Hubby's daily lunch

I'm so thankful to have a husband who loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  It's an easy, quick lunch to pack in the morning.  Since changing our diets to a more whole food diet, he's said goodbye to the everyday Cool Ranch Doritoes and has said hello to fruit salad.  Here's his typical lunch....  and he'll take iced green tea to drink.

Brownberry 10 grain bread, peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam

Kiwi, honeydew, cantalope, blueberry

My new juicer

I love kitchen gadgets.  All kinds.. so when I received my new juicer from my husband, for my birthday, I was ecstatic.  I'm excited to add juicing to my diet..  I've read books, watched movies and heard from friends about the great benefits juicing has on your health.  I've made several juices since I've had it but forgot to take pictures of them... but this is yesterdays breakfast.

 It is the cleaning out the refrigerator fruit medley juice

1 kiwi, 1 pear, watermelon, honeydew and 1 carrot 

  I haven't made one juice that I haven't like yet...  and I know that putting it a pretty glass helps a lot!

Wild rice with sauteed vegetables

One of my favorite meals.. I make this a lot for my family.

1 cup wild rice blend (follow instructions on package)

2 large carrots

2 celery stalks

1/2 onion

1 portabella cap

4 regular mushrooms

4 garlic cloves minced

splash of olive oil

Opt.  Salmon fillet

My go to wild rice favorite

 Dice carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic and onions. Saute in a pan with a splash of olive oil and cook until tender.

Place your rice and sauteed veggies in a large bowl and mix well.

Optional..  I grilled a salmon fillet on my grill after marinating it in soy sauce and garlic for about an hour.  Placed it on a plate and cut it up in chunks and placed some on all our plates.. it was delicious.

Frozen bananas

A friend of mine gave me this tip when I was making smoothies all the time (which I started doing again).. when your bananas are getting too ripe... 

Cut them up in chunks, place on wax paper on a plate big enough to fit into your freezer and when they freeze completely put them into a Ziplock freezer bag.  They won't stick together and you can just pull a couple out at a time and throw them into your blender when making your smoothies..

BUT.... I bet you could use them for so many other great things...   like dipping them in chocolate :) 

Baked kale

I have discovered my new favorite "great for you" snack..  I've been hearing from a dear friend how wonderful baked kale chips were and have never even seen them at the grocery store.  I was a super lucky and loved recipient of a huge bag of kale from my aunts garden.  (can you say favorite niece?:)  now, said dear friend is a bit jealous of my bounty...  but still my biggest fan...

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and simply tear the kale into bite side pieces, discarding the hard middle stem, and place on a light colored baking sheet.  (The first time I tried this I put them on my dark "seasoned" cookie sheet and drizzled olive olive oil on top and burnt it... you may better luck.)  Sprinkle with salt.

Some of the kale stalks were the size of my arm

Place in the oven for 5 minutes and take it out and make sure they're not sticking to the bottom and move them around a bit.  Put back in the oven for 5 minutes..  they should be very green and very crispy and dry.. I took off what was done and put the others back in for a minute or two. 

As you can see the taste testing of the kale chips leaves huge gaps on the cookie sheet :)

Place them on a plate and season them with whatever you like... we had them so far with nutritional yeast and with just plain salt.  Delicious!  They are melt in your mouth, crispy, and wonderful.. they even remind me of roasted pumpkin seeds.  If you've never had kale chips.. it is worth trying and a really quick and nutritious snack to whip up.