Just wanted to say

Mandy is pretty awesome. That is all.

Big Pot O' Soup

So as I said yesterday, I had a day off which was a wonderful surprise. I was feeling a little under the weather, so I decided to put everything I had left over into a crockpot for a soup. The above pot has a japanese sweet potato, half a bunch of kale, carrots, some white beans, tomatoes, an onion, garlic, vegetable broth, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne, and because I love it and saw a can while getting oil for my car at target, pumpkin. It was awesome. Savory, warm, comfortable and hearty. Plus the cumin added this Indian spin I wasn't expecting.

The other thing I want to mention is this: Japanese sweet potatoes. HOLYCRAP. They look like a giant red potato but are sweet and need nothing when you make them. I am not a sweet potato fan typically but these are outstanding. Bake and add a little salt and you are good to go. I am thinking about making a root vegetable mash with vegan butter next week and will probably use them with parsnips and turnips if I can find good parsnips.

Kale chips

I'm not feeling well today, I think because I've just burned myself out a bit. Between work, moving and the semester approaching an end, I haven't had a day off. Until today! I slept 14hrs last night and just taking it easy, giving my body a chance to recover and prepare for an insanely busy week/weekend ahead.

For the next two weeks I'm in Waldorf at my parents' house because my living situation turned sour. Or rather, a "friend" that people talked about being a bad person and I ignored because we seemed to have fun together turned out to be a horribly disgusting person, so I'm in Waldorf until my lease at a super cute new place in Brooklyn Park starts on May 1st. Seriously, the place is adorbs and I can't wait. Anyways, so I'm in Waldorf and right now it works out because my family is on vacation for the week, so I can watch the place while they're gone. I say all this because as they were leaving, I noticed my mom had a huge bunch of kale in the fridge that she never ate. Since she was leaving, I asked if I could have it because I have been DYING to try kale chips.

Holy.

Crap.

These things are amazing. And super easy. I was never a sweet tooth person, always preferred salty, and these did me in. I made a baking sheet full and that was only 1/3 of the bunch. The other 2/3 is for the next post.

But yeah, super easy and awesome as a lazy day off, staying in bed lunch. The pictures do not do it justice!

Kale Chips

Kale

salt

garlic powder

2tsp olive oil or cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375. Break off kale from stems to bite size pieces and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil, then add salt and garlic powder to taste. Bake for 10-15min, checking for the edges to be brown and the kale to be crisp. Enjoy!