Solar Pepper Quinoa with Steamed Kale

Hot weather continues - perfect for a solar cooked dinner!  A present some years ago, my solar cooker still does a fine job.

I put the quinoa, liquid and accompaniments into an orange pepper. I placed the pepper in a small pyrex dish to keep it stable. And this dish was placed in the black kettle that I use with the solar cooker. I also included in the cooker a salmon fillet.

Put the cooker in the sunshine at 1pm. Brought it in at 4:30 pm. 

Mix in a bowl

1/2 cup Quinoa
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 Tbsp, ginger, raw and minced
1 clementine orange, peeled and sectioned
1 Cup water
1.5 Tbsp white wine (finishing off the little bottle)
1 Tbsp lime juice

Assemble

Cut the top and inside seeds from an orange pepper.
Place about 1/2 of the mixture in the prepared pepper.
Place in the solar cooker.
Cook for 2.5 hours.

Serve

Steam 1+ cup of kale for 2 minutes or less.
Place on plate
Put the stuffed pepper on the kale.
Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
Eat some kale with every bite!

Rated a 4.71 on the Kale Scale.

Smoothie for a Hot Day

Hot today. Felt like 90+. Doldrums, no wind. Great day for a smoothie! Delicious!

Put in Vitamix and blend

1 cup	MILK, NONFAT (SKIM)
2 tbsp	hemp protein powder, Bob's Red Mill
1 fruit	ORANGE
3/4 cup	GRAPES
30	BLUEBERRIES
2/3	CARROT
4 medium	STRAWBERRIES
2 oz	YOGURT, VANILLA, NONFAT, Dannon
1/4 tsp	CINNAMON, GROUND
1/2 tsp	NUTMEG, GROUND
10	Tomato, grape

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Scramble Simple

Late dinner, wanted something simple. This worked and tasted good!

Saute
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 C onion, chopped

Add and continue sauté, stir up and go for a minute or two
1 C kale, finely chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ras el hanout
1/8 tsp cinnamon
5 leaves fresh basil - from my garden!
1 tsp fresh thyme - ditto!

Add, cover, lower heat, wilt
2 Tbsp white wine

Add and cook uncovered
1 egg beaten with 1 egg white
another 1/2 tsp black pepper

Serve with
2 Tbsp grated parmesan


Rated a 4.67 on the Kale Scale.

Fruit Spiced Sauce on Kale

Making a side dish to go with a salmon fillet. Started with the tomatoes and olives, then pulled out an apricot that has been too tart to eat outright. And this just evolved from that start.

Saute
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, slice fine

Add and continue
10 grape tomatoes, halved
5 green olives, halved (castle vetrano)
1 apricot, raw, cut up

Add, mix it up, lower heat and simmer for a few minutes
1 oz Pomegranate juice (100% POM brand)
1 oz sherry
1 oz soy milk
1 tsp Gulden's brown mustard
2 Tbsp date crumbles (Bob's Red Mill)
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp ras el hanout

Steam on the dinner plate (use a steam cover)
1+ cup kale, ripped up to bite size pieces

Top the kale with the fruit spiced sauce and enjoy!

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale

Spiced Apricot Kale Saute

The apricots I picked out at the store were too tart to eat out of hand. So what to do? Put in a kale sauté.

Saute
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, cut up
1/8 tsp brown mustard seed

Add and continue sauté
1/2 cup pineapple, raw, cut up
1 apricot, cut up
7 green olives, halved (castelvetrano)
1 tsp ras el hanout
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Add, cover, wilt
1 cup Kale, ripped to bitesize pieces
2.5 Tbsp white wine

Serve with just a few sesame seeds.

Rated a 4.57 on the Kale Scale.

Applesauce, Cherries and Kale... really?

Last time I tried applesauce with kale, I used a clementine and some spices - turned out pretty good. This time, it wasn't bad; and I would do this one again, with some changes. Like, not use the cherries - citrus would pair better with this. Add spice (this time I didn't use any; didn't even think about it). The cheese kind of got lost in this once it was all mixed up.

Mix together with a fork

1+ cup kale, cut up fine or mince (I used purple kale)
1 cup applesauce (I used two 4 oz servings of Seneca Natural Applesauce)
10 cherries, pitted and cut up
1 oz cheese (I used Choreherren Kase from Whole Foods)


Rated 4.23 on the Kale Scale.

Four Ingredients Salad

How much simpler can it get?  This quick salad was nicely done, very tasty!

Mix, layer, toss

1+ cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces
1 pear, cored, chopped up
1 tsp or so of dukkah
2 tbsp. Fig Balsamic Dressing

Yum!

Rated a 4.65 on the Kale Scale.

Citrus Smoothie with Hummus

Tossing things in the vitamix to make this smoothie.  It was pretty good! 

However... I have been reading Fat Chance by Dr. Robert Lustig. Finally, a book about how bad added sugar really is!  He is offering evidence for why we have an obesity pandemic.  I highly recommend the book.

He also talks about other facets of food, including the role of fiber and how soluble fiber can’t do its job without insoluble fiber being present (which gets completely destroyed in all processed or blended food, yes blended, as in a blender, as in a vitamix).  So I won't be going full blended meals; and I'll probably still have smoothies, cause it's just so easy.

Blend

1 orange
1+ cup of Kale
3/4 cup raw pineapple
2 Tbsp hummus
5 grape tomatoes
1/2 yellow pepper

Rated a 4.51 on the Kale Scale.

Saucy Kale

I had some of the sauce leftover from yesterday's Squash It entry which formed the starting point for tonight's meal. Sautéing the veggies in the sauce and then the kale - umMm good!

Saute
3 tsp coconut oil (this is solid at first)
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 tsp garlic, raw, diced

Add and continue sautéing
10 grape tomatoes, halved
4 slices of lean Canadian bacon, cup up

Steam 2 minutes
1+ cup Kale

While kale steams, add and simmer sauce made from (about 2+ Tbsp total)
- Hoisin sauce
- wine
- balsamic vinegar
- soy sauce lite

I was going to put the ham and tomato mix on the kale, but instead I added the kale to the sauté pan and mixed it all up.

Serve with parmesan cheese (about 1 Tbsp)

Rated a 4.69 on the Kale Scale.