One Kale of a Mac and Cheese Recipe

Generally, eating dairy and kale together isn't the best idea.  As long as you get calcium in your other meals, you'll be alright.

I am surprised I haven't written about kale before.  Since I started experimenting with kale last spring, I've grown to like it.  Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat.  One cup contains only 35 calories and 5 grams of fiber.  Protein accounts for 16% of it's calories.  It also has vitamin B6, magnesium, copper, potassium, iron, manganese, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K (important to remember for those on Coumadin).  Vitamin A, C and K are extremely important to health.  Plus, the high fiber content can help lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease.

Kale contains oxalates which block the absorption of calcium, so don't eat it with every meal. Generally spacing out your greens and dairy (eating them at different meals) is enough to prevent problems, but people with certain conditions should avoid oxalates all together. Some research has shown that people who have had oxalate kidney stones in the past should restrict dietary oxalate, but other studies have found dietary restriction does nothing to prevent stones.  Talk to your physician if you have kidney stones.

Kale can taste bitter, but it's not as bitter as some other greens (like mustard greens).  When it's cooked well, it's earthy and a little tangy.  When picking kale, pick bunches that are crisp, not wilted.  The more vibrant in color, the better.  Kale should be stored in the refrigerator.  My supermarket has bags of kale (near the bagged spinach) that I love. The bags are already trimmed and that makes it super easy to add a handful of kale to anything.  If you buy kale in bunches, you need to trim the greens from the stems.

Doesn't that look yummy?

Since I started to try to like kale, I've been tossing it in everything.  Today, I decided to make a healthy mac and cheese by tossing in a few cups.  The more times you can expose picky eaters to a vegetable in a non-threatening manner, the more likely they'll try it some other way later.  So, maybe people who think kale is ok in this will be more apt to try kale greens later.  I still don't like straight kale greens, but maybe someday I'll get there.

You could use whatever mac and cheese recipe you want, and just add the wilted kale after you make it.

Kale Mac and Cheese
3 cups of kale, chopped
2 cups of cheese (I used shredded cheddar, separate a handful)
1/2 pound of pasta (I used whole wheat twists)
1/4-1/2 cup of vegetable broth
1/3 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

The consistency of the blended sauce.

1. Cook pasta.
2. Wilt the kale with the vegetable broth. Basically, put them both in a saucepan until the kale wilts and gets a little tender. 
3. Drain the broth and set the kale aside.  Return the broth to the saucepan.
4. Add the shredded cheese to the saucepan and simmer on low until it's melted.  Add salt and pepper.  Remove from heat and add the sour cream.   
5. I had planned to leave the kale in big chunks.  When I tasted the sauce, the texture was not nice.  So, I added the entire sauce contents to my blender and blended it to make a smoother consistency with smaller chunks. 
6. Mix the sauce and the pasta together in a over proof dish.
7. If you like boxed mac and cheese, you can go ahead and eat it now.  I like baked mac and cheese.  For baked, just top the pasta with the reserved handful of cheese and cook it for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Even non-kale lovers told me they liked this dish.  You can taste the kale, but you can also taste the yummy mac and cheese.  This dish is really not a whole lot lower fat or calories than regular mac and cheese, but it has the benefits of the added kale. 

Nutrition Facts

---

Amount Per Serving (makes 6)

Calories: 322
Total fat: 15 g
Protein: 15 g
Total carbohydrate: 33 g

• Dietary Fiber: 5 g
• Sugar: 9 g

It's Pi Day, Pi Day, Gotta get down on Pi Day

Happy Pi Day.  I thought I'd share my dinner. I made a pizza pi.  It's a little brown for most people, but since it was just for me, and I prefer my cheese to be extra brown, I made it extra brown.  Just in case you want to see the raw deal, I took a photo of that too. 

When I was a kid, a friend of mine and I tried to memorize pi to as many digits as we could.  We would quiz each other often about it, but I think we only got to about 30 before that got old.  Today, I only know about 6 without looking (it's not fair to quiz myself today, because I looked up pi to a million digits earlier today).  

In the spirit of my youth, I always celebrate pi day in some way.  Last year I just sported my pi shirt.  I think I was too busy to cook.  This year, I made pizza pi and bought a slice of pi pie.  Yum!

I would have to eat quite few of these to make up the circumference or diameter of a circle.  The pizza is homemade, so at least it's somewhat healthy.  The pie was store bought because I only need one slice.  Having a whole pie around is just more reason for my circumference to grow!

It's Almost Time for Fresh Foods Again

I have to admit that the winter season is kind of depressing when writing about food (which is probably why I have been ignoring this blog).  I haven't given up, and spring is right around the corner.  I've taken a few photos of meals I've been making, but I've been mostly using frozen vegetables (the stuff you get at the store this time of year is pretty sorry) and greens.  It's just not as fun.


Another thing I've been doing is training for a marathon I just finished this weekend.  After my last one, I swore I'd never do another one.  I really do prefer half marathons.  This was the 10th anniversary of the local marathon, so I decided to try it again.  I actually did quite well and I felt great afterwards.

And I decided I want to do it again.  I've decided I have to do the Disney Marathon before I die, so I'm signing up to do it next year.  I plan to do the Goofy Challenge where you run the half marathon on Saturday and then the full marathon on Sunday.  A few years ago, I did all the Disney parks and some rides in 2 days.  This can't be much different, right?

There's not a whole lot written about training for the Goofy Challenge or eating for female, vegetarian athletes.  I'll quite possibly write about that.  The one thing that worries me is that all of the longer runs for this training will be during the busy, Christmas season.  The plus side? When I'm training, I can eat a whole lot more than normal. YES!

RIP Davy Jones

The Monkees were the first thing I really liked as a kid.  I remember watching them when they were on Nickelodeon in the late 80s and thinking, "That Davy Jones is awesome!"  I swore I would marry him someday.  However, my dreams would soon be shattered when the Monkees came to town and I saw that he was an old guy, and not the young boy with stars in his eyes.  I still have a vivid memory of him giving away a coat on Nickelodeon to a little girl who won the contest that I had been trying hard to win.  The coat was too big, and he said that he had a daughter her age and she liked big coats.  I thought, "Wow, he has a daughter my age?"  He was 66  (about twice my age) when he died today of a heart attack.


In the 90s when they did their reunion tours and conventions and the Internet was so new and so fun, I hooked up with a bunch of Monkees fan, my first Internet friends, and followed the band around the country.  From fancy LA stadiums to hole in the wall bars, I saw lots of shows.  I ended up doing a little on the web for them (it was my first foray into Web publishing, which became my real job for a long time after).  In those years (actually, just 2), I talked to Davy a lot.  He was a nice guy.  He could be demanding and had the personality of a true celebrity, but he was also a nice guy.  I often wondered what would have became of him if he hadn't been a "washed up child actor."  I was also often surprised at the effect he had on people.  Wasn't he from the 60s?  Why did people still care?  They did.

I just saw Davy in June of last year with the Threekees  (the loving name for the group of the three Monkees).  He was bouncing around the stage, looking as fit and trim as ever.  He was a bit worse for the 10 years of time between when I saw him last, but I quipped that he would be around forever.  It was the other two that looked the worst.  Shortly after I saw him, all further performances were canceled.  I was glad I made the trip, joking to my friends, "It'll probably be the last Threekees tour ever, unless Nez decides he wants to do a final tour then we'll have one show." 

I guess it will be.  RIP Davy.  You probably didn't remember me from the 90s, but I'll remember you.  I'm glad I made it to one more show.

Cauliflower Chili

This is the Food Network's photo.

I hate cauliflower.  When I got last month's Food Network Magazine, they had a great photo on the cover of a spicy vegetarian chili (here's the recipe).  I love chili.  You can make one pot of chili and have food for a week.  There's chili "burritos" with veggies and a low carb tortilla.  There's chili mac (totally unhealthy, but yum).  I sometimes make a chili and cornbread dish.  You can make frito pies (also unhealthy, but yum).  Top some veggie dogs or make a dipping sauce for pigs in a blanket.  There's no end to what you can do with chili.

I know cauliflower are good for me.  It's in the species Brassica oleracea which cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, and collard greens are also cultivers of.  How many times do we hear we need to eat more of those? Kale and broccoli are practically superstars.  It's high in fiber and it has Sulforaphane and Indole-3-carbinol which may protect against cancer.  So, I decided that covered in tons of spices, cauliflower was worth a try.  It's probably important to note that cooking, especially boiling like one would do in chili, may destroy many of the phytochemicals.

I admit, I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I used a food processor to "shred" my cauliflower.  It wasn't as delicious as the food network photo looks.  Here's my frito chili pie.

I tried to eat it plain, but the texture was a little gritty and weird.  Maybe it would work better if you grated the cauliflower.  The chunks would likely be bigger.  My family and I ate the whole batch, but it's not something I'm in a hurry to make again.

One cup of your average chili has 287 calories, 14.1 g of fat, 30.5 grams of total carbs (11.3g of fiber and 3.0 grams of sugar) and 14.6 grams of protein.  Amy's makes a decent canned vegetarian chili with 190 calories, 6 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs (7.9 fiber and 6.0 sugar) and 7.1 grams of protein per cup.  This chili has 182 calories, 5.7 grams of fat, 26.3 grams of carbs (9.1 grams of fiber and 5.3 grams of sugar) and 7.5 grams of protein.

So, the chili is slightly better for you than your average chili.  It gets good reviews on the Food Network site and to be fair, it tasted fine.  It just had a weird texture.  I normally make my vegetarian chili with morningstar farms "meat" or rice.  I think I'll take the extra calories and stick with that.  Morningstar Farms "meat" doesn't add much.  It's pretty healthy number wise, but I use it sparingly because I don't like to use Frankenfoods much, and I consider fake meat to be a kind of Frankenfood.  On the other hand, there are clearly Fritos on my plate, and there's no excuse for that.  Nobody's perfect.

Why Paula Deen Has Diabetes

The Lady's Brunch Burger (also known as a Luther)

I do have some healthy eating posts waiting to be written.  For now, I want to talk about Paula Deen.  She's trending on Twitter right now because she's announced she has diabetes.  I for one am shocked!  I mean she created such dishes as these:

Ham Fried Rice, Pineapple and Fried Egg

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Bread Pudding

Sausage Pancake Egg Sandwich

Twinkie Pie

Cheese Fudge (this fudge actually has Velveeta in it)

How can the woman that created Twinkie Pie have diabetes? Ok, seriously, the bigger shock to me is that people didn't think she already had diabetes.

I do believe her when she says that she doesn't eat this way everyday. She has always said on her shows that people should eat her dishes in moderation (and yes, I watch.  I point to that Krispy Kreme Bread pudding every time someone mentions Paula Deen).   Obviously, "moderation" isn't working.  That being said, I don't think the problem is that she literally shovels butter into her face 24/7 and is literally always chomping down on sugar coated pancakes topped in fried eggs.  I think the problem, as it is with most of us, is those sinister sneaky calories that we tell ourselves don't count or don't even think about.

I know it's hard for southerners, like myself, to eat healthy foods even when we try.  My mom is vegetarian and she has never eaten large portion sizes, but she still has coronary artery disease.  It's because we eat bread with every meal here.  We like our sweet tea, and we like our desserts with every meal.  We add a few extra dashes of oil here and there. Even individual portion sizes add up, especially as we age.  We loose some of our basal metabolic rate every year.  As we continue to eat the same (and often move less), those extra 200 calories a day add up (and some southern women drink way more than 200 calories of sweet tea every day).

The dirty little secret about moderation is that most of us, apparently Deen included, don't understand what moderation is.  Moderation isn't having fried chicken once a week, having dessert with just one meal or having Krispy Kreme bread pudding, well, ever.  Those once a weeks add up.  They don't add much if they are just 100 or 200 calories above what you normally eat, but I know most people's "only in moderation" meals are more like 1000 or 2000 calories above what they normally eat.  Eating out one meal a week can easily add 1000-2000 calories to your weekly calorie intake.   I've heard dietitians say just 100 extra calories a day will add 10 lbs of weight to most people in one year.  So, 1000 calories a week?  You're looking at bad news, and most of us who get diabetes won't be sponsored by Novo Nordisk.

Computer Viruses and Real Viruses Spread by Chocolate

My computer hard drive crashed last week. I was going to write about some home made Christmas gifts I've made in the past and what I'm planning on doing this year, but I have been so busy messing with my computer that I never got around to writing about it.  I did get all my Christmas gifts done since I haven't had to mess with email or blogging, so I'll post some photos as soon as my new hard drive comes in.

For my "professional blog," I recently wrote about restaurants in my area that are serving on Thanksgiving day.  It's a popular topic because a lot of people don't want to cook for the holidays.  I wandered upon Golden Corral's buffet and they are bragging about having a "Chocolate Wonderfall" (which is a chocolate fountain).  According to a friend, they've been advertising the heck out of it on TV too.  I've never seen the ad, but I believe him.

Am I the only one disgusted by this?

I have a chocolate fountain. I've used it at a few parties and brought it a dessert function once with some friends at school. I'm not really against chocolate fountains and they can actually be quite healthful.  A serving of chocolate covered fruit is better for you than a big old piece of chocolate cake or a cream puff. 

I have been to a Golden Corral once.  I'm not really a fan of buffets.  For one thing, I don't eat that much and I don't eat meat, so I never eat my "money's worth."  The more disgusting issue with buffet service is that I always think of who went to pee and didn't wash their hands before serving themselves,  or who just picked their nose.  I'm constantly scanning for someone putting out fresh food or a station that isn't self-serve.  Most of the time, hands don't touch the actual food.  That's good.   I just bring hand sanitizer and wash  my hands after touching the utensils. 

I know I'm paranoid, but virus shedding kids (admit it, kids are viral vectors this time of year) and their probably equally sick parents serving themselves is bad enough.  I can't imagine what kind of viral load that chocolate fountain has at the end of the night (hopefully they clean it everyday).  I can see kids taking a bite and dipping their berry in again, even though it says you're not supposed to.  Maybe licking their finger multiple times and putting it back in.  Worse case: putting their mouth under it.  Kids don't know any better, but yuck.

I've never seen the actual fountain, so maybe it's back far enough so kids can't get to it and you'd have to scoop out a bowl for your kids.  It looks like you'd have to dip it with a long skewer, so maybe you couldn't put your head under it or lick your finger and put it under the flow.  I don't see how they could prevent double dipping.    The thought of it doesn't make me want to visit Golden Corral...ever.  It actually made me gag just thinking about it.

Sharing viruses.   What a lovely way to spend a lovely holiday in the middle of cold and flu season.