Collard Greens ... not the southern version!

I belong to a local food co-op called "The Purple Dragon." We receive orders every two weeks with mostly local seasonal crops. Last Thursday the order included a good amount of collard greens. Hmm... I know these are good but what do I do with them again? I was so lucky to have my husband cook his signature chili dish for our visiting family yesterday ... and not really sure the collard greens go with chili I was hesitant to make them. But the recipe is so easy and honestly they were so good (even though I was talking too much and thought I burned the onions!) it was a nice side dish.
Collard greens are a nutritional "goldmine." These greens actually outrank broccoli, spinach, and mustard greens in nutritional value. A Cruciferous, cancer-fighting vegetable along with kale and broccoli, collard greens are low in calories, high in fiber, and rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C, calcium, and B vitamins.
Collard Greens and Carmelized Onions
3/4 pound collard greens (6 or 7 cups chopped)
3 onions, sliced into thin crescents
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt to taste
1. Wash collards, remove stalks and stack 4 to 5 leaves. Slice into strips, approximately 1/4 inch thick.
2. In a large skillet or cast iron pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute for 15 to 20 mins until golden and sweet. Take care not to burn. Add garlic and saute for another 2 to 3 mins until golden.
3. While the onions are cooking, bring 2 to 3 cups water to a boil in a 10-12 inch skillet with a lid. Add collards, cover, and cook over high heat for 8 to 10 mins, stirring occasionally. The greens are cooked when they are tender but still bright green. Drain in a colander and set aside.
4. Add greens to onions and garlic. Season with salt to taste and cook for another 1 to 2 mins to heat through. Serve hot, drizzled with additional olive oil if you like.
Enjoy!
(Recipe courtesy of "Greens Glorious Greens!" by Johnna Albi and Catherine Walthers)

The Meal that Just Keeps Going...

I just had to write this blog tonight since I think it's a pretty good topic! When you are a busy family cooking dinner may not always happen ... well maybe it does but sometimes it's too much work to figure out who's eating home, when and what time! This creates some serious stress on the Momma! Don't get me wrong, we all get it done somehow but over time this gets exhausting. Wouldn't you rather not have stress around the dinner menu??
If you are a family that enjoys chicken then this is the blog for you. I love this whole chicken idea because it is:
1) Easy
2) Cost efficient
3) Delicious
4) It can be cooked once and eaten numerous times!
(Mine is currently at 14 meals and there are still leftovers)
5) Healthy ... the optimal building blocks for your family and YOU!
6) So quick to throw together!
7) Easy to clean up :)
Just so you can keep track for your budget I bought an organic whole chicken for $13.50 (4.6 pounds). Now that may seem like an expensive chicken but here's how it works out: You end up getting that bird for under $3 a pound and it's organic ... you can't find that in any other organic cuts of meat. I have served a variety of it 14 times and I just froze the leftovers! That's $0.96 per meal! Can you believe it? And that chicken has not been injected with hormones, fed antibiotics, and has led a life outside a factory.
Ok you can make this a few ways but I have pulled out the crock pot again for the recipe. There is nothing like walking in the door and having this smell greet you - instant gratitude for planning ahead!
Here you go:
Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot
Ingredients:
4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 1/2 to 4 1/2 pound roasting chicken
1 cup chopped onion
4-5 carrots chopped in halves or thirds
4 celery stalks cut in thirds
2 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
1 lemon quartered
directions:
Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.
Remove chicken from packaging. Remove the pouch with organs. Rinse and pat dry.
Rub the outside of chicken with garlic. Put the garlic inside as well. Rub the dry rub all over the chicken and inside. Add the quartered lemon inside.
Place the carrots, onions and celery in the crock pot. Put the chicken over the veggies and turn on low from 6 to 8 hours depending on the size of the chicken. Cook until the leg measures 160 degreesF.
Remove chicken from crock pot and place in a glass 9x13 baking dish. Put under the broiler for about 4-5 mins to crisp up the skin. Allow the sit after removing before slicing.
If you like a thicker gravy you can remove a cup of the cooking juices and add 1 T of corn starch. Mix well and add back to the sauce for a few mins to thicken.
Enjoy this meal with a nice green salad, a sweet potato, baked potato - whatever suits you that day.
FYI: We ate this for 2 nights as the above dinner then I turned the leftover chicken and remaining cooking juices into a fantastic easy chicken noodle soup! I sauteed another onion, a few carrots (was out of celery but still had celery in the juices), added the cooking juices, stirred well, added 2 boxes of organic chicken broth (BJ's has a great deal on this) and let it cook for an hour. It had all the flavors of the roast plus the comfort food of chicken soup which is so good right now in the beginning of the cold/flu season. More on that another time ...


There are so many meals like the above one that will help the busy moms and dads out there! My mantra is: "Cook once, Eat Three Times." It saves time, money, effort. This especially comes in handy this time of year where it is getting to be Holiday season. It's perfect for those families with athletes in their house who have practices, games or meets that take hours ... and I think they appreciate it more than eating frozen pizza after practice.

be well,
krista

Arm hurts but it's done!!! :)

Since this is the blog where I started my brain tumor journey, just happy to say the dreaded yearly brain mri scan with/without contrast is done! I really don't enjoy it but it has to get done and now I'm just so relieved. Not that I have even heard from my doctor as I am waiting to get an appointment but the whole process of the MRI has so many crummy memories that it just makes me nuts~!

However here is one tool I use when I am in need of it ... actually I use it every day but today I made a specific 11/7 list to get me there with a clear head.

I am in love with the website: http://www.cozi.com/family-calendar.htm
It has an app for you as well so your whole family can link up and see what's on the agenda for the day, week, month, year; what you need from your grocery list; each person's to do list and even some journal settings along with other posts that might help you organize family life. And I am a list freak! I love to cross off things! So every day I pull it up on my laptop, phone or ipad and check things off! If I can't remember what my husband asked for from the grocery store I bring up the list as he added it to it from his phone. And one of the best tricks I've learned was to put the meal of the day on it ... actual meal planning is done weeks at a time. Yes, those that know me know that I like to wing it most of the time but I have found that this is so important to keeping sanity in my kitchen, the grocery store and that time of the day you start to worry about ... WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

What a relief! Check it out!

Happy Monday! Sunshine out there and a beautiful sky! Here is a new tool I found for the kitchen and those meals that get boring. Pier One has many kinds of "tasting party"sets. I bought this with the intention to grab my kids' attention with it's colorful little compartments that are quite tiny and three little "shot glasses" (not really but about the size of one). I've used it in the morning with fruit so they can pick at it while waiting for what they really want ... at least they can get in their fiber and nutrients early in the meal. In this picture there is one cup of orange juice (smaller than her usual size), one cup of kefir (my picky eater actually loves it and being that she's on anti-biotics at the moment I've stocked up), and I juiced a big glass of beet, carrot and apple for myself and wanted to have them at least taste it ... success! I've also used it for building our own salads. I fill the compartments with whatever I have ... cut up carrots, cucumbers, edamame, fruit, seeds, and whatever else I think they'll add to a plain green salad. So far, so good. This way they are putting on what they like and it's their own creation.

Just my latest find that I thought I'd share!!
Enjoy :)

Well those are some serious words for us! What's wrong with being comfortable? Nothing if you ask me! I love being comfortable ... when things are aligned and everyone is happy! Don't you?

Especially the last few days here in the Northeast. Yes, the freaky winter storm before Halloween. We've been out of power, out of school (2 days here in Pompton Plains and from what I've heard a few more to come), out of patience! As glad as I am that our power came back last night, there are a few positives that came out of the storm. One being the realization of how lucky we are as a people as far as conveniences go. All I kept thinking of was Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie! They had no grocery stores, they had no tv, internet, refrigerator, and of course no lights to even see what happened after sun down except for lanterns. Ah but life was simpler. Not as much was expected to be accomplished in a 24 hour time frame ... maybe it was harder physical work but once it was done, it was done. Now I am rambling (yes, I am short on sleep this week with texts going off in the middle of the night, kids coming in because they're wigged out by the power outage, my husband checking on the generator's gas level, etc) but my thoughts on this card that I found above were simple:
Sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone for real growth to happen. Huh? Why would I want to do that? Because sometimes you have to "get off that train," and try something new. How would you ever know how good that soup was unless you tried it? How bout that photography class? Or even a belly dancing class?

Take that first step and jump! The sky's the limit!

As far as my patience? Well, my daughter is learning how to cook meals for herself this week as I've been working on some projects. That is AWESOME in my opinion! I was never comfortable letting her near a gas stovetop! But she is starting to learn and that makes me proud! If we're off from school tomorrow we are going food shopping together and it might actually be fun with some help!

Wishing you much warmth!
Krista

Chicken With Apples Dinner Recipe

Hey all you busy cooks ... hope you all had a nice dinner tonight! I've been thinking of blogging about the subject of crockpotting (is that really a word?). I never thought of a crock pot as a real cooking tool in my life till this year. Whenever I heard the word "crockpot" I thought of all those recipes that would come off a can of condensed soup or casseroles that reminded me of the 1970's and The Brady Bunch! Not very hip for the modern tastes of today but boy was I wrong! I thought it was good to keep meals warm when family members are coming and going at different hours but I have found that not to be it's only use these days.

No more heavy casseroles or unhealthy, salty meals that are just not good for ya! Here is just one recipe that I made tonight as my sister test drove it last week. It smells sooo good when you walk in the house and I have to say it totally passed the test with the kids as well! Oh yeah! Prep time is very small and the clean up is just about nothing as we only have to clean the crockpot!

Crockpot Chicken and Apples
Ingredients:
1 cup apple cider
2 T. apple cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 T. curry powder
2 T. butter
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 boneless chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
3 Granny Smith apples, cored and thickly sliced
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 T. cornstarch

In a small bowl, combine apple cider, vinegar, nutmeg and curry powder.
In a small microwave-safe bowl combine butter, onions and garlic. Microwave on high for 1-2 mins. until onion is softened. Place mixture in bottom of 3-4 quart (or larger) slow cooker.
Dip each chicken breast into the juice mixture to coat and place in crockpot over onions. Pour any remaining juice mixture over the chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours until chicken is almost cooked. Add apples and cook 40-50 minutes longer on low until apples are tender and chicken is thoroughly cooked.
Mix together broth and cornstarch in a small bowl and stir into the liquid in the crockpot. Cover and cook on high heat stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened and bubbly, 10-15 minutes. Serve with some hot cooked brown rice and a green salad.

Seriously, if you don't have a good crockpot think about investing in one today! For busy families it is a fantastic tool to have! More recipes to come!

Have a great night!!
Krista

Being Brave

"You're braver than you believe,
and stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think."

~Christopher Robin to Pooh

How many times do we tell our kids not to be scared to try something? To go ahead and speak up if they know the answer in class? Or to try a new activity like theater if they think it would be a good thing? Or believe they can do anything they set their mind to? I think most of us do it all the time ... but do we ever tell ourselves the same thing? Some days are not easy ... but what is great is when it's happening, when you are present with it ... you really can grow from it. All things happen for a reason and for that we need to take that opportunity and grow. Just like we tell our kids.

Whatever challenges are thrown our way.

This picture was taken on a local trail in our town a few months after my surgery. I was told by one of my healing therapists to get outside and walk a path alone. No dog, no kids. Now this sounds like a treat right? But my inner fears of something happening ... you know the bear who pops out of the woods, the stranger who looks scary or even some other little creature you'd rather not run into? Ya know what? I did it anyway. And it was a sweet success for me who was still running into trees, people and anything else over there. I took the fear and turned it into a nice feeling of completion and strength!

One more favorite:
"The best way to deal with fear is to feel it, name it, and do what needs doing in spite of it."
~Dr. Joan Borysenko