parmesan and kale risotto cakes

I was struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration on the way home from working at High Five today. It was lunch time, but I was not eager to re-heat the beans and rice I'd made yesterday, as it would be the fourth straight meal of the stuff, and most of the good stuff was gone. Only the rice was left.

To the container of rice, I added lots of finely chopped kale, a few spoonfuls of finely grated parmesan, freshly cracked pepper, a little sea salt with herbs, and an egg. I fried pancakes of them in pure coconut oil till they were crispy on the outside. 

SO GOOD. They would have been even better with a little garnish of parsley and creme fraiche. 

For lunch, I ate all of leftover rice in this fashion, along with half a honeycrisp and scoop of almond butter. I juiced kale, the other half of the apple, half a lime and a few carrots. A perfect whole foods leftover lunch. 

Rice boiled in chicken broth

Four big leaves of kale

1 egg

3 tablespoons parmesan 

fresh cracked pepper

herbed sea salt

coconut oil

4 carrots

1/2 lime

1 apple

Almond butter

This could be good, I'd imagine, with corn, black beans, parsley, crushed corn chips, and just about any green....

back to black (beans)

Well, I'm officially bike-broke. I bought a beautiful, fantastic, sexy strong creature of a lefty full-suspension mountain bike. That, along with my car payments, means that I can't go to the good grocery store and eat whatever I want whenever I want anymore. Sob.

So I'd better damn get into eating cheap, but eating well. I don't have the ability to just go to the store and buy cheap packaged meals. I'm fighting a constant battle with migraines, fatigue and interstitial cystitis, and anything besides whole foods will destroy me.

So! I gotta teach myself to cook cheap and be creative, make the most of what I got in the house.

Today I made a meal based on FREE brown rice and black beans from Earthfare, the store that randomly gives away food. I cooked the rice in chicken broth, which in my opinion makes it tasty enough to eat alone.

I had leftover truffle oil and half an onion, a whole lot of garlic, frozen corn, and the drained/rinsed black beans. A tiny bit of leftover cheddar and the last of an avocado, a handful of crushed blue corn chips, and that's it. 

To drink, I'm sticking with juicing carrots which are cheap, cheaper than the kale and beats I like to juice, and I added an apple and half a lime. I'm not supposed to have lime with IC, but we'll see if I can get away with this. 

I know this is as simple as it gets, but it's a big deal for me that I didn't run out and buy kale, cilantro, avocado and pico de gailo, which is what I'd normally do for a meal like this, all in the name of health. But you can't spend what you don't have, no matter how noble the purposes. 

If I keep the house stocked with beans, brown rice, onions, olive oil, frozen corn, carrots and apples, hopefully I'll at least never go hungry....

lemony cold buster

everyone in asheville is getting sick with a cold, which is no big thing, except I have a phenomenal ability to turn a cold into a long, drawn out, all season long flu. but I have lots of things to do, primarily finding a mountain bike and bouldering, and I have to go to Milwaukee next month. So I'm fending off the cold (I already have a sore throat and stuffed up nose) with all the tools in my arsenal, primarily the juicer.

Hot green pomegranate tea with grated ginger and a quarter lemon helped me through the morning, then vitamin C packets and lots of water, and then this baby: 

Lemony Cold Blaster

Chard

Cellery

1/2 golden beet

1/2 lemon

mint

1/2 apple

It was overwhelmingly lemony and I think the mint was a lost cause, but it did taste somewhat an elixer. Now I'm off to eat three pieces of raw garlic and hope for the best. 

all in one meal

check this out. I make this soup a few times a week, and lately, it's all I've wanted to eat. Between this, the juicer, and Yonton's macrobiotic meals he shares with me, we are ridiculously happy and healthy in this house.

which means that whenever I go out, I can eat whatever I want. I love it.

Here is what's all in this soup:
onions, garlic, shallots, parsnips and celery sauteed in truffle infused olive oil
bay leaf and whatever spices are on hand
black beans, corn, chopped carrots, mushrooms, chopped chard
sometimes canned diced tomatoes, if they're on hand, mostly for flavor.

served with crushed blue cornchips, avacado and lime.

the juice is simple- celery, pineapple and carrot.

Chocolate Covered Cherry

I've never used cherries in smoothies yet because I eat so many of them raw, I just figured why bother. Pitting them is a pain. Then I remembered they sell them frozen. Game changer! This smoothie was okay, completely different in taste than anything else I'd been drinking lately because of the cacao. The flax and chia made it crunchy. Using coconut milk, adding tofu, yogurt or avocado (or marrying rich and buying a vitamix) would make it more smooth. Cherries mask the bitterness of kale pretty well. It was decent, but it needs work.

Chocolate Covered Cherry
2 cups sweet dark cherries
1 tablespoon unsweetened cacao powder
1-2 cups coconut water or coconut milk
2 cups kale
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 tablespoon chia seeds

Berry Kale

Today I made this smoothie for dinner. I spent all day doing this and this:

It was such a refreshing day that all I wanted was a simple, refreshing dinner. So I paired this with a hard boiled egg and called it good. I've learned that berries are much stronger in flavor than peaches or even mangos, so it hides the bitter dark green best.

Berry Kale
1 cup coconut water
1/2 avocado
1 handfull fresh kale
1/2 banana
1 cup frozen raspberries and strawberries
1/2 cup frozen mangoes

Today was (nearly) a vegan day, except for the egg and the cream in my coffee which I will NEVER give up. I had a smoothie for breakfast, almond butter stuffed dates while climbing, and grilled veggie burgers on the river. I'd never go all the way vegan but toying with it is fun.

A date with chard

I'm making a big move. From Seattle to Asheville, but that's not what I'm going to address here. I'm moving away from spinach in my smoothies. Spinach is so green and mild. I'm venturing into the realms of dark and bitter. Chard!

Here was my first shot at chard. I overcompensated by using lots of natural sweet stuff.

A date with Chard
2 sweet pitted dates
2 cups coconut water
2 cups frozen mango
1 tablespoon flax seed
4 leaves chard, or to taste

It was interesting. The dates didn't blend, which I figured out only when I got to the bottom of the thing. I'll cut them up next time. Other than that, it was pretty smooth! Thanks to the mango. And it really did taste like chard, but that made it seem pretty healthy, so I was cool with it.