Tag Archives: kale

“Suddenly Salad”, suddenly more delicious

Posted on by

In keeping with the theme of keeping it super simple (we know you’re still recovering from the holidays) here’s a way to cheat with your next lunch or dinner. Buy a box of the new Suddenly Salad and spruce it up with chic peas and kale. I used the Tuscan Grains flavor and it was seriously amazing. It’s already exploding with flavor, so adding in the kale and chic peas just adds some “oompf” to it.

  •  1 box of Suddenly Salad Tuscan Grains
  • 1 can of chic peas
  • 3-4 leaves of kale, chopped
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil

Make the Suddenly Salad according to the box instructions. In a separate pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once hot, saute the kale. Add the chic peas to the kale to warm them up for roughly 5 five minutes. Once the Suddenly Salad is done, combine everything together and serve hot. (But honestly, if you want to make this ahead for an office lunch it works just as well cold.)

Suddenly salad remake

Happy Eating, XO.

Soup obsession continues…

Posted on by

For all you haters who think soup isn’t a meal, wait till you try this one. It’s so filling I can guarantee you wont need anything else! There is a starch, a protein, some veggies, etc. Its a meal in a bowl so save your judgments for something else.

Yo on a real tip- grab a big soup pot/pan! Ideally, like a dutch oven type cookware move. Don’t pull a me and start in something too small for all the ingredients and have to transfer to a bigger item half way through. Its going to mess up your whole soup making mojo. Trust me.

  • Chop a medium to large yellow onion into small pieces
  • 3 tbsp. of minced garlic
  • 2 tbsp. of grated parmesan cheese
  • 4 tbsp. of light cream
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 box of low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 package of uncooked, raw, store bought cheese tortellini
  • 1 bag of kale
  • 1/2 bag of spinach
  • 1 package (about 1-1.5 lbs.) of spicy Italian chicken sausage (remove meat from casing and create mini meatballs so they can cook evenly in the broth).

Anyway, once you have figured out your cooking vessel, sweat the onions and garlic with salt, pepper and some olive oil for about 10-15 min on high heat. Add the can of diced tomatoes (whole can, with liquid) and the chicken broth. Once the liquids are brought to a boil, reduce heat and add cheese & cream while stirring add in “meatballs”. Raise heat back to high to bring liquids to a boil again and add the greens. Simmer for 10-15 min (greens will be wilted and meat will be cooked) before adding the tortellini, let that cook for 5-7 min (once they rise to the top of the soup, cut the heat & serve).

Total cook time should be about 45 min, prep is very short max 5 min.You will have multiple meals out of this recipe so its worth the time.

Happy Eating, XO.

A Hearty Breakfast of Kale, Quinoa & Egg

Posted on by

I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but it’s not that easy to eat a healthy (yet delicious) breakfast! Sure, our fruit parfait is really good, but for those of us who like savory dishes, what are we to do? I know it’s super late in the game, but I’ve been on a real kale kick lately (could be the pressures of bathing suit season!) so I did some testing for a really good kale breakfast. My mouth is salivating just writing this post…

Makes 1 serving

  • 2 big leaves of kale, cut in long strips (be sure to remove the leaves from the stem)
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
  • 1 minced garlic shallot
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 egg

Cook the quinoa according to the package instructions. While that’s cooking, heat the olive oil and garlic together, then add in the kale. Cook the kale until it’s wilted.  By then the quinoa should be ready, so add it in to the pan with the kale and blend together. In a separate pan, add the teensiest bit of butter and fry your egg sunny side up. If you want it to look fancy, scoop the quinoa mix on to a plate and top with the egg.

 

Kale, Quinoa, Egg breakfast

Happy Eating, XO.

Crispy Kale Chips

Posted on by

Over the weekend I had kale chips for the first time. I fully expected not to like them (bitter greens as chips? Palease).  But, I loved them! (Surprisingly my husband did too. This is so far from normal for him, but they were THAT good.) Seeing that we both liked them so much, I of course wanted to make them myself and share the wealth with you lovely readers. So here they are!

  • 1 bunch of fresh kale (remove leaves from the stalk and cut in to bit sized pieces)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil (you could also use a teeny tiny bit of truffle oil if you’re feeling adventurous)
  • 1 tsp course sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss kale in olive oil until fully covered, and spread out on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until edges of the leaves are brown.

Kale chips

Happy Eating, XO.

So Kale and Quinoa Walk in to a Bar…

Posted on by

…a salad bar! Get it? Yeah, yeah I know, stick to my day job…

Anyway, the other day I whipped up our fruit parfait for breakfast and made way too much quinoa. I couldn’t just throw it out so I got to experimenting. This is how it went down: Quinoa’s healthy, so what else is healthy? Hmm, throw in some cucumbers, beets for some color, kale of course, and fresh dill! (Only because I’ve acquired an obsession with it since the flies and swims recipe). Top it all off with the quinoa and you actually get a pretty filling salad. I also paired it with our homemade dill dressing (I told you, obsessed) and it was damned refreshing, perfect for spring.

*Makes 1 personal sized salad.

  • 2 cups fresh baby kale
  • 1 cup of sliced cucumbers
  • 1 small can of beets
  • 1/3 cup of finely chopped fresh dill
  • 1/4 cup of homemade dill dressing
  • 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa

Toss together everything but the quinoa (I mean you can if you want to, but I prefer not to). Once the dressing is evenly coated on the salad, top with the quinoa and garnish with a bit of dill.

Kale & Quinoa saladHappy Eating, XO.