Eggs with Kale and Red Pepper

My beautiful and health concsious niece Stacy gave me the suggestion to wilt some kale and red pepper with eggs. I gave it a try and it was really, really good! I think this may become one of my favorite meals.

For a single serving I used:

2 eggs
2 handfulls of kale, cut into bites size peices
1/4 of a fresh red pepper diced
salt, pepper, and tumeric

Saute the rep pepper and kale in a tiny bit of oil or non stick spray just so they are warmed up a bit.

Add in the 2 eggs and scramble in with the kale and red pepper. Add salt, pepper, and tumeric.

Turmeric is believed to be a powerful anti-inflammatory in both the Chinese and Indian systems of medicine.

I only used a good sprinkle of tumeric the first time, but will add more next time.

Enjoy!

Not So Boring Salad

If you are like me and eating salads everyday, you can get bored with them really quickly unless you change it up a bit. So here is what I do to keep them exciting. I usually just go through the fridge and anything leftover is fair game. Sometimes it's a leftover taco meat salad, and sometimes it is just a mix of tons of different veggies, like this one with shredded beets and fennel, then topped with toasted almonds!

Start with a bed of lettuce, spinach, and/or kale and then start adding:
Cucumber, diced
tomato, diced
avacado, diced
green onion, sliced
beets, grated
fennel, very finely sliced
brocoli, cut into bite size pieces
topped with nuts, today is sliced almonds, toast for a more nuttier flavor

Top it all with a home made vinagrette and voila! You have a bright and slightly different salad.

Cindy's Kitchen Essentials

Here is my list of Must Haves in the kitchen for to get the best out of your veggies:

Cutting Board, vegetable peeler, knife, brush for scrubbing veggies and juicer
Salad Spinner
Steamer
Juicer
Canning Jars with lids

The salad spinner is one of my favorites kitchen essentials...You can was all sorts of greens in it and then also use it to store them. They will easily stay crisp and yummy for a week in the fridge.

If you make extra green juice you will want to make sure you save it in a canning jar with a tight fitting lid on it. Also fill the jar up to the top with juice so there is no room for air. And drink it the same day if possible.

When you need a break from all of the raw veggies and to mix it up a bit, try steaming them. It is best to just lightly steam them, try for maybe 5 or 10 minutes depending on the vegetable. You don't want to cook them to death.

And remember if the produce is not organic, then peel it so you are not ingesting the pesticides.

Enjoy your Greens, and Purples, and Oranges, and anything brightly colored!

What to do with a bag of Kale?

Almost every day I go out to get fresh Kale to make my daily Green Juice. One day I could not find the fresh stalks of Kale, the store only had these bags of kale cut into bit size pieces. It seemed like a great option, so I did purchase it.

I learned a great lesson on that day:  Do not put small pieces of greens into a centrifical force juicer unless you want to use it as wallpaper!

I really should have taken a picture of the kitchen after that as it was really funny...Good thing I love my other new toy which is a floor steamer!

A really good use of the bagged Kale is to Steam it in the Vegetable Steamer.  I love mine and you can see it peeking out form behind the bag of kale on the counter. 

Put a couple of big handfulls of kale in the steamer as it really cooks down.  Steam the kale for about 10 minutes.  When it is done, I like to sprinkle the kale with Red Wine Vinegar and Salt and Pepper. My hubby likes to eat his steamed kale with Butter, Salt and Pepper.

So there you have it, a yummy, good for you, no mess way to eat that big bag of Kale!

Juicing Kale vs Collard Greens

This is the huge pile of collard greens I bought today for less than $3.00.  I usually only get between 4 and 5 leaves of kale for $1.69 so this seemed like great deal...then I thought I better do some research on it.

Everyday I go to the grocery store to get my fix of Kale, and each day I could see the same few bunches dwindle down after I took my bunch from the bin. Yesterday I took the best of the last two bunches as the other bunch was only a couple of tiny little leaves, very puny.  And today, that was the only choice so I thought I would go to another store to check out their supply.

When I got there they didn't even carry the leafy green goodness, they only had the bags of kale that are prewashed and cut into bite size pieces which is great for eating, but horrible for the juicer.

They did have a ton of collard greens and they seem to be so cheap, I could get a huge bunch of the green stuff for less than $3.00 so I thought, well it is green and leafy I will give it a try.

I purchased it and took it home and washed it up and juiced it and it turned out great. The taste was good and it worked great in the juicer so I thought WOW I am really on to something here. Then I wondered why I don't hear any thing about collard greens so I decided to do a bit of research before I got too excited and here is what I found out about the two greens.

I can't seem to find anything negative about the kale other than it is high in vitamin K.  For the collard greens though there were a couple of negatives. It too is high in Vitamin K, but in addition, it is high in oxalic acid which could be an issue for people suffering from oxalate kidney stones. As it turns out, spinich is also high in oxalic acid. The other issue is that the collard greens may contain goitrogens which may cause swelling of the thyroid gland insome people. 

So the bottom line for me is since I don't know enough about this oxalic acid and kidney stones and the possible issue with the thyroid, I am going to stick to the kale for now with no negative issues to report.

I hope you find this helpful and are juicing to your health!

Healthier Chicken Chili

For the past month or so I have been eating mostly raw foods, but today I had the itch to cook something and  since it is a fall day it seemed fitting to make chili. I got an idea to make this chili with a chicken stock base rather than with a tomato base. And I loved it. Hope you do too.

1 whole chicken
2 ears corn on the cob
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
2 stalks celery
1/2 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 jalepeno
1/2 can diced green chili's
1 green onion - for garnish
6 cups homemade chicken stock  or low sodium if you buy it
3 ounces tomato paste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper

Heat a large pot on the stove, and swirl in a little olive oil. Dice up the red and green pepper, celery, onion, garlic, and jalepeno and add them to the pot. Let these cook down a bit for 10 minutes or so, then add in the spices, brown sugar, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, green chilis, and chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, then partially cover and let simmer for a couple of hours so the flavors can cook down and concentrate.

Meanwhile, rinse and pat dry the chicken and place it in a shallow baking pan. Put a little oil and lots of salt and pepper on the chicken and roast in the oven on 350 for 1 1/2 hours.  When the chicken is done, let cool a bit, then remove the meat.  I actually saved part of the breast meat for lunch tomorrow.

Husk the corn and roast it on the grill until nicely charred. Let cool so that you can handle it. Then cut the corn from the cob.

Add in the pinto beans, chicken and corn and simmer another 30 minutes or so until flavors are well blended.

Serve with green onion, sour cream, and cheese (if you are still eating dairy).

Enjoy, and let me know if you like this recipe!

To Peel or Not to Peel?

That is the question.

I am talking about juicing of course and whether or not you should peel your veggies. Well here's the scoop, if your veggies are not organic then you do want to peel them because of the levels of pesticides that they contain.

Since most of the veggies that you would use to make a Green Juice are on the EWG's Dirty Dozen meaning they are the worst offenders for having the most residue from pesticides found on them, it is really a good idea to spend the extra money and go organic if at all possible.
Some of the The Clean 15 also defined by the EWG as having the lowest amounts of pesticides found in them are onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avacado, and cabbage. To see their complete list visit their website at: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Even though it seems scary that we are eating these foods with some pesticide residue on them, the benefits of comsuming them far out way the benefits of avoiding them because of the pesticides.

When you cannot find the Organic ones, then make sure to wash your fruits and veggies really, really good, and then peel them too.

Always opt for Organic when you can find them, they are worth the extra money.

WE ARE ALL WORTH IT!

Go pH Green!

This is a great way to start your day and a good pick-me-up for the mid afternoon too.  When I first started making Green Juice I just assumed it got it's name from the color of the veggies since they are all green.

As it turns out there is acually a pH scale for all of the foods we eat and how they rank in terms of acidic and alkaline. I had no idea, this is new to me...and some of the foods that I thought would be acidic, like say a lemon on more on the alkaline end, and a ripe banana is more acidic.

What I do know and am learning is the more alkaline foods we eat the better we will feel. And once you start to introduce them into your diet, you will crave more of them.

Cancers and other diseases thrive on living in bodies with a high acidic level. Most fast food and processed foods will fall into the more acidic range on the scale, where as most vegetables fall in the more alkaline range.

The highly acidic foods are Coffee, Sweetened Fruit Juice, Black Tea, Liquor, Beer, and Artificial Sweetners. These are foods that should be avoided if possible.

Since I have been eating the more alkaline foods I have lost a little weight, and have no pain from arthritus any more. And I have just begun, so I can't wait to see where this leads my body after a longer period of time.

My Juicer!

Not a recipe today, but wanted to show you the juicer I am using and loving, incase you are inspired by the green juice I posted yesterday.

This is a centrifical force juicer and so they say you should drink the juice within 15 to 20 miutes of making it before it starts to lose some of the nutrients. I usually make a pitcher full and then put the remainder in a canning jar with a tight fitting lid and drink it later in the day, and that works well for me.

This juicer works well and it super easy to clean when done. And it sure beats the blender which is what I used the first time I attempted to 'Juice'...it ended up more like a thick and chunky green goo of goodness...but it was not easy to drink and I actually kind of had to eat it with a spoon....After I had already made my green drink in the blender, then I did the research on how to use a blender, and it turns out that you need to put the cucumbers in first and add some water to make it liquidy enough so that when you add your kale and other ingredients it will blend easily.  So I offer that tip to those of you who want to try the green juice with your blender.

I hope you will juice today!

Green Juice

I have been experimenting with my juicer and love this green drink!

1 handful kale, maybe 4 leaves
2 cucumbers (peeled if not organic)
1 green apple
1/2 lemon peeled
1 stalk celery
1 handful parsley

Put everything into the juicer and enjoy. This makes enough for one glass in the morning, then I save the rest in a canning jar with tight fitting lid.

The green apple makes it sweet and the celery gives it the salty taste.

Modified from the green and pink cleanse guide @ owning pink.com