Friday night grateful moment

So perhaps my little moment of "I'm back" (see NYE post) was a little premature. You think? Sigh. My heart was in the right place, for sure. My brain and ability to follow through has been completely used up elsewhere the past few months. But, no matter. Somewhere mid-afternoon today I decided I'd post tonight, and here I am. No more or less grateful than any other Friday night, but just here. Rusty but writing.

It's spring here in Walla Walla, with all that that implies. Sun some moments, rain at others. And oh how we need the rain, so I'm not arguing with that, even though I get chilled and maybe a wee bit crabby about that. I will remain grateful for whatever moisture we can drum up before the real warmth starts and we go into official drought mode. We are greener than green right now, and that makes me very happy.

Seth approaches his last weeks of high school, and I'm so grateful for these days together. He's done pretty well at keeping "senioritis" at bay, and has been busy with many extracurricular activities, but he's here and he's happy with his college choice (Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma) and feeling ready to move on to this next phase. Yay for endings and beginnings and all the things that make these passages significant. (With Seth's graduation will come visiting family, and I'm really looking forward to that!)

This has been a rough few months (year?) locally and further afield, for family, friends and friends of friends, in all areas of health, grieving and loss. I can't really even tally the number of cancer diagnoses, deaths, divorces and other heartaches, and on some level, I feel a little numb. A bit in the arena of, don't let it all in, because it's really just a big ball of sadness. But for the living/currently undiagnosed, it's one foot in front of the other. What else can you do? I'm grateful for my health, for sure, and don't take it for granted. I'm grateful for another day to hug my husband and child and assure them of my love.

One of my favorite things from these past few months is that we have acquired a few chickens. This is especially exciting given our collective love of eggs, of course. And now we have on hand at any moment the freshest of eggs. There have been many lovely golden omelets and deviled eggs, and Seth's breakfast egg sandwich is extra delicious--so I've been told. My Saturday morning poached egg ritual has also risen a notch or two. It took me a bit to taper off my usual egg grocery purchases, so we were fairly swimming in egg options there for a bit. Now, we've got it more or less down to a steady diet.

My mom has been traveling with her sisters this week, and I've enjoyed thinking about their time together, grateful they have each other. Sisters are awesome, whether by blood or by marriage or by choice. I am grateful to have lovely sisters in the last two of those categories.

For Mother's Day the boys treated me to a day in TriCities with a couple of glorious nursery visits as well as lunch out together. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. Now, to get the plants in their appropriate spots. I have dug up my dahlia bed (it took a big hit this winter, though I'm not sure exactly why, given it wasn't a very severe winter) and am transplanting them elsewhere. The snowball bushes and lilacs both bloomed gloriously, and the irises and peonies are currently going to town!

And now for a couple of random pics I found on my phone. I am very grateful for my phone. I love having a camera with me every minute of the day. I know, how weird. But I like to document things, however mundane. Go figure.

I am ready for this weekend and all the rest and recuperation that implies, physically, mentally and spiritually. I hope that whatever your weekend holds, it's all that you wish for.

Peace.

The gospel according to kale

I am in the midst of a love affair with kale. I eat it every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I talk about kale, and get kale articles sent to me via email and Facebook. I am a kale nut. And I make no apologies! I get a little bit of a ribbing about it at work, but only because I eat kale salads in front of co-workers. If you don't want to be teased, eat in private.

Kale shows up in my smoothie every morning:

In salads I've enjoyed many variations. There's the one below (a twist with a basil-tomato-parmesan flavor) and a peanut-sauce dressed version as well:

And, finally, I recently broke down and made kale chips. These have been popping up as a healthy option, all over the interwebs. I've read a number of different takes on how best to make them, and decided I would give it a whirl, plain and simple, none of the fussy, flavored types.

I made a batch, and husband and I nibbled away. I made another batch the next day, and have made them a few times since. Each time I make them, they disappear. I love the flavor and the texture, I'll just be honest. Mock me all you want. :)

I used this recipe from David Lebowitz, and his rationale on heat made a lot of sense to me. I went with 350 for the temperature (rather than the widely touted 425) and it took about 35-40 minutes (with a mid-time rack switch) for them to crisp up to the desired chip texture. I would recommend playing with your oven and getting to know what temperature works, what timing works, etc.

Before and after oven time for the kale chips. Nothing like a little time in an oven to get the green out and crisp up!

Give it a try, and let me know how it goes. I would love to know what you think too. (And if you're local and need kale, give me a holler! We have kale to share.)

Green breakfast smoothie

nce upon a time, the breakfast smoothie/shake was a staple around our house. We enjoyed years of smoothies, really. But then, as with all tastes, you decide one day to try something different, mix it up a bit, and time goes by, new habits form, and before you know it, you can't remember the last time the Vitamixer was turned on!

Well, not quite... we have still enjoyed the occasional fruit smoothie to accompany the weekend breakfast extravaganza, but our regular habit has long gone by the wayside. Husband enjoys his steel-cut oats, Seth his egg and English muffin combo, and me, I waffle between hot cereal, granola, yogurt and breakfast cookies. But, as I reflected recently on our bumper crop of strawberries, and the overflowing kale as well, I thought giving a green smoothie a try might be worthwhile.

And it was!

Green smoothie
Serves 1 (approx 400 calories, if you care about that kind of thing)
1 cup strawberries
2 handfuls chopped raw kale (approx 3 cups)
1/2 cup yogurt
1/3 cup oat bran
1 cup orange juice

Place the strawberries in the bottom of the blender, followed by the kale, yogurt, oat bran and orange juice. Start out low on the blender speed, increasing until it's on high and the smoothie has mixed to your desired consistency. I pureed it pretty fine for quite a while, unsure how I would like the raw kale in this form. (Salad is one thing, but drinking it is quite another.)

I liked it, I really liked it. (Cue Sally Field.) It was fresh and not too sweet, and while the kale was strong, it wasn't too strong. If one wanted to tone down the kale further, a banana might help, but I tend to think bananas take over everything else, and wanted to get some strawberry out of the drink... and it was there, subtle, but there.

 I will definitely give this another go, and it just may become my summer standby, with the fruits varying with their availability.

Do you enjoy kale? Enough to give it a go in a smoothie? If you have any favorite smoothie recipes, please share--I've been collecting a bunch on Pinterest, and am always up for another!

Side kale note: If you have found the rampant proselytization of all things kale to be a bit over-the-top, you'll enjoy this article from Slate. I especially chortled around Day 6, of course!

Zucchini again!

Pasta was on the menu for lunch, and I knew that mine would have basil and tomatoes featured prominently, while the boys would have more of a bolognese (a la Morning Star beefy crumbles). I am alone in my true devotion to basil, but it's one thing I don't mind not having to share! I did a brief sojourn through the garden looking for tomatoes--still green--and saw that the basil needed a hefty snip to keep from bolting, so came back with my scissors and did a trim.

Back in the kitchen I noticed another zucchini I'd picked but hadn't cooked up yesterday and decided rather spontaneously that today would be the day I would experiment with zucchini "pasta." I have read about this dish for a couple of seasons now, where you make zucchini ribbons and they supposedly mimic the pasta in a dish. I do love me my carbs, but if there's something that can mimic it well and not leave me with the carb coma, I'm all for at least taking it out for a test drive.

I did my google search thing and found a number of options. I settled on the NYT article from last summer and ran with it. Got out my trusty mandoline and had a good time making the ribbons--I went for a smaller cut than they did, but it turned out yummy and very very easy.




Sher's zucchini pasta with cherry toms and basil
1 8-inch zucchini, mandolined to your liking
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tsp. olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cups basil leaves, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup parmesan

In a medium frypan, sauted the garlic in the olive oil for a couple of minutes over medium heat. When it is fragrant, add the zucchini ribbons and toss lightly. Let them saute for a couple of minutes and toss again; do this repeatedly for about 4-5 minutes, until the ribbons are soft.

In a bowl, combine the cherry tomatoes, basil, parmesan and pinenuts. Add the cooked zucchini and toss well to coat the rest of the ingredients with the wetness of the zucchini. Flavor with salt and pepper and enjoy!

Is this pasta? No. Was it yummy? Absolutely. I will make this again, many times. Will the boys eat it? Probably not. But I will try...

In true Sher fashion, I will undoubtedly have to figure out how to make this with Alfredo sauce or something so that it's not too healthy!!

For goodness sake!

How else would you finish that headline than with "I love my hippie hippie shake?" Time for a little (blue)berry love.

This shake/smoothie is so great, it's like breakfast nirvana. If I've missed it in the morning for some nutty thing like an early appointment, I've made it for lunch, or dinner. I have even fallen asleep at night thinking, "Oh goodie, in the morning I'll get my yummy shake." That's addiction, folks. Also, a tad pathetic.
Here's how it happens, daily. In our house we make it to serve two. It gets whizzed up in a Vita Mixer; if you have a regular blender, you'll definitely want to halve it (as I've listed the portions below), unless the smell of a small appliance motor overheating adds an extra-special dash of joy to your morning...

Start with the apple (1, cored, not peeled) and half a banana (peeled, duh!).

Add OJ (1.5 cups) and start the whizzing.

Have your flax seed ground and ready to go (2 T.). You can buy it ground, or do that deed yourself. The benefits of the omega-3s are best with the seeds ground; whole flaxseeds are not absorbed with the same efficacy. Just saying.

I add the wheat germ (2 T) and oat bran (1/3 cup) and the aforementioned flax seed one at a time to the blender while it's going. Depending on your blender strength, you may want to stop, add, then put the lid on and keep going--it's a lot to add at once. I have had a couple of oopsie moments with the blender sending smoothie all the way to the ceiling! Lids are good.

Next, add the frozen blueberries (1.5 cups) (or mixed berries--we've alternated depending on the Costco price, and right now the mixed are somehow back to being more expensive) and the soy milk (1/2-1 cup, depending on your desired consistency) and turn the blender on high. It might take a bit of poking around (carefully) to get the berries pulled down into the rest of the mixture, but once you get it started it should blend well.



My basic approximations put this gem at a little over 600 calories, which, granted, is a hefty breakfast. But, it also has about 24.5 grams of fiber, which meets females-my-size daily nutritional fiber needs. So the rest of the day I can eat cheese and Twinkies... or not.

Total credit for this recipe goes to the husband, who tweaked and fiddled with the ingredients for about a year before he talked me into trying it. Instant convert! If I haven't persuaded you here, just come visit. I have been known to "batch" this to feed more than two; shakes for everyone!