Massaged Kale Salad

I knew that Kale was a superfood, but until now I had only made kale chips with the green leaf. Like it's cousins, broccoli and cauliflower, kale is a descendant of the wild cabbage and is a nutritional powerhouse that deserves to be on every Top Ten list.


My good friend Paulina (a health food junkie with an affinity to processed cheese) introduced me to this delicious massaged kale salad soon after I gave birth to Harper. Knowing the health benefits I thought I would "choke down" the salad she provided. After all, I would do anything for my Harper. Well surprise surprise, this is so yummy. An even bigger surprise was how simple it is to make. Calling this a "recipe" is a little of an overstatement. This post has everything going for it. Yummy, Easy, Fast, Healthy, Filling, Few Ingredients. I call that WINNING!

Fettuccine with Brussels Hash and Pine Nuts

Even though I love brussels sprouts, I honestly was not excited about this recipe. I was super hungry this afternoon and didn't think such a simple recipe would be filling and satisfying. I found the recipe on a Healthy Dinner Recipe list on Epicurious and tweaked it a little as I went. The flavor profile is genius I tell ya!

The natural nuttiness of Brussels sprouts is greatly enhanced by the addition of pine nuts, and sauteing the sprouts deepens that flavor. Tossing them with al dente fettuccine will make you wonder how anyone could dislike them.

Trim the bottoms off the small cabbages and peel off any outer leaves that are brown or wilted.

The next step is to slice these. If you have a cuisinart blender with a blade attachment, then send the brussels sprouts through the dice to make a cabbage hash.

Alternatively you can hand slice the brussels sprouts.

Shredding in the cuisinart will result in a finer slices, but I liked the chunkiness of slicing by hand.

I sliced one onion and set it over medium heat to caramelize with a small drizzle of olive oil. I cannot resist these, and end up munching on them while I put together the rest of dinner. I should have sliced two onions, because the sweet caramelized flavor was excellent in this dish.

This is about 1/2 a pound of fettuccine, cooked until al dente in salted boiling water.

Because we eat a lot of chicken in this house, I cooked two chicken breasts stove top.

After the chicken was cooked, I added a knob of butter to the pan and we are going to start building our flavors here.

Meanwhile, on a back burner I toasted the pine nuts - don't walk away these brown fast.

When the butter melts and begins to bubble, add the shredded brussels and let them brown for a 30 seconds to a minute before you stir.

Add minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Add caramelized onions and1/2 cup of white wine, 1/2 cup of chicken stock, turn heat to low and keep warm until the pasta is ready.

Toss with fettuccine and top with chicken breast and garnish with toasted pine nuts and a fresh zested parmesan.

{Fettuccine with Brussels Hash and Pine Nuts}

Wholesome Granola

This delicious granola recipe is courtesy of Nekisia Davis of Early Bird Foods. I saw her on the Martha Stewart Show making this Farmhand's Choice Granola.

Ingredients:
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, hulled
1 cup raw sunflower seeds, hulled
1 cup coconut chips
1 1/4 cup raw pecans, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup pure maple syrup, preferably Grade A
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
Coarse salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Place oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, pecans, syrup, olive oil, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl and mix until well combined.

Spread granola mixture in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet.

Transfer to oven and bake, stirring every 10 minutes, until granola is toasted, about 45 minutes.

Remove granola from oven and season with salt.

Let cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container for up to one month.

This is delicious when generously spooned over Greek yogurt.

Look what walked into the kitchen?!?!

Cole is one hot mess! He got into a bag of FLOUR and it is now caked all over his face.

What a stinker.

The Great Party Sandwich Experiment

These petite party size sandwiches were the perfect addition to my Christmas party buffet. I found this recipe for Hot Roast Beef Party Sandwiches in the 08 December issue of Southern Living magazine. What appealed to me most was that these three-bite sandwiches could be prepared ahead of time and put in the freezer.

The combination of roast beef, creamy mustard, havarti and toasted walnuts sent me over the moon. But I got to thinking about other great sandwich combinations and I discovered recently that Jim absolutely went coo-coo for leftover turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and a little mayo. This gave me a great idea! The weekend before the party, I experimented with three different sandwich combinations and Jim was lucky enough to be my taste tester. We chose our two favorite to serve at our Christmas Cocktail party.

Here are the ingredients I used in the “Great Party Sandwich Experiment!”

I used packages of King’s Hawaiian rolls in savory butter flavor. If you haven’t tried Hawaiian bread, oh lordy you are missing out!

#1 Roast Beef Sandwich
I purchased the Cajun roast beef for a little extra sumthin’ from the deli counter.
Mustard-mayonnaise blend
Sliced havarti cheese from the deli counter
Walnuts

#2 Ham and Cheese Sandwich
I was ecstatic to find a pre-cooked honey baked ham at my grocery store.
Sliced horseradish flavored cheddar cheese from the deli counter
Honey mustard

#3 Turkey and Cranberry Sandwich
Deli meat would work fine here, but I found a hunk of fully cooked smoked turkey breast.
Cream cheese
Cranberry sauce

I started by using a serrated bread knife and slicing the twelve dinner rolls in half.

Don’t separate the rolls, it’s easier if you leave them intact and just slice horizontally so you have a top and a bottom.

Next I measured a small handful of walnuts and chopped them finely.

In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, toast the walnuts while stirring often for about five minutes. They become super fragrant, but watch closely because you walk away to grab a beer and they burn. This picture is my second batch.

My first layer on the bottom half is a cream Dijon mustard on the first row – this will be my roast beef row. And I spread a sweet honey mustard on the second row – this will be my honey baked ham row.

The third row of sandwiches is going to be the turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich. Instead of using mayo, I’m pinching and smearing cream cheese as the first layer to these sandwiches.

Now I sprinkle toasted and chopped walnuts on top of the Dijon mustard. I was skeptical, but the crunch and nuttiness of the walnuts went SO incredibly well with the roast beef and havarti. Just wait!

The next layer is meat. You could chop the meat up and pile it high, slice and fold over individual sandwiches or do what I did and simply cover the entire area.

The first row is my Cajun roast beef. Second row is honey baked ham trimmed to fit in its row.

Now that I know I can buy this fully cooked hunk of boneless smoked turkey breast all year around I will treat Jim to his favorite turkey and cranberry sandwich more often. For these sandwiches I sliced the turkey pretty thick, about a half inch to inch thick!

The next layer is the cheese. Oh how I do love cheese! I used deli sliced havarti cheese over the roast beef.

For the honey baked ham sandwich I layered some horseradish flavored cheddar cheese on top.

No need to make it look pretty folks, just layer it on. See how nice and thick the turkey layer is? I’m not going to top it with cheese… I’m topping it with cranberry sauce!

This cranberry sauce was pre-made by my grocery store with real cranberries, but I really think a can of that jelly cranberry sauce would slice nicely on these sandwiches.

I gave the bottoms a little sprinkle of salt and pepper on top of the cheese. And to the top loaf I added more of the coordinating condiment. Roast beef = creamy Dijon, Ham = honey mustard, Turkey = cranberry sauce.

Make the sandwich complete by flipping the top on to the bottom.

Wrap it in foil so the rolls won’t get toasty or hard in the oven.

Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Ohhhhh Yeah! When they come out of the oven the cheese is melty and the rolls hot. I used a pizza cutter to slice these up fresh from the oven.

And this is our beverage of choice this evening. Holiday cheer from Shiner, Texas.

The roast beef and havarti was my absolute favorite. These are a perfect three bite sandwich and super easy to assemble.

If you are a fan of ham, then this was a nice combination too.

Jim’s absolute favorite was the turkey with cream cheese and cranberry sauce. The tartness of the cranberry and the creaminess of the cream cheese worked really well together.

For the party I served the Hot Roast Beef and the Turkey Cranberry Sandwiches. I pre-assembled three packages of the rolls, when it was party time I put them in the oven for thirty minutes and then turned the temperature down to 200 degrees to keep them warm as I served them a dozen at a time.