Baked Kale Chips (Easy)

I never ate Kale before in my life!  I am going to have to start incorporating it into my cooking after researching how good it is for you.  After making these baked kale chips and now knowing how healthy kale actually is for you; I am sold!  My husband is too.  He loved eating them just as much as I did and he gobbled up more than I got to when my back was turned.  Kale is considered the "queen of greens" and is gaining in popularity.  Kale belongs to the family that includes turnips, bok choy, parsley, mustard greens, brussel sprouts, cabbage, collards, and broccoli.  One cup of kale gives you 5 grams of fiber and is highly concentrated in antioxidants vitamins A, C, and K and provides Omega-3 fatty acids.  Kale is good for eye health and has anti-cancer benefits.  How can you not want to include kale in your diet!  Kale should be stored, unwashed, in an air-tight Ziploc bag for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.  This recipe I used to make them suggested drizzling olive oil over the kale pieces but I used spray olive oil instead to get an even coating over the chips to be.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-kale-chips/detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 bunches washed and thoroughly dried Kale
• 2-4 tbsp olive oil (I used spray olive oil in the can)
• 1 tbsp Kosher salt or sea salt (I put the salt in a fine metal hand strainer and shook it over the kale leaves) (picture below)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
2. With a knife or a pair of kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite-size pieces. Wash and dry kale thoroughly with a salad spinner.  
3. Spray kale with olive oil or drizzle if you don't have the spray, then sprinkle with salt. 
4. Bake for 12 minutes until the edges are brown, not burnt. 

2 bunches of kale and each bunch cost 98 cents each, pretty cheap for chips?

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

The tools of choice for making my kale chips. See how I used that metal strainer to hold the salt? It made it easy to shake it over the kale leaves. The spray cooking olive oil gave a nice and even coverage. Did you know that when olive oil interacts with kale it helps your body work easier to use the vitamin K in kale? Yep, you do now!

Spraying the kale leaves evenly with olive oil cooking spray.

I used this metal strainer to help control how much salt was added to the kale leaves.

Salted and oiled, ready to be baked. Remember not too long, because then they will be burnt and not too short, if too short they will be limp.  They should be browned on the edges when ready, not burnt.

After 12 minutes of baking, not even one entire bunch, only about half. One bunch per person is a good way to know how much to prepare.  Use more than one cookie sheet so you can accomplish a quicker preparation time.