Whole Living 28-Day Challenge: Day 4

Day Four! Bring on more!

I woke up a little late this morning and ended up making a green smoothie instead of juice. Got to try out my new Navitas Naturals raw hemp/cacao/maca protein powder that I got in my package from Vegan Essentials this week (I *heart* deliveries!). That stuff is pretty good! And I wasn't hungry for quite a while afterwards.

What I ate:

6:15am--vitamins, 1 1/2 cup hot water with lemon, 1/2 cup kombucha with chia

6:45am--green smoothie: 2 cups raw kale, 1 banana, about 1 cup soymilk, squirt of raw agave, 1 tbsp Navitas Naturals raw hemp/cacao/maca powder

11:00am--1 raw gogi-seed cube

11:30am--more butternut squash and apple soup

3:15pm--1 raw gogi-seed cube

6:00pm--a combo of the Kale Slaw (dressing, cabbage, carrots, red onion, seed topping), and the Steamed Broccoli (greens, steamed broccoli, carrots, red onion, cabbage). Also put nooch in the dressing. Superb.

7:00pm--almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes, and coconut butter mix. Yum!

Tell me salads aren't the most gorgeous thing.

How are your resolutions coming along?

Jes

Kale-splosion

Remember the other day when I posted about how my day was royally sucking? I went home and experimented with kale and potatoes. Because what else is a girl to do when she has loads of reading still to do for class and papers to complete? That's right--avoidance is key.

Not finding the mixture to my liking, I threw it into a metal pie plate and into the fridge. I just didn't want to deal with it and didn't want to throw it away either (there are people starving in Detroit, for gosh sake). It wasn't the right consistency for what I wanted to do, so I decided to give it a day.

This evening, I came home and was confronted by the menacing kale-potato pie taking up space in our crammed fridge. Instead of throwing it away, I made it into two different dishes.

Basically, it's just two microwaved (baked) potatoes, mashed up and some sauteéd kale with lemon juice added in. Throw it into a food processor with your seasonings of choice and some water. Here's where it got tricky, though, and KEEP IN MIND that I'm still playing around with the recipe logistics: I wanted to make Kale Fries. NOT Kale Chips...Kale FRIES.

And I wanted them baked. I thought adding a bit of potato starch to them would make them firm up enough, but I just kind of gave up and make a stir-fry instead (yeah, whatever, sometimes you have to throw in the towel!).

So today, after thinking long and hard on it (for reals, my brain hurt!), I came up with two different dishes to try out.

First up was a Potato and Kale Bake, which was just throwing half of the mixture into two ramekins, topping them with cheddar-style Daiya, and baking at 350 deg. F for about 20-25 minutes (I lost count, sorry, I'm not good with math).

The other, which I am still toying around with, involved taking the slightly-solidified and cold (important) kale-potato mixture, carefully rolling them into balls, and coating them with a mixture of nooch, wheatgerm, and wheat flour and baking along with the ramekins. They flattened out a little while baking, but they tasted really good. The outside got pretty hard, but the insides stayed soft, which was nice.

And on the side was a massaged kale salad, which I saw on TV months ago and have been wanting to try out (agave subbed for honey). Super-frickin' YUM.

I think next time I might add some flour to the potato-kale mixture, then coat the balls in the same mixture. The Hubs decided to wax sarcastic and suggest that I should have made a kale smoothie to round out my meal. Don't tempt me, dude.

Anyway, kitchen stuff is fun, yeah!!!!

Jes

It's a fraking Tuesday

So, it's a Tuesday. I'm feeling like poopies (that's been my life for the past week or so). And I'm burned out by the semester.

Sometimes you just want to crawl up somewhere and sleep the world away. But instead, I think I'll make something new. I'm going to try making something neat with kale and potatoes. Check back later this week for a write-up (yeah, probably not tomorrow. I'm burned out on life today, sheesh!)

Jes

Peasant Supper Sundays 10/17

Heck yeah! Can't wait to start Vegan MOFO! I will be SO done with the wedding by then, you all have no clue (well, maybe you do if you've been married before, I guess).

Anyhoo, for Peasant Supper Sundays this past weekend 10/17 I made a variation on a recipe I found in Clean Eating from last month (Sept 2010 I think?). That magazine is pretty good for recipe inspiration, first time buying it.

Here's my version of their Hearty Lentil Soup:

3 cups green lentils (they used red--couldn't find red and was at the grocery store way too long to care)

1/2 cup brown rice

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 red bell pepper, diced

5 cups water (could use stock as well)

red pepper flakes (to taste)

cumin (1/4th tsp?)

S & P

whopping handful of kale

2 small potatoes, diced in large chunks (I had a purple and a red potato, added both)

Basically, I cooked the onions garlic, and bell pepper in a large pot in olive oil. Added the potato, lentils, kale, and rice, plus the 5 cups of water and seasoning, and had it on a low simmer for about 50-60 minutes. Yummy, full of vitamins, and so easy. Plus, for me, it made like 5 servings, which is great for a healthy lunch.

I did forget to rinse my kale (I know, I know!!! UGH!), so it was a little gritty, but only at the bottom of the soup. I actually got so excited when I cut into the purple potato (didn't know it was purple) that I literally squealed with glee and ran through the house to show Phil. I went to K-State (GO CATS!) so this was pretty squeeee-worthy for me.

Jes