Sweet and Savory Baked Kale Chips Snack Mix

As someone who has found great health and healing in a traditional, nourishing diet filled with high quality animal fat, bacon, honey, and a number of other “old fashioned” foods that have been labeled as “unhealthy” in our society, I tend to shy away from trendy foods and diets. For this reason, I have always been irrationally suspicious of kale. Clearly, it is a wonderful, healthy, leafy green. It is filled with tons of nutrients that our bodies need, and as a rule us Americans definitely need to be eating more greens. However, with various fad diets, the vegetarian crowd, and the gym addict crowd all hailing kale as a super food, the rebel in me wants to stick with mustard greens and a side of liver pate and remain firmly outside of the mainstream.

I exaggerate slightly, however the truth remains: I don’t tend to eat a ton of kale. However, in trying to develop this recipe I got to thinking and I remembered that early in my paleo days, I did go through a brief phase of making kale chips because they were quick, easy and I could do them in the oven rather than in a dehydrator. This got me thinking and I decided to start looking around for a kale chip based snack mix. Surprisingly, I found very few recipes that combined kale chips with any thing else to create a more well rounded snack. Always being up for a challenge, I decided to give it a shot.

The result was delicious! I have always been a sucker for a sweet and savory flavor combo and this hit the spot!

This snack mix is great for those times where you just want something to munch on, maybe while you watch a movie, or as an appetizer at a party… or as you sit at your desk writing a blog post… (oh wait, that’s just me!)

All jokes aside, kale is a great source B vitamins, Iron, Potassium, Magnesium and Folate all of which are nutrients many people are deficient in, making it a fantastic snack option!

Do you have any foods you irrationally avoid?

Sweet and Savory Baked Kale Chips Snack Mix:

Ingredients:

1 large bunch of kale, torn into pieces

6-8 pitted dates

2 T melted coconut oil

1 T maple syrup

1/2 cup of dried apples or apple chips

½ cup coconut flakes

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp sea salt

4 pieces of cooked bacon

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Make sure your kale is completely dry. You’re your dates in hot water for 10 minutes to soften. In food processor, combine dates, coconut oil maple syrup cinnamon and salt and blend to create a paste. Place the kale, apple chips and coconut flakes in a large mixing bowl, pour the paste over the kale and stir until everything is well coated. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake until the kale is crispy (30-45 minutes), stirring every 15 minutes. When finished, crumble your bacon on top and serve.