Healthier snacks for gaming...home-made kale chips

Okay, so the RPG hobby has a reputation for being populated with people who are either Very Very Skinny or Very Not Skinny.  I started, in high school, as one of the Very Very Skinny people but moved slowly towards being Very Not Skinny as I got older.  After years of being on and off diets and exercise programs I was introduced to the Ideal Protein program by my wife after she lost 30+ pounds (now over 40 pounds) herself.  I got with it and have lost over 30 pounds (which was about 20% of my starting weight!).

The key thing in the program is not eating tons of sugar and carbohydrates.  At the gaming table, typically, sugary and carbohydrate-based snacks rule.  (We are particularly partial to Cheetos, nachos, and Reese's peanut butter cups.)  So this sent me searching for healthier snacks both for everyday life and at the gaming table.  After a disappointing attempt at turnip chips (yes, I went there) I gave kale chips a try.  I found a decent-sounding recipe at ohsheglows.com and tried it out.  The initial test batch went well so I did a bigger batch this weekend and below are photos so you can try it too.

Start with a bunch or two of kale...

Wash them off...

Cut (or pull) the leaves off the stems...

Shred the leaves into chip-sized pieces (not too small, because they shrink on baking)

Spin dry...

And keep spin-drying in small batches until they're finally all pretty dry...

(I laid mine out on some paper towels to dry a bit more, but I think I'll skip this step next time)

Get out your baking trays and some parchment paper to put on them...

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (or ~150 degrees C)...

While you're waiting, paw through your collection of spices...

And get out onion powder, chili powder, garlic powder, and paprika...mix in bowl as per the recipe linked above (I suggest using double the amounts in the recipe, but I like things strongly flavored)...

When the oven's ready, spread your kale loosely on the parchment paper, if they're too bunched they will cook but remain chewy instead of going nice and crispy...

Slide into the oven (use a mitt!)...

When done they shrink down a lot!

Place in bowl, spray lightly with olive oil, sprinkle on spices, mix around; repeat until the batch looks well coated with spices...

For the first batch I did I used garlic salt because I didn't have the garlic powder called for in the recipe.  They came out very salty but also very garlic-y.  This weekend I bought garlic powder as per the recipe and the effect was much more muted.  The recipe suggests rubbing oil onto the kale and dusting on the spices before baking but I haven't tried it that way yet.  I went with the post-bake spray/dust/turn technique because I was worried about too much oil preventing proper crisping.  I will be experimenting further in the future but I think I'm on the right track.

In case you're wondering, I did actually offer some to my group but they were not as enthusiastic about the opportunity as I hoped they might be.