food is good

Okay, I'm sure I'm losing points for the title of this blog post. Of course food is good! No one will dispute that fact! Secondly, losing points for taking a picture of my food (I have become "that" person). But damn, that kale is beautiful, and I felt like seeing this picture would inspire me to stay on the kick that I'm on right now, which is Operation: Katie is Going to Eat More Vegetables.

I've been stuck in a rut of popcorn for dinner (just sometimes though, okay?), and too much coffee ice cream and Girl Scout cookies. Then I would read blog posts by Joy the Baker (whose cookbook I got from J&S because they are lovely and fabulous friends) and Amy, over at Coffee and Sunshine, about how juicing changed their life and made them Wonder Womans of the world! I wanted in on that action. It also helped that I've been getting a free subscription to Martha Stewart's Whole Living magazine. This was an added perk of signing up for my triathlon in the fall. There's a big article in the magazine about a 21 day Whole Living Action Plan with lots of awesome recipes, all veggies and fruit based.

With all of this encouragement, I borrowed a juicer from one of my friends (he hadn't used it....ever.) and got started! I kinda felt like I had become a true Californian, with my shopping cart full of only vegetables (well, and salt, I needed it!), all in reusable bags. Well, I felt like a true Californian, and also a crazy lady. It was a lot of vegetables, and daunting to think that I was going to ingest all of this over the course of a week.

But so far so good! I don't know if I can do this every week! I love my chicken/fish/In&Out burgers and sometimes like the crunch of honeycrisp apples in the mornings. But it's a totally fun experiment. And if this leads to less popcorn for dinner, and more veggies, then I'll continue to be on board.

Lastly, I would like to share with you a super easy and delicious recipe for kale. I was not a kale fan, but this makes is super delicious! And when you're eating something that intensely green, I'm pretty sure that it's adding like 20 minutes to your life/health/enthusiastic spirit. Do it!

Kale Salad (there are hundreds of kale salad recipes out there, this is what works for me)
2 bunches of kale, rinsed, chopped, with ribs removed
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lime
agave nectar to make it sweet

The great thing about this recipe? Really no measurements, I just eyeball it. Put kale in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil. Using your hands, massage oil into kale (this is the fun, stress relieving part) Mix in lemon, lime and agave nectar. Let stand 10 minutes. Like magic, it makes kale so. good.