Kale Chips

Kale Chips. That's right. I said it. KALE.

My eldest, ripe old age of 3.5 is a kale hater. Actually, she is a green-leafy- vegetable-hater. Really. Normally, I have to sneak it into things to get her to ingest some. So when I read about school lunch programs starting to have success with elementary age kids with kale chips, I figured I had to check it out for myself. Low and behold, both my kids LOVED them. Really. They couldn't gobble them up fast enough. Even better? The three-year-old can practically make them herself. If I was a bit more saavy with this whole technology thing, I'd even post a photo of her eating them.

Check it out:

1 bunch fresh kale (washed with stems removed)
olive oil
salt

Rub small amount of olive oil onto both sides of kale leaf. Salt to taste. Place on baking sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes on each side at 425. Be careful to watch to ensure they don't start to burn. Remove and eat.

coconut water

OMG, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this new discovery. I've always LOVED thai coconuts but, really, who has the time to crack into one everytime you want some coconut milk? I found coconut water which is not the same to drink as the real thing but it is FABULOUS in brown rice (used to cook with instead of broth or water) and soaked oatmeal (overnight, obviously). The kiddos are actually gobbling this stuff up!

So when I created this blog I had big aspirations that I would be all witty and everyone would read my blog because it was so amusing and maybe, just maybe, a few people would feel inspired about healthy eating. Yeah, well, clearly that isn't going so well. While I think I have the ability to be fairly humorous at times, I just am too busy. So, instead, you'll have to deal with some fairly boring posts about what I ate, or gave my kids, etc. I understand if you want to de-friend me (or whatever you call blowing me off in blogger speak). Oh, and you'll have to forgive the typos and grammatical errors...I'm writing these things on the fly between tantrums and questions about why a butterfly can't fly after you touch her wings and not going back to proof. Too bad bloggers don't come equipt with spell check.

So. Here goes.

Now that I'm in school and reading all about food, I realize that I'm not nearly as healthy as I thought I was. *gasp* So I'm trying to make improvements here and there. I started by drinking more water (now I have to pee all the time...kind of annoying, btw) and signing up for an organic vegetable box delivery from local farmers. http://www.washingtonsgreengrocer.com/ I signed up once before but they sent me all kinds of "wierd" vegetables that I didn't have the time or energy to figure out what to do with. So here was my latest recipe pulled right from my text book. Gotta love that!

Beet-Carrot-Parsnip-Fennel Extravaganza

5 small beets
3 big carrots
2 parsnips
1 fennel bulb
2 T olive oil
1/2 t sea salt

scrub veggies and chop into 2 inch pieces (fennel bulb should be finely chopped). Mix veggies with oil and salt and baked covered on 425 for 30 minutes and then 15 minutes uncovered.

The 3.5 year old turned her nose up (though I did manage to convince her to try the fennel and parsnip..neither of which she liked) but the baby gobbled it all up. Of course.