Kale & White Bean Soup

Have you tried the hot food bar at Whole Foods?  I know a lot of people love to shop at WF, but I honestly can't bring myself to buy all of my groceries there.  It is expensive.  And I am cheap.  But I really enjoy walking around and buying random things... like chocolate.  And I L.O.V.E. the hot bar.  The food is so fresh and mighty-tasty.  After I tried a bowl of Kale & White Bean Soup I immediately searched for the recipe.  It was so good!

Last Thursday I hosted our bi-weekly Vegan/Glee dinner party with Jana and DeAnna.  I was really excited to make this soup recipe because DeAnna said she hates kale.  Hello!  Kale is the new Spinach.  Get on the train.

As I started to prepare it, I got a bit nervous.  I mean, it's kale.  It's kind of a specific taste.  The girls ate it though.  And they said it was good.  That may have been because I served it in ginormous bread bowls loaves of bread.  I couldn't find bread bowls anywhere (not even Hy-Vee Callie!) and the guy at Whole Foods told me just to hollow out these loaves.  No big deal.  Don't think I didn't eat that whole bowl loaf.

Loaf of bread with a side of soup.

I don't even think she has any soup in there.

Poser.

DeAnna swears she'd eat kale like this again.  It didn't taste just like the soup at the store, but I thought it was really good!  It tasted even better as leftovers the next day.  Funny how soup does that.

Vegetarian Tuscan Kale and White Bean Soup


Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup diced yellow onion
• 4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 (32-ounce) box low-sodium vegetable broth
• 4 cups packed chopped kale
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can sliced carrots, drained, or two large carrots, peeled and sliced

Method

• In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes longer.  After this step I just tossed everything in the crock pot on low for about 6 hours.
• Add broth, kale and tomatoes (and fresh carrots, if using) and cover. Cook 5 minutes or until kale is tender.
• Add beans and canned carrots and heat thoroughly. Serve hot.

Here's Cade touching D's boob.

Mya wants a bone.

Cade takes the time to do some foam-rolling.

AND!!!  Lucky you, I have a bonus recipe today.  I racked my brain for what to serve with Kale Soup, and then ran into this recipe for parsnip fries.  I was a bit weary of parsnips, but she said this recipe would change my life.  Well, with claims like that I had to try. 

Do you even know what a parsnip is?  It looks like a white carrot.  Which means the dogs wanted some...

Give me that weird looking carrot!

Jana had lots to say about parsnips, and I take her word for it because she's the food expert.  They turned out really good!  Okay, it might be because they were drenched in nut butter, but the actual parsnip was much tastier than I'd imagined it would be.  Yea for trying new vegetables!

"I don't care what it is.  I want to eat it!"

Nut Butter Crusted Parsnip Fries

Ingredients:

• 3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into thin fry-like strips
• 3 tbsp nut butter (I used 2 tbsp cashew butter and 1 tbsp peanut butter) 
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean-up.
• Peel and cut parsnips into fry-like strips.
• In a medium size bowl, mix together the nut butters, olive oil, and salt. Take parsnips and toss in bowl with your hands until fully coated.
• Line up on baking pan and cook at 400F for 30-50 minutes until crisp.  I baked them at 425 for 45 minutes and they never got crispy.  They still tasted good though!

Well, I hope I've inspired you to try some new veggies this week.  You won't regret it! 

Happy {meatless} Monday!

 

Big Big D: Week 17.

It's taper time!  I'm maybe taking my taper a bit too seriously and barely ran at all this week.  Rest is important, right?  Here's what the week looked like:

Monday:  Rest.  Rest.  More rest.

Tuesday:  5 miles, 46:36.  And I did Jillian Michael's 6 Week 6 Pack.  I fully believe that if you did that workout for 6 weeks, you'd have a 6-pack.  I can't manage to do it more than every couple of weeks though.  She's tough. :)

Wednesday:  More resting.

Thursday:  3 miles and a yoga video.  In more interesting news, I found myself drunk in front of the computer late at night when I opened an email that warned me that Hospital Hill Half Marathon prices would be going up on April 1st.  I looked at the clock and it was 11:26.  Only 34 minutes until the price increases!!!!  I wasn't really planning on running this race, so that was a well-timed email on their part.  I woke up the next day to find a confirmation email in my inbox... oops.  I guess I'm running a half marathon in June.

Friday:  Rest rest rest.

Saturday:  And some more rest.

Sunday:  8 miles, 1:11:44.  Hello wind and heat!  This is the first training run I've done that was even remotely warm.  And the wind didn't help either.  I was dying!  This has me scared because Jaime says that Dallas is super windy.  And I'm pretty sure its warm there too.  Is it ridiculous that this is just now crossing my mind?

Total Miles = 16

We leave for Dallas on Friday!!!  I am so so so excited for the race, for the trip, for lots of fun girl-time (and time with Brian & Bret!).  The game plan from here on out is: rest, hydrate, stretch, foam roll, eat some carbs, don't get drunk and do anything stupid like break an ankle.  Yea Dallas!

Rubella Randomness

I gave up complaining for lent.  Apparently I complain a lot because when I told Drew, he was all "Thank goodness!"  But I sort of think that he just misinterprets my stories as complaints.  When I am telling him about all the drama and craziness of my day, I'm not complaining.  I'm just sharing.

Like, when I couldn't enroll in my summer online classes because the Health Center wanted my Measles Mumps & Rubella vaccination record and my online class filled up before I could get them the vaccination record from 1984 so now I have to take the on-campus class this summer and thank goodness they have that record now so they know I won't be giving anyone Rubella.  That's not complaining.  That's just me pointing out irony.  How can I give someone Rubella in an online class? 

Anyways, Jim seems to think I'm a bit of a complainer too.  I like to bring up the fact that as a child, our family took a "vacation" to Kansas City every summer and now I'm living in my favorite vacation spot.  It's like if Jana were to move to Disney World.  Or Nicky were to move to the Virgin Islands.  I'm not complaining that I never got to go to Disney World or the Virgin Islands as a kid.  I'm simply pointing out that it's funny. 

Or at least I think so. 

I may have offended Jim.

Last week when the folks came to visit, we were walking around the Plaza and Jim stopped in front of the big pig statue and asked if I wanted to have my picture taken.  I said no thanks.  I'm pretty sure we have thousands of pictures in front of that statue.  It was like a vacation staple.  We always took a picture in front of that pig. 

AND, back to the original story (and you thought I was just rambling).  I called Jim & Chris in a panic because how the hell am I supposed to know if I got a rubella vaccination????.  Chris promptly found the MMR record* from 1984 and Jim scanned and emailed it. 

As I'm opening the attachments in his email, I'm all in a huff because one of my classes has already filled and another one is on the brink.  I open the first attachment: Rubella, 1984.  I open the second attachment: Diphtheria, 1982.  I open the third attachment: Super Awesome Pig Picture, circa 1993.

McNiece Family Vacation.  Holla!

OMG.  That seriously made my day.  Seriously.  I can't even complain about those seriously big glasses or my fake Keds.  Best vacation ever**.

*Seriously, this is why I can't have kids.  My mom has vaccination records dating back to 1982.  I can't even remember to register Ari's microchip.  Imagine my kid's dismay when he calls me up, 30 years old, looking for a vaccination record and I'm all "Oh sorry sweetie, I threw those out!" 

**Please note that this photo was taken approximately 10 years after I received my Measles Mumps & Rubella vaccination.