Green With Envy (Guac + Collard Green Chips)

Happy Monday!

I always say that, but never actually feel it. It's pretty much the most dreary day of the week, isn't it? Monday evenings aren't too shabby, but Monday mornings and afternoons? Holy they suck! I guess Monday really had no chance, following a most awesome day like Sunday.

To start the week off, I wanted to share two treats that I threw together over the weekend. It was a very social weekend of dinner parties and bachelorettes (well, one of each but they both deserve to be pluralized) filled with lots and lots of girl time - and food. Those two things seem to go hand in hand in my world!

I think I've confessed my love for guacamole before - and avocados. You can do anything with an avocado and basically just as much with guacamole. I know we all talk about how versatile hummus can be (which I love), but deep down, I'll always be tied to my guacamole. This is a recipe for a very, very basic throw together guac but it's one of my faves. My friend, Lauren, told me to add orange to the next guac that I make but I completely forgot! Next time...

Basic Guacamole 
From scratch: I am specifying this because if you are in a pinch, the easiest thing you can do is mix ready-made salsa with avocado and you're done. And you will be the popular one at the party.
1 avocado
1 small tomato, diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1 tsp of garlic salt
1 tbsp of lemon
paprika

Mix everything together and top with paprika. That's it! Double this if you can, I only had one avocado on hand at the time.

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Next in line for green goodness is collard chips. I've made kale chips and loved them, but bought collard greens at the grocery store the other day and thought I'd give it a try with that. I've been trying to buy a different 'green' at the grocery store each week - I.e. swiss chard, kale, collard, etc - and didn't really know where to begin with these giant leaves. Chip form was a wonderful, wonderful, surprising way to start.

Collard Green Chips
From Allie's Kitchen
Collard Greens (I used about 5 or 6 big leaves), leaves pulled off of the stems and ripped into pieces (chip-size)
Lemon juice
Olive oil
1 - 2 tsp of Garlic Salt
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Wash the greens and shake dry as much as possible. In a bowl, toss the leaves with olive oil and lemon juice (don't coat it, toss). Cover a baking pan with tin foil and lay the greens out in a single layer. Sprinkle with garlic salt, salt and pepper. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

These start to shrivel up pretty quickly so about half way through (10 minutes), I took them out and spread them out even more. If the leaves are on top of one another (which they will be at the start - that's okay), they won't get crispy. I just kept doing this until they were done. When a few were crispy, I removed them and spread the remaining ones out more.

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These were SO good! Recommend!

Enjoy the week! Tomorrow is the reveal post to show you what I got in my Foodie Pen Pal box!


PS - Did you see my new bowl? I'm so excited about it. My mom and I picked two of these up (She got her own) at Home Sense. They come with lids! Love, Love.


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