Sausage, white bean and kale soup - parmigiano rind not optional!

On my last grocery shopping trip I bought a big bunch of kale with the intention of using most of it in a sausage, white bean and kale soup, many variations of which I have seen floating around food blogland for some time now. The recipe I used was from Closet Cooking, chosen partly because I love the blog and partly because I was intrigued by the addition of a parmigiano reggiano rind. I was definitely not disappointed - this soup is crammed with so much good stuff, and the parmesan rind added incredible flavour. After the soup was finished cooking I broke the rind up into smaller pieces and left it in the soup rather than discarding it - it's delicious, and the hunk of cheese cost me upwards of 10 dollars so no way was I going to throw any part of it out!

This soup fits the veggie packed bill that I have been trying to stick to lately, in addition to trying to do a true 30 Day Shred (as in, do the workout every day for 30 days). Not sure if the Shred will happen tonight - with Christmas decorating and making this soup, the day got away from me pretty quickly - but if it doesn't, I can feel satisfied that my dinner was on track!

Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup (adapted from Closet Cooking)

4 turkey sausages, casing removed
2 tsp. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Crushed tomatoes (I used a mason jar full made by my BF's mom, probably less than a 28 0z can)
1 can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch kale, chopped (unless you have a monster bunch like I did - the whole bunch was too much for the soup pot, I had to scoop some of it out!)
1 tsp. dried sage
1 parmigiano reggiano rind
1L container chicken stock, plus two cups water (the 1L container was not enough to cover all the soup ingredients. I used a low sodium broth - if this is not available to you, I recommend using half broth and half water - the soup is very flavourful on its own, it doesn't need a ton of salt)

Brown the sausage in a large pot and set aside. In the same pot, heat the oil and saute the onions for about 7-8 min. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour (I caved at 45 minutes because I was hungry, but my carrots were still a bit crunchy).

I heart cookbooks!

(I had hoped to add some images to the post, but Blogger isn't letting me upload them for some reason. Sorry!)

I am the kind of person who likes to flip through cookbooks when I am bored...and sometimes, sit down and read them as if they were novels! After the elliptical fiasco I decided to treat myself to a few new cookbooks and spent about an hour perusing the cookbook section at Chapters (where I'm sure the many employees walking by wondered what the heck was wrong with me).

My first choice was easy - after seeing so many great recipes on other blogs from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton, I couldn't resist buying it. I am so glad I did...all the recipes look phenomenal! I found the hummus section especially drool-worthy...I can't wait to try Peanut Sesame Hummus and Chipotle Lime Two Bean Hummus!

(One thing I don't get about this book - the weird greyish toned pictures of food at the beginning of each section. Anyone else find this odd? They're not very appetizing pictures!)

The second choice was a lot harder. So many cookbooks, so little money! I took a good long look at Veganomicon, and the Eat Clean Diet cookbook also caught my attention. In the end, however, I decided on Crazy Plates by Janet and Greta Podleski. My mom owns this cookbook and I've thumbed through her copy so many times that I figured I should buy my own. Cookbooks by the Podleski sisters are really awesome...full of great recipes, of course, but also lots of nutrition info, fun tidbits about food, and cute cartoons. Some of their recipes call for "low fat" ingredients that I'm not likely to use, but most of the time these can easily be substituted. I've made the Potato and Roasted Pepper Quiche (Quiche Me You Fool!) many times from this book, it's soooo delicious. I want to try the black bean soup recipe (Bean Me Up, Scotty) as soon as possible - it's blended smooth, so a good candidate to try out on the bf!

What are your favourite cookbooks? Let me know what I should look for the next time I treat myself at the bookstore!

It's not always easy!

I've been a bad blogger, haven't I? It's partly because I've been fairly busy lately, and also because nothing too exciting has happened to write about - I've been getting stars on my calendar for exercise and making healthy meals for the most part, but nothing interesting enough to post.

I'm kind of grumpy today. A few days ago I bought an elliptical machine that was on sale at Canadian Tire. I was so excited to use it and to blog about it, but last night while putting it together, my bf discovered that one of the parts was not properly made and so it had to be returned. We had to put everything back in the box, lug it up the stairs, and cram it into the car (NOT an easy feat - it's a two-seater car with no trunk, essentially I was being crushed by the box in my lap). Then halfway to return it...the car stalled!!! It was the most ridiculous night. By the time we got the car going again and returned the elliptical I didn't bother exchanging it for another one - I didn't want to chance that there would be something wrong with the new one and have to go through all that again! I then came home and fixed myself a large drink - not good for my calorie count but I so didn't care at that point! I still really want an elliptical, so hopefully I will find another sale soon or possibly a used one.

As well, I went grocery shopping this morning and couldn't find any kale, and I had a bunch of meals revolving around kale planned. I did a quick meal plan change in my head though, picking up spinach instead of kale to use in some recipes and picking up chili ingredients to replace a soup with kale I had wanted to make. And on the plus side, the grocery store was not that busy for a Saturday, and I had my handy little grocery cart with me which I love (even if people laugh at me for having a granny cart). So all was not lost.

I guess I should look at this as a lesson to not drop being healthy just because something doesn't go my way. Just because I don't have an elliptical now doesn't mean I'm going to stop working out, and just because I couldn't find kale today doesn't mean I bought myself a cheesecake instead. Life goes on. (And we'll ignore that whole having a drink thing after the elliptical debacle right? haha)

I promise to make my next post more uplifting, and to make it come sooner rather than later!

Quick Bites

- As you can see I'm back to tracking my exercise on a calendar! (Someday when I get a new printer, the calendars will be prettier, I promise). I'm proud of the active weekend I had (DD = Dirty Dancing, P = Pilates, S = 30 Day Shred). Hopefully I can keep it up and show you a calendar full of stars at the end of October!

- In this post I wrote about trying to stay away from wheat, dairy and refined sugar in an effort to help my skin. Well, I haven't eliminated any of these things from my diet, but I have cut way back on them - and what do you know, my skin is looking better than it has for a long time! I can't say for sure that it's the dietary changes that are improving my skin - could be the change in weather, could be less stress, could be exercising more - who knows! But cutting back on these foods certainly can't hurt so I'm going to try and keep it up...

...even though I had an epic FAIL tonight while making dinner. I was cooking up some brown rice pasta that I bought at Bulk Barn a few weeks ago - or so I thought. Once it was cooked, my BF tasted it and said, "I think you cooked some of my pasta by mistake..." and he was right! Plain, white, refined wheat pasta! Sigh. I was really hungry by that point and didn't want to waste what I had cooked, so I ate it. I'll live.

- Tomorrow night I'll be making spaghetti squash mexicana and hopefully that will go more smoothly!

- You should really read the following two blogs, for different reasons:

Escape from Obesity: My favourite weight loss blog, no question. This blog has no flashy details or fantastic photography - just moving, honest, incredibly-well written posts. The author, Lyn, struggles with her weight loss and does not have a "lost 100 pounds in a year" story like many weight loss bloggers, and yet I find her far more inspirational than any other blogger.

Daddy Likey - nothing to do with healthy living, but it is HILARIOUS - and laughter is healthy, right?

Your inner Homer Simpson will drool..."mmm, pork chops"

Now that I am eating meat again, I am discovering recipes in some of my favourite cookbooks that I previously ignored. While doing some menu planning I pulled 12 Best Foods by Dana Jacobi off the shelf. This book was a great resource when I was vegetarian, but this time a recipe for 'Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Gravy' immediately caught my eye.

Everything about this dish was amazing, particularly the sweet potato "gravy." Yes, the potatoes contained butter and cream, but it's a relatively small amount, and it's the only added fat in the recipe. Besides, the sweet potatoes provide a huge amount of health benefits (hence this recipe's inclusion in 12 Best Foods) which I would say makes up for a little bit of indulgence - especially since my notoriously veggie-phobe boyfriend loved it!

Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Gravy - adapted from 12 Best Foods Cookbook by Dana Jacobi

2 boneless center-cut pork chops
3 medium sweet potatoes
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp half and half
1/2 apple, peeled and grated (I used a Granny Smith, the recipe calls for Golden Delicious)
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 small onion, finely chopped (I used a bit of onion powder instead - see above re: veggie-phobe boyfriend)
Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Roast the sweet potatoes (the recipe calls for you to roast the sweet potatoes whole and unpeeled, then peel and mash them. Ever try to peel a cooked potato? Not fun. Next time I would peel the potatoes, cut them into chunks, coat with a tiny bit of oil and then roast them). Reduce oven temperature to 35o F.
Remove 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes. Combine the remaining potatoes with the butter and half and half. Spread the creamy potatoes over the bottom of a greased square baking dish.
For the stuffing, combine the 1/2 cup sweet potato with the apple, onion, breadcrumbs and pepper.
Make a large slit in the side of each pork chop. Pack the stuffing generously into the pockets. Combine the paprika, salt and onion powder in a small dish. Sprinkle each side of the pork chops with the spice mixture. Place on top of the sweet potatoes and cover the dish with foil. Bake covered for 35 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes.

Are you a tea drinker?

Then head over to Dancing Through Life for a fantastic giveaway! (And even if you're not a tea drinker, head over there anyway - both Ashley and her blog are wonderful).

Vegetable and corn chowder

Hmm, two soup posts in a row - clearly it is getting colder in Ottawa! Soup goes a long way towards helping me tolerate the dropping temperature - they are warm and comforting, easy to throw together, and a great way to cram a lot of veggies into one meal. This chowder has more lovely chunks of vegetables in each spoonful than it does liquid. The small amount of cheese gives nice flavour to this soup without adding a lot of fat, but you could omit it and use soy or almond milk for a dairy-free soup.

This recipe is from the fantastic cookbook Quick and Easy Soups.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large potato, diced
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups broccoli florets
3 cups frozen corn
1/2 cup old Cheddar cheese, grated
Pepper to taste
Cilantro for garnish (do NOT skip this - it adds great flavour to the soup. I used this fresh frozen cilantro which is really convenient)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic and potato and sauté over low heat for 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Stir in the milk and broth.
Add the broccoli and corn. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese. Season individual bowls with pepper and cilantro.