Cauliflower, Sweet Potato and Kale Curry

After coming home from a much needed break over the weekend, I fell into a cooking slump. Eating out and worrying only about my own stomach left me unconcerned. However, when I returned home and all of sudden I have 3 baby birds with mouths wide open waiting to be fed ALL THE TIME my brain went into shut down mode. My friend, Susan, posted a vegetarian curry recipe and thought AHA! She saved the day...or shall I say dinner. I had no meat thawed out for dinner so it worked perfect. I poked around in the fridge and the pantry and came up with this very delicous curry. It is almost vegetarian-and I say almost because the only product in it that wasn't was the homemade chicken stock I keep in my fridge. You can substitute vegetable broth for that.

4 cups homemade chicken stock

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 medium sweet potato chopped

1 whole cauliflower cut into bite size pieces

4 kale leaves chopped

3 tsps curry powder

1 can coconut milk

1 can of chickpeas

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup golden raisins for garnishing

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut for garnishing

First add a little coconut oil and the chopped onion to your large fry pan. Saute the onion until it begins to soften. Add 4 cups of stock and rest of chopped veggies. (Not the kale!) When they begin to soften add your curry powder and salt. When completely cooked through and soft add the can of coconut milk, kale and chickpeas; reduce heat. It will only take a couple of minutes for the kale to wilt slightly. Serve over brown rice and garnish with golden raisins and coconut. Enjoy!

Kale and Beet Salad

Kale and Beets and Goat Cheese..oh my!

I happened upon this scrumpcious salad simply by accident. I recently bought beets at the grocery store the other day and knew I wanted to do "something" with them, but wasn't sure as to what. I decided that I would roast them with the skins on with a few cloves of garlic. So that is what I did. I put my beets in some tin foil, drizzled them with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour. When they were done, I let them cool slightly, slipped the skins off and chopped them up. They smelled wonderful. Then it occured to me to put them on my salad. We recently got some Dino Kale (delicous and nutricious) so I cut that up, added some romaine, put on my beets, found some goat cheese, chopped walnuts and drizzled my own homemade dressing. It was soooo good. Now-might I mention that eating clean does not really endorse dairy. We do dairy very minimally. It has to be fresh and raw if at all possible. And cheeses like goat cheese MUST have a short, short, short ingredient list. Many cheeses will have added ingredients like Natamycin which is a mold inhibitor to sustain shelf life. Remember if food goes BAD on you, then it is GOOD for you. I don't want things added to it to keep it from getting bad. I want it in its' purest form. Anyway, enough ranting about that. Here is the recipe for the salad if you are brave enough to eat beets:

3 leaves Dino Kale chopped (Stems removed)
3 leaves Romaine lettuce chopped
3 beets roasted (only 1 beet per salad)
2 oz. goat cheese crumbled
1 Tbs. walnuts chopped

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4-1/2 cup of olive oil
1 tbs. liquid aminos
1 tbs. agave or honey
1 inch peeled and chopped ginger
Mix well and pour. I keep mine in a mason jar in the fridge until gone.

Homemade Pumpkin Spiced Granola

My husband was going to be leaving for a Broomball Tournament in the Cities and I wanted to make something healthy that he could eat for breakfast that would keep him energized and his blood sugars stable-ALL DAY! He was going to be playing 3 games for sure in one day and we knew that -that much exercise to a type 1 diabetic can be hard on his blood sugar. Rewind a couple of weeks ago- he played in the Nisswa Jubilee and that morning for breakfast I made him a bowl of our homemade yogurt (http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html) made from raw whole milk. LOADED with protein and B vitamins. To that we added chia seeds, granola and hemp seed. Also, lots of protein and healthy carbohydrates. He said he played well that day and never felt hungry or like he was getting low. So, since he was going out of town I wanted to make something he could take with him. Hence-more yogurt and granola. We made this granola from scratch and it was absolutely delicious. Thought I would share it with you:

4 cups of old fashioned rolled GF oats

2 cups shredded coconut

2 cups sliced almonds

3/4 cup coconut oil (melted)

1/2 cup good honey

1 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit. (I used dates, apricots)

1 cup of chopped dried cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup sucanut

1 Tbs. cinnamon

1 Tbs. pumpkin pie spice

Toss the oats, coconut, almonds, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and walnuts together in large bowl. Whisk together the oil and honey-pour over the oat mixture. Mix well. Pour onto large cookie sheet ( I needed 2 cookie sheets). Bake at 350 degrees for 20-40 min stirring occasionally. Granola should be golden brown when done. Take out to cool while still continuing to stir on occasion. Granola will crisp up as it cools. THEN add the remaining ingredients. Dried fruit, cranberries and chia seeds. Mix well and store in an air tight container.