Hidden Kale Pasta

Kale, otherwise known as nature’s super food, is one of the most nutritious (and delicious) greens you can eat. It rates a perfect score of 1,000 on Whole Foods Andi Score for nutrient dense foods. Not only is it a good source of dietary fiber, protein and iron, it’s also a great source of vitamin k, vitamin c, potassium and calcium. Vegan diets could greatly benefit from the consumption of dark leafy greens such as kale, collards, mustard greens and broccoli in order to take in an adequate amount of calcium since they don’t eat dairy products.

So what’s the problem you might ask? It’s green! I am very lucky in the sense that little E will eat most foods, especially fruits and vegetables but a lot of kids cry and scream at the sight of a green vegetable in front of them. What’s my solution? Make it into pasta! Kids love pasta, and may even welcome the fun colors on their plate! Here’s my recipe for homemade Kale pasta:

Makes one pound of pasta:

1 cup of whole wheat flour

¾ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup ground flax seed or wheat germ

3 eggs

2 cups of lightly packed kale, stems removed and roughly chopped

Bring a small amount of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Throw in the kale and cook until wilted. Drain the kale, rinse under cold water, place kale in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze all the excess liquid out. Place the kale and 3 eggs into the blender and pulse until incorporated. (There will still be tiny pieces of kale, it won’t be completely smooth) Add in the flours and flax seed and pulse until the pasta turns into a ball. If it feels sticky add a little more flour until your dough ball is smooth, but don’t over pulse!

Flatten out the dough and run through your pasta maker at the thickest setting a few times until smooth. Then gradually adjust the setting, thinner and thinner until you reach your desired thickness. Finally, cut the pasta into whichever shape you like. (I did pappardelle, but feel free to do spaghetti, angel hair or linguini. Or even more fun, keep the pasta in sheets, fill with a mixture of ricotta, egg, nutmeg, salt, pepper and parmesan and make tortellini or ravioli!)

Your fresh pasta, will cook in boiling salted water in about 3-4 minutes depending on how thick you cut your pasta. I served mine with a sauce of olive oil, oregano, red pepper flake, garlic, fresh diced tomato and basil. Enjoy!

You can also substitute the kale for spinach or Swiss chard.

Vegetarian Families

I wouldn’t say we are a vegetarian household but we are pretty conscience about how much meat and animal products we eat. More and more families are either completely eliminating or decreasing their intake of animal by-products. Things like meatless Monday and vegan Thursday are being practiced in many homes across America. Not only is adapting a vegetarian lifestyle healthier for you, it’s also ecofriendly. Raising and slaughtering animals for food uses up valuable resources and pollutes the air and water increasing our carbon foot print.

E and I eat vegetarian about five out of the seven days a week and we don’t miss the meat. The challenging part to being vegetarian is getting enough protein. Protein is made up of building blocks called amino acids. The amino acids that the body can’t produce are called essential amino acids. Essential amino acids come from the food we eat. Meat, poultry, eggs and soy all contain complete proteins which are made up of all nine essential amino acids. Incomplete proteins such as vegetables and legumes need to be eaten together in order to make them complete. Here are some examples for your family, baby or toddler:

Baby:

• Pureed lentils with barley cereal
• Hummus made with tahini
• Pureed black beans with sunflower seed butter

Parents/Toddler:

• Peanut butter on whole grain toast
• Lentil vegetable soup with barley and kale
• Black Bean and quinoa salad
• Spinach Salad with walnuts and chickpeas
• Hummus with whole wheat pita

Other vitamins that vegetarian families need to make sure they are getting enough of are B12, calcium (if your family is vegan) and iron. Foods rich in these vitamins are calcium fortified soy, almond or rice milk, fortified cereals, dark leafy greens such as kale, collards, mustard and Swiss chard, broccoli, tempeh, edamame, lentils etc.

Remember, just because you or your family is vegetarian or vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you are living a healthy lifestyle. You still need to watch out for saturated fats, bad cholesterol and foods that are calorie dense. 

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding and are vegetarian/vegan make sure you are getting enough nutrients for you and baby and that you continue to take your prenatal vitamins. Make sure you let your obgyn and pediatricians know that you plan to be vegetarian throughout your pregnancy as well as bring up your child vegetarian. That way they can ensure everyone is getting enough of what they need.

Below is one of my favorite vegetarian recipes. It is dairy and gluten free and very nutritious!

Lentil and Kale Soup

Serves 6 for a starter; Serves 4 for dinner

2 tsp. olive oil

1 cup onions, small dice

½ cup carrots, small dice

½ cup celery, small dice

¾ cup tomatoes, small dice

14 oz. green lentils, picked over*

2 quarts homemade or low sodium vegetable broth (look for gluten free versions if necessary)

4 cups of kale, chopped small

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or deep pot and add onions,celery and carrots. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and let sweat for 10 min stirring pretty constantly. Add tomatoes, lentils and vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 35-45 minutes until lentils are soft and barely falling apart. Add the kale to the soup and let simmer until wilted. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper and serve.This can also be pureed and given to baby!

To make this soup even heartier you can add diced potatoes when the tomatoes go in or serve with a whole grain baguette.

*Lentils, as well as other dried legumes should be spread out on a tray and picked over before cooking. 9 times out of 10 you’ll find little pebbles in your lentils, it’s no big deal just didn’t get picked out during the drying process.

Banana Avocado and Honey Popsicles!

It's the dead of summer, 95 degrees, sticky and just plain hot! Irritable and cranky kids in need of something to cool off. Most commercial popsicles and ice cream are loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Not to mention all those artificial dyes and flavorings. So, we decided to make our own organic, creamy and delectable treats to cool ourselves off in the summer sun.

Organic Banana Avocado and Honey Popsicles:

2 Small Organic Bananas, roughly chopped
1 Organic Hass Avocado, pitted and flesh scooped out
1 tbsp Organic Honey
1/4 cup Organic Whole Milk (Substitute, soy, rice or coconut milk depending on allergies and food tolerance)
1 tsp lemon juice

Special Equipment: Blender or food processor; popsicle molds

Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor until completely smooth. Add more milk if you feel mixture is too thick, you want it to be creamy like a smoothie or thin milkshake. Pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze for 4 hours or until completely frozen. :)

This recipe made three good size popsicles for me, but will vary depending on the size of your molds.

If you don't have popsicle molds consider using cleaned out yogurt containers or small paper cups along with popsicle or lollipop sticks to create your own recycled popsicle mold.

Healthy Wheat Animal Crackers

One afternoon, my mom brought home animal crackers for lil miss E. After E ate many of the crackers I took a look at the ingredient list. The first ingredients were white refined flour and high fructose corn syrup. I thought there has to be a healthier alternative to these beloved treats.
I decided to do some research and found a recipe for all natural wheat animal crackers. I tried the recipe, doing some of my own tweaks and first try they were a hit! I think Daddy may have eaten more than E they were so delicious. Instead of being completely made with white flour these are made with a combination of both white and wheat. There's also very little raw sugar and the addition of flax seeds for omega 3's which are great for eye and heart health.
I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did!

Healthy Wheat Animal Crackers


1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed (you can usually find this in the natural/organic section at the grocery store)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 stick of butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup of raw sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

You will need some itty bitty cookie cutters for these. You can find them at the craft store :)

Combine the first six ingredients in a large bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together with a stand or hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Lower the speed and add in the egg until combined. Add in the vanilla extract. About a 1/3 at a time add the dry mixture, waiting until it's combined before adding the next batch. Let mix until flour is just incorporated. Lightly flour a work surface and turn dough out. Roll into a ball and flatten into a 1 inch disk. Wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Work the dough a little with your hands to slightly warm it up. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to 1/8" thickness. Cut shapes out of dough with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet. Once one cookie sheet if full place it in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking. This keeps the cookie from spreading in the oven. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Bake the cookies for 7-10 minutes until the edges are just slightly browned. Let cool completely before storing for about a week in a sealed container. Though, I doubt they will last that long! :)

If you find you don't want to bake that many cookies at once you can cut the dough in half and freeze the rest for a later time. Just thaw it overnight in the fridge before rolling it out.