A Warm Salad

These greens are topped by green, which is topped by more green.  I was craving greens today (obviously) but my arugula was lackluster.  But I did find, in my crisper, some lovely fresh brussels sprouts and half a bunch of broccoli rabe (rapini), still in excellent shape.  I quickly sauteed these in coconut oil and garlic and then topped the warm veggies with almost a whole avocado (bits of it weren't as good as the rest so I removed them) and some fresh chimichurri that I made the other day (parsley, cilantro, purple onion, garlic, vinegar, lemon, olive oil).  This was SOOOO good.  Never enough greens, people.

More Colorful Greens

You know me:  there are never enough greens.  Last night we enjoyed this lovely bowlful of baby bok choy and rainbow chard.  I think it's gorgeous in my grandmother's everyday china bowl.  This is one of a couple from this set which remain, and it's precious to me.  I have her formal china too, but I hardly ever use it.

These not-so green greens were lightly sauteed and then brightened with a few choice drops of ume vinegar.  Mmmm.

Rainbow Chard Harvest

This lovely chard is the first veggie I've harvested this season. Yesterday it was 89 degrees in the deep South, so these greens will be getting bitter any day now. I'm not opposed to that, but I'd like to try them tender and sweet first. Being a slow learner with gardening (i.e. I can't be bothered with an almanac -- for now) this is the first time I've cut the greens instead of pulling out the whole plant. It'll be fun to see what happens next. I love the way these fresh stems look -- they remind me of candy. I chopped the stems and sauteed them in coconut oil and olive oil with a couple of cloves of garlic, then added the tender greens very briefly before taking them off the heat. It was delicious. I regret there is no photo of the cooked greens. In this summer season, dinnertime seems to have devolved into a feeding frenzy/circus, with various and sundry friends, schedules and agendas. I'm at the stage in life now when "letting it be" seems much more appealing than attempting to reign in this happy chaos. Long story short, by the time I pulled out my camera, the food was mostly gone.

I've seen a massaged kale salad recipe incorporating chard. Only the shredded kale is massaged with the lemon, salt and oil, and the raw chard leaves, being more tender, are shredded and added last. If my chard plants proliferate, I'm going to give it a try. A bumper crop of dino kale is next on my chopping list.

Convalescence + Photographic Odds-n-Ends

As in any chapter in life, these weeks of convalescence have afforded a different perspective from that of life lived at full-speed. The surgery was a piece of cake, the recovery has only briefly been rough, the healing is going well, but there is no rushing this. Energy has been diverted to the business of healing, so it makes sense to just rest, to wait. I go downstairs a couple times a day, and the weather was nice enough yesterday to get a bit of fresh air. I have watched lots of bad movies and a couple of good ones. I have read a lot. I have written a lot. I have crocheted and created, researched and planned more projects for the future. I can cook a very little bit before the gravity takes its toll and I need to, once again, assume this prone posture. Obviously, my food offerings for the blog are paltry and unimaginative, but here you go:

I made a second batch of kale bisque, this time in stages because of the above mentioned gravity issue. Because I had turned off the heat for a while, the soup was only luke-warm when I returned to the business of blending it, so I was undeterred by my phobia of being scalded. This is what the bisque looks like when it's blended in a Vitamix -- much less chunky, more homogeneous. Personally, I like it either way. It's a great soup -- it tastes like health, only more decadent.

Last night was steak night, so my husband prepared a tofurky sausage for me and a baked potato. I prepared the greens: quickly sauteed onions, garlic, kale and Chinese cabbage with olive oil, earth balance and lots of fresh lemon once it was off the heat. The greens were so simple and good. I liked the tofurky with a shmear of Dijon mustard, and baked potatoes are always fab. Truthfully, by the time I sat down for dinner, I was ready for another gravity-undo, so I rushed through eating all of it.

Since there is not much fresh incoming photography during this season-o-convalescence, I decided to take another look at some of the photos I'd previously skipped over because I had plenty to choose from  in weeks prior. Some of these will remind you of others I've posted, but I had a little fun cropping and reinventing these in a more interpretive spirit.

Here's a pointy little elf hat I crocheted for my daughter a few weeks ago. I started with a pattern, but went off on a tangent as soon as I got tired of following it. I love how it turned out. I do this with recipes too, in case you hadn't noticed. I haven't much patience with reining in my creativity. I have mixed results, but it's more fun that way.

Ellie's tasting the snow here. We don't see too much of the stuff, so it was pretty special for her. Finally, here are the rest of my snowy art shots:

This last photo is of one of many historic buildings here in Alpharetta. It's obviously a ruin. I believe it was part of an old farm. It was preserved as an upscale neighborhood was built on the land around it. I like how the water droplets impart an ephemeral, dream-like quality.

Now back to healing . . .

Happy New Year!

Thank goodness collard greens and garlic are always happy waiting for me in the 'fridge for a week or so. We returned from a whirlwind trip to the Boston area only a couple of hours ago, and my good luck New Year's Day Black Eyed Peas were easy to whip up in a jiffy from what I already had on hand. After a fun-filled-toe-freezing "First Night" walk all around Boston last night, we were finally nestled all snug in our hotel beds (albeit still bone-chilled) at around 2:30 a.m. Somebody snores sometimes, so by the time the wake up call sounded at 6:30 a.m., most of us had slept for only an hour or two. Hustling to our early morning flight thus impaired was no joke, and we all are in a bit of a fog this New Year's Day 2014. Needless to say, I was not up to a grocery run, so was very happy I could make this dish so easily without getting out of the pajamas I had quickly donned upon our arrival home. The canned black eyed peas were rinsed and quickly fried in olive oil along with three smashed garlic cloves and half a bunch of collards. I added a little salt, quickly stirred it around and voila -- good luck in a bowl.

We visited three wonderful families while in the Boston area -- folks who knew us decades ago before we were hitched. Among many other attributes, Boston has amazing pubs, and we had wicked good pub food -- lots of it! Aside from cold salads, however, greens did not figure into the pub food, and even the kids missed them. This bowlful fit the bill today. This is how we do it in the South!

We had a wonderful trip, and are so grateful for dear friends, but there is no place like home!

Miso-Bean Creamed Kale

I never tire of eating kale in any form, but it's still fun to experiment with different ways to incorporate the superfood into our diets. I came up with this idea the other day and made a big pile of it, visions of leftovers dancing in my head.  But it was so good that I went back and polished it off a couple of hours after eating the first bowlful. I'm going to make another batch to share with the family tonight.

Miso Creamed Kale

1 large bunch of kale, torn from the stems into small pieces

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. Miso paste

1/4 c. filtered water

1 can cannellini or navy beans, rinsed well and drained

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, or to taste

1 tsp. tamari or to taste

Over medium-high heat, saute the onion until transluscent, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, dilute the miso in the water -- mixing with a fork until liquified, set aside. Add the beans and the tamari to the pan, stirring periodically to be sure they don't burn. The beans will fall apart a little bit, and crisp up here and there. You'll want about 1/3 of the beans to fall apart, so if you happen to have a can of firmer beans, smash a few of them with the back of a wooden spoon as they cook, for about 3 minutes. Add the kale and stir quickly, to be sure it all gets to the heat before the next step. Add the miso liquid, stir completely to deglaze any stuck food, then immediately cover the pan and take it off the burner. Let steam for about 2 minutes, off the heat. With the original burner off, put the pan back on the still-warm burner, take the lid off, add the yeast and garlic powder and stir it all together for a couple of minutes, warming everything as the sauce thickens slightly.

You don't want to cook the miso at too high a heat. That's why I take the hot pan off the burner when the steam starts. The beneficial enzymes will die if they get too hot, but it'll all still taste good. If you want the full nutritional benefit, use a couple of tablespoons of water instead of the miso to steam the kale, then add the miso later to the warm pan. The resulting sauce will be runnier of course, but will thicken upon standing.

Vegan Junk Food vs. Vegan Fast Food

"What's the difference?" you ask. Well, from my point of view, vegan junk food is food which I do not know to violate vegan principles, but which likely may. Vegan fast food, for me, is simply vegan food that is easily and quickly thrown together in less time than it takes to go through the drive-through.

Here are examples of each:

This delectible pizza was ordered at Campania, a new, Neopolitan-style restaurant in Alpharetta. This establishment boasts an authentic ceramic pizza oven all the way from Italy, "Double Zero flour", a warm, dark wood interior, and a lovely wine list, all in the incongruent location of a strip mall. "Coins and Firearms" is right upstairs and "Auto Zone" is next door. Seriously, though, the restaurant is worth a visit. The food is phenomenal and different from your average pizza joint.

This fabulous pizza, to me, is vegan junk food. The rare and coveted "Double Zero flour" is still white flour, which I try to avoid, and I have no idea what else the recipe for the dough contains. For my health, I cannot eat dairy in its basic form, but my system has not been bothered overtly by dairy that may exist in baked goods. Still, I usually try to avoid it. So the crust, as gourmet as it is here, is junk to this vegan. All the rest is fabulous, while lacking in basic grains and greens.  This lovely establishment has a very small menu with specific pizza creations. Each item on the menu is so special that I got a little nervous asking for this pizza without the meat and cheese. I could see a thought fleet across the mind of the server for a split second, but then he thought better of following through by speaking it, which I really appreciated. In the past, elsewhere, I have actually had servers try to talk me into eating meat and/or cheese, as surprising as that may be. Once, I have even had a pizza I ordered without cheese brought out with parmesan cheese all over it. When I pointed this out to the server, the response was, "No, that's not cheese, that's parmesan," (!) I had to come off my high horse a bit to gently, patiently, explain that parmesan is, indeed, cheese. Everyone else was finished by the time I received my pie.

I chose to eat this divine vegan junk food because my family and I went out to dinner together and we all wanted to try Campania, of the famous zillion degree oven (roughly) that bakes each pizza, one at a time, in 90 seconds flat! I'm glad I did -- it was delicious! I left the crust ends untouched though.

Vegan fast food is much more common for me, and it normally begins with leftovers. After my yoga class today, I was so zen that I wanted the feeling to linger, so grains and greens it was! I dipped into my already-prepared amaranth and onions from a couple of nights ago, and warmed it with baby kale leaves on top, then drizzled an artisanal olive oil on top and sprinkled it with Gomashio (sesame seeds ground together with sea salt). It took me three minutes to assemble and warm my delicious lunch. That's fast food to me. Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of my fast food lunch since I gobbled it all up without thinking.

To compensate for the missing photo of my vegan fast food, here's a bonus shot:

I harvested these Chinese longbeans in my pajamas this morning before waking Wynne. Forgive the cell-phone graininess. I get a batch-o-beans like this every couple of days or so now. They really grow quickly. These legumes could feed a village. I've pulled out my barren tomato plants already, but left the wire cages for the bean plants to enjoy.  They are entertaining to grow -- always very busy -- so it would be fun to grow these with young children. I don't really get tired of these beans. I have made them into soups and stir fries, I've grilled them in a pan with other veggies and fresh herbs, I've sauteed them with ginger and seaweed and pickled them with ume plum vinegar. It's a great crop.

Each vegan comes to the lifestyle from a different perspective. Some of us were primarily motivated by health concerns, some by compassion for our fellow earthlings, and some by a combination of both. Whatever the case, the lifestyle must be doable. To this end, I choose flexibility occasionally, in the form of a cheeseless pizza. Wholesome, whole food, fast or not, will always be my first choice since the most important thing for good health is to directly tend it most of the time. So for this girl, "vegan fast food" trumps "vegan junk food" but I'm still gonna have that pizza from time to time!

Vegan Italian!

This lusciousness may not be what most Americans would think of as Italian since Italian usually means pasta over here, but it is actually based upon authentically Italian dishes. This was sooooo good! I would even venture to say the polenta was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I'm not kidding.

The "Sage Polenta" was from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Kitchen and was an amazing vehicle for the abundant sage supply in my garden.  Seriously delectable, and the recipe makes a ton. I ate this for three days, and I am so sorry it is all gone now. A funny thing did happen to the appearance of it, however, after an overnight in the fridge. It became gray in color. The flavor remained as luscious as ever. My theory is that my sage was a very blue-green, which mixed with this pretty yellow, brought out the greige in the cornmeal. It worked for me -- after it turned, I no longer felt compelled to share it -- MINE ALL MINE!

The collards are a recipe that is tried and true for me -- Alicia Silverstone's "Sicilian Collard Greens" from The Kind Diet The flavors are unexpected and delicious -- raisins, balsamic vinegar, garlic and pine nuts, and this time, since I was serving a completely vegan meal to the family (a rare event since they grumble) I added cannelini beans to get the protein box checked. Newsflash: they loved the meal!! This was a homerun. I miss this food, and looking at it is making me hungry.

Verdant

What'd I tell you? See the opacity of green? I love living in my green cocoon! Here are some more pretty garden shots:

In addition to this woodsy greenery, I've been very excited about my ever-changing veggie garden, though its changes are less dramatic, so I'll try not to bore you, selecting only a couple of highlights:

I'd planted every last Chinese long bean I was able to wrest from the jaws of Draco Hortus, last year's fearsome garden dragon, and had not yet seen any evidence of germination, so I'd begun to despair. Then one morning I was rewarded with three of these little bean shoots! I've got my fingers crossed that the onion arsenal will prove to be a worthy dragon-deterrent.

I moved a few pots around because I was thrilled to see an early response to a handful of microgreen seeds I'd sown, so I planted more, and revised the irrigation configuration accordingly. I see daily living baby salads in my very near future!

I love feeding myself and my family with green -- visually and orally.

Yes, Another Juice . . .

I'm certain you are tired of my juices at this point, but this one is worth sharing. I was inspired by my husband this morning, who is ailing just a tad -- a bit sinusy, a bit tired and prone to chills. I was sure fresh, mostly organic juice, with its megamicronutrients, would be his best bet. The man likes my "buttery" collards-n-cabbage for dinner, but he's not crazy about muddy-looking green juices with their accompanying slight bitter edge to his sugar-addled palate. So today I didn't make a green juice at all. I made an orange juice.

It contained: three oranges, half a lemon, a one-inch knob of ginger, about 6 smallish organic carrots and two cucumbers. All fruits and veggies were peeled except the carrots and ginger. The citrus pith would've been too bitter, and the waxy, pesticide-laden skins of the unorganic cucumbers had to go. By the way, I wash those nasty skins first with soap since I don't want the peeler to transfer so much of the yuckiness to the fresh cucumber flesh within. I obviously need to find a better source for my cukes!

The man is looking better, I think. In any case, I don't think I've ever tasted anything so lovely as this juice. I am craving more of it right now. It is dessert-worthy.

Lately, without boring you with tedious details, there have been some challenges involving kids' and my own health, doctors' appointments, a car accident, talks with lawyers and insurance agents, etc. As you might imagine, time hasn't been mine to the degree that I've not been creative in the vegan part of my kitchen. I've been using a lot of vegan shortcuts to help me maintain my standards for health and fabulous food. I always try to jazz up the prepared meals with a little something to remind myself that I'm worth it. Stay tuned for a future post with some of what I've been eating in addition to my juices.

Juice!

Thank you, sweet husband! Look at my wonderful Christmas gift from my hubby. I've coveted this Breville juicer since reading Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet. It's hard to jump in with both feet to Kris' plan without the necessary equipment. This thing is so cool. The first juice we made was carrot, celery and apple. The result was shockingly delicious! The next day, with no more celery, I made apple, ginger, carrot and kale. I tried one less apple (3) than the day before (4) and it was still delicious. After two days of juicing, I am actually craving the next juice. Yes, that's right, with a refrigerator full of decadent vegan meal items from our holiday fare, what I really want more than anything else is my next juice! I'm eating the holiday leftovers too, by the way, but am surprised by the swiftness of this new craving. My 14-year-old daughter and her friends giggle over how thrilled I am with this juicer. I'm so glad I can provide entertainment for the next generation!

Today I think I will make cucumber, apple, romaine and kale. Yesterday and the day before I used the only apples I had, which were not organic but well-scrubbed (I know, that's not good enough). Yesterday I picked up some organic apples: gala and granny smith. Obviously these will be nutritionally superior. I'll let you know about any flavor difference I detect.

Here's our Christmas Dinner table -- just for the four of us this time. Our extended family lives around the Washington D.C. area, except for my brother and his family in China and my husband's brother and sisters in Florida, so it was only us this time. I prepared a turkey breast for the omnis, but the rest was vegan: Mashed potatoes with tofutti sour cream, earth balance and fresh Italian parsley, Wynne's favorite pasta salad with sundried tomatoes and chick peas in a balsamic veganaise sauce and freshly sauteed leeks, collard greens and cabbage with a splash of tamari and plenty of earth balance. I love pairing cabbage with collards. Somehow the cabbage holds the flavor of the "butter" better than the other veggies, so it is a perfect foil to the more bitter collards. This was all delicious and we have plenty of leftovers.

Now for some juice!!

Ode To Yoda (Hallelujah!)

There it is again -- That luscious, decadent, mouthwatering concoction whose appearance only a mother could love -- The Radicchio Pizza. Here I've created two small pizzas from an Eziekiel English Muffin, split, spread with a lazy tofu cream I whipped up from tofutti cream cheese and a few drops of Ume vinegar, and topped with fresh, mild radicchio marinated in truffle oil and broiled. Sublime -- I'm not kidding.

The marinated radicchio I was unable to fit upon the muffins was placed atop a pile of arugula for a fresh salad. No additional dressing was needed.

Regular readers of AMV+ may recall my disappointment earlier in the year with radicchio pizzas, which I had heretofore adored. Yes, there was the pizza I'd burned that I unwisely made from an Eziekiel tortilla (don't do that -- a tortilla has no chance under the broiler), but in early summer I just could not turn out an edible radicchio pizza. I blamed my tastebuds, surmising my system was out of whack. How disappointing it was to me -- I gave up on my most favorite food for half a year.

Now, after admiring some lovely radicchio at the market and bravely giving my prize another try, I get it. Duh -- radicchio's back in season again! I'm smart enough to know that in 90 degree temps my bitter greens in the garden become too bitter to enjoy. I don't know why I didn't make the connection with the radicchio. It truly tasted awful in the summertime. Now it's again amazing, with the bitterness only a recessive note, rounding out a more complex flavor.

You're wondering why this is an "ode to Yoda" -- well, it's because my son, Hans, calls this "Yoda food" when I make it. He says it looks exactly like what Yoda would scoop up out of his swamp to consume. I'm not offended. Any little thing I can do to entertain my progeny is a win. Incidentally, I've recently enjoyed seeing my two, ages almost-18 and 14, begin to bond over the Star Wars movies. When Wynne, my daughter, first saw Yoda, she flipped out, saying she loved him and wanted to marry him! The fact that Yoda is attractive to a 14 year old girl may be surprising to you, but you don't know my Wynne. She's also crazy about Uncle Iero (sp?) on Avatar (not the blue-people one, the animated one with Aang as protagonist). Old, wise and animatronic seems to be Wynne's thing. Fine with me.

I was tempted today to share my wonderful Thanksgiving spread, but there is so much of that on the blogosphere right now I'll give it a few more days. It's not too different from what you've seen here before, but the holiday was truly a magical, sustaining experience, thanks in large part to my AMAZING parents, about whom I cannot say enough good things. After a little while I'll share and if you see anything you like, maybe you could employ it for Christmas or your next holiday of choice.

An Abundance of Beauty

These are only a few of the lovely items I purchased at the Holiday Bazaar at the home of my wonderful friend and next-door-neighbor, Sherri. Besides being Supergirl, my friend, Sherri, is an amazingly talented jewelry designer and creator. Her pieces are unique and coveted in this part of the world, and she comes up with new collections all the time. This year, because of growing demand for her pieces, she enlisted the help of a few "elves" for her workshop (more wonderful neighbor-friends). I love to see Sherri's business grow from year to year. Check out her page on Facebook: InspiredDesigns. I cannot show you all of what I purchased from Sherri and other wonderful, creative vendors she hosted in her home for the Bazaar, since some of you may become the recipients of this bounty come Christmastime.

Besides Sherri's jewelry, several other talented ladies presented their wares, many hand-crafted. The creative energy of the place was inspiring and really was a wonderful way to get blasted into the holiday spirit, which I am normally pretty bah-humbug about this time of year.

I enjoyed meeting some new talented people and also seeing again a couple of beautiful people who are not in my usual circle. These ladies, kindred spirits, were such a joy to see, and it seemed like we easily resumed the conversation we had started last year. They asked me why I'm not posting as often here and I explained how and why I'm in more of a "mom" chapter of life to my two teenagers. Of course this topic led back to a discussion we started last year about healthy lifestyles and how crucial good nutrition is. Dawn Corner is one of these ladies. She created the beautiful painting of the owl in the photo. All of her pieces utilize similar saturated, energy-drenched colors and are mesmerizing. I love them!

This year I made the acquaintance of a lovely lady named Peggy whose husband makes amazing hummus. Peggy and I got into a discussion about nutrition also, and this one evolved into a head and neck massage for me. Chakras momentarily aligned, I happily purchased one of each of Peggy's husband's hummus varieties: plain, roasted red pepper and sundried tomato. This is some seriously good stuff! I've been eating it for breakfast on an Eziekiel english muffin -- mmmm. Peggy gave me her business card, but it has somehow left my purse -- probably as I kept taking my checkbook out. Thank goodness her contact info is on the hummus label. I will be ordering more of this.

About an hour after closing time for day one of the Bazaar, clients and artists alike meandered out of Sherri's home, giving her a few hours of rest before it all was to begin again the next day. As I walked in my front door, I realized I hadn't paid for Sherri's jewelry, "shoplifting" all of it, so to speak. I quickly sent my friend a text fessing up and told her I'd bring it all back the next day, since she couldn't remember which pieces I had chosen. Then I remembered I had done exactly the same thing last year! Sherri provides a relaxed, festive shopping experience at her Bazaar, replete with wine, food and happy people, so when I absconded with the goods I felt like I was doing nothing more than leaving a party. Good thing she knows where I live!

When I showed up again the next morning, Dawn Corner, the artist, told me she had made me a juice! She had juiced fresh spinach, celery, carrot, lemon and one or two other veggies I cannot remember. She brought it in this nice cup:

and had put it in Sherri's 'fridge just for me. The juice didn't make it to the photo. I drank it and it was amazing, light and energizing. I thought this kind gesture from someone I see only once a year was so thoughtful.

The Bazaar, and all the amazing, talented, wise personalities it drew was a balm in troubled times. Being surrounded for a little while by folks who operate congruently with their spirits, creating and sharing, restores my faith in humanity.  When I speak of an abundance of beauty, the people are as much a part of that as the art they produce. I'm grateful and inspired!

Garlicky Green Fajitas With Tangy, Creamy Tomatillo Salsa

I've missed you my bloggy buddies! I have a backlog of your wonderful blog posts to read, and of course I miss writing my own posts. All I can say is there are times in our lives when it seems necessary to put one's own life on the back burner for the benefit of a loved one, and this is one of those times. Plus, it is currently college application season and my firstborn has his sights set on twelve universities. We've already sent in one application, and I plan to complete most of the next three applications this week. My son is writing his own essays, of course, but he really doesn't have access to most of the information for the forms (past address histories and dates for in-state status, his social security number, financial info for student loans). So for the time being I am a professional college applicationist.

Food:  Forgive me for my recent lame food offerings. After college application season I will make more of an effort for proper recipes, but in the meantime I want to share with you something really, really delicious! I was making fajitas for the omnis, and had a real hankering for my garlicky collards and chick peas. So, instead of chicken, peppers and onions, my fajitas were filled with the collards. You've seen them before -- just lots of fresh garlic, 10 cloves, chopped roughly this time, and a pound of frozen organic chick peas, sauteed over medium-high heat for a few minutes, and then topped with a big pile of chopped collards, stems removed. I stirred it all up and then turned off the heat and covered the pot so the greens were not overcooked.

This collard concoction would have been wonderful on its own in a whole wheat flatbread, but I came up with a snazzy idea that made the dish sublime -- Tangy, Creamy Tomatillo Salsa. I am a lazy vegan, but I like it that way. Here is how I made my salsa: half a cup of green tomatillo salsa from a jar, half a cup of veganaise, juice from half a lime. That's it. Mmmmmm!

To Me, This is Beautiful

Not many of my non-virtual friends are vegan. As such, I know a few readers will judge this plateful to be unappealing. But they don't know what we know, vegans, do they?

Here's what I know:

Wild and brown rice is nutty, creamy and filling. It doesn't leave one feeling overfed, and it doesn't hang around the system. It leaves me feeling light and nourished. I make it in large quantities and use it many different ways over the course of a couple of days.

Kale, steamed or raw, is what I crave every hour of the day. With my unaddled (sugar-free) tastebuds, I can actually taste the iron and the vitamins. This concept may sound disgusting to a non-vegan, but the flavors of nutrients are delectable to me. Kale clears my head and calms my nerves, at least for a little while. I try to eat some before I have anything else each day. Those days are the best. I wish kale was sold in larger bunches. I'm noticing lately the supply of kale is slim, even in the better stores. I can usually only choose from two old, wilted bunches. My belief is that folks, vegans and omnivores alike, are learning the benefits of kale, and the buyers at the stores haven't yet caught on to the trend. The supply should pick up soon, I hope. Kale is a cool-weather crop.

Dahl, an Indian lentil concoction, seems like meditation. I swear I'm always feeling slightly holy and enlightened when I treat myself to this delicious dish. I associate the subtle curry flavor and texture with recharging, with becoming centered and grounded. It is easy to visualize the turmeric and other warming spices neutralizing any oxidized cells that could otherwise morph into cancers. I found a great way to enjoy dahl lazily, so I can have it more often. I buy Amy's canned lentil dahl soup, and jazz it up with more turmeric and a little filtered water. This way I can get two meals from one can, especially when I eat it along with other yummy accoutrements like this rice and kale.

I'm cognizant of the fact that most of these are acquired tastes, but I'm so happy I've acquired them! Once one understands the nutritional processes of a food, the way it makes you feel is as big a contributor to its deliciousness as the flavor. That being said, the flavors, alone, in this bowl are enough to keep it in my list of favorites. I think it's beautiful!