Rain, wind, and chard...oh my!

I survived my first tropical storm this weekend. In all honestly it was pretty much a bust. Heavy rain and wind but not much else. The glorious consequence of Tropical Storm Lee is the lovely weather it left in its wake. Today's high was 80 degrees. 80 degrees. Without a doubt the best day I have experienced in New Orleans. I even went for a run in the afternoon. It felt like a nice spring day back in Boston.

My "garden" didn't much like the torrential downpours and lack of sun, but I think everything will survive. Last week I even had my first mini harvest. I planted the chard seeds too closely so I pulled some out in order to thin them a little.

Like I said, the harvest was very mini

As soon as I pulled them out my mind filled with ideas about what to do with my bounty. Make an amuse-bouche salad? Use them to garnish my tacos? Feed the world's smallest rabbit? Friends, when you have half an ounce of baby chard on hand the possibilities are endless. I elected to stay true to my roots (heh) and use them for a green smoothie!

Baby chard, beets, frozen bananas, frozen cherries, yogurt 

I have been exploring our new neighborhood and last week I tried out the local bakery. La Boulangerie is really cute from the outside and I was wowed by the delicious smells emanating from the interior. However the rest of the visit was a disappointment. My experience with the the staff seems typical of the complaints on yelp. Rude people who ignored me for 5 minutes so they could yak to one another (I was the only person in the store at the time.) I picked out an olive loaf and an almond croissant (my favorite pastry treat.) Sometimes you get olive bread and there are 3 tiny pieces in the whole loaf so I was pleased to see several whole large olives throughout the loaf.

Overall the loaf was just ok. A little too rustic for my tastes but not terrible. It made me miss being in Milwaukee and the lovely soft chewy olive bread at Breadsmith's.

The almond croissant was another story. I was MAD I wasted a pastry eating session on that abomination. It was like they took a regular croissant and dunked it it simple syrup. Then they threw a bunch of almonds and powdered sugar on top. Grr.

This will haunt me

But enough with the whining! I will leave you all with a simple recipe (an idea really) that I have been gobbling up lately.

Sweet Potato, Kale, Black Bean, and Goat Cheese Burritos

1. Cook a sweet potato (oven or microwave, boy's choice)
2. Steam some kale in veggie broth for 5 - 7 minutes (I used miso paste instead of broth)
3. Rinse and drain a can of black beans.
4. Mash up the black beans and sweet potato. This will warm the beans at the same time.
5. Add bean/sweet potato mixture to tortillas and top with drained kale and goat cheese.
6. Nom nom nom.

Banana Cupcakes and Spring

Good morning Chardheads. I don't want to jinx anything, but I think spring may have finally sprung in the Northeast. My amaryllis sure thinks so.

A closer look

Friday was Erik's birthday so after pestering him incessantly he finally relented and agreed to let me make banana cupcakes to celebrate. I have made this recipe a dozen or more times. It is my go to "crap I need to bake a treat for something and have nothing in my house but oh god they are so good" recipe. The extra good part about this recipe is that it does not use eggs so you can lick the bowl with reckless abandon.

Banana Cupcakes/Muffins
Makes 12 cupcakes


1/2 cup very ripe banana
3/4 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat (or white whole wheat) flour
1/4 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup "milk" (soy, almond, mammal)
2 t vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In your food processor/blender/magic bullet blend the banana well until there are no chunks. In a large bowl combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In a separate small bowl whisk together banana, oil, milk, vanilla, and almond. Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in mixing slowly. Try not to over mix. Pour batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20-22 minutes.

Right out of the oven. If you look at the column on the left you can see I am not great at distributing the batter evenly

If you want to eat them plain they are more like a muffin and can therefore technically be eaten for breakfast!

Since I was baking for celebratory purposes I made peanut butter frosting to go with them. Is there anything better than banana and peanut butter? I used this recipe from allrecipes and it worked just fine.

The finished product

Oh hello

After my baking frenzy I had a workout followed by a green smoothie.

In the mix: Kale, water, plain non-fat yogurt, pineapple, and banana. Pow - energy straight to my core!

What was your best birthday cake/treat ever?

Glug, glug, glug, I am drinking my veggies!

Are you looking to increase your servings of fruits and vegetables?
Would you like more fiber in your diet?
Do you need a quick breakfast you can have on the run?
Is there a picky eater in your household you would like to trick into eating more veggies?
Do you have a boatload of frozen overripe bananas in your freezer that you have been meaning to use for ages?
Has your jaw been wired shut, forcing you to only consume things in liquid form?

If you answered YES to any of those questions allow me to present to you the GREEN SMOOTHIE. Now I did not invent this - in fact I'm not even sure where I first read about the idea of adding greens to your smoothies. But I have been incorporating green smoothies into my diet for the past year or so and therefore I award myself my own personal Iron Chef award for smoothie Queen.

The idea is simple. Each smoothie has 3 main components plus optionals. Here are some ideas for each.

Part 1: Fruits and veggies

• I recommend you use at least 1/2 frozen banana. This will make your smoothie creamy and banana has a strong flavor so it will over power stronger veggie flavors.
• Frozen Mango
• Pineapple (Canned, frozen, fresh)
• Grapes
• Peaches
• Blueberries (I am generally not a huge fan of things like raspberries since I'm not keen on seediness, but that may not bother you)
• Frozen cherries 
• Beets
• Carrots

Part 2: Greens

• Spinach! This is the green beginners should use.
• Kale
• Chard
• Dark leaf lettuce

Part 3: Liquids

• H2O
• "Milk" (soy, almond, mammal, etc.)
• Yogurt
• Any juices

This is a smoothie guys, you can't really break it. Just pick a few options from each category and throw them in the blender. If you are new to green smoothies I suggest you start out with 1/5 greens and 4/5 liquid and fruits. Ease into drinking beet and chard smoothies. 

DON'Ts

• Don't use strong pungent greens (e.g. mustard greens). Laura can tell you what a mustard smoothie tastes like.
• Don't use all fresh fruit/veggies. Otherwise you will have green juice. Frozen fruit (especially the banana) gives you a slushy/creamy consistency.
• Don't be too nervous about adding veggies. Generally the fruits are much more potent and you won't taste a lot of the veggies. Plus, it if is gross it is not big deal.
• Don't forget to give it a good long blend. You don't want to suck up lots of chunks of chard through you straw. 

Here is the green smoothie I made yesterday to have after my workout.

Fruits and veggies: Banana (I used frozen but they looked ugly so I photographed fresh), cooked beets, papaya (Great deal - that whole papaya was only $0.65 at the asian grocery store)

Greens: Kale! My favorite for smoothies. Again, if you are new to green smoothies I suggest you start with spinach.

Liquids: Soy milk and water

Optional add in: Ground flax seed (this gives sort of a nutty taste)

I blend my greens and liquid together before adding in the fruits/veggies. This helps ensure that the greens get liquified and you don't end up with a chunky smoothie.

Finished product. You can't tell because of my camera and the poor light (due to a SNOWSTORM), but the color is a beautiful brilliant red. Yes, beets will stain.

One more from the top.