Swiss Chard Chips

I have a lot of Swiss Chard. I was making some Kale chips and thought about trying to make Swiss Chard ones.

I took just a few big leaves of chard and ripped them into chip size pieces. I did not use the stem. I put them into a bowl. Poured a little olive oil in the bowl and mixed the leaf pieces around with my clean hand. Then I sprinkled on a little salt and some garlic powder. Mixed everything with my hand until all the greens looked covered in spices and oil. The I placed them onto my dehydrator racks and dehydrated at 135F until dry. It took only a few hours.

They have a Swiss chard flavor to them and the garlic and salt together is key to enhancing the flavor. I like them. Will be making more of these. You can dehydrate at a lower temp. (to keep it raw and have more nutrients) but it will take much longer.

You can make these in the oven if you do not have a dehydrator. Just set your oven to the lowest setting. Mine goes to 170F and just put your prepared chips on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking liner of choice. Bake with door slightly ajar until completely dry. It should take only an hour or two.

Orange Jewel Drink Recipe

I remember many years ago drinking these orange drinks. My mother, brother and I would go to the Brea Mall in Brea CA. and window shop. We loved going to the ice skating rink at the food court and watch the skaters. My mother would sometimes buy us an Orange Julius drink. When we were home and craved one of those drinks we tried to make our own variation based on the flavor we had at the mall store. This is the recipe that I remember. The exact measurements were vague, but I will walk you through with options.

What you need:

One big orange or two small ones. They must be juicy.

Honey or sugar. 1-2 T.

2 T. Nonfat powder milk (this is what we would use when I was a kid) I used 1 scoop Nido milk powder. Purchased from the Mexican food isle. There are two kinds and they both come with a scoop and either will do. Or you can add 1/4-1/3 cup of milk. You can also make this drink without any milk.

1 cup of ice (crushed is best, but we only had cubes growing up and either way you may have one or two small ice balls in your drink. No big deal. Just go with it.) Use can use less ice if using liquid milk. You can also add about 1/4-1/3 cup of water if using powder milk.

I egg (yes, a raw egg is very nutritious and gives the drink a frothy texture)

5 ingredients. That's it. Peel your orange and put it into the blender. Add the ice, egg, milk,  and your sweet of choice. Blend until mixed and frothy looking.

Ready to blend.

Looks good.

Looks frothy.

Time to drink. Very cool and refreshing for a hot summer day. No, it is still cold here in TX. Just craving some oranges and vitamin C. This drink is filled with fiber and vitamin C. Enjoy a memory from my past in the form of a drink.

Dulse Seaweed Chocolate Brownie Recipe

These are so rich and intoxicating. I tweaked this recipe from Simply Recipes. The Dulse seaweed is not noticed, and this ingredient gives a boost of nutrition. The almond extract gives an exotic flavor with the sweet chocolate still dominating as it should.

Ingredients:

10 T. Butter (I used  Smart Balance)
1 1/4 C. sugar (I used Brown sugar)
3/4 C. plus 2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 C. flour (I used bread, but all purpose will work)
about 1/4 C. Dulse Seaweed ripped or chopped into small pieces.
1/4 C. chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet) Or you can use chopped nuts of choice.(Opt.)

Pre-heat the oven to 325F with rack in middle or lower third position. (I had mine in the middle). Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper. Leave a bit overhang on at least two side to pull out later.

Combine butter, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a medium bowl (glass or ceramic) and put over a pot to melt and mix in the double boiler fashion. You can microwave instead, if you like. Stir the mixture until smooth. My mix was kind of grainy, which is fine. Take the mix off the heat and let it cool a bit.

While the mix is cooling fill a 1/4 Cup. with  Dulse seaweed. Do not pack it in. Then take it out and chop or rip it into pieces, placing it back into the 1/4 C. I will give pictures for my words under the instructions so, you get the idea.

Now that your mix is not to hot, add the extracts and mix in. Now add the eggs one at a time mixing them in each time. The mixture will look shiny. Add flour and mix until fully Incorporated. Add the Dulse seaweed chopped and the chocolate chips or nuts. Mix. Pour into prepared baking dish and put into the pre-heated oven at 325F.

Bake until knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Which was about 40-45 minutes for me. The original recipe said the bake time was 20-25 minutes. I think that incorporating the Dulse seaweed may have changed the way this brownies baked. Because it was a much longer and worth while baking time. Below is a picture guide of my making this recipe.

Prepared bake dish.

Double boiler method. My grainy mix.

Mix set aside to cool a bit.

Preparing Dulse seaweed.

Note that the chopped or broken up bits do not fill the 1/4 C. all the way. Which is fine. It filled about 80-90 percent to the top.

After adding the extracts and eggs one at a time. I have added the Dules and chocolate chips to mix in.

Poured into the prepared bake dish. Put into the oven.

Finished product.

Cut into small pieces because it is very sweet. This was a hit with my youngest son and husband. Store extra's in a sealed container in the fridge. I would heat a piece for 10 seconds in the microwave to eat. Oh yes, heavanly. And no one knows it has sea weed in it. Hee.