!

Ger just said, "Mom, that chicken is amazing! Really good. Do it again soon."
That makes it all worthwhile, huh?

I did 2 pans of kale chips but put smoked paprika and garlic powder on them instead of chilli powder. You can find this recipe in February, I think the 9th, but try it with the smoked paprika!
Fresh asparagus and broccoli in a skillet with a couple TBSPs of chicken stock and sea salt rounded out a great meal for the first snow day of the year!

This is my favorite photo from the OCT 2015. They take some amazing photos! Ger got 4th place!