Kale + Chicken Sausage Strata

The wind today is out of control.  Like trash-cans-flying-around-the-street-and-fences-almost-falling-down out of control.  I made sure both of our cars were parked inside because the last time it was like this a tree fell on my brother's car, right outside my house.

The problem was, he was serving in Afghanistan and we were surfing in Costa Rica. (Who am I kidding?  He was surfing, I was floundering around, trying not to die.)  Good thing we had great neighbors who took pictures and documented the whole thing... Geico couldn't argue with that.

Today I have no fear of the wind destroying a car or a house.  I just don't think that will happen.  What I do hope will happen is some wind gust picking up my neighbors barbecue that smells oh so good and plopping it smack dab in my yard.  Tri-tip would be preferred.

But since that's highly unlikely to happen (fingers still crossed!) I guess I will be having leftovers tonight.

Not too shabby when it's this stuff, though.  Can't go wrong with kale in this house.

So now I eat, listen to the wind, and watch The Voice.  And wait for that tri-tip to fly in...

KALE AND CHICKEN SAUSAGE STRATA

Recipe inspired by Everyday Food’s Sausage and Swiss Chard Strata, April 2011

SERVES 6  •  PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 10 minutes

ingredients

• 1 packet chicken sausage, cut into cubes
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 small spring onions, finely chopped (bulb only)
• 1 bunch kale (about 1 pound), leaves torn off into 2-inch pieces and rinsed
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 day-old baguette, cut into ½-inch slices
• 2 ½ cups milk
• 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ cup shredded Asiago cheese

directions

1.      Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Add sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned. Transfer sausage to a small bowl, leaving behind as much fat as possible. Add shallots and spring onions and cook over medium until translucent, 3 minutes. Add a little water to pan and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet with wooden spoon. Add kale and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.  Add to sausage and mix together.

2.      Spread half the sausage/kale mixture in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with bread, overlapping slices slightly. Top with remaining sausage/kale mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together milk and eggs, season with salt and pepper, and pour evenly over top. Firmly press on strata to submerge bread in egg mixture. Cover dish tightly with foil and let sit 10 minutes.

3.      Bake strata 45 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until cheese melts and egg mixture is mostly absorbed and set in center, 6 to 10 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

 COST: $10.25           COST PER SERVING (6): $1.71

Nutritional Information
calories 332.9   •    total fat 18.8 g    •    fiber 1.2g    •    sugars 5.5g   •    protein 29.2g

Do You Hear the People Sing? (Roasted Acorn Squash Pasta)

In T-minus two hours I will get to do something I have been waiting for since August: see Les Miserables!  (Actually by the time this post goes up I will have seen it, but bear with me, at this moment the excitement is flowing.)

//source//

Here is something about me you might not have known about me, but I am a major musical girl.  Love love LOVE them.  I first discovered this as a teenager, roaming the streets of London with my senior class.  Piccadilly Circus offered us any musical we could want, and I made the call: Les Mis.  I had never heard of it before, yet I was scared to watch Phantom (true then, not true anymore...), so I just went with it.  My friends did not argue.  From the moment I stepped into that theater and watched this beautiful and ugly story unfold before my eyes, I was hooked.  Anna and the King, Phantom of the Opera, Grease, Miss Saigon (which I have seen both in English and in Portuguese!)... I cannot get enough.  

But none has touched me like Les Miserables.  

Maybe it is because it was my 'first love', maybe it is because both London and San Francisco did it right.  I don't know, really.  But I do know this: I have been waiting for this moment (first chance to see it on the big screen since it came out two days ago) ever since I saw the preview in Aug.  I have been counting the days. And I no longer have to say, "One day more..."

But first we dine on our roasted acorn squash pasta with kale and toasted almonds.  Vegan and full of rich vegetables, not to mention quite tasty...  (Asked in my best Chandler voice) Could tonight be any better?!

How about you -- Yay or nay for musicals? Favorites?

Roasted Acorn Squash with Kale and Almonds

Recipe from Everyday Food, Dec. 2012

Prep: 10 Min    Total Time: 40 min    Servings: 4

ingredients

• 1 acorn squash (about 1 pound), cut into 1-inch wedges, then crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
• 5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Salt and pepper
• 3/4 pound medium pasta shells
• 1 bunch curly kale, tough stems and ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss together squash, garlic, and 1 tablespoon oil and arrange in a single layer; season with salt and pepper. Bake until squash is soft and lightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes, tossing halfway through. Remove garlic from skins and toss with squash.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 1 minute less than package instructions. Add kale and cook 1 minute. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water, then drain. Return pasta and kale to pot, add squash mixture and remaining 2 tablespoons oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine, adding enough pasta water to create a light sauce that coats pasta. Serve topped with almonds.

COST: $3.53   COST PER SERVING (4): $0.89

It's KALE Day! Woot-woot! (Kale Hand Pies)

Do you know what today is?  It's Kale Day!

I know, I know.  That is a silly thing to be excited about.  Kale, Tiffany?  Really?

Yes, really.  We LOVE kale in our family.  Blame it on the Brazilian, but we love kale.

In honor of this very special day, I made some kale hand pies.  This was seriously one of the most time consuming recipes I have made recently.  And my kitchen was covered in flour afterwards.  But our taste buds and bellies were happy, so it's all good.  ALL good.

As the kale lovers we are, we have lots of great kale ideas:

Click any picture to be taken to the recipe.

White bean soup with kale and chicken sausage

Kale and cheddar biscuits

Kale quesadillas

Potato and kale pancakes

Kale and spinach green smoothies

Chicken and kale casserole

Sauteed kale with garlic

I told you we love kale ;)

Recipe adapted from Everyday Food, November 2011

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt
• 1/2 cup ice water
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 10 ounces (about 1 1/2 links) sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (I used chicken sausage)
• 1 medium onion, diced medium
• 1 tart apple, such as Granny Smith, peeled and diced medium
• 1 bunch kale (3/4 pound), tough stems and ribs removed, leaves coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup cranberries
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Egg yolk, for brushing

Directions

1. In a food processor, pulse flour, butter, and salt until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. With machine running, sprinkle with 1/4 cup ice water; pulse just until dough holds together when squeezed (if necessary, add up to 1/4 cup more water, 1 tablespoon at a time); do not overmix. Form dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate 30 minutes (or up to overnight).
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, about 5 minutes. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes. Add apple, kale, and cranberries and cook until kale is almost tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; season with salt and pepper.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to an 1/8-inch thickness. With a large round cookie cutter or small bowl, cut out eight 6- to 7-inch rounds (reroll scraps if necessary). Place 1/2 cup kale mixture in center of each round and fold over filling to form half-moons. With a fork, press edges firmly to seal. Place pies on baking sheets and brush with egg yolk.
4. Cut a small vent in each pie and bake until golden brown and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool slightly on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cook's Note

To save time, use store-bought rolled pie dough to make the crusts for these hand pies.

COST: $7.28   COST PER PIE (8): $0.98

Kick-off to October Unprocessed: White Bean Soup with Kale and Sausage

Canned food is not real food.  At least that's what my Brazilian husband tells me.  Canned beans are not really beans, but something to to be prodded with a fork and stared at.  Then dump down the drain.  I used to laugh at him, but you know what?  Now I pretty much agree.

Have you tasted fresh beans compared to canned beans?  WOW.  So much difference.  And the most interesting part?  Canned beans don't go bad for a long time.  Really.  You can leave them in the fridge for a week and a half and they still smell normal.  That can't be natural.  Too many preservatives, I suppose.  So we are 99% of the time can free.

Except for Campbell's.  Don't take away my Campbell's.

Monday starts the month of October, and with that means in our house (and many houses around the country -- maybe even world) October Unprocessed is about to start, as well.  As I shared last year at this time:

What is this, exactly?  Well, according to the mastermind behind it, Andrew Wilder, it is a push to get people to stop and think about what they putting in their bodies.  For the month of October, over 1,800 of us (yes, you read that correctly) have decided to put away packaged goods and go for it. 

Of course, each person might consider something processed that another does not, so here is the working definition for unprocessed food that we are using for this challenge (taken from Andrew's blog, Eating Rules!).

Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients.  It doesn’t mean you actually have to make it yourself, it just means that for it to be considered “unprocessed” that you could, in theory, do so.

What does that mean for us?  Well, Ok, you can take away my Campbell's.  And the Skippy.  Condiments will be shelved for the month and I will be baking with raw sugar and unbleached flour.  But really, it isn't that hard.  See this bowl of soup?  Beans, in the pressure cooker, with some garlic and fresh chicken stock (not Knorr, which I usually use).  Add some kale, grill some fresh chicken sausage from Trader Joe's (no preservatives, just meat), and top with some Parmesan, also from TJ's (ingredients: milk, live bacteria, salt).  

Easy.  Fresh.  Unprocessed.

Last year at this time I was terrified.  TERRIFIED.  How on earth was going to survive a month without processed foods?!  But I did.  And I thrived.  I learned a lot, tried new things, and pretty much started a new way of eating year round, not just in October.  

Not to mention, I lost some pudge around my belly.  That was a completely unexpected result, but one that I will take gladly!

I have looked through my recipes from this year and have some great tasting and easy to make recipes that fit this bill, so I am going to be making a menu plan for each week for any of you brave enough to try October Unprocessed.  The first weekly plan will be up tomorrow, so check back to prepare for the week. WE CAN DO IT, Friends!  

Are you brave enough to join me?  Come on, let's do it!

(To read through my experience last year, click HERE.)

Recipe adapted from Everyday Food, September 2012

YIELD: 8 servings       PREP TIME:  15 minutes        TOTAL TIME:  1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried white beans
• 4 cups fresh chicken broth, either from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, or make your own
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt
• 1 large bunch kale, roughly chopped, ribs removed
• Vegetable oil, for grill
• 1 pound chicken sausage, from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (or a butcher)
• Grated Parmesan, for serving  (remember -- FRESH.  Nothing weird on the ingredients list!)

Directions

1. In a 6-quart pressure cooker, cover beans by 2 inches water, bring to a boil, and remove from heat. Let soak 30 minutes. Drain beans and return to pressure cooker. Add broth and garlic; season with salt. Secure lid. Bring to high pressure over medium-high heat; reduce heat and cook until beans are tender, 20 to 22 minutes (adjust heat to maintain pressure). Remove from heat, vent pressure, and remove lid. Stir in kale.
2. Meanwhile, heat a grill or grill pan to high. Clean and lightly oil hot grill. Grill sausages until browned, about 12 minutes; let rest 5 minutes, then slice. Serve soup topped with sausages and Parmesan.

Cook's Note

To get the basics on pressure cookers, click here.

COST: $6.93    COST PER SERVING (8): $0.87

His and Hers: The tale of two biscuits

This week's Sundays with Joy recipe was jalapeno, chive, and cheddar biscuits.  I like cheddar and chives, but I am a little afraid of jalapenos.  Probably stems from the time my best friend and I decided that we were Native Americans and needed to go hunting and gathering... in our neighbors yard.  Picked up some good stuff, too.  Except for the jalapeno.  Darn thing was hot, made us cry, and then we rubbed our eyes with our jalapeno-juice-smeared hands.  Now the tears were really falling, and our noses were runny, and of course we tried to rub the snot away... with those same jalapeno-juice-smeared hands.

Let's just say I never went "gathering" in someone else's yard since.

Or let a jalapeno get anywhere near me.

But I decided I would be bold.  I heard, from Joy the Baker herself (the source of this recipe), that if you take out the seeds the jalapeno isn't that hot.  So bold I did.  And I had some jalapeno, chive, and cheddar biscuits.

You know what?  I can do jalapeno in biscuits!  I was just really cautious as I was take out the seeds... there was no accidentally touching my eyes at that moment.  No sirree, I learned that lesson years ago.

My husband, on the other hand, said, "NO WAY!"  He is a hater of all things spicy and is actually allergic to some peppers, so he was not even willing to attempt being bold with me.  When I asked him what we wanted instead he thought about it and then settled on kale.  He wanted kale biscuits.

Different.

But whatever.  Different can be done.  Besides, I still had my yummy biscuits all to myself anyway ;)

Since I was putting kale in there, a favorite Brazilian veggie, I threw in some other favorite Brazilian items: mozzarella and red bell pepper.  And some cheddar as well, because cheddar tastes amazing and everyone should eat it every chance they get, Brazilian men included.

What did we discover?  Kale biscuits -- they sound weird, but they taste GOOD.

You know, I believe in that whole 'what's your is mine and mine is yours' mantra in regards to marriage.  Except for these biscuits.  Both were great, but I guarded mine and he guarded his.  I guess we can say, once again, Joy's recipe was a success.  And so was mine.  SCORE!

For the jalapeno biscuit recipe, get yourself a copy of Joy's fabulous book.  

For the kale biscuit recipe, here you go:

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
4½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup of milk + 1 teaspoon of white vinegar mixed to make buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced
1 large handful of kale, chopped small
olive oil
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup cubed cheddar cheese
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
Coarse sea salt for topping

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil.

2.  In skillet over medium heat. saute kale in small amount of olive oil until just tender, about 3 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 of the milk combo and egg. In another small bowl, toss together the kale, cheeses, and bell pepper.

3. Add the butter to the flour mixture and use your fingers to work the butter into the flour until the flour resembles coarse meal.  

4. Toss the kale mixture into the flour mixture. Create a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the milk and egg mixture all at once. Toss together with a fork, making sure that all of the flour bits are moistened by the buttermilk. Dump the biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly, just enough to bring the dough together.

5. Pat the dough until about 1 inch thick.  Cut the dough into 2 inch squares. Gather the dough scrapes, pat into a new circle and cut more squares. Repeat until all of the dough has been used.  (You can use a round biscuit cutter if you are fancy like that.)

6. Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheets, brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle them with the sea salt. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top. If you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. You can eat them straight from there the next day, or reheat in a 350-degree oven until warmed through.

COST: $4.89   Cost per biscuit (12): $0.41

Get yo' greens! (Banana and Kale Smoothie -- A 'Sundays with Joy' Post)

Let's talk kale, shall we?  I had no idea what this stuff was until I was 25 years old and I spent a summer in Brazil with my future-at-the-time-in-laws.  Every once in awhile my mother-in-law would make this dish of a kind of bitter, but very delicious, green stuff.  That man of mine loved it.  LOVED it.  When I asked what it was the answer came back as couve.  So then I asked what it was in English, and the answer came back the same, couve.  Interesting, I had never heard of couve before...

A few years later, after the wedding bells had rung and the thought of cooking didn't intimidate me so much, I set out to find couve.  Lo and behold, it was something so simple to find -- kale.  Once we figured out that we could find it here in the States, my husband practically begged and pleaded for me to make things with it, as it is no doubt his favorite vegetable.  Sauteed kale with garlic, kale and potato pancakes, chicken and kale casserole... I graciously gave him what he asked for.

I bet he never thought I would turn it into a smoothie, though!

Yes, that's right.  This weeks recipe as we are working our way through Joy the Baker's cookbook (which you should totally go buy!) is kale and banana (and other stuff) smoothies.  Yes, a little odd, I know... but odd is not always synonymous with "bad", right?  Sometimes odd is "just right".  In this case, it means the latter.

I had the privilege of watching Joy at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend a few weeks ago, and guess which recipe she shared?  This one.  Along with two others that I will share with you when the time is right.  She made a great suggestion -- peel and freeze bananas to put in smoothies so you don't need ice.  Brilliant!  Later the night I went home and made this smoothie with soy milk and guess what?  Instant healthy goodness.  So good you actually don't even realize it is healthy... Actually, it just tasted like you were eating a banana with peanut butter.  All you moms out there, here you go -- time to be sneaky ;)

And that lover of kale that I am married to?  He liked it so much he even asked me to tell him how to do it so -- get this -- he could make it himself. 

WOW. 

That must mean it was good ;)

Cost: $1.70    Cost per glass (2): $0.85

PS - In Brazil they call smoothies just as "vitamins"  I could never figure out why, but today I put the ingredients into a nutrition counter and holy cow -- this thing is basically equivalent to a multivitamin!  221% of the daily recommended amount of Vitamin A?  Tons of other vitamins and minerals represented?  NOW I get it.  Drink your greens and live long and healthy!

Not Barefoot in the Kitchen -- Kale Quesadillas

Did you know that green is my favorite color?  Well, it is.  I like a lot of colors, but my absolute most favorite is green.  Which is one of the reasons I like Spring so much.  St. Patrick's Day is never a really big deal to me but I do appreciate the fact that everything gets to be green on that day. 

Look at my smile.  There is no denying my love for this color of life that is surrounding me!  That's because good things come in green: grassy fields, palm trees, money... see? 

And kale.  Kale comes in green, too.

That makes it a perfect ingredient for St. Patrick's Day food. 

I know a lot people don't really like it, but in Brazil they looooove kale.  I have never met a Brazilian who doesn't like it.  In fact, I never even knew what it was until I was there and had lots of couve served to me.  For all I knew it was a vegetable native to that land of plenty.  It wasn't until my husband desperately needed some (or so he said) that I searched around and found out that it was sitting in my local grocery store all along.  Silly me.

Something else that is green that I am loving is this top.  I have had it for about a year now, but it is still one of my favorites.  And the belt... the best part is that the it came with the shirt.  For $17 at Love Culture I got not only a cute top but an incredibly useful and sassy belt, too.  Then I was able to save some green ;)

Belts have become all the rage lately.  Well, I guess not just lately, they come and go as all fashion does, but right now they are quite popular.  I don't own all that many, three actually, but these three have served me well. 

My first was this one:

Yes, I call it the Santa belt because, as you might be able to see, it looks like the belt Santa wears around his bowl-full-of-jelly-belly. 

Then I got the one you see in today's pictures.

My everything belt.  It has found a prominent place in my wardrobe.

And last, but definitely not least, is my favorite:

Yeah, I name my belts... but you must admit, this one is kind of Madonna-ish with it's little studs and all.  I got it at H&M, and Madonna is actually one of their designers, so who knows... it might actually be a "Madonna Belt".

The thing I like about belts is this: they are one simple thing you can do that make your outfit go "almost there" to "complete".  I must thank my friend and colleague Patricia for encouraging me to start using them in my attire.  She has a great eye for accessories, one that I am trying to develop.  But I am learning.  Like with this headband.  It is something that is so simple, yet makes a big difference.  And it was only $5 at Charlotte Russe.  What a steal!

So back to that other green... the kale.  I was flipping through the latest issue of Everyday Food and saw this little header:  "More ways to give kale kid appeal" and under it were some great ideas:

1. Tear, toss with oil, and bake for crisp chips                (check!  Did that last October.  Yum.)
2. Replace some basil with blanched kale when making pesto
3. Add sauteed kale to grilled cheese or quesadilla

I didn't even need to go on.  Sure, the list had a few more, but I honed in on what I wanted: kale quesadillas.

We rarely have tortillas in the house, but I did have lavash bread.  Kale and cheese were already in the fridge, as well.  In fact, all of the ingredients were in that "now what do I do with them?" phase that food goes through when you have more than you need for a recipe but no good idea of how to get rid of them. 

BINGO! 

I knew exactly how to get rid of them...

By Jove, we have a winner!  I just added a little Feta (also in that limbo stage that food lives in sometimes) and man oh man, it was good.  So good that we had it two days in a row.  And then right now as my husband asked what I was working on and I showed him he said, "Oh.... *drool*  that's GOOD!"

Kid appeal?  Shoot, this had adult appeal. 

There you have it folks, Kale Quesadillas.  An unexpected turn of events, but a highly welcomed one.  And green, perfect for this time of year.  Enjoy!


INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pack lavash bread
• 1/2 bunch fresh kale
• Cheese -- your favorite
• 1/2 cup of Feta
• Spreadable butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Chop the kale in to small sections.  Over medium heat, put the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet.  When warm, add kale and a dash of salt.  Stir occasionally until sauteed, about 5 minutes.  When finished, set kale aside and clean out skillet. 
2. Using lavash bread, kale, cheese, and feta, make quesadillas.  Put butter on the sides of the bread that will touch the pan to help grill.  At this point I am going to assume you know what to do... so go for it! :)

Cost: $5.68                   Cost Per Serving (4) $1.42

Add a salad on the side for a complete meal, and it is still under $2 per serving. 

Mashed Potato & Kale Pancakes (Yes, yet another kale recipe...)

If you are a follower of this blog on Facebook, then you saw that I posted something the other day that went like this:

Trying a new recipe right now. If it tastes even close to how I am imagining it will, then I am about ready to fall in love.

And fall in love I did.  Potato and kale pancakes, folks... it is a winning combination. 

Once again, this meal comes straight from the November 2011 issue of Everyday Food.  I have tried several recipes from this one little booklet, and they have all been excellent.  Here are a couple of them:

//chicken and kale casserole// 

//greek style chicken with pickled onions//

Anyway, back to the little potato pancakes.  Easy.  Really easy.

The recipe yielded a lot (that Martha Stewart is not lying when she says it serves six!) so I had a bunch I was able to store in the fridge overnight and make for round two the next day.  Always a great thing when you have really great food, if you ask me.

One major word of caution, though: LET IT COOL DOWN BEFORE YOU GRAB A HANDFUL.  Yeah, I should have thought that one through a little more...  oops. 

The oven kept them warm while the rest were cooking, and then I added it to a plate with arugula and some homemade honey mustard dressing, and viola!  Dinner was served!  And it received a ton of compliments.  I was even told it was the most delicious things we have had for dinner, which means it must be great because I do put a pretty good spread on the table every night.  ;)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds russet potatoes (about 6), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 leek (white and light-green parts only), halved lengthwise, rinsed well, and thinly sliced
• 1 bunch kale (3/4 pound), tough stems and ribs removed, leaves coarsely chopped
• 1/2 pound bacon, diced medium
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring potatoes to a boil in salted water over high, then reduce to a rapid simmer. Add leek and kale and cook until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, about 10 minutes. Drain; transfer to a large bowl.
2. In a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet, cook bacon over medium-high until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to bowl with vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. With a fork, mash potato mixture until a few lumps remain. With your hands, form into 12 - 16 patties.
3. Pour off fat from skillet and wipe clean; add butter and melt over medium. In batches, cook cakes until golden on both sides, about 6 minutes, flipping once.

COST: $5.88         COST PER SERVING (6): $0.98
With arugula salad:    $1.38

Check out that price!  SCORE!

Chicken and Kale Casserole

I love casseroles.  I think they are really the all-American food.  As far as I can tell, there is no other culture on the face of the planet that throws a bunch random stuff together, throws it in the oven, and then thirty minutes later proclaims that dinner is done.  So easy, and yields a great amount, allowing my little family of two to have leftovers for days.  I am not going to complain that last night my dinner prep consisted of plopping a bunch on a plate, throwing it in the microwave, and setting it on the table with some bread and butter.  My husband ate this for dinner on Tuesday night, lunch for Wednesday, dinner again on Wednesday, and then lunch today.

Poor husband.

But happy wife.

Now, before you go feeling all that bad for him, please remember that kale is his favorite vegetable.  The man loves this leafy green goodness.  So, yes, he has been stuck on repeat with his meals, but I have not heard a single complaint.  I think, however, that it is time to make something different tonight for dinner ;)

Recipe from Everyday Food with Martha Stuart, Nov. 2011 issue

*This recipe yields a TON.  Consider yourself warned.
**Instead of a cooked whole chicken, I used a pack of cooked chicken strips from Trader Joe's.  I just chopped them up and threw it in the mix.

 

Ingredients

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 pound large pasta shells
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large yellow onion, diced medium
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bunches kale (1 1/2 pounds), tough stems and ribs removed, leaves coarsely chopped
• 2 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken (from 1/2 rotisserie chicken)
• 1 container (48 ounces) part-skim ricotta
• 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
• 3/4 cup Parmesan, grated (2 1/4 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain; return to pot. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high. Add onion and garlic; cook until onion is beginning to soften, 4 minutes. Add kale, cover, and cook until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to pot with pasta.
2. Stir in chicken, ricotta, lemon zest, and 1/2 cup Parmesan; season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; top with 1/4 cup Parmesan. Bake until top is golden, 30 minutes.

COST: $19.11      COST PER SERVING (8): $2.39

Plus butter and bread -- about $2.50/serving