kale

Hi friends. How’s your week going thus far? Mine has been busy – traveling for a whole week makes things a bit crazy when you get back to the office!

Despite the busyness, I have some exciting eats to share with you all!

Lynn recently posted about a recipe for Curried Cauliflower Salad from M Cafe, an L.A. restaurant that serves amazing macrobiotic fare! Having loved everything I ate there back in April I knew I had to try this recipe. I hit up the grocery store for a few ingredients and made it only a few hours after seeing Lynn’s post.

For lunch (both today and yesterday) I served the cauliflower on a bed of spring mix and had 2 kashi TLC crackers and laughing cow cheese on the side.

As expected, the curried cauliflower salad was incredibly delicious. I love roasted cauliflower on it’s own but the curry spice, peas and sweet dressing made this salad a favorite after only a few bites. To prove this fact, the whole bowl is already gone. Not going to say any names, but someone’s eaten a lot of cauliflower over the past 3 days!;)

Quick side note: the roasted cashews are a tasty snack on their own- I was pleasantly surprised when I realized the recipe made more than what the salad called for.

Last night I skipped the cauliflower and went to a cooking demo at Whole Foods that was all about GREENS.

You can’t talk about greens without juicing them right?

This blend included kale, parsley, beet greens, beets, carrots and apples.

It was pungent from the parsley and kale, but the sweetness of the apples shined through. I ended up liking it more with each sip.

Jesse was the juice master!

Everything I have juice made for me it makes me want to make it more at home, but I’m usually too lazy in the morning and to be honest, I like to have all the fiber I can get in my diet.

Second on the menu was a spicy Italian style broccoli raab over polenta.

The broccoli raab was bitter, but I really liked this dish.

I think the third dish, Teriyaki bok choy and shiitake mushroom stir fry, was one of my favorites! It was super simple to prepare and included only garlic, sesame oil, green onion, and teriyaki sauce but it tasted sooo good! I’m pretty sure I need to buy myself a jar of the Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki and recreate this one at home.

Roasted beets with sautéed been greens were up next and they were fab as well. I’m a sucker for all things roasted so of course the roasted beets tasted like candy to me and it turns out the beet greens weren’t so bad either. Now I’m sad I’ve thrown them away before.

Last but not least we tired southern style collard greens that were made using smoked paprika, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper rather than meat.

Not yo’ mama’s collards.

Jesse tired his hardest to keep things healthy for this demo as Whole Foods has a new program going on called Health Starts Here. <– I’m excited about their new incentive and already have plans to write a post about it.

Because we were good participants and ate all of our greens, Jesse decided we deserved a special treat – Mochi ice cream, a Japanese treat made from mochi (pounded sticky rice) with an ice cream filling.

I’ve had plain mochi before on frozen yogurt but hadn’t tried this variety. I picked the mango to taste last night and it was definitely tasty and fun to eat. Just watch out for the powdery coating – it sticks to your lips and makes them white. Apparently there are cool flavors like red bean and green tea mochi ice cream out there. I think I need to find these!

I throughly enjoyed the cooking demo! Growing up I never really ate greens besides frozen spinach or broccoli so cooking with greens was definitely something I learned more about on my healthy eating journey. Now I’ve tried everything from spinach oats and swamp smoothies. Those types of things are fun every once in a while, but I’m definitely pumped to try out Jesse’s recipes this fall and winter while all the lovely greens are in season.

Do you like greens? What’s your favorite green and how do you like to prepare it?

Currently I think my favorite green is kale – I like making kale chips, kale with peanut sauce or even massaged kale salads! Although, I’m starting to really love swiss chard as well.

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