Kale Recipes

My kale has been doing fabulous in my garden! It doesn't mind the few freezes we've had and basically planted it and forgot about it!  What an easy vegetable!

I think it's beautiful to behold - almost like purple peacock feathers- but that doesn't mean my family equates that with good eating. 

  Here's what WebMD says about kale:

"One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K -- and sulphur-containing phytonutrients. 

"Carotenoids and flavonoids are the specific types of antioxidants associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits. Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting lutein and zeaxanthin compounds. Beyond antioxidants, the fiber content of cruciferous kale binds bile acids and helps lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease, especially when kale is cooked instead of raw." 

Reason enough to try to sneak in to our diet more often!  So I've been experimenting and found some good recipes to use with our kale.

Kale Chips

I've seen lots of recipes for this but basically...

1. Wash the leaves.  Then strip them off the stem and tear into 3 inch pieces.  

2. Place the pieces on a cookie sheet in a single layer.  Drizzle olive oil over the leaves and toss to coast lightly.  

3.  Sprinkle kosher salt or experiment with other spices.  We tried nutritional yeast which gave it a cheesy flavor my family loves! 

4.  Put the pan in an oven set at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.  Turn and then cook for 25 more minutes.

Enjoy!  These were good- not comparable to potato chips- but good.

Orecchiette with Kale, Chickpeas and Sausage

from Williams Sonoma "Cooking from the Farmer's Market"

1 lb orecchiette or shells

1 T olive oil

1 t minced garlic

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1/2 c chicken broth

2 bunches kale, stems removed and leaves cut into 1" pieces

salt and pepper, to taste

3/4  lb sausage, slice to 1/2" thick

1 1/2 c canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/4 c grated parmesan cheese

Boil pasta and cook al dente, 10-12 min.  Reserve 1 c of cooking water and drain the pasta.  While pasta is cooking in a large frying pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil.  Add garlic, red pepper and saute until fragrant, about 1 min.  Stir in broth, kale and a pinch of salt.  Raise the heat to high, cover pan and cook until kale begins to wilt, 1-2 minutes.  Continue cooking until the leaves are tender and the liquid has evaporated, 3-4 minutes more.  Stir in chickpeas and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.  Add pasta to kale and stir to combine.  Stir in 1/2 c of pasta water to moisten mixture, adding more if needed.  Transfer the pasta to a serving dish and sprinkle with cheese.

I really liked this.  Kale pairs well with sausage.  My family liked it just fine, too.  

Zuppa Toscana

1 lb ground Italian sausage

1 1/2 t crushed red pepper

1 large diced white onion

4 T bacon pieces

2 t crushed garlic

10 c water

5 cubes chicken bouillon

1 c half and half

4 large potatoes

1/4 bunch of kale (I used atleast a whole bunch & it was still great!)

Saute Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot.  Drain excess fat.  Set aside.  In the same pan, saute bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 minutes or until the onions are soft.  Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.  Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour. Add the half and half and just cook until thoroughly heated.  Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve.  

Yummmmy!

Dinner Success- Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Loin

Last night was one of the rare dinners around here where all six people (including four kids under 8 years old) where happily eating without complaints or having to be prodded or bribed.  It was a beautiful thing.  And it was so magical that I feel the need to document it so we can hopefully repeat it sometime.

I made Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Tenderloin from this recipe that I found and slightly adapted from Tasty Kitchen.  It is so good.  I don't make pork tenderloin very often.  Its one of those things that I just forget about sometimes.  I'm usually a beef or chicken kinda gal.  But when I remember that oh yeah, we like pork too, this is my go to recipe.

I served the pork with applesauce, carrots, a green salad and breadsticks.  Any sort of homemade bread almost always makes my family happy.  I used this recipe from Our Best Bites.  We all enjoyed them, but I think I might want to tweak them a little bit.  I didn't put any garlic or cheese on them and they seemed a little bit plain.  My husband said they needed more sugar.  Maybe.  Or I will just plan on always turning them into garlic breadsticks.  But they were super easy and rose beautifully.  And the kids, including my almost 11 month old gobbled them right up.

 
Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Loin
(any recipe that starts off with brown sugar has got to be good, right!?)

Rub:
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 pounds (about 2) pork tenderloins,
2 tbs. olive oil

Glaze:
3/4 c. packed dark brown sugar
1 scant tsp. dry garlic
3 good shakes cayenne pepper
1 tbs. water

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, stir together salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and cinnamon.  Coat the pork with the spice rub.

Heat oil in a cast iron pan or other oven proof skillet.  Brown the pork on all sides for a few minutes. 

Remove from heat but keep the pork in the skillet.  Mix glaze ingredients and pour half over the pork.  Bake in oven for approx. 25 minutes or until pork registers 145 on a meat thermometer.  Halfway through baking, pour more of the glaze over your pork.

Let pork rest out of the oven in the skillet 10 minutes before cutting.  The pork's temperature will continue to rise until it reaches abot 155. 

Slice on the diagonal.  Serve with applesauce and enjoy!

(I have only made this with one tenderloin and had a little extra glaze.  Not a big problem.)

Christmas Treats: Rudolph Cookies

As a Cubscout leader at church I get to come up with fun ideas for about twelve 9 year-old boys.  For the Bear achievement 9f they needed to make a dessert for their family.  I couldn't picture us making a cake or something like that without envisioning a chaotic mess so I adapted an idea from Pillsbury.  And it was a fun, yummy and easy dessert.

(Side note:  Later I laughed as I told my husband the scene in the kitchen at church when we first arrived: one scout was scouring the drawers for knives, some were trying to "skateboard" on the pushable carts for serving, another couple were pushing buttons on the microwave and a few were turning on the fan and blowing things around.  This was IMMEDIATELY as we walked in the door.  These guys are busy!)

These would be fun to make with any group of kids!

All you need for ingredients are:  Oreos (or similar cookie), almond bark, cherry sours, mini-chocolate chips and pretzels.

First, melt the almond bark according to package directions. Then dip the cookies in the melted bark until completely covered in white gooey yum.  Fish them out with a spoon and set them on a plate or wax paper.  Stick on a cherry sour for a nose, mini chips for eyes and pretzels for antlers.  (You can break the pretzels if you like.)

You may need to let them harden before eating or handling. (If you can wait that long!)

Watch out reindeers!  We're mass producing Rudolphs! 

I am linking to these parties:

Christmas Treats- Toffee

For me, it is not Christmas without homemade toffee.  My mom used to make it when I was growing up and now I make it every year.  It is really easy and oh so good! 

 

Here we are on the stove top with a whole lot of sugar and butter. 

 

 Stir, stir and stir until your thermometer reaches 300 degrees.  Pour onto a butter cookie sheet.  Let cool just a teeny bit and then sprinkle with chocolate. 

 Your chocolate will melt and then you can spread that around.  We aren't looking for perfection here because once it is completely hard and dry, you are going to smash it into little bits.

 It doesn't get much yummier than this!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Toffee

1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1/2 lb. butter
chopped or slivered nuts (I like almonds, but I usually just go the plain chocolate route.)

Put all ingredients, except nuts in saucepan.  Heat over high heat while stirring constantly.  Heat until it reaches 300 degrees.  Take off heat and pour onto lightly buttered cookie sheet.  Let harden for a few seconds.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Spread chocolate as it melts.  Sprinkle with chopped or slivered nuts if desired. 

Christmas Treats- Snowball Cookies

I LOVE making Christmas goodies to share (and to eat). This recipe is for Wedding Cookies but during the holiday I like to call them Snowball Cookies. They are so buttery and sugary and just melt in your mouth. If you are not a nut lover, don't get scared away. I'm not really a huge nut person, but I had no idea these had nuts in them for the longest time.  Just chop them really small. I used walnuts because that's what I had in my freezer.

 The dough is really sandy.  The recipe says to roll it into balls, but really its more like squishing it together.  I abandoned my cookie scoop after this picture.

 Here they are ready to bake.  Do you use stoneware pans?  They are the best.  You can tell I love mine and use it tons, huh?

I didn't get a picture while rolling them in the powdered sugar, but that's easy.  Just roll and then let them cool completely before sharing (devouring). 

The recipe I used is from the Lion House.  Good stuff.

Snowball Cookies (Wedding Cookies)

1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (or just use stoneware pans like I did).  In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar, butter and vanilla.  Add flour and mix well.  Add nuts and mix.  Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on prepared cookie sheets.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  The tops of the cookies should have slight cracks in them and the bottom edges should be just barely light golden brown.  Roll cookies in powdered sugar while very warm.  Makes 3 doz.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Pizza

Now this is my kind of pizza!!  

We are big chocolate paired with peanut butter fans around here and we tried a new recipe over the weekend that was a huge hit!  I got this recipe from a booklet of Christmas recipes that my mother-in-law gave me years ago.  Now you can find the recipe at  Betty Crocker.com.  I'll include it as well...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Pizza

Makes 16 servings

1 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 c baking cocoa

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

Peanut Butter Pizza Sauce (see below)

1/4 c Spanish peanuts

1 bag (1.63 oz) M&Ms

1 package (1.6 oz) Reeses peanut butter cups (2 candies), cut up

1/4 c semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix brown sugar, butter and egg in medium bowl with spoon.  Stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Pat dough in ungreased 12-inch pizza pan.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until edge is set.  Cool at least 30 minutes.  Make Peanut Butter Pizza Sauce.  Spread over cookie pizza.  Top with peanuts and candies.  Drizzle with melted chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Pizza Sauce

1 bag (10 oz) peanut butter chips

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Heat ingredients in 2-quart saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth.

Enjoy!!

4 Family Favorite Recipes for Leftover Turkey

Turkeys are awesome for living on a tight budget! It's one of the cheapest meats (especially if you get a free one around the holidays), it's healthy and they freeze well. Yet I don't see a whole lot of recipes out there that call for turkey. Maybe that's because you can basically substitute turkey for chicken in most recipes. Well, here are 4 of our favorites.  They are all family recipes that originally call for chicken but you can't tell the difference when you substitute turkey.

 Turkey Bundles

2-3 c leftover cooked turkey

6 T softened cream cheese

3-4 chopped green onions (including green parts)

2 T milk

3 T melted butter

2 package crescent rolls (without seams)

Combine all ingredients except crescent rolls and mix until well combined.  Open up rolls and cut into 6 squares.  Flatten out squares a bit.  Place a spoonful of turkey mixture into center of each crescent square. 

   Bring corners up to center and seal edges together to make little bundles.  Place on cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

printable recipe

 Turkey Tetrazine

2 c cooked turkey

1 8 oz package spaghetti

1/2 c chopped onion

1/2 c chopped green pepper

1/2 c chopped celery

1/4 c melted oleo (butter)

1/2 t celery salt

2 pimentos

salt and pepper

speck of cayenne

3 t flour

2 c milk (or 1 c broth and 1 c milk)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c sharp cheddar cheese, grated + more for sprinkling on top

1/2 c breadcrumbs

Boil noodles according to package.  Saute onions, pepper and celery in butter.  Slowly stir in flour and cook until thick.  Then add seasonings and cheese.  Stir until melted.  Add 2 c milk, pimentos, noodles, chopped turkey and soup.  Turn into shallow dish and cover with breadcrumbs and more cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 min.  This is good to freeze ahead also.  Don't top with breadcrumbs and cheese before freezing.

printable recipe

Turkey Stuffing Casserole 

(sorry, no picture of this one)

2 lb cooked turkey

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 small carton of sour cream

1 package stuffing mix

1 T butter

2 c water

Butter a 9X13 pan and place turkey on the bottom.  Mix soups and sour cream and pour on top of chicken.  Sprinkle stuffing mix on top of mixture.  Microwave 1 T butter and 2 c water until hot.  Pour over dressing.  Bake at 325 for 50 min to one hour.

printable recipe

Turkey Broccoli Casserole (a regular at our house)

1 c uncooked rice (I usually use brown rice but allow extra time for boiling)

2 c water

1 1/2 c cooked broccoli
1-1 1/2 c cooked chicken or turkey

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 t lemon juice

1/2 t curry powder

3/4 c grated cheddar cheese

1/2 c mayo

Boil rice in 2 c water.  Boil broccoli and drain.  Put broccoli in casserole dish.  Layer cooked chicken over broccoli.  Mix soup, mayo, lemon juice, curry powder, rice and 1/2 c cheese.  Pour over chicken.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and then top with breadcrumbs (or cracker crumbs).  Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. 

   printable recipe

What do you do with leftover turkey?

Rolls, Cranberry Relish & Turkeys

I made our own turkey dinner this past weekend and attempted rolls again. I can count on one finger how many times I've made rolls from scratch that turned out decent. Don't know what it is about me and rolls! But I tried the recipe from Our Best Bites Cookbook that you can find here on their website, and they were heavenly lightly browned clouds of perfection!

                                                     

Those Best Bites girls are my best friends in the kitchen! Everything I've made from their cookbook or website is amazing!  I think the secret (which they share in their recipe) is using whole fat milk. I didn't have any whole milk but I used 1/2 c whipping cream and 1 1/2 1% milk and look how they turned out!!

We also had my mother-in-law's cranberry relish. Growing up ours always came from a can and I have to admit, I don't think I ever even tried the stuff. My mother-in-law makes hers fresh and it's really very easy and SOOOOO GOOD!  My almost 2 year old gobbled it up and had thirds and fourths and wanted more! 

Here's the recipe: 

1 bag fresh cranberries 

1 large apple 

1 c sugar 

Combine all ingredients in your food processor and chop to the consistency of your liking. 

 That's it!  So good on those delicious rolls!!!

On another note, my kids are home from school this week and those little turkeys get up so early when there's no school! But I am thankful to have them home this week! And thankful that soccer season is over, there's no cub scouts or piano lessons and I have them all to myself on our own time! 

 I'm also thankful for my washing machine and dryer that can wash that mountain of dirty clothes we've accumulated since last Monday!