Tag Archives: Salad

Kale Chips

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I know I am a little late on the whole kale bandwagon here butttttt..better late than never, right?

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

I have heard rave reviews from multiple bloggers about kale chips and have been meaning to make them since like for ever. Kale is not something that we typically have in our house, as I tend to avoid bitter, spiky-looking lettuce type leaves.

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

Side-note: One of my biggest pet peeves is when restaurants serve all the purple and spiky, scary looking leaves in their house or side salads. YUCK! I know that the darker leaves tend to be healthier for you, but bleeeck, I am either forced to drown them in dressing or completely avoid them. So they really do not end up being any healthier for me. Please note this fancy-pants restaurants!

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

This is the kale before baking, look at the next picture to see how much they shrink!

Back to kale, I decided to give this one a go the other day when I saw that they actually sell already-made kale chips at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. My thoughts were if people are really buying this stuff, then it must be tasty.

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

This is the kale after baking, they shrink a bit! Beware of over-seasoning

Guys, if you haven’t been convinced by the bajillion kale chip recipe pins on pinterest, or the other gazillion bloggers who have raved about kale chips, listen to me. These are the bomb.com.

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

No, they aren’t something you could eat for lunch (as NO chip should be ate just for lunch!); they will not leave you feeling full. What they are absolutely perfect for is when you are craving something salty or just a crunchy snack. These babies will do the trick and leave you feeling food that you got your crunch and veggies in!

Baked Kale Chips

(serves 1-2)

about 5 oz. kale, cleaned and hard stems removed

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon salt

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Clean and remove stems from kale. Place kale in large bowl.
  2. Drizzle olive oil over kale, sprinkle chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt over kale. Mix everything together until kale is coated with oil and spices.
  3. Arrange kale in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in preheated oven 18-20 minutes, or until crisp. Remove from oven, let cool on rack, and enjoy!

Baked Kale Chips | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood!

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BL(S)T Pasta Salad

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Oh my goodness, does it ever seem like life is like zooming by like a train and your just trying to chase it down and jump on?

That’s kind of how I feel right now. I feel old. I’m in high school and feel old. Can you imagine how I’ll feel when I’m like actually old?! I can’t believe I’m going to be a senior in the Fall. I feel like I was just playing with my barbies and American Girl Dolls with my sister last week.

I was teaching a class of swim lessons last week and I actually really liked the kids I had. (Shoutout to Julie!) I actually sorta had a tiny taste of how she feels when she switches what grade level she teaches. I’m totally used to teaching the 3 and 4 year old how to walk in the water and blow bubbles and be cute and all….and then all of a sudden I was shoved in front of a bunch of big bad 8 and 9 year olds!!

I was seriously intimidated.

And then for some reason they thought I was some form of a rock star/celebrity because I was a high school girl. They were immediately obsessed with me. To be honest, it was slightly awesome. They all wanted the same swimsuit as me (a plain blue one piece…?), same earrings, same hairstyle, it was crazy. On the last day they all had their moms take pictures with me and I felt like I was on the red carpet or something! They were adorable and hugged me nonstop. It actually made me even consider going into a teaching career when I get older….but I don’t want to totally base my choice off of a two week swim class. So we’ll just see ;)

Anyways, I made some pasta salad. Pretty darn tasty and great for the summer! This would be a perfect thing to make and bring to any 4th of July BBQs you all may be attending next week!!!

BL(S)T Pasta Salad

(adapted from Skinny Taste)

about 2 1/2 cups pasta (I used Penne)

5 slices of bacon

1 cup chopped tomatoes (I used canned, diced tomatoes because it was easy and in the house. I believe this would be equal to about 2 or 3 large fresh tomatoes)

3 Tablespoons mayonnaise

salt and pepper to taste

2 1/4 cups fresh, washed baby spinach

  1. Prepare bacon as desired. I baked mine in the oven at 400 degrees F in a baking pan for about 8-10 minutes or until crispy. When bacon is done cooking, drain and pat with paper towel. Crumble into small pieces.
  2. While bacon is cooking, cook pasta according to directions on box. Meanwhile, prepare tomatoes and place them in a bowl with the mayo and combine them with salt and pepper to taste.
  3. When pasta is done cooking, drain well and rinse with cool water to cool it down. Combine pasta with tomatoes and spinach and mix well. Toss in bacon right before serving. I made mine the day ahead, covered with plastic wrap, then mixed in the bacon right before we ate. Enjoy! Store leftovers in air tight container in the fridge.

Random Fact of the Day: Wrestler Andre the Giant set the world record for the most alcohol consumed, he drank 156 beers in a single sitting.

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Deviled Eggs

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Deviled Eggs. I’ve always thought that was kind of a weird name. I started thinking, “where did that name come from?”.

Ready for a little educational fun? Yes?! Of course you are (if not…the recipe is just down there a ways, so feel free to scroll through)

The term “deviled” dates back to the 19th century, referring to the use of particularly piquant spices in cooking. In the 19th century, it came to be used most often with spicy or zesty food, including eggs prepared with mustard, pepper or other ingredients stuffed in the yolk cavity.I’m guessing they consider the paprika or other spices are the “piquant” part in the eggs. I don’t think that I have ever had deviled eggs with mustard, but I guess that is somewhat common. Mustard isn’t really how I flow. Then again, neither is mayo, but it just somehow works in deviled eggs.

I found this little bit actually kind of interesting, that in some parts of the Southern and Midwestern United States, the terms “salad eggs” or “dressed eggs” are used, usually when the dish is served in connection with a church function, to avoid dignifying the word “deviled”, in reference to “The Devil”. I feel like this would totally happen in the town where I live, we have no less than 45 churches.

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Deviled Eggs

10 hard boiled eggs

about 3-5 Tablespoons mayonaise

paprika

  1. Peel hard boiled eggs and slice each egg in half the long way (hot dog style?). Place all the yolks in a separate bowl and set the whites on a plate or platter on the side.
  2. In the bowl with the yolks, add the mayo. Using a fork, mash the yolks and the mayo until the mixture becomes creamy but still thick and slightly chunky (you don’t want to add too much mayo where it’s mayo-overload, so start LIGHT and add more as needed).
  3. Spoon or pipe the egg yolk mixture into the egg white halves. Sprinkle with paprika. Enjoy!! Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.
Random Fact of the Day: Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.
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Fiesta Quinoa Salad

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There are a few key words in some recipes that jump out to me to tell me that it’s gonna be something I’ll really like.

Some of these key words would be chocolate, healthy, cookie, cupcake, cookie butter, biscoff, chocolate – so important it deserves to be mentioned twice, peanut butter, southwest, and last but certainly not least-fiesta. Helloooooo who would not want something with fiesta involved?! Fiesta tacos, fiesta enchiladas, fiesta brownies, fiesta cookies, fiesta ice cream, fiesta salad. I can totally hop on all those first trains.

The fact that fiesta was in the name of the recipe I got adapted my fiesta salad from, was what partly motivated me to make it. I also bought quinoa because the blogoverse is like obsessed with it almost as much as cookie butter…please tell me how anything can even be compared with cookie butter?!

Anyways, I tried quinoa for the first time. I’m no longer a quinoa virgin! ;) woohooo. It was scary. It was scary good. I loved this recipe, it was super flavorful and perfect on the side with some salmon. I’d even eat this salad as a main course, it would be killaa  with some grilled chicken! I’ve seen so many other interesting recipes with quinoa that I’m anxious to try now that I have finally tried it and gotten through the scary first time of preparing the stuff (one of those recipes is a cookie recipe. cookies with quinoa?! crazy!)

Fiesta Quinoa Salad

(adapted from mom de cuisine)

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 cup black beans, washed and drained

1 cup corn, cooked

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped

2 Tablespoons lime juice

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup cilantro (chopped), or to taste

  1. Cook quinoa in 2 cups of water according to package directions-about 15 minutes, or until water is soaked up. Drain quinoa and rinse with cool water. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine chopped onion, chopped bell pepper, black beans, and corn. Mix in cooled quinoa to combine.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together lime juice, olive oil, ground cumin, and chili powder. Pour dressing over quinoa salad and mix with fork to incorporate.
  4. Mix in chopped cilantro, and serve. May be prepared a day in advance. Store in airtight container in fridge.
Random Fact of the Day: Women are more likely to be threatend by a prettier woman than by a pervert.
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Week in Review (4/30-5/4)

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Hey there! Another week in the life of Beautiful Disasters has come and gone, once again. Let’s review!

Monday I shared with you guys my April Secret Recipe Club post! I loved hosting my blog this month and the recipe I made, Cinnamon Pull Apart Bubble Bread, was absolutely incredible. So yummy and delicious! Obviously you can hardly ever go wrong with cinnamon and sugar. ;)

Wednesday I finally proved that I have an ounce of self control and was able to put the spoon down and actually BAKE with cookie butter! I made some cookie butter cookies that are absolutely cookilicious. It’s a word.

Thursday I had a soccer game, so our team took the bus all the way there. Got there. Saw lightning. Waited about a half hour. Then they decided to reschedule the game. Seriously one of the most annoying things you can do to a soccer player right there. So much wasted time! Anyways, I really just felt like I needed to do something when I got home. Wanna know what I did? Biked 13 miles on the exercise bike. Now I don’t know about you but that A FREAKING TON to me! It felt great though. I’ve been thinking about doing a triathlon this summer, and if I want to do it, I know I’m going to have to be able to bike a lot more than 13 miles!

Friday I showed you guys a tasty pasta salad recipe. Only recently have I discovered my love for pasta salad. It’s perfect!! Refreshing, delicious, light, yet starchy. Tasty, tasty, tasty! Friday was quite the busy day for me. This is what went down…I went to school (of course!), then I had two meetings for soccer, got my nails done for prom after waiting an hour and a half in the nail salon, then I got my spray tan for prom after waiting a little bit there, too, then I finally got home around 8. I’d like to clear one thing up, I AM NOT the tanning type! This is like the first time I have ever gotten one, but I have a yellow dress so I felt like you kind of need to look tan for that. Plus, I have some pretty funky tan lines from soccer.

Today I have PROM!! WOHOOOO! So excited :) I have a game this morning though which is a wiiittle bit inconvenient, but hey, it’s keeping this interesting. I will just be running around ALL DAY today. Then, of course, everybody always does something the following day, so we’re going to 6 Flags Great America. Can’t even remember the last time I went to Six Flags, but I’m a sucker for roller coasters, so I’m super excited!! I’ll post pictures for you all next week

Random Fact of the Day: Philematology is the scientific study of kissing.

P.S. Feliz Cinco de mayo!

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