Simple Lunch

Just a simple lunch recipe for you today. Of course you can eat this whenever you want.

It was delicious.

Pasta with sauteed Kale and Fresh Tomatoes

serves 1

1 serving of your choice of pasta (I used organic angel hair or capellini)

olive oil

salt

garlic powder

dried basil

fresh ground pepper

3 kale leaves, washed, leaves torn off of the stem

handful of grape tomatoes, sliced in half

Cook pasta according to package. Strain and save some of the cooking water to saute the kale in if you like (or use fresh water). Place pasta on plate and drizzle with olive oil and season as desired. Add kale to the saucepan with a dash of salt and enough water to keep the kale from burning. Saute over medium heat until Kale has wilted but is not overcooked.

Toss kale into the noodles along with the tomato halves.

Enjoy!

Starting the Year off Right

One of the many self proclaimed goals I have made a mental tally of is this - eat more greens, and vary the types of greens I eat. I consume a lot of spinach, in the form of daily green smoothies. Usually spinach is the only green leafy vegetable I eat in the course of a week. The benefit of eating a wide variety of greens, is that they contain different nutrients. Therefore eating a variety of them allows you to get access to all that nutrition.

So today, I pulled a bunch of kale out of the fridge and got to work creating a delicious salad. Kale salad might sound quite daunting, but here is a way to make raw kale so delicious.

1. Choose the freshest looking bunch of greens. Since it is January and I do not have access to fresh local kale, I painstakingly choose the best looking bunch of organic kale that I can find at the grocery store. I also prefer to buy lacinato or dinosaur kale over the curly kind. I find that it is easier to work with. Either type will do.

2. Wash and dry the kale and remove the leafy part from the stem. This will also create a more pleasant salad as the stems are tougher to chew.

3. Gather the leaves tightly together and cut into thin strips.

4. Pour on about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle on some sea salt.

5. Use your hands to coat every piece with the oil and salt. This step is really important as the oil and salt work to break down the toughness of the kale so that it is easier to eat and digest.

Lemon juice can also be used as opposed to salt, and also helps to break down the kale.

Now you have a lovely base for a salad. You can store prepared kale in the refrigerator for a few days for quick and easy meals. The longer the greens sit, the softer they will become.

5. Toss together a salad of the prepared greens and whatever else you would like to add. You can top them with another salad dressing if desired. I added a splash of coconut vinegar to brighten up the flavor of the salad.

The other ingredients I used were roasted red pepper slices, chopped baby portabella mushrooms, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, and some fresh ground pepper.

The possibilities are endless once you have your salad base. You could use apples, nuts, and a dash of maple syrup for a sweet fall salad, or fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and lemon juice for a delightfully tangy salad. Get some kale and get creative.

Here's to a year full of a leafy variety!

Amazing Kale

I absolutely adore kale. Although I do tend to buy it every week and then put off using it, and therefore feel bad about it sitting in my fridge wilting and losing nutrition. Something to work on!

It is such an amazing powerhouse of nutrition. Kale is high in calcium, iron, vitamin A,C, and K, and lutein. It has lots of beta-carotene and is a cancer fighting vegetable. You can't beat all of that! I use kale in green smoothies, green juices (my favorite being kale, apple, and lemon), and my all time favorite Kale Chips. Kale chips can be made raw using a dehydrator or baked in the oven. I prefer them raw as it keeps the nutritional enzymes in tact and has more of a fresh kale taste. They are still delicious baked, just make sure that you don't let them burn.

Try this recipe even if you don't particularly warm to kale. You might enjoy eating it this way. It definitely dispels my chip cravings as it is salty and crisp.

Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale

1 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

Seasonings of choice to taste (garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, season salt, ect.)

Wash kale thoroughly and dry with a clean towel. Tear into fairly large pieces (these shrink down a lot in the drying or baking process) and discard the big parts of the stem. Place in a large bowl. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Drizzle on the olive oil. A little goes a long way in this dish. With clean hands, get in there and massage the oil into the leaves so that each leaf is coated.

Sprinkle in your seasonings and distribute evenly using your hands again.

Spread them out on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until crisp. Make sure you watch them so you can prevent them from burning.

These are how mine turned out. They shrink down a lot.

Alternatively spread out the prepared kale onto dehydrator sheets. Dehydrate for 4-6 hours at 104 degrees F. Once the kale is crispy it is ready to eat.

This is how the dehydrated ones turned out.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. I know it doesn't seem that exciting being that it is a dark green vegetable and often viewed as tough and bitter. But give kale a chance, you might be glad that you did!