Chips Ahoy!

So I scored today and got a GIANT trash bag full of greens (90% kale).

Definitely an awesome dumpster-diving experience that I will talk about in more detail later.

For now the point is: I got a crap-ton of kale to use pronto. What do I do?

OK, you can give some away (4 families and 2 goats got a lot of greens), you can freeze it for soups etc (did that), you can eat it (veggie lasagna at dinner), you can juice it (kale/celeri/apple juice at lunch), or you can make, ... kale chips!

Yeah. Sounds funky or let's be honest here, it just does not sound good. It doesn't even look so hot once you're done. But it's actually flavorful, easy to make, and yummy.

This is what you need:

- 50lbs of kale (or less)

- Salt/pepper/garlic powder

- Olive oil

- Parmesan, or hot sauce, soy sauce, etc.

 

1. Strip the stems off the kale and cut the leaves up in little squares.

2. Mix together 1tbsp of olive oil, spices, and a couple of handfuls of kale in a plastic bag.

3. Place the kale on a cookie sheet (try not to layer the leaves). Bake at 350 degrees for about 6 minutes.

You can pull out the sheet and toss up the leaves halfway through so both sides get toasty.

Be careful, it cooks quickly!

Take the kale out when it is starting to turn brown on the edges. 

Voila!

Milk, milk, and milk?

Call me old-fashioned but I have never tried anything but milk with my cereal. So I thought I should at least give the other 'subsititutes' a try: I bought soy milk, almond milk, and rice milk and used my 5 year old son as a guinea pig.





He thought the setup was quite exciting. It's the (Pepsi) white liquid challenge!

 

Amond milk: "Myeah, it tastes like milk."
Milk: "this one also tastes like milk."
Soy milk: "it's like a yummy vanilla cookie."
Rice milk: "I don't like that one as much. It's kinda, I don't know like water."

 

This is about my take on all of these too:
The almond milk was good but it has a strong nutty flavor, which makes it less versatile. I think my favorite, and the sweetest, was by far the soy milk. The rice milk doesn't look quite as nice and has little floaties in it, which if you are a little kid you notice right away.

Hmm, now I need to look into recipes. I've used coconut cream/milk/water quite a lot. It seems easier to use all of these for desserts, smoothies, or with your cereal, but trickier in terms of savory dishes.

Anyone have any suggestions?


In terms of price, all were $2.49 for 1/2 gallon at Safeway, compared to $6.00 for a gallon of organic milk. Ingredients are a little tricky, it seems like cheating since all of them have added vitamins and sweetener. Whole milk has the most cars and calories, soy milk seems the healthiest...

In terms of nutrition:

 * Carragean is a seaweed extract used to help ingredients bind together.

** Inulin is a natural sweetener found in many plants.

 Soy milk is going in his cereal tomorrow

I'm gonna try the milkS in my coffee tomorrow morning, therein lies the true test...

Fashionable Fitness




OK, I bought old magazines at the library last week. 10 cents for a month-old version of "Redbook."

Wow.

I never buy magazines and I know that I am waaaaay out of the loop when it comes to celebrities, makeup, or fashion.

I am trying to think of  a way to justify posting this under my little eco-logics stick, and I guess I'll say that misinformation about food, health, diet, and exercise nowadays is insane. So I thought I would give you the highlights of what I found amazingly stupid while leafing through this thing.

How much bs can you cram in 100 pages? Well first off, you can cram about 70 pages of advertising... But first, this is what you learn when you read the articles:



And just fyi, I am quoting directly here:

Redbook poll asks:
- "What is the grossest thing you've ever done for your kid?
Answer: Giving birth in and of itself was pretty gross."
Really? Maybe if you haven't been through the 'process' you might think it's gross, but honestly, it's hard for me to imagine that women who had kids didn't all think that what they did was super-awesome.

- "Do you have a bank account that your husband does not know about?
32% said yes"
I don't even know what to say about this one...

Then, while reading through the so-called Health section:
- "The bigger your chest, the higher your risk of type 2 diabetes, note findings from part of the Nurse's Health Study, which followed 90,000 women for 20 years."
Hmm, I'm kinda thinking your cup-size does not correlate with diabetes; being overweight does.

- "If your little one is anti-broccoli, spinach, and veggies in general, it's ok to surrender and stop stressing. [the study] found that picky eaters met the same calorie and nutrient quotas as veggie-loving kids."
Oh ok, so let's just not give our kids healthy food then, I say let's not even try. Hello chicken nuggets!

- "Not all tube-watching is a waste of time, research suggests that certain programs may actually have health benefits for you and your family. [...] people who watched nature scenes felt more energetic and charitable."
You know what also makes you more energetic? Actually going outdoors.


-Butt Workout at work. "Slide your desk chair back from your desk a bit and scoot forward n the seat a few inches. Press your legs together [...] hover for 30 seconds, squeezing your butt and ab muscles for support."
This should make you popular at work. Or you know how you could get a workout? Actually working out.

So there you have it. And now I leave you with a final example of the awesome advertising for prehistoric snacks. I somehow thought these would be more of the dead-mammoth kind. Thanks for all advice Redbook.

Smart and marshmallow-snack should not be in the same sentence

YO-nanas

I get all excited when starting projects and I have a tendency to let things fizzle out. And that's what happened with this blog. It started because of I had a lot of questions about food and health. Maybe it was triggered by having kids, or being more active, or just more curious.

Our lifestyle has changed a lot in the last few years:
We've multiplied.
We've grown plant matter.
We've gotten sick.
We've gotten healthier.
We've gotten cynical.

So what triggered the blog excitement again?
1. Guilt (hi mom).
2. We started a community farm (more on that later)
3. This frigging sticker I saw today in the produce aisle.

Yonanas? I mean come on.

I'm buying a banana because I want to eat a banana.

If I wanted ice cream, I'd have bought ice cream...