DIY Kale Chips

When you get a craving for a crunchy, savory snack, don’t reach for potato chips. Don’t pay a ton of money for a tiny bag of kale chips at the health food store, either. Kale chips are so easy and inexpensive to make at home, you can whip up a batch anytime you want. They’re so healthy you can crunch away without guilt. More importantly, when you make your own snacks at home from scratch, you know what ingredients go into them, which is so important for people with food sensitivities (which is most of us). Better yet, kale is packed with vitamins K, A, and C. Other anti-inflammatory nutritients in kale, such as flavonoids (kaempferol and quercitin, among many others) and carotenoids (especially lutein and beta-carotene) combat oxidative stress and can contribute to preventing many cancers. Here are a few kale chip recipes that will give you a variety of flavors. Experiment and enjoy! For all these recipes, if you’d like to do a raw version, you can use a dehydrator. If you have a gas oven with a pilot light, you can simply leave the kale in the oven for 8-10 hours to dehydrate the leaves instead of baking. In dry climates in the summer, you even can “bake” them in the sun for 2-3 hours.   Kale Chips (using coconut oil) http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2012/2/1/kale-chips Plain and simple kale chips are my favorite. Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips http://www.elanaspantry.com/salt-and-vinegar-kale-chips/ Can’t wait to try these. They may just become my new favorite! Spicy Smoky Kale Chips http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/spicy-kale-chips/ Lemon Kale Chips http://www.drgreene.com/recipe/lemon-kale-chips Sriracha Kale Chips http://thereshegoesblog.com/2011/06/14/sriracha-kale-chips/ Tongue-burning deliciousness.