Kale Salad

One of my favorite things about summertime is all the fresh fruits and veggies that are in season. This past spring we tried our hand at growing a few and the only thing that survived was our basil. (#maybenextyear) So until my thumb turns green, I love going to the farmer's market. We were thoroughly spoiled for weeks by friends with dinner practically every single night after Parker was born, so it was kind of a shock to be responsible for cooking and grocery shopping again :)

I love to make new meals, and guess whether or not they'll turn our like the recipes describe them. As just about everyone with access to the internet knows, kale is the new(ish) superfood. So when I saw it super cheap at the farmer's market I got some. I've tried kale chips before and they were pretty good, but I generally try to steer clear of the oven in the summer (except of course for the deliciousness that is zucchini bread. or cookies. or brownies. you know, the important things #priorities). We added some to our morning smoothies (we usually just use spinach) and it was a little too strong for my sweet tooth family's taste. So when I came across a recipe for melt in your mouth kale salad, I decided to give it a shot.

Surprisingly, it turned out delicious. This was seriously the perfect salad for summer. It was light and refreshing, and honestly I couldn't tell it was kale. A couple things to note though: I only used half a lemon, and it was still border line too lemony. I'd recommend adding the lemon last, and tasting as you go until you get it how you like it. Fresh parm is pricey. So i used the pre-grated. Definitely lost health points, but cest la vie. Lastly pine nuts are also pricey. However, they totally make the salad. Don't skip out on those, just try not to eat them all before you're done making the salad.

Bon Appetit!

Source

Melt in Your Mouth Kale Salad (adapted from Food Babe)

You'll Need:

• 1 bunch of kale rinsed and patted dry
• 1/3 C currants or chopped raisins (I used raisins)
• juice of one lemon (see note above)
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 t local honey
• 1/2 C pine nuts toasted
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 T freshly grated parm cheese (see note above)

Directions:

1. In a food processor, chop up kale
2. Make Dressing: stir honey, olive oil, s & p, and lemon juice in a bowl
3. Add kale, currants/raisins, pine nuts, and parm to the bowl with dressing
4. Toss and Serve

The best chicken parm ever.

As you probably could have guessed, Valentine's Day was pretty low key at our house. We made a yummy dinner and just hung out with the girls, and may or may not have been "sharing" Gracen's candy from her Valentine's party at school. :) Dinner was low key, and turned out even better than I imagines. It's been so long since I've posted a recipe, and you won't want to miss this one I promise.

There are a million different versions of chicken parm out there on the interwebs, but I try to keep mine as simple and tasty as possible. When I found this recipe, it definitely piqued my interest in the simple factor. Seriously 3 ingredients, and about 2 minutes to prep and then put in the oven.

Ingredients (ok i lied, 4 ingredients including the chicken):

• chicken
• 1/4 C parm cheese
• 1/2 C sour cream
• italian bread crumbs

Directions:

Put the chicken in a baking dish. Mix the parm cheese and sour cream in a bowl, and then spread over the chicken. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes and you're donezo! The Mr. said this was the best chicken he ever had, and was actually serious. Gracen ate ALL of it, and asked for more. Girlfriend has never, and I'm serious when I say never, eaten all of her chicken unless it was chicken nuggets, and even then she does it hesitantly. So you could say I was very pleasantly surprised with this dish. We made roasted asparagus to go with it, that Gracen picked out at the grocery store. Put it in the oven at the same time as the chicken, and we had an amazing dinner in 25 minutes. Everyone ate it, and liked if not loved it. I'm still sort of in disbelief.

Seriously make it this week. You won't regret it I promise.

Breakfast for Dessert

Last night I made the most amazing pop over for dessert. It really is one of the simplest recipes I've ever come across, but looks totally fancy. It tells you to serve it for breakfast, which would be totally delish, but I chose to make it for dessert. I love dessert, and have to have it just about every day, since that doesn't always help out the whole eating healthy plan, this is a good compromise.

It's kind of like a mix of crepes and a pie (or my amazing tartlettes). There is absolutely no sugar in this recipe, and you would never know it. (Although I did sprinkle a wee bit of powdered sug on the top because I'm a rebel)

Doesn't that look like something straight out of a french pastry shop? I totally impressed myself with this, and the Mr. and it's kind of healthy for you! Definitely a repeat this fall at our house.

What you'll need (and most likely already have!):

• 2 T butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 C milk
• 1/4 t salt
• fruit (fresh or frozen)

Put your butter in a pie plate and put it in the oven to melt while you're pre-heating to 400 degrees. In a bowl mix your eggs, then add in flour, milk and salt and combine. Don't over mix it or it won't pop! Make sure your butter is melted and spread all over the pie plate, pour in your batter and bake for 25-30 mins or until it's puffed and golden. It should "pop" up the edges, and leave you with a center to fill with whatever kind of berries you want. I used frozen mixed berries because we always keep some in the freezer for smoothies and dessert emergencies :) And that's it! SO SIMPLE.

This was heavenly straight out of the oven. I probably could've eaten the whole thing by myself. But when you have a husband and 2 bambinos you learn to share ;) I'm already thinking of what else I could fill it with, chocalate/pecans, pumpkin, peaches, apples, the possibilities are endless!!

Peanut, Peanut Butter (and jelly)

Who else sang the title of that post? No one, just me? Moving on...

This week I've been using a lot of peanut butter in my recipes. Which is kind of funny, because the only time I really like peanut butter is in a Reeses (not to mention their marketing dept. rocks my socks off). But I digress.

The weekend was busy like usual, and it seemed to be Sunday night all too quickly. We needed something relatively quick since I had a coach's meeting at 5:30, and the Mr. was mowing our out of control grass. I decided to make Spicy Pasta with Sweet Potatoes, minus a little bit of the spice since the girls would be eating it too.

The sweet potatoes were by far the best part, and I would definitely make those again just to eat as a side dish. The pasta was crazy rich. I couldn't even eat a whole bowl of it, but it was definitely filling. This would be a really good dish if you're looking for something vegetarian.

Shopping List:

• 1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into cubes (about 2 cups)
• 1 tbls olive oil
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 8 oz pasta (I used Rigatoni)
• 3 oz pckg cream cheese - cut up
• 1/3 C peanut butter (I used creamy, but crunchy could be interesting!)
• 2 tsp chili sauce (I just used hot sauce I already had)
• 1 tbls soy sauce
• 6 green onions (those were just for garnishing so I skipped that step)

Place cut up sweet potatoes in a bowl. Mix together the chili powder, sugar and cinnamon. Drizzle potatoes with olive oil, then add in your dry mix, and make sure all the potatoes are evenly coated. Spread out on a baking sheet, and bake at 450 for about 20 minutes (the bigger the cubes the longer they'll take to cook). Cook your pasta and drain, reserving 1 cup of the water. In the pasta pan mix together peanut butter, cream cheese, hot sauce and soy sauce over medium heat. Slowly add in the pasta water while mixing until you get the sauce to a consistency you like. If you like thicker sauce add less water. Pour sauce over pasta and add sweet potatoes!


Peanut Butter Recipe #2

I'm not a morning person, and that's putting it nicely. Even though I'm making much more of a conscious effort to eat better/cook more/eat out less often, I rarely eat breakfast during the week. Coffee is the breakfast of champions right? No? Damn. Well anyhoo. I found a pretty simple recipe for a breakfast smoothie (I'm talkin super simple, I'm betting you already have everything in your fridge/pantry!), and I was all about it. Throw some things in a blender and go, now I can handle that in the 2 extra seconds I have in the mornings before work. And added bonus: the girls loved it too.

Shopping List/Items you already have:

• 2 bananas (peeled, sliced and frozen)
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 1/2 tbls cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1 to 1 1/2 tbls peanut butter
• 1 tbls maple syrup or honey or agave (sweetener of your choice!)

Throw it all in your blender, and boom. Delish smoothie. The texture is really almost ice cream like, this would also make for a perfect midnight (ok 10pm) snack. Mine was a little bit banana-y so the next time I make it I'll probably only use 1.5 bananas, but these were kind of big, so if they're smallish bananas maybe stick with the 2.

If anybody makes any of these let me know how it goes and if you like em!

A Yummy Snack

I absolutely love to find new recipes that are not only delicious and easy to make, but good for you too! That's not too much to ask right? Well a while ago I fell in love with hummus. It is SO easy to make, and is quite tasty. Well the main ingredient for hummus is chick peas. Did you know that chick peas are really good for you? They are. I know these things. Well that got me thinking, what else could I make with chick peas? I found a recipe for roasted chick peas a while ago, and today finally got around to making them, and they were mm mm mm mm good! So easy I have the recipe memorized. All you need are chick peas (if you want to go really simple just buy a can, rinse and drain them - I prefer the dried bag that I then let soak overnight no preservatives or icky things that way), salt, olive oil, brown sugar and cinnamon. That's it. So here's what ya do:

Preheat over to 450 degrees F
Line a jelly roll pan (fancy term for a baking sheet with a lip) with parchment paper
spread out your chick peas
Roast for about 20 minutes*
Remove from oven and transfer to a bowl, mix with 2 t olive oil, 1/4 t salt,  1 t cinnamon, and 1.5 t brown sug
ENJOY!

*Funny story- I say about because originally the recipe told me 30 minutes, and I don't know if I just have a really high powered oven or what, becuase at about 20 minutes a couple of them started exploding in the oven. Now I get to clean the oven... YAY! So just be carfeul when roasting!!

Bon Appetit!