Move Over Potatoe Chips... Kale Chips Please!!

Okay... I'm not sure how it's happened, but now we're two for two for me finding new recipes for veggies I did not originally care for!  SUCH an awesome feeling!!  This time it hasn't been such a long hatred... but last week we got Kale in our weekly food box.  I've read SOO many  great things about Kale.  My naturopath and acupuncturist have both told me to eat as much of it as possible... it's loaded with folic acid, and is a great super food for women.  But last week Jon cooked the Kale the same way that we had eaten the swiss chard, and while I loved the chard... the Kale was just so leafy for me.  It felt really... bushy.  I don't know, I'm big on texture.  Anyways, we got it again in the box so I scoured the internet for recipes and found a DELICIOUS side dish or even afternoon snack.

Kale Chips!!  Here's the recipe and some pics.  :)  Enjoy!

Ingredients 
Kale - as much as you want
few drops of lemon juice 
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of sea salt  (Highly recommend the sea salt, don't sub table salt... the sea salt crusts in the most wonderful way and tastes like the ocean... Wow, I really am a maritimer... hehe)

Directions 
Break stems off of Kale - place in large bowl
Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. - Kale should still look dry. 
Toss a bit.
Rub each Kale leaf individually to spread oil and lemon juice and lay on a baking sheet.
Sprinkle with a few granules of sea salt on each leaf
Bake at 250 F, for 30 min.
Flip (Carefully, they'll be crispy and flaky) 
Bake for additional 10 minutes.  

I just had a full plate and my mouth is watering typing this out.  Perfect healthy option to a salty craving!!  YUM!

 Just before going into the oven. 

Dinner... and the reason my plate has so much less kale is that I already had 4 pieces while I was cooking the chicken.  Haha!  :)  Enjoy!

Sweet Retreat from Wheat

To get us started off on kicking gluten I decided to try making these gluten free cookies.  They were super easy to whip up, and are very similar to a sugar cookie.  Overall, they were good but definitely not something I'm going to be rushing out to make right away again.  The biscotti was really good, although the pieces are cut a little bigger than I'd like for one cup of tea, so next time I'll probably break them in half.  Enjoy!  

Dear Gluten, It's not you... It's me...

Well, actually... it is kinda you.  After talking to my naturopath this past thursday we decided that it would be worth while to put me on a gluten free diet to try to achieve some of my health goals we're working on together.  I have to admit when she first said "How do you feel about going gluten-free?"  I thought she must be crazy!!  How was I going to give up my beloved pasta... my breads... my muffins... and let's not forget my granola bars!!  But actually, when we took a closer look at my diet it was actually a relatively low gluten diet to begin with, and the areas that were high, such as pastas are easily substituted.  Quite a bit of the gluten I've been eating is just to go along side with my main meal (ie: A roll with my ceasar salad for lunch... or a muffin to go with my eggs in the morning.)

This in combination with the fact that almost all things that have gluten are available in a gluten-free variety makes me think that it will actually be a lot easier than I thought it would be.  For instance I found a really great brand of gluten free rolled oats which I plan on using for my next batch of granola bars.  My naturopath's advice was that Japanese, Thai and Mexican are great cuisines that are low to no gluten since they rely heavily on rice and corn flour.  That's very good news being that I cook mexican at least once or twice a week... and Jon and I both LOVE sushi and Thai! 

She also mentioned Satisfaction Feast, The Wooden Monkey  and  The Brooklyn Warehouse which are all restaurant in Halifax which are gluten-free friendly.  We tried The Brooklyn Warehouse tonite which we have actually been meaning to try for a while, and was absolutely incredible!!!  It's so great to be able to go out for a nice meal and still get farm fresh food that tastes incredible!!  Whoever said that healthy eating can't be absolutely yummy is just flat out wrong!  I've tried Satisfaction Feast ages ago and it was wonderful.  We'll have to try to go again soon.

All in all, Jon and I have actually been making a lot of changes to our diet recently from switching to organic foods to adding a great variet of supplements to our diets.  Each change has been much easier than we originally thought it would be.  What's more is that I've already noticed the desired effects of the supplements which is huge incentive to keep up with it and all similar changes.

I'll keep all my blog readers up to date on how the gluten-free diet goes.  So far my plan is to still make my granola bars, but obviously use a gluten free rolled oat.  In addition for pasta we are switching to rice pasta.  Other than that I have to just be conscious to not ask for a roll on the side and I should be golden!!  :)  This may also be the push I need to cook more indian foods for us such a dal which is a lentil... and rajma which is made from Kidney beans.  Wish us luck!!    

Good Morning, Sunshine!

One of the main health initiatives that we've been trying to focus on is cutting down on refined sugar, and trying to reduce our sugars overall.  I was shocked to learn that my beloved Nature Valley Granola Bars (and essentially all granola bars in the grocery store) are just glorified candy bars!!  I was literally angry when I was looking at the label the other night!  I really do not understand how they're able to market that junk as healthy!

This in combination with the fact that I'm still not eating much of a breakfast in the morning, I took on making my own granola bars!  I figure this way I will know what's in them, and they're the perfect grab and go breakfast food.  This morning I tossed a granola bar, an apple and an orange in my purse and was off!

Here are the goods!

 

One cup whole wheat flour, 2 cups rolled oats

  

1/2 Cup Powdered Skim Milk

 

This is the money shot... I *heart* honey!

 

My new best friend, the flax seed

 

Variety mix of pumpkin seeds, almonds, and raisins 

 

The earth's candy...  Dried red currents, apricot, pineapple papaya and raisins

Chopped and saved 1/2 for the next batch. 

 

All the yummies mixed up and ready to go!

 

Just ready to go in the over!!  They already smelled SOO good!  

 

The good stuff!!  There are no pictures of me dipping the bars cause I was WAY too wrapped up in how heavenly it was!!  :) 

Voila!!  Easy Peasy!!  This batch made 16 bars, which is perfect to last Jon and I through 1 week... giving us each one bar a day with a little wiggle room!  :)  

And here's the recipe!  The cross outs are what the recipe called for, and I substituted for, or eliminated.


Ingredients
2 Cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry skim milk powder
6 Tbsp sugar    2tsp honey
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup flax seed
1/2 cup dates snipped in small pieces
1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple, apricot etc.
1/2 tsp cinnamon  1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup shelled pumpkin or sunflower seeds
pinch of salt
1/2 cup oil  (I used sunflower seed oil, but evoo would be fine too if that's all you have handy)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat over to 350 F.  Grease glass baking dish.

Combine all ingredients except chocolate.  Pat into the pan with moist hands.  Bake for 30 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.  Cut while still hot, but let cool completely before taking out of the pan.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave on high for 2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir the chocolate.


I've wrapped mine individually with cellophane, and put them in a zip lock in the fridge so they're super easy to grab and go!  No fuss!!  No muss!!  Enjoy!  

Organic Decadence

On an impulse buy during my last trip to Planet Organic, I bought a chocolate bar that was by the register.  I know, I know... not really in keeping with our whole new "health" kick.  But I'm a sucker for good marketing... On top of which I was starving... and my logic was, "I am in an organic store, it's gotta be healthy..."  I know it's not a great defense... moving on, I picked it up.  One of the best decisions of my life!!!  It was a Theobroma Chocolate Bar.

Now those who know me well, know that I am not, by any means a chocolate lover.  But this was pure decadence!!  60% cocoa... dark chocolate with real raspberry flakes.  No chocolate I've ever tasted has come close!!  It embodies the word decadent.  I highly recommend you seek one out. 

Of course I only had the wrapper left before I was able to snap a picture... DELISH! 

Organic Healthy Food... Cheap, Easy AND Convenient??

This is the beautiful box of organic veggies and foods that showed up at our house Saturday morning!  Words cannot even begin to describe how happy I was when I opened this box!  Jon and I just signed up for the "weekly food box" with Home Grown Organic Foods.

We've been trying to eat healthier, and really take a close look at labels, and what's really in our food.  Even things that we thought were healthy, like soy milk... is actually SO over processed when you really look at it.  With all of this, I was really begining to wonder if I can't even help Jon and I eat healthy... how the heck do people manage to teach their kids the healthy things to eat??  Friends have mentioned Home Grown to us a few times, and to be honest... I really have no idea why it took us so long to sign up.  There are 4 sizes to choose from... single, double, family and clan.  This is the single and it was $30!!  Home delivery and all included!  I never in a million years thought that eating right would be easy AND convenient.

Home Grown is a cooperative that purchases from local growers in NS so that way we are supporting local growers, and know that our food doesn't have any pesticides, hormones or other yucky things.

To support our new initiave to eat healthy, we've also started taking some pretty essential supplements... one thing we've both started doing is 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed a day.  So I decided to add this all natural Goats Milk yogurt to throw my flaxseed in... and it's been delicious!!

Yummy almond butter!!  Much less in fat than peanut butter... and helps me get my protein!  

Jon was over the moon to see these fresh mushrooms! 

This is Swiss Chard.  I have to admit, when I first saw this in the box I didn't have a sweet clue how I was going to cook it.  Jon made us supper last night, and he cut up some of this Swiss Chard, steamed it with 2 chopped cloves of garlic, a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil... and once it was done put a couple handfulls of feta cheese in, put the lid back on the pot so the cheese got soft and spread on the Chard.  It was DELICIOUS!!  I made some to go on the side of our meal tonite too cause I was still craving it!

I'm also planning on making this  during the week.  I will likely sub out the sausage for baked chicken breast...  But it sounds delicious!

I've met with naturopaths a few times... never really found one that I fully connected with.  But I'm actually booked in to see one who was highly recommened by a friend, at Balance Naturopath Health Center.   And the one thing that I've always gotten consistently is a scolding for skipping breakfast.  I know everyone says it's the most important meal of the day... But who has the time for healthy nutritious breakfast in the morning when rushing off to work??  So I decided to add this to my order as well.  The plan is to have my granola with a few table spoons of yogurt, and an additional 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds.  So far it's been going really well... although, it has also been the weekend.  Haha!  My plan is to tonite, mix up a tupperware of the granola and yogurt and some fruit to last me through the week.   I really think, like all of the other choices that we've made, it'll be alot easier than we thought it would be.

All in all... It's been really easy to start eating healthier... and while it does seem like a big adjustment before you start doing it the one thing Jon and kept talking about is that we want to make these changes before kids come along because life itself seems hard when you have a newborn... I can't imagine making a change like this while also adjusting to parenthood.  And it's really important to both of us to make sure we teach our kids healthy eating habits that our parents didn't have to worry about when we were little tykes.  There are so many chemicals and over processed foods out there that just weren't on the market 20 years ago.  It only makes sense to start making these habits now.  

There are a few things that I'm still learning to do.  Like today when I went to go pick up my favorite box of crackers, glanced at the label and noticed that almost none of the ingredients were easily pronounced, or even the names of food.  I hate to admit, I did stand there for a second and try to decide if it was worth it... but I'm proud to say that I put them back, and chose a natural cracker with actual foods as the ingredients.

Thanks for reading!!  I'll be sure to update some of the new recipes we try!