A Week of Salad -Tuesday

Hello everyone! We had another super fun, exciting, energetic, night at VBS yesterday. We apologize if your kids came home soaking wet! Why kids want to get soaking wet I will never understand????? That is the most miserable feeling to me and having to endure the rest of the night like that would make me crazy. But if you are between the ages of 5 and 11 there seems to be this incredible pull just dragging you through the sprinkler and telling you to stay right in it instead of running quickly out like you are supposed to!! They all came out smiling too!

So on to my salad for lunch Tuesday. I really decided to change it up yesterday and eat a kale salad instead of a regular lettuce salad. Kale gets a bad rap sometimes. It can be a bit of an acquired taste, but if you will follow a few preparation steps it will be a million times more enjoyable I promise!

This recipe came from a blog I follow Oh She Glows. It is called Weekend Glow Kale Salad and I absolutely loved it!!

It was filled with this huge portion of goodness! Chopped cucumber, sliced grape tomatoes, diced carrot, chopped red, yellow, and orange mini pepper, raisins, sunflower seeds, red onion, walnuts, and avocado that I did slice up. That is a lot but I loved every last thing in there and wouldn't make the salad without any of them!

It makes such a beautiful salad too. I actually went back for seconds, and thirds, and my husband commented that I must have been famished. I said, "Nope! I just love the salad that much." I even took the leftovers with me to dinner at the church last night.

As I said before there are some things you must do to make your kale taste delicious and not so bitter. First and foremost you must remove these stems. This is where most of the bitterness lies. I just pull the leaves right off. 

The second thing you MUST do is massage or squeeze the kale. Yes she is a little high maintenance. It is quick though so just indulge her.

Just stick your hands in and start squeezing the kale like this. It only takes a couple minutes and you will start to feel the kale get softer. It will even deepen in color.

Do you see the difference in how full the bowl looked above and after you have broken down some of the fibers it looks a little more wilted. It is supposed to look like this. That way it doesn't scratch your throat going down. You can also put a little olive oil or salt in the bowl before massaging it to make it even more silky.

The third thing you can do is pour your dressing over and let it sit for about 15 minutes so it can really soak in. Kale is a hearty green and even after its had a massage it can still handle a little soak which you would really never do with any other green. I used Angela's recipe for Tahini and Lemon Dressing and guess what folks, I didn't change one single thing and I even measured! I poured all of it over the kale and all my prepared ingredients and gave it a good mixing. Don't be afraid to use your hands again and really get that dressing mixed in. It is a bit messy but the results are amazing!

There are other varieties of kale that you might find more enjoyable such as dinosaur kale, baby kale, lacinato, and Tuscan, if you are lucky enough to live where you can buy them. Around here we get curly kale or organic curly kale! Kale is on the Dirty Dozen list so you might want to consider buying it organic.

Lightened Up Tahini- Lemon Dressing

From Angela at Oh She Glows

Yield: Just under 1 cup of dressing
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Tahini
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast or a bit more, to taste
• 2-4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 1 tsp kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• 3 tbsp water, or as needed

Directions:
1. In a food processor, add all ingredients and process until smooth. Makes just under one cup.

Now for a couple VBS pictures from last night. I have troubles narrowing the picture selection down you know!

Getting soaked not just wet of course!

Fun experiments in the Imagination Station Room!

Lazarus coming forth from the tomb! I love the smile on his face.

A little ping pong ball dropping from the upstairs balcony of the youth center for our new class of middle schoolers coming up.

They had to retrieve all the balls as quickly as they could. They were having a blast!

Can't wait to see what tonight will hold!



Cleaned Up Mac-N-Cheese

First, I apologize for the lack of blogging this past week. Three little letters take over my life this time of year..........V-B-S! I am the director of Vacation Bible School at our church and I am busy with a million details as my friend and co-director Sarah and I try to put this thing together again! I do love it but it does create some stress in my life. I have been working on a few recipes though.

Secondly, I found a keeper! I stumbled upon this recipe while browsing through recipes on my favorite site cleaneating.com I was in need of a quick dinner recipe because like usual I waited until the last minute to decide what we would have for dinner. I knew this would be a bit different than the regular stuff but since I don't feed the kids the regular stuff anymore I figured they just might settle for this. In fact, I rarely make pasta so they were pretty excited when they came to the table.

So here you go!

I have no idea why I had whole grain pasta instead of whole wheat pasta. I must have grabbed the wrong box. It's really not that big of a deal but I actually prefer the whole wheat now so I always choose whole wheat. Anyway get your pasta cooking. You will need about 3 cups of pasta. Since the recipe actually asked for elbow macaroni and I didn't have any I used a little more than three cups I am guessing.

Start by sauteing one small yellow onion finely sliced in some olive oil and a little bit of buttery spread like Earth Balance.

Then be smart and add in some diced ham now instead of forgetting it like I did and saute a few minutes more. If you like mushrooms add those in now too and saute. No one in this house likes them so of course I left them out!

Then you will add about 1 tbsp. of flour. The recipe calls for brown rice flour but I didn't have that. I used spelt flour because it is a very fine and smooth flour which is probably why they asked for brown rice flour in the first place. If you don't have either of those then try using some cake flour. It is just one tablespoon, but you don't want it to get all clumpy. It needs to act as a binder.

Then add some salt and pepper and get your Dijon mustard ready.

You are now ready to add the first of two cups of milk and 1 tbsp of Dijon. Add them in stirring constantly.  I would normally go heavy on the Dijon but I wanted the kids to enjoy this and it was a new recipe so I stuck with just one. After tasting it, I concluded that I made the right decision.

Then add your second cup of milk gradually and let it thicken as it cooks a few more minutes. It won't get real thick but don't worry. The cheese is coming!

It is now time to remove it from the heat and add in your cup of cheese. I followed the recipe and used Swiss because I love it so and because it is a lower fat cheese. I was a little shy of one cup though so I had to add a bit of mozzarella. If you are aiming to please the kids then use a reduced fat cheddar for a more familiar taste.

Stir that until it is melted and thickened.

Mmmmm........cheesy goodness for sure!

It looked a bit anemic for me though so I found something green to make it look more alive and to make me happier about serving this blandish looking food. I sauteed the kale first in a bit of olive oil to get it softened.

Stirred it in and what do you know. I was happy!

I quickly chopped up some strawberries and served a raw veggie salad. That certainly helped out with the whiteness of the main dish I would say!

I didn't actually tell the kids I was making Macaroni and Cheese so they just thought it was a random pasta dish. I think that worked in my favor. If I had said mac and cheese they would have expected something else for sure.

Evan absolutely loved this. He devoured it quickly, told his sister to hurry up and eat hers because it was really good, and then got up for seconds.

After Faith picked out all the ham she ate hers delightfully as well. I have no idea what that was about because she declares that ham is her favorite meat. I am chalking that up to her two X chromosomes!

Here is the recipe just as it appears on the clean eating sight but you should give that website a visit and find a few new things to try. I have loved everything I have made from there! 

Traditional Twist Mac & Cheese

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups whole-grain elbow macaroni
• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp natural olive oil buttery spread (TRY: Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread with Olive Oil) or organic unsalted  butter
• 1 small yellow onion, finely sliced
• 3 oz extra-lean, uncured, roasted ham, finely diced
• 2 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp brown-rice flour
• 1/4 tsp each sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 cups 1% milk, divided
• 1 cup grated low-fat Swiss cheese
• Fresh micro herbs for garnish, optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil on high. Add macaroni and cook according to package directions. Drain and return macaroni to pot, covering to keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat oil and buttery spread on medium-high. Add onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add ham and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté until browned, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add Dijon and 1 cup milk, stirring constantly. Gradually add remaining milk, stirring after each addition. Continue cooking until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add cheese, stirring until completely melted. Add macaroni and stir until well combined. If desired, garnish with herbs and serve.