Topic: Making dehydrated Kale chips for first time, and James' life story
James1979
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posted
Edit: changed the thread title to better reflect the ego-centric direction of the thread. I didn't want to deceive anybody! -------------
Dear beautiful people, Today is a beautiful Sunday. The grass is green, the sky is blue, the birds are chirping, and my car is in the shop. Ahhhh, life is good.
This is the bunch of kale I used: I ended up using 2 of those bunches. They are called "Lacinato Kale". I wanted to use those instead of the curly kale, because I thought this flat type would fit in the narrow trays easier.
Here is the label of the kale:
After I washed the leaves and shook off the water, I cut them into pieces and placed them in a pan. Then I salted them, stirred them, salted them again, stirred again, added olive oil, then stirred again. Here's how it looked after it was oiled and salted:
Oh shoot, how did that get in there? I swear somebody hijacked my account.
Anyway, let's continue.
Next I placed them on the dehydrator trays. Here are pics of 2 trays:
Continued on next post... (it was saying I have too many pictures in this post. Whatever.)
posted
BTW, the 2 bunches of kale ended up filling 7.5 trays.
Here's how it looks when the trays are loaded:
You can see some stains on the trays from when I used to dehydrate pineapples. I don't want to hear any nagging about my cleanliness! Dang. If I wanted to hear nagging, I would've gotten married!
As a special treat, I took a picture of some 4-year-old pineapple chunks that were still in the machine from the last time I used it: Mmmm, they still look good, even after all those years.
Okay, so the kale is in the dehydrator now, and I'm expecting them to be done in about 6 hours.
What's gonna happen? Will they turn out okay? Will they be edible?
Stay tuned, kids, and we will return after the break.
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James1979
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posted
BTW, I saved the thick stems and I made them into juice. I'm drinking it right now! That way nothing goes to waste.
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penguingirl
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posted
How did the kale chips turn out, James?
-------------------- Posts: 1204 | From USA | Registered: Oct 2010
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James1979
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posted
PG - Thanks for showing interest! I'll try to write later, because I don't feel so well. I feel wiped out now. I'm laying on the floor, and I'm too tired to get up. I'm trying to stay awake because it's too early to sleep now.
Does anyone else feel messed up from daylight savings time? I probably didn't sleep enough last night, so that might have something to do with it.
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James1979
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posted
Yeah, I've heard that the 2 daylight savings time days have the most car accidents of the year. I'm not sure if it's true, but if it is, that's pretty amazing.
I'm still on the floor. I'm just trying to do whatever I can with my iPhone to keep me busy, until I can get up or until its late enough to sleep. I just feel SO messed up! It feels like my hormones are way out of whack.
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James1979
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posted
The funny thing is that I was feeling great earlier today! And then all of the sudden I came crashing down.
Look at my first words of this thread, and you can see how good I was feeling!
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BoxerMom
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-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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James1979
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posted
Thanks a lot for the concern, guys. I just started to feel better. I'll try to get up in a short while, then hopefully I'll prepare for sleep.
BoxerMom: LOL at your second post! Nope, I pulled them out and ate half of them a while ago. I took pictures! I'll post tomorrow. It wasn't anything interesting... just for fun.
Carol - don't knock it till you tried it!
Lymetoo - I hope you start feeling better, too! Where we're the earthquakes? Maybe that's why I didn't sleep well last night. I remember hearing noises frequently, but I thought it was animals trying to get into my house.
PG - that's awesome that you watch the innocent movies like that! good for you. Have a good night!
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-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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James1979
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posted
Okay, now I KNOW something strange is going on! While trying to sleep, some of my muscles are moving on their own! That's not normal.
I know most of you will say "MAGNESIUM!", but I already soak my feet every day in Epsom salts.
Oh well. I'm sure it's just something temporary that will pass. At least I don't feel the same malaise I had earlier. Plus I learned that I don't have to wake up early tomorrow!!! That was the sweetest break for me.
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James1979
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posted
Ugh. I completely hijacked my own thread! I'm so disappointed with myself.
Whatever happened to the dehydrated kale chips?
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posted
You're right. Its totally magnesium. Is it just as you fall into a deep sleep? Like just to say, "ha ha, you only thought you were going to drift off into a lovely restful sleep."
Posts: 707 | From Colorado | Registered: Jul 2010
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Kudzuslipper
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posted
Feel Better James.
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Dogsandcats
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posted
Daylight savings time throws me for a loop each time. At two pm I think it is 6pm. At 6PM I want to go to bed. And it gets dark so early.
Say "early" with extreme whiny voice.
hope you are feeling better today James..
-------------------- God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he'll be there.
Billy Graham Posts: 1967 | From California | Registered: Oct 2010
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James1979
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posted
kudzu and dogsandcats - thanks for the kind wishes!
I just wanted to note that I'm feeling very well today.
I'm glad when I have little "reminders" like that of what it feels like to be sick, because then I can sympathize with you guys a little bit. Not that I've ever been as ill as many of you, but if someone is feeling good for a long time then they forget what it feels like to be sick and to have to struggle.
I'll try to update my dehydrated kale story a little later.
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posted
I can't wait to forget what this feels like! I'm glad you're forgetting. Posts: 707 | From Colorado | Registered: Jul 2010
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James1979
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posted
You know what else I keep getting reminded of? When we are suffering, we tend to reach out for other people's support. It's an interesting reaction, and I think it happens even to people who are otherwise usually "loners". It almost feels like sinking in quicksand, and reaching our hand up, hoping that someone takes hold. It's very, very sad when someone is in a situation where there is no one there to take their hand.
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posted
Well said, James. Glad you are feeling better!
Are you not taking any magnesium?
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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James1979
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posted
That's a good question, Tutu. I'm not sure what to do. Tell me what you think about this.
Dr B recommended this year NOT to take magnesium until starting abx (because the keets will feed off the mag, without having the abx to slow them down). So since I recently stopped abx, I thought maybe it'd be safer if I did only transdermal mag.
Does that sound logical?
Also, about the twitching, I wonder if I shouldn't be weight lifting so much, now that my diet consists of mostly veggies. I have a hypo-allergenic protein drink every day also, but I just wonder if I might be missing some nutrients which are necessary for safe weight lifting.
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James1979
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posted
Okay I'll finally finish off my review of the dehydrated kale chips. I'll post the pictures later, because I don't feel like messing with pictures now.
So my chips were in the dehydrator for about 5 hours and 46 minutes when I pulled them out. They were very crunchy at that time, so that's why I knew they were done.
The taste was very similar to the taste of the baked chips. If anything, the dehydrated chips were a little thicker (which is a good thing), but that might have been because of the different type of kale that I used this time.
I got my instructions from this lady's website online, and she was saying that most people toss the stems, but that she likes to keep the stems on when dehydrating. So I did that, but I found the stems to be impossible to eat. It was very unpleasant.
That's what I get for listening to a woman. I'll never to that again!
In conclusion: The taste of these chips was very similar to the baked version, only the dehydrated version is probably healthier. PLUS you can make a ton more at one time in the dehydrator! I think that's a big benefit.
I don't think I'm gonna make these again, unless I have a strong craving for "fried" foods (they taste just like fried potato chips). It just takes WAY too much time to make.
While I was spending the time preparing the 2 bunches of kale for dehydrating, I said to myself: "Yo, J-dogg: You know it would've taken you only a couple of minutes to juice these two bunches of kale? Word up, *****." So really it doesn't make sense for me to make "kale chips", instead of just juicing the kale.
If I had little kids to feed, then of course I'd be more interested in learning various ways to make the food more attractive. But for now, I'm just trying to eat healthy in as quick of a way as possible.
I'm gonna put my dehydrator back in a 33-gallon garbage bag, and move it back into deep storage. I left a couple of kale chips in there, just to see what they'll look like 4 years from now when I pull out the dehydrator again.
Final note: Can you believe someone on this forum is a palm-reader? She was actually able to tell me a lot about my life simply from the picture of my hand holding 4-year-old pineapple chunks! That's amazing! (just teasin' you, girl! ).
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You had mentioned epsom salt baths for Mg... and I thought .. that's not enough! But .. transdermal...good!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Dogsandcats
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posted
James,did you take scorpio's smiley? Is that allowed?
TuTu? Goofy?
-------------------- God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he'll be there.
Billy Graham Posts: 1967 | From California | Registered: Oct 2010
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James1979
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posted
FYI, it's not a "smiley", it's a wooperwalkie. And I didn't "take" it, I had it first.
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Dogsandcats
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posted
Scorpio....
You don't mind he stole/copied your smiley?
-------------------- God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he'll be there.
Billy Graham Posts: 1967 | From California | Registered: Oct 2010
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James1979
Unregistered
posted
Here's some pics (even though they're not very cool): This is how they look after they're done.
Here's a closeup of a chip.
What the...?! Come on, guys! Stop posting pictures under my account! Who's doing this? It's not funny anymore.
Here's my advice about dehydrating vs baking: If someone is planning on making things like kale chips frequently and for a lot of people, then I would definitely get a dehydrator. It's just a lot faster and easier than the oven... AND it's healthier. Plus you can make all kinds of other stuff in there too, like fruit rollups, aged dried pineapple, etc. You can even dry your sweaty socks in there, but I wouldn't recommend it.
One note about the dehydrator: It does make a lot of noise. But it's very portable, and you can put it in any room of the house when it's running. It definitely doesn't have to be stuck in the kitchen. That way you could keep the noise away from you while it's running, if the noise is a problem.
Remember that dehydrating times are dependent on the air temperature and humidity (and probably altitude above sea level). When I made the kale chips, the indoor air was especially dry and warm, so I think that sped up the process. Whereas it might take 7-8 hours on average to make kale chips, mine were done in about 6. Of course there are other factors involved, also.
A note about the kale: I'm not sure this would work very well with the wrinkly kind of kale. I'm guessing that the flatter kale would be better. Even with my flat Lacinato kale, the pieces still barely fit in the dehydrator trays, because they're so narrow.
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James1979
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Yeah, scorpio, dehydrating definitely takes a long time. And YES, it makes the entire house smell like the food you're dehydrating. There's no way around that.
Plus you're in a more humid environment than here, so probably it might take you a couple hours longer to dehydrate stuff.
If you're creative, you might be able to find a way to dehydrate foods in your garage or somewhere else separate from your house.
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MannaMe
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We keep our dehydrator out in the garage. The smell stays out there.
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