A New Vegetable to try Kale

Not sure about the rest of the world but we are not big vegetable eaters, but recently a friend of my daughter lost weight just by eating healthy and using the food pyramid. Which basically means eating vegetables and fruits on a daily basis as opposed to a two or three time a week occurence. The main vegetables we eat are carrots raw and cooked, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and other beans. As you can see the vegetables are some what limited and pretty standard.

Last week my daughter thought she would try a new recipe and new vegetalbe "Kale". She tried the Kale Chip which is where you chop the kale into 1 1/2 inch pieces and then bake in the oven till dried out. She burned the first batch. If you did not know new recipes are trail and error in this household. The second batch came out better. I don't think it will replace the potato chip but it was okay. I like the pieces with the stem parts in, it gave it a chewy nutty flavor. We put the leftovers in a baggie for lunches, but that didn't work to well I tried one and I just kept chewing forever. So I did not think this was a good second day recipes. I am one of those people who loves leftover.

This morning I went to the following website www.whfoods.com to study the benefits of kale and found it was a great cancer preventative and great for lowing your cholesterol. The kale's fiber wrap themselves around the bile acides and take them out your intestines bypassing your liver which lowers your cholesterol and helps to prevent the following cancers bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and postrate. You can get a more detail description of the process on the whfoods website. I'm all for any food that can keep me healthy and free of cancer. I got a few recipes off this website and off allrecipes.com. I will let you know which ones I like.

In the Old Days they Use to

While trying to reduce the boxes in my Bedroom I came upon the one with lots of memories. There I found some of the old Christmas story books she use to read to us. Back in the 50's and 60's the magazines would print and illustrate a children Christmas story. My Mom would take the stories out of the Magazine and make a book out of the story using cardboard and cloth. When I had my children I started looking for these Christmas stories in the magazines and found a few and I collected them in a notebook with clear pages. Then somewhere in the late 70's they stopped putting these wonderful children oriented illustrated Christmas stories in the magazine. Now all you see in the magazines at Christmas is decorating ideas, recipes, weight loss hints, and commercials. The children are left out of Christmas in Magazine.

When I think of Chirstmas I first think of the reason for celebrating the holiday and that may be religious for some and others not so much. The second thing I think of is the children. Isn't that why we have toy drives and angel trees. When did the magazines decide that children were no long important to Christmas. I guess somewhere back in the late 70's the magazine's decided that advertising dollars were more important then children at Christmas time.

Snow, Sleet, and Cold Weather Oh My!

I talk a lot with my Aunt about the weather. I think it is an old person thing it is a safe topic of discussion when you don't want the conversation to get too personal at the beginning of a conversation. We both agree that our idea of cold weather is around 50 degrees Farenheit to 70 degrees Farenheit anything below that is too cold and we are done with winter.

We do not like snow or sleet. It is pretty to look at the snow but after the snowmen and the pictures. It can go away and go back up to 50 degrees. I realize that the cold weather is neccessary to kill off insects, give some animals and people time to hibernate, and keep the sports season going full cycle but at 30 degrees and below enough is enough.

Winter is a great time of year for a lot of people it's time to visit the ski resorts and the ice skating rinks. Some people like to go ice fishing not my favorite thing but then I'm not the outdoors type. I must admit though I enjoy the jeans, stretchy slacks, and sweat shirts at this time of the year. Sitting in my favorite chair under a blanket and sipping a hot cup of soup or coffee. This is also the time of the year when I pull out all the cold weather recipes chili, hamburger soup, and roast with potatoes and carrots. Once the cold weather is gone the winter recipes go away till the next year. Isn't it amazing the way we equate certain activites, recipes, clothes, and memories to the weather.