Kick Ass Kale

Man oh man, do we love kale in this house. We eat it at least once a month, and when we do there are never any leftovers. Michelle even loves her kale, which is awesome because it's packed full of vitamins.

It's taken us a while to perfect our own kick ass kale dish the way my family likes it. We used to just saute it straight up in oil with garlic, then add salted sunflower seeds and call it good. But then we wanted to cut back on our use of extra calories, so we started cooking it a little differently. And honestly, I like this way so much more!

There are so many varieties of kale, and they all taste great. We usually buy the plain old kale that you can find everywhere, but this week we bought purple kale. It is on sale at Raley's and the organic is actually cheaper than the non-organic. Sweet!

First we clean and chop the kale, making sure to remove the hard stalk. It tastes good, and is fine to eat, but it takes longer to soften, and Mish can barely chew her kale as it is. We also crush and chop some garlic. In my opinion you can't have enough garlic, so we chop up about 4 cloves.

Our beautiful leftover stalks go right into the compost bin :)

We start the whole cooking process off by adding a small amount of olive oil (just 1/2 a tablespoon)  to a large pan with high sides and cooking the garlic a bit. As soon as it's cooked we add the kale and a little bit of water. Put on the lid and let it steam for a bit, checking frequently and stirring. The water will steam the kale and let you get away with using less oil. Once your kale is soft, take off the lid so the water will cook out. Saute that delicious kale until it's cooked to your liking.

Next, we add some salt and pepper. Careful! Kale is easily over salted, so taste as you season. If you're like me, you can also sneak in a few shakes of garlic powder. Mmm, garlic.

And you're done! Easy easy easy, tasty tasty tasty!And did I mention it's really good for you? Well, it is.

Taco Night!

Taco night!

Probably one of my favorite meals, but I don't make it a lot because I can't stop myself from eating 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 tacos! They're too good to stop at one, and my diet definitely can't handle that ;-)

I know what you're thinking..Jess, what the heck do you put in a taco? Fake meat? No! Just veggies? Kinda! But are they flavorful? Heck yes!
Instead of meat, or any fake meat products, I use lentils! Trust me on this, you don't miss the meat when you eat these tacos.

Michael doesn't mind eating lentils in his tacos, but he prefers ground turkey, so we make two different fillings!

In order to make your lentils taste awesome and get that "taco meat" flavor, you must prepare them with delicious taco seasoning. I'm lazy, so I buy the pre-measured baggies. I also up the lazy factor by buying ready to eat lentils from Trader Joe's.

Basically what I do is pour my ready-to-eat lentils in the pan, toss in 1/4 water, and taco seasoning. In this case, I had 1 lb of lentils, so I used the whole packet. After the water and seasoning coated the lentils, I heated them in the pan until a "gravy" started to form and thicken.

My Lentils

While I'm doing that, I also cook Michael's turkey. Just saute it with taco seasoning and water (follow the directions on the taco seasoning packet). Ooh yeah, the house is smelling good!

Michael's Turkey

 Now heat up some beans, chop your veggies of choice (we do avocado, tomatoes, onions, and lettuce), and additional toppings (shredded cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, salsa).

I know you don't need a pic of this, but come on, look at those colors! 

 And assemble! I always put beans, lentils, tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce on mine :) Michael likes his piled high with everything- cheese, onions, avocado, tomato, lettuce, and more. I don't like cheese on my tacos. C'est la vie.

Now whose taco is whose?

Turkey!

Lentils!

And what does Michelle eat when we have tacos? Our feisty toddler eats a deconstructed taco with both sets of fillings, and a little cottage cheese on the side.

Viva el taco!

Vegetarian Chili

Chili, need I say more? I made this pot of chili for my family while we watched the San Francisco 49ers defeat Green Bay last weekend. We had it with hot dogs (veggie for me!) and baked potatoes. Mmm, I still have a cup in the fridge for lunch tomorrow. 

One of the reasons I love this meal is because it's so easy, and it's so delicious! Being a vegetarian can be hard if you don't have good versions of mainstream meals. I usually come across chili with corn in it, and I despise corn in chili, so I'm glad this pot is so easy to throw together.

Oh so good!

Ingredients

• 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained
• 1 15 oz can black beans, drained
• 1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium bell pepper, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 small can (4 oz) tomato paste
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce (fire roasted if available)
• 1 jumbo can (26 oz?)  crushed tomatoes, fire roasted
• 1 packet chili seasoning
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 pepper (diced) from a small can (8 oz) of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Either one pepper diced, or 1/3 of the adobo sauce in the can

Instructions

• saute bell pepper, onion, and garlic
• add of of the ingredients and cook on medium high until everything starts to bubble. Lower heat to low/medium-low.
• simmer in pot (at least 20 minutes works best for us, but it can stay on the stove for a while if cooked on low) 

Serve with cheese, sour cream, raw chopped onions, chips, hot dogs, baked potatoes, or any other dish that's screaming for some delicious chili. Mmm, chili.

Chili dog with mustard!

Vegetarian Pot Pie

This pot pie is one of those meals that my whole family loves, and we're wrestling over the leftovers the next day. It's so easy to whip up, and cooks very quickly. It tastes like something that's been cooking all day, and is so savory and thick for a vegetarian meal. 

This meal is also one that Michael will eat vegetarian, but prefers to have with chicken in it. I'll explain how we do that below.

Yum!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 medium onion (or 1/2 large onion) chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup frozen peas (or 1 cup canned, drained and rinsed)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (of chicken if you want the meat! Lol)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 packed of Lipton's Mushroom Soup
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, cut to 8x8 (I use pepperidge farm)
• 1 egg (optional: for egg wash)

Supplies

• 8x8 casserole dish

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Make sure puff pastry is defrosted (according to box instructions)
• Chop all of your veggies, keep potatoes to the side.

• Saute celery, onion, carrots, and garlic for 2 minutes.
• Toss in potatoes, saute for 3 minutes.
• Coat veggies with flour, stir in, cook for 1 minute

• Salt and Pepper
• Add milk, broth, and soup mix. Stir together.
• looks good at this point, huh? So creamy!
• Add peas and cook for 5 minutes. 
• If adding chicken to whole pie, put cooked chicken in at this step.

• Place pot pie filling in an 8x8 baking dish (mine is Pyrex), and cover with puff pastry sheet.
• mix egg with TBSP of water and brush on top of pastry sheet.
• Pierce top of pie to vent.

• Bake for 25-30 minutes. 
• If you're adding chicken into just one serving, it still tastes good! Just bake or pan fry up some chicken (white or dark meat - your choice) and toss it into the bowl before your scoop in a serving of the pot pie. 

Now, if you're like me, you are are dying to sneak a taste. Careful! It's very hot (duh).  

It's so pretty!

So creamy and savory!

Hopefully you enjoy this dinner as much as we do!