Tag Archives: kale

Quinoa and Chickpea Bake with Mmmm Sauce

7 Jun

I’ve made no secret of my obsession with admiration of Mama Pea at Peas and Thank You.  Picking my favorite recipe from that site would be like picking a favorite child.  Her pumpkin scones, cilantro jalapeno hummus and roasted chickpea tacos are on a steady rotation in my house.  My latest favorite is her Mmmm Sauce.  It is complex, tart, creamy and addictive.  My kids and husband do not like the sauce, which is fine by me, as I can eat the whole recipe in 2-3 days.  It’s my salad dressing some days, a dip for carrots and triscuits other days.

Last week I put it atop a wholesome but rather bland quinoa chickpea bake and it absolutely took the recipe from ho-hum to ‘eat 2 bowls in one sitting’ good.

Quinoa and Chickpea Bake with Mmmm Sauce

Ingredients:

1 batch Mmmm sauce (recipe here)

1.25 c uncooked, rinsed quinoa
3 cups water/vegetable broth/combo of both
1.5 c cooked chickpeas
1 chopped bell pepper (I used a mix of orange and yellow)
1/2 c finely chopped kale
1/2 c chopped zucchini
1/2 c finely chopped carrot
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp EVOO
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions

  1. Make Mmmm sauce
  2. Preheat oven to 400F.
  3. Combine all ingredients in a lightly greased casserole dish and stir well.
  4. Bake, covered, for about 50 minutes, or until quinoa is cooked and liquid is absorbed.  Stir a couple of times during baking.
  5. Remove from oven, cool for a bit and top with Mmmmm sauce.
Who is your blog crush?

Crazy Sexy Buddha Bowls

17 May

In the cooler months (I won’t say cold, as I do live in San Antonio, TX) I make a ‘whatever veggies are in the fridge’ veggie soup once a week for dinner.  I usually make it on Monday nights and the husband and I call it our detox soup in order to flush away the weekend meals and start the week right.

Now that it’s getting hot (I will say hot, not warm, as I do live in San Antonio, TX), a hot veggie soup sounds too, well, hot.  Yes, we could eat it cold, but the husband and kids are not cold soup people.  Still, I’d like a meal that has similar attributes to the detox soup.

Enter the Buddha Bowl.  I just finished reading Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet and among the many things that intrigued me in the book was her usual dinner of Buddha Bowls.  Click here to see her version on the Crazy Sexy Life website.

I made this last night and it is absolutely going to be in the weekly rotation.

I made quinoa and brown rice, steamed some broccoli and roasted some green beans.  I also chopped up celery, mushrooms, raw broccoli, carrots, spinach and kale.

We all got to mix and match our own dinner, which, as you can imagine, the kid’s loved.  The husband actually decided to make his own stir-fry, so he just added all his veggies to a pan and stir fried away.  Sorry if that offends the raw food-ers.  :)

Another bonus was that I just tossed all the leftover veggies and quinoa into a bowl, added a little olive oil and ume plum vinegar and I have today’s lunch waiting for me in the fridge.

Have you read Crazy Sexy Diet?  Any thoughts on it?

Kool Kale

16 Apr

I know I just wrote a post on my love for Collard Greens.  That love has not changed.  But, I do still have a love for kale.  I suppose Kale and Collard Greens are my version of Sister Wives.  Is it wrong to love more than one?

Kale is a bona fide super food.  Here are a few of the benefits, click on this link (from vegpeace) for more information.

  • Kale eases lung congestion and is beneficial to the stomach, liver and immune system
  • It contains lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect the eyes from macular degeneration
  • It also contains indole-3-carbinol, which may protect against colon cancer
  • Kale is an excellent source of calcium, iron, vitamins A and C, and chlorophyll
So, how do you actually eat the stuff?  Here are my favorite ways:

Kale Salads

This is a new food for me.  I know – how can I call myself a high-raw vegetarian and have only recently eaten a kale salad?  It’s outrageous.  I am making amends, as I have honestly eaten 3 bunches of kale this week, all in salad version.

There is this  recipe for a creamy kale salad from Edible Perspective (paired with corn, black bean and millet patties from Clean Food {ps, I really don’t like the word ‘patties’}).

And this one from Peas and Thank You, along side Sun Dried Tomato and Pesto Phyllo Rolls.  I like them both, but the Peas and Thank You version is my favorite.

Kale Chips

Oven version (from Smitten Kitchen) –  I’ve actually never tried using my oven, but I may have to give it a go.

Dehydrator version(from We Like it Raw)- I make these a few times a month.  I usually just coat with EVOO and salt/pepper.  Occasionally I get fancy (like this time).

Or, you can buy them.  I’ve never been able to shell out $6 a bad, especially considering that I own a dehydrator.  But, I hear they are good.

Kale in Smoothies


Until this week and my new found obsession with kale salads, my primary mode of kale consumption was in green smoothies.  I’ve been drinking kale smoothies for a few years now.  I started with my humble magic bullet.  It tried hard, but it wasn’t the best at pureeing the kale.  I got really good at sucking chunks of kale up my straw.  I like to think it was a lung strengthening exercise.

I then moved onto a blender that had been sitting unused since receiving it as a wedding gift.  It leaked a bit, but it did a better job at pureeing the kale and it had a much bigger pitcher, allowing for bigger smoothies.  Then it almost took off my finger.  Ouch.

Last September, my husband surprised me with a Vita Mix for my birthday.  I was so excited, I didn’t know whether  to kiss him or the blender first.

I drink my kale smoothies several times a week.  I change up the add ins.  Here are a few of my favorite combinations.

  • kale + carrot + lime + apple
  • kale + orange + avocado + agave + vanilla (tastes dreamsicle like)
  • kale + frozen bananas + strawberries + frozen raspberries
Cooked Kale

You can also cook kale.  My family isn’t a big fan of straight up sauteed kale, so I tend to cook it into soups.
White bean, kale and sweet potato soup from Clean Food.
What is your favorite way to eat kale?  
My kids actually chew on kale as we are grocery shopping.  It’s become a habit and they both munch away as we peruse the produce aisle.  It earns us some stares.  Then they start singing and we get even more stares.

Kale – What's Your Beef With Me?

18 Feb

First there was the kale smoothie blender accident.  I assumed it was all my fault.  Seriously, anyone distracted enough to push down something into a moving blender has no one to blame but themselves if they get injured in the act.  Don’t get me wrong, I tried my hardest to find some way to put the blame on my kids, husband and/or the blender.  I tried, but ended up placing the blame on myself.  Until yesterday….

I was having a nice Wednesday afternoon and decided to make another batch of kale chips.  I had washed and trimmed the kale and put it into (my very favorite) glass mixing bowl. As I turned to walk towards the counter, I slipped on some water on the floor, completely lost my footing and slammed my bowl and head into the cabinet as I fell hard onto my knees.  The bowl shattered, sending glass flying all over the tile floor. I froze for a second, reached up to see if my head was bleeding (only a little) and looked down to see blood pouring out of my thumb and forefinger.  I started to get woozy  and try to think rationally about what to do next.  My two year old came running and I yelled for him to stop so he and his cute little bare feet wouldn’t come any closer to the glass shards.  He started to get upset because I yelled and, calling on all my mama strength, I changed the tone of my voice and told him that mama had a big ouch and there was sharp glass all over the floor and could he please go back into the living room (all the while trying to take deep breaths and not freak out at the blood).

Side note – I don’t do blood well.  At all.  I tried to give blood once and literally passed out when they pricked my finger for the initial blood test.  I also passed out at the doctor’s office during a pregnancy blood draw and earned myself the distinction of doing all my other blood draws (there are LOTS during pregnancy) in the children’s lab work room, complete with cartoon characters and balloons, so I could lay down on the couch in there and stare at Dora instead of the lab tech and needle and vial.

I grabbed a clean towel and wrapped it tightly around my hand,  shuffled the kids into the living room, put on a cartoon (thank you DVR) and laid down until the ‘I’m about to pass out’ feeling’ subsided.

I psyched myself up, went upstairs alone and faced the wounds.  There were two bad ones, but the skin was starting to move back together, so I didn’t think an Urgent Care visit was needed.  I had fresh Hydrogen Peroxide and Neosporin, thanks to our Valentine’s night trip to CVS after the kid’s tooth-meets-forehead incident.  There was a good inch long gash on my right thumb (which has made texting rather impossible) and a 1 cm cut on my forefinger that were both rather messy.  I had about 5 other small cuts on the right hand too, as well as a cut on my calf and elbow.  When I get hurt, I like to go all out.  Come strong or don’t come at all.

I bandaged up, came back downstairs to the kids and decided my mothering for the day was over.  In went a movie for the kids and I crashed on the couch with a book.  The kids were in heaven, as movies are typically only watched on Friday nights.  They kinda liked Injured Mama as it meant 2.5 hours of television.  Let’s hope they don’t start deliberately spilling water on the kitchen floor.

So, two really painful and bloody incidents in 6 months, both involving kale.  Coincidence?  Or something more sinister?

What the hale, Kale?

I finally got around to making a batch of kale chips last night and ate them all with my bandaged fingers today.  Take that kale.

Sweet Potato Cashew Kale Chips

Inspired by the Sweet Potato Cashew Cheese from Choosing Raw

1 cup cashews, soaked
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp miso
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup mashed, cooked sweet potato
3/4-1 c water

Add cashews, salt, miso, nutritional yeast and lemon juice to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Add sweet potato and blend to smooth.  Add water and blend.

Mix sauce with 1 head of kale, washed and torn, in a mixing bowl (maybe use plastic bowl :) ).

When kale is coated, spread onto dehydrator trays.

Dehydrate at 110 for 2-3 hours, or until desired crispness is reached.

Notice I’m using my good hand.

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