Happy Boxing Day! I’m sure some of you don’t even know what that is, but for some reason the day following Christmas day in Australia and the UK is called Boxing Day (or St Stephens Day in Ireland) but I’m not sure about anywhere else in the world.

How are you all feeling after a big Christmas day (for those of you that celebrate?) I am seeing a few statuses on Facebook and Twitter from people feeling like they’ve overdone it.

No need to fret, just get back on track, start off your day with a warm lemon juice, then a yummy green juice and/or green smoothie. You’ll feel better in no time.

Christmas day began really late for us, all three of us sleeping in until 10am! Mrs Claus (me) had been up till 2am wrapping gifts. Couldn’t believe Manus allowed us to sleep in that late too.

Did you know: Christmas is actually illegal in Saudi Arabia!

Half blender of romaine/cos lettuce & baby spinach, 2 cups of water, 1 celery stalk, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 frozen banana, juice of 1 lemon and a handful of parsley.

So after some green smoothie making, we all settled in the living room to open gifts, then madly rushed around to get ready for our booking at a local restaurant for our traditional Christmas dinner.

Because it was a work day here in Saudi, and Pat had taken the day off specially, there was only one other family at the restaurant and we didn’t even realise we knew them until we were close to leaving as we were sat on opposite sides of the restaurant.

We had plans to enjoy Christmas lunch with another expecting family but they gave birth a few days earlier so they were out of action, so it was just us.

Sunflower Cheezy Kale Chips

On Facebook last week, I mentioned I had played around with my usual Cheezy Kale Chips recipe to change out the usual cashews with sunflower seeds as I know some people do struggle with consuming cashews – some find them mucous forming as well as having digestion issues. Also it’s fun to mix up your seeds and nuts and usually you can mix and match them.

I also found these sunflower cheezy kale chips were less dense, crunchier and not as sweet as the cashew kale chips. I actually preferred them to the cashews, so they’ll be a repeat offender on my rotation.

However I did make the following adjustments as the sunflower seeds can taste a little less sweet and slightly bitter compared to the sweeter cashews.

Equipment:

Dehydrator

Ingredients:

2 bunches of kale (for us that was 10 stalks of kale)

1 red pepper 

1 cup of nutritional/savoury yeast

1 cup of soaked (1-2 hours) sunflower seeds

1/4 cup water

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

dash of cayenne pepper or to taste depend on spice tolerance, but don’t forget, as the kale chips release water in the dehyration process the falavours will be intensified.

Method:

Blend all ingredients save for the kale in a high speed blender until smooth to form the cheezy sauce.

Take the kale and remove the leaves from the spine. Reserve the spines to add to your next green juice.

Tear the leaves into bite size, chip sizes, and place in a large bowl.

Pour the blended cheezy sauce onto the kale and get your hands dirty. Ensure you massage every single leaf until they are evenly coated.

Place the kale pieces on teflex sheets ready to dehydrate. Ensure you space the kale pieces adequately so the air can circulate freely around them and not clump together as they dry.

Dehydrate the kale for 8-10hours or until crunchy at 115ºF

Chips will keep in an airtight container for a long time – but I doubt YOU will last that long!