Kale chips

One of the most annoying things about eating healthy while on a budget has to be coming up with simultaneously delicious snacks. I'll go into detail with that in a further post. For now, though, I have a recipe for you.

Kale is a cabbage-like vegetable frequently grown for ornamental use, due to how pretty it is! It is a very healthy vegetable, however, that tastes much like broccoli. It's high in vitamins A and C, and also is a source of manganese, calcium and iron.

Kale can be used in any number of dishes, particularly salads. It does, however, make a fantastic and easy snack that only takes about twenty minutes to make. Most of that time is spent baking!

Honestly, I never knew that a vegetable could melt in your mouth until I tried these.



Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: the same amount a large bag of chips will serve! (1 if you're snacking like a fiend, 4 if you're not!)
Cooking time: 12-15 minutes
Difficulty: super easy
Cost: Under $5

Ingredients
-kale
-1 tbsp. olive oil
-a sprinkling of coarse salt

TIP: You can half this recipe if you are making it for only yourself. If you're going to eat the kale chips over the course of a few days, don't make it all at once or you'll risk having some soggy kale chips. The oil will seep in completely and make them quite chewy.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Take a bunch of kale. You can buy kale at the grocery store for roughly $3, or you can grow your own. Make sure the kale is well washed, but let it dry.

Separate kale in to small pieces and place in large mixing bowl. Pour olive oil and toss, then add a small amount of coarse salt. Toss until all kale is covered with oil and salt is evenly distributed.

Take kale and spread evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 7 minutes, then remove, turn once, and bake for another 7 minutes.

If kale chips are crispy, they are done! If not, bake them for another few minutes. Do not overcook or they will taste and smell burnt and nasty.

Let them cool a bit and dig in! To me, the flavor is a cross between dulse and potato chips.

I hope to have more on inexpensive healthy snacks in the week to come!

To add, I will also likely be doing another cooking video in the future due to... demand? That's right. People actually enjoyed the video. The only thing is that I need stuff to cook! So... ideas, if you please!

Fancysimplecheap Strawberry Sauce

How do you know I'm happy?

I cook.

And cook, and cook, and cook.

Case in point, the other night my fiance brought home good news from work. I was so happy, I cooked his favourite meal (curry with rice), then proceeded to get creative and make a strawberry sauce to put on ice cream. The results were pretty good, so I thought I would share with all one of you who are reading this!

This is a surprisingly easy to make, but still decidedly fancy, sauce. Do whatever you please with it, for it is also very versatile.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Serves: 2-4 people (depending on what you do with it)
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: SUPER easy
Cost: Under $5 (use whatever liquor you have in your cupboard!

Ingredients

-1 pint strawberries, chopped finely
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 tsp sugar
-splash of dark rum (or champagne, vodka or fruit wine... whatever you have lying around, really! I used dark rum)

Cook SLOWLY, covered on low heat. Do not boil. 30 min. When the mixture appears to be half solid and half liquid, remove from heat and leave covered to stand and thicken. Try adding raspberries or rhubarb.

Pour over ice cream, frozen yogurt or sorbet, or add to strawberry shortcake! Good fresh and hot, or chilled.

A quick note to add that I am doing another fiddlehead recipe before the season is over, and I'm currently editing a video to accompany that! Yes I did a cooking video. It should be up within the end of the week. The video may come before the recipe, in fact, because I'm weird like that. Keep an eye out!

Fantastic Fiddleheads

Spring time is one of the most highly-anticipated times of year for dwellers of eastern Canada. The melting of the snow and longer days give way to thoughts of summertime, and eliminate the depression of the short, cold days of winter.

In addition to that, it's also the time to harvest fiddleheads.

Fiddleheads are a wild vegetable that grows, typically, in the east. New Brunswick, where I'm from, is full of them, and Quebec and the eastern United States also find the little green coils springing up come May. The fiddlehead is a vegetable that is the youngest part of various species of fern, and produces a tender yet savory flavour.



Fiddleheads are considered a popular seasonal option for vegetarians, vegans and carnivores alike because they are a fitting accompaniment to any meal and go especially well with potatoes. They can become a flavourful base for soups, creating a meal on its own. They are also high in nutrients, such as vitamins A and C, potassium, folate, iron and fibre. In addition, they have antioxidant activity and are a source of Omega 3 and 6.

Cooking them properly is very important, as they are wild vegetables that grow close to the ground and do tend to have dirt caught up in their coils. Cleaning them properly is also important. I'm going to go over how best to clean them and one, very basic, way to cook them, in this post. Considering I just cooked half my bag and have another half waiting, I may have another recipe surfacing over the next couple of days. For now, though, we'll go with this.

This recipe is going based on 1 lb. of fiddleheads, which should produce a fair serving for up to 4 people. I paid $4 for a pound, which is reasonable for a side dish so rich in vitamins and minerals. It seems like I will get 2 meals out of it, too, so that's a bonus! The best thing about fiddleheads is that they are naturally grown and rarely cultivated, so you can go for a walk in the woods and may find a bunch of them. Picking them is a whole other animal, so I won't get into it here (though here is a great site for tips on picking fiddleheads), but keep in mind that picking them will make them a FREE FEED for you. What's better than free food when on a budget?!

Prep time: 30-45 minutes
Serves: 2-4 people
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes (depending on whether you boil them and have that be all, or if you saute them afterward)
Difficulty: Moderate
Cost: roughly $5/lb... free if you pick your own!

Start by cleaning the fiddleheads. You should remove any yellow or brown parts and trim the stems, especially if the fronds are not freshly picked. Place them in a bowl and leave them to soak for about 10 minutes. I went the extra mile and changed the water to leave them to soak a little longer. After they are cleaned to your satisfaction, boil them on high for about 10 minutes. Change the water, then bring them to a boil once more for another 10. After this, you may strain them and serve them with some butter. Try adding hollandaise sauce if you're in the mood for something a little richer.

After they've been steamed, you can also saute them in a pan with some butter and a splash of lemon juice. I did this and they were fantastic! Add a little salt and a small amount of vinegar to give the fiddleheads some zing.

And there you have it! A delicious, healthy side dish that is even a little rare due to its short harvesting time. Use fiddleheads you picked to give your meal the illusion of being a fancy, expensive dish, or to impress friends from out of town.

EDIT: Enjoy watching this inane video of me cooking some fiddleheads.

Poppin' some corn

I was over at a friend's house last night, and she told me she was going to make some popcorn. I got very excited, because popcorn is delicious and it's one of my favourite snacks.


To my surprise, instead of grabbing a bag of microwave popcorn, she pulled a bag of kernels from her cupboard. I didn't think she had an air popper, and it turns out I was right. She was going to use her stove top. What followed was a fun and really easy way to make popcorn at home, without having to worry about buying an extra machine like an air popper, and without all the fat and sodium content of your average bagged popcorn. In addition, it's ridiculously cheap! Everything but the kernels will likely be something you use in your house already, so all you'll need to buy will be the bag of kernels, which only cost me $2.19 for 1 kg. This will make you a lot of popcorn; at least 5 pots worth.

Prep time: Less than five minutes
Serves: 2-4 people
Cooking time: Less than five minutes
Difficulty: Super easy
Cost: Roughly $0.50 per serving!

Ingredients

- popcorn kernels
- cooking oil of your choice
- 1 tbsp. margarine/butter (optional)
- salt to taste (optional)
- other seasonings (I like my popcorn with ranch dressing. Shut up, it's good!)

Tools

- a medium pot with lid
- a large bowl

Start by adding just enough oil to the pot to coat the bottom. Add enough kernels to do the same--you shouldn't be able to see the bottom of the pot. It may not sound like much, but trust me, this much will make a lot of popcorn.

Put the pot on the stove, and the lid on the pot, with just enough of an opening for steam to escape. Turn on the heat to high, and wait by the stove to hear popping sounds. Once the corn starts popping rapidly, reduce the heat to medium. When popping has slowed considerably, remove pot from heat. Caution! When removing the lid from the pot, stray kernels could still pop. Keep the pot away from your face!

Put popped corn in a large bowl. You may then melt your butter or margarine in the same pot you used to pop the corn, over low heat. Once it is melted, pour over popcorn while shaking gently to ensure it is evenly spread. Add salt, and shake to even it out as well. Add other seasonings if desired. Enjoy!

If you're a parent, this is a great way to do some bonding with your kids before a movie. If you have a glass dome on your cooking pot, you can watch the popcorn as it's popping. Even if you don't have kids, watching the popcorn pop is interesting (in a rather silly way, if I might) as well.

Making this popcorn can give you a salty snack without spending the extra money on other junk foods. It's very cheap, and it's fun and easy to make. Since you can make it however you like, you don't need to worry about whether or not the ingredients are vegetarian or vegan. As an added bonus, you have no preservatives or additives. There's no reason to buy overpriced bagged popcorn anymore!