A Tale of Two Veggies

First, there is Cauliflower:

I followed this recipe. I used my immersion blender to make it creamy--it seemed weird to leave to cauliflower in huge chunks (which is what the recipe said to do). But, in typical fashion, if I don't like something, or it sounds more complicated than it needs to be, I Raime-fy it.  Enter emmersion blender. Problem solved.

 Cauliflower is one of those weird vegetables that I have a hard time incorporating into my diet, other than the typical "California blend" of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots.  So, it was a nice change of pace to enjoy this veggie in a creamy soup.  I went light on the cheese to try to keep it in a healthy range. It surprised me just how much I liked this. Definitely a recipe worth repeating.



Next up...KALE.

My dark green lover.

This was my first rendez-vous with kale, and boy did we enjoy ourselves!

I loosely followed this recipe from neverhomemaker.com.  I didn't have all those spices on hand, so I used my own little blend of: 
smoked paprika
cumin
curry powder
and just a touch a tumeric.

Raime-fication: if you don't have it, and can't foresee a reason to have it for future uses, just use what you DO have. 

 serve this lentil bowl solo, or with a side of pita bread or naan for dipping/scooping pleasure.


And lastly, Mac and Greens.  I LOVE mac and cheese, but I could stand to decrease the fat and calories, so I was inspired when I spotted this recipe from katheatsrealfood.com.

Raime-fied Kale version:

Mac and Greens

Ingredients:
two cups brown rice elbow macaroni noodles
kale
1/3 cooked sweet potato (more if you like the sweetness to temper the bitterness of kale)
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Simultaneously: boil brown rice pasta, steam chopped kale, and cook sweet potato in microwave for 5-7 minutes. (I like multitasking). Then, food process kale and sweet potato until it's like a chunky pesto. Mix with drained noodles. Add Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.

So easy. So green. and sooo good.