Kale glorious kale!

So I have to admit that until about a year ago kale was one of those scary leafy greens that I pretty much avoided. But the more I read about it - specifically about just HOW good it is for you - I decided that I needed to try it. I had recently added spinach to my eating repertoire and had come to like it very much so perhaps kale would quickly fall into that category. How to ensure that? Well, the first time you cook it, saute the heck out of it with all sort of other yummy stuff so that you can barely taste it! SUCCESS! But I got the feeling that wasn't really the point of eating kale. So I went to the trusty internet to see what I could come up with as other ways to eat kale. When I saw a recipe for a "massaged kale salad" my curiosity was piqued. The other ingredients were ones that I liked: avocado, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, pepper... And it looked SUPER easy. Little did I know I was about to begin a small (maybe more than small!) obsession with this salad. I think there was a time when I made up a batch each week and enjoyed it for days. Well, it's been a while since I had it so today at the grocery I picked up four bunches of kale (I already had tons of lemons at home as well as tomatoes and avocados from my farmshare - exciting stuff this week with potatoes, peaches, onions, garlic, lettuce, and other yummy stuff in there, too! Oh, and eggplant...which I happily gave away at work! As my former student Lizzie said when I ran into her at the Farmhouse office, "You know, you can request that the eggplant be swapped out for something else...or you can just keep being the eggplant fairy at work." I chose the latter this week! Unlike kale, I have yet to develop a taste for eggplant...). I threw together the massaged kale salad pretty quickly - I can't wait to have it for lunch tomorrow (it's better if it sits overnight so that all of the flavors can gel). And then I stared at the other bunch of kale. Save it for later in the week? Saute it? Make another massaged kale salad right now? Decisions, decisions...
And then I remembered reading about kale chips and seeing them in the grocery store for about $4-5 for a teeny, tiny bag which seemed ridiculous to me. (I get really annoyed when I see something that I suspect is really simple in the grocery store with a hefty price tag...thus, many of my homemade creations! I'm happy to pay for the stuff that I really can't do on my own...not so happy to throw cash away at stuff I could make myself...especially if it involves a new recipe!) So I went to the food blog of one of my favorite bloggers and found her recipe for kale chips. SO SIMPLE. SO QUICK. SO YUMMY! I did one batch with parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper and then, since I think that pretty much the only potato chips worth eating are the salt & vinegar ones, I experimented with a batch of salt & vinegar kale chips. Next time...more vinegar! But otherwise, a hit. Two bunches of kale taken care of...my body better like me for this. (On that note, I've been trying to be better to my body - namely with more sleep, less stress, better food choices, downtime, exercise, etc... And it seems to be responding so far. I'm super grateful about recent bloodwork and other test results from doctor's visits that have all been awesome! One doctor said my cholesterol numbers are the sort that people pay money for - ha! I'm thankful that high cholesterol does not run in our family. We have a number of other bugga-boos but that is not one of them.)
In other news from the kitchen...because I wouldn't want to be too healthy! I also experimented with a recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth - which I've decided to befriend rather than try to evict it from my life! Another food blogger who does mostly vegan recipes (but she's also doing some gluten free stuff which is cool...more on that in my life later...) has a similar sweet tooth. Love that. She makes these "cookie dough balls" except for that they aren't cookie dough at all. They are little nuggets of sweet goodness that I don't have to feel too guilty about. I've been wanting to try them so I whipped up a batch this afternoon. Oh my. Delicious. And full of healthy fat, dark chocolate, coconut, vanilla... Yep, one of these and my sweet tooth for the day will be satisfied. In a healthier way than if I dove into a pint of ice cream. Or at least that's how I'm justifying it! And if I balance them out with enough kale it will all be good, right?!