Kale Chips

I have been intrigued by kale chips for sometime now but just couldn't bring myself to pay $7 for a small bag of them when the recipe is so easy and kale is very affordable. These are a low-calorie snack and packed with nutrition.
 I loved them and thought they were so good! I think Chris will need some time to get used to them, but I think he'll come around, he usually does. ;) Next time I will  definitely lay off the salt a bit-oops! I will be making these again!

Recipe

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with salt

Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Homemade Dog Treats

Chris and I don't have children yet so our Daisy and Sancho are definitely treated like royalty around here! I have always grown up with animals and couldn't imagine my life without them. It would feel so empty! 

On my journey of learning what is in the food Chris and I eat I have also learned about all of the crap that is in our dog food/treats so I have started making my own treats so that I can control what goes in them and I have also discovered that making your own is really cost effective too; bonus! 

Don't expect to get peace in the kitchen while making these! My dogs sit at my feet the entire time waiting for scraps to fall. I may or may not sneak them some dough though which probably doesn't help ;) but I can't help it! I just imagine it's like being a kid and your mom letting you eat the cookie dough before they're baked!

This recipe is really easy. If you are making smaller treats this would make a huge batch, I make a combination of small and medium since I have a small and medium sized dogs and it still makes a good sized batch :)  

Tip: Double the batch and freeze the extra!

 Ingredients 

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup boiling beef broth
• 3/4 cup cornmeal (there is some controversy on feeding animals corn, which I do normally avoid for my dogs but I use organic cornmeal to be sure the corn has not been genetically modified and this recipe is the only one I use with corn in it so I figure a little is ok.)
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg, beaten (or 2 eggs to make treats softer for older dogs)
• 3 cups whole wheat flour

Directions

Combine rolled oats, butter, and boiling beef broth in large bowl. Let stand and soften for 10 minutes. Thoroughly stir in cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, peanut butter, and egg. Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough comes together. Knead dough together so that it looks like this:

Roll out dough to 1/2" thickness

Cut out shapes with cookie cutter. I found my bone shape cutter at Walmart and then used my mini star cutter for Daisy sized treats

Place on cookie sheet. They don't spread apart so you can fit a lot on a sheet:

Bake 35 (smaller treats) to 45 (larger treats) at 325 degrees, until golden brown. remove from oven and let cool. 

Note: My picture shows both sizes on one tray, I suggest you do larger ones together and then smaller ones together. I ran out of time and stuck them on one tray and my smaller ones were a little over baked!

Enjoy!