Snack Week Recipe: Vegetable Chips

Snack week continues with vegetable chips!

I generally prefer to eat vegetables raw. Wash and go. It's a texture thing - squash may be the worst offender when it comes to cooked vegetables. I can't stand the squish. 

Chips don't squish. Let's make some chips.

Gather:
Vegetables (such as potatoes, carrots, zucchini, kale, beets, fennel, squash, etc)
1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil per vegetable used
1/4 tsp sea salt per vegetable used
1/4 tsp seasoning per vegetable used

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Wash and DRY desired vegetables and thinly slice (I used sweet potatoes, beets, zucchini and kale). 
• Toss with olive oil, sea salt, and seasonings (I used Cajun seasoning and dried cilantro) until evenly coated.
• Place in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake until crisp. (10 min for kale; 30 - 40 min for others, flip half-way through)

Your chips should last a few days stored in airtight container. Pop them in a hot oven for a few minutes if they feel a little soft.

The kale chips are definitely my favorite. If you try this recipe, give me a shout - let me know which you like best.

Recipe: Watermelon Gazpacho

There is only one thing better than picking vegetables from your very own garden when you are eating fresh - picking vegetables from someone else's garden. Enter my pops. He grows a terrific garden every year. And it's only a couple minutes away from my house. 

If you have two minutes, hang in the garden with me. If you hate relaxing things like nature scenes and bird songs, skip to the recipe.

A decorating blog I read on the regular, Decor8, features Liz and Jewels, two girls who cook on two continents, once a month. Jewels just posted about Watermelon Gazpacho on Decor8. That's a bit of a web to weave but hopefully it's not too tangled. I'm not a huge fan of watermelon (texture issues, I got 'em) or gazpacho, but something about this recipe made me want to give it a try. 

Jewels says to use any colorful vegetable you desire in the recipe. So I did. Let's get processing!

Watermelon Gazpacho (adapted from Decor8)

3 slices watermelon (I'll add more next time, I was a bit watermelon shy. Don't be like me.)

1/2 each of green, red and yellow bell pepper

1 cucumber

1 large tomato

1/4 red onion

1/2 cup chopped eggplant

generous handful of cilantro 

juice of one lemon

dash of salt 

goat cheese, crumbled

Throw everything except the goat cheese into a food processor (or blender) and process the heck out of it. When you reach the desired consistency, serve it up and throw a little pico de gallo (made from the left-over pieces of vege for the gazpacho), cilantro and goat cheese on top. Eat!

**Also, sorry I stopped blogging for 1.5 months. I'll not do that again.

Fix Your Plate

Source of gorgeous butter lettuce: Uncle Max's garden.*
And that tasty looking chicken? Come back tomorrow for the recipe. 

Not sure how much of this or that you should be eating as you turn Mediterranean? Generally, you should fill half of your plate with vegetables (or fruits and vegetables), one-fourth with whole grains and one-fourth with chicken or fish (not fried!). 

Obviously, with half your plate being covered in vegetables, you should be consume primarily plant-based foods: fruit, veggies, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that eating this way can reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. (Research is currently under way on the effect of this sort of diet on cancer.)

Fuhgeddabout refined sugar, flour and butter. Most of the time. I'm sure a slice of cake on your  
birthday and a helping of Aunt So-in-so's famous creamy, bread-y casserole at Christmas won't kill you unless you crossed her. 

Tips for turning Mediterranean:

• Replace fats such as butter, margarine and salad dressing with olive oil.
• Use herbs and spices in place of salt. 
• Can't give up your red meat? Limit yourself to once or twice a month. 
• Work in whole grains every day, if not at every meal.
• Simmer vegetables over low heat instead of boiling them to reduce leaching nutrients.
• Don't be afraid of eggs and dairy - just consume  smaller portions than the typical American. 
• Stick with it! Your taste-buds can change. After a couple weeks of eating whole grain bread, I stopped choking it down and started enjoying it. And fruit tastes sweeter now that I have (mostly) kicked the sugar habit. 

*Not a hipster whole foods store. My actual uncle grew it in his actual garden.