Michele's Kale Smoothie

Are you saying to yourself, "Kale in a smoothie?! Seriously?!" I did when my friends Michele mentioned it. I assumed it had to be gross and green. Not gross, necessarily, because I do like kale, but it just didn't seem right in a fruity smoothie. I put it in the back of my brain and then remembered it when I was at the farmers' market this past weekend and saw gorgeous, full bunches of kale. I grabbed some, figuring I'd either give Michele's smoothie a try or make kale chips or some kind of soup that included kale. I texted Michele asking her to email me the recipe when she got a chance, and she ended up sending me what was probably the longest chain of text messages I've ever received! that girl must be speedy when it comes to typing on a phone! When my dinner tonight totally failed (more on that in another post), I made grilled cheese sandwiches for my kiddos and figured I'd offer up smoothies as well. I distracted them with some strawberries while I added the kale to the blender.

I should mention that Michele is an AMAZING photographer. She's taken maternity pictures of me, pictures of my kids...I've loved all of them! I tried to shadow her a bit when she did one year pics of the baby (who really isn't a baby anymore), but I ended up being too busy chasing and corraling him to really learn a whole lot. Maybe another time! If you're in the Phoenix area, definitely check out her website, Michele Stange Photography.

Michele's Kale Smoothies
Adapted from my friend Michele

1 cup almond milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup strawberries
2 large handfuls kale
1 banana, in chunks
1 cup ice
1 tsp honey

Combine ingredients in a blender, blend until ice is crushed and ingredients are combined.

*****

You can see Michele's recipe from the link above. The one she texted me was slightly different, so I kind of did a combo of the two. I couldn't remember the amount of kale, and I wanted to get it in there while my kids weren't looking (not that they're bad about veggies, but I figured they'd question the addition of a green leafy thing to their smoothie), so mine was probably more like one small handful. I think I also overdid it on the blueberries. I did less than a cup at first, but I thought it needed more fruit flavor, so I poured in what was left of a frozen bag of Trader Joe's blueberries, and I think it was too much. Not too much, per se, but I could have used less and still had a yummy smoothie. Oh well, just extra antioxidants for us I guess.

My kids LOVED THESE. I texted Michele while we were drinking them to let her know how good they were. The baby had two! The boy only had one because he wanted to make sure there was some left for later. They had no idea there was a vegetable in them which was awesome. Michele said she's used other kinds of greens, too, with good luck--both taste-wise and without her girls knowing what was hidden in them.

Kale smoothies, you will become a regular at our house!



My baby loved it!!

Baked Kale Chips

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do here! I didn't think we'd really had anything interesting (other than this past Friday and Saturday night), but when I went through the pictures on my camera and made a list of what all I needed to post there were eight things! Yowza! Guess I'd better get to typing.

I've been seeing a lot about kale chips recently. I was intrigued with the idea of them and really anxious to try them out. I saw some kale at a market last week for only $0.69/bunch, so I figured I'd get some and try it. I'd seen a recipe on the same blog on which the infamous Bacon Salted Caramel Brownie recipe, so I went back looking for that. The blog is Savour-Fare.com and she has some really yummy looking stuff posted there! Her recipe for kale chips called for sprinkling furikake over them once they were done, but I just stuck with salt and pepper.

Baked Kale Chips
Adapted from Savour-Fare.com

1 head curly kale
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 T olive oil
Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove the central vein from each leaf and tear the kale into bite sized pieces. Place kale pieces in a large bowl. Pour vinegar and olive oil over leaves, and toss the kale in the vinaigrette and spread on a baking sheet, lined with foil.

Bake until crisp, about 15 minutes. Season with salt.

*****

Like I said, I was really excited to try this, but apparently I was the only one. Neither of my kids would even try it. I take that back--I made the boy try a piece and he wanted nothing to do with it. The husband said he liked the flavor at first but not at the end of the bite, that it tasted too "vegetable-y." I however, really liked these! Talk about healthy, and I loved the crisp texture and the flavor of them. Since kale is a winter vegetable, maybe I'll have more luck feeding this to my guys when it's actually in season. If not, it's their loss!!

Kale in chopped form:


Kale in baked chip form: