Creamed Kale and Eggs

For breakfast this morning I tried this recipe for Creamed Kale and Eggs from Deliciously Organic.

For an inexperienced health food enthusiast (me) it wasn't bad. And I've been meaning to try something along this vein for quite some time now.

That being said, here are my notes for this experiment:

1. The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Now, I'm a standard American when it comes to crappy dietary choices and I LIKE salt. And I don't have any medical conditions that would cause me to limit my salt intake. So I assumed that her healthy recipe would probably be a little unsalty for my taste and didn't measure, but was reasonably (unreasonably, really) generous with my salt. THIS WAS A MISTAKE! If you're not going to measure, at least go easy. You can always add more.
2. If I had it to do over again, I would wilt the kale a while longer before adding the eggs. Again, I've been cooking for myself and my family for a lot of years now. To me, "cook [the kale] about 5 minutes," means stir, stir, get the eggs out of the fridge, stir, ho hum, yeah that looks kind of wilty. So I don't know exactly how long I did actually cook my kale for, but it could have been longer.
3. I have an awesome Cutco skillet with a heavy duty lid that means when the lid is on, heat is being reflected from every angle so it will cook the top of your eggs. So I didn't bake, I just set it sit on the medium-low burner for about 4 minutes. They were cooked perfectly.
4. I also thought it might be nice with maybe some parmesan or goat cheese.

Bottom line - If this morning was my only chance to get this right, I wouldn't make this recipe again. But thank God for new days and second (and third and fourth and fifth...) chances! I definitely plan to try it again with less salt and longer cooking time for the kale.

Today's blog comes courtesy of my delightful daughter. I am the mom in this very true story that happened last Thursday or so.



We have a rather large backyard. And with that backyard comes a variety of wildlife. Like, say, hawks and their squirrely prey. So today a hawk had caught himself a squirrel and was settling in for an afternoon snack when my mom, oblivious to his peaceful snacking, opened the back door, released the dog and the dog promptly scared the hawk so badly he flew off forgetting his snack.

Thankfully the dog was tempted back inside with cheese before she discovered the left-behind squirrel.

My dog, Chai, would have eaten it. With glee.

But now my mother and I had a dilemma. You see, Chai needs the backyard. For things. So we can't conceivably keep her from it forever. And Dad was off doing errands so he couldn't take care of it. 

Mom and I sat hoping that the hawk would come back for his tasty morsel.

No luck.

So my mom 'nope'd out of the situation, went upstairs, and told me to tell dad. I, however, was slightly curious and not totally resigned to making dad deal with it. So I armed myself with a shovel and mom's advice to fling it over the fence into the no-man's-land that is the busy street and sidewalk and grassy patches beyond our fence. (Halfway to the squirrel Hawk flew overhead again. I stepped back to let him have his snack if he so wished. He didn't take me up on that offer. I must have looked too menacing in my sweats and slippers.)

Dead squirrels are cute. I told Squirrel this as I looked at it's lifeless body. I tried to gently scoop up the squirrel with my shovel. 

You know how when you eat rice with a fork sometimes the grains refuse to get on your fork?

Yeah. 

So I got myself a stick (a very long stick. This stick must have been 6 or 7 feet) to help nudge Squirrel into the soft, comfortable resting place that is the cradle of my shovel. After some tricky work and more words to Squirrel (anyone walking by must think I am insane as I tell Squirrel "You are so cute but you are so dead please get in the shovel cute dead squirrel") I did it! I got the squirrel into the shovel!

As I made my way to our back fence I look into the shovel just to make sure Squirrel is just as cute and just as dead as it was when I nudged it in on its belly. IT WAS LYING ON ITS BACK. I screamed. But it still seemed dead.

Deep breaths.

Now my back yard has an 8 foot tall fence.

I am 5 feet tall. 

I am panicking because I am cradling a dead but cute but lifeless squirrel and Hawk is still flying around somewhere and I am a little afraid he is offended by me trying to get his snack out of my yard.

So I don't think things through clearly. I stop, ready my shovel and CATAPULT....

The squirrel right into the fence.

I may have laughed. I may have stifled a terrified giggle. But I went back for more. As I looked down at Squirrel laying next to my fence it was just as cute and lifeless. I tried to scoop it up against the fence. 

No luck.

I got my helpful 7 foot pole back and nudged Squirrely McCulkin back into my shovel-nest.

And tossed it. 

This time it went over.

Good thing too, otherwise it would have fallen on my head.

I think it only made it 3 feet from the other side of the fence. But I did it.

TL;DR - I catapulted a dead squirrel into a fence.

Then I catapulted the same dead squirrel over the same fence.

I have about a kazillion non-urgent things going on at any given time, but the sad truth of my life is that, in the short term at least, I'd rather sit at my desk and read fanfiction than actually accomplish anything. So since I've posted all of four times in four years and already have an unfinished post in progress and don't want to add another, I'll make this one quick. Hahahahahah (if you knew me, you'd totally get how hilarious that is - I don't do quick when it comes to words).


Anyway!


Meal planning is something to which I aspire, but only occasionally succeed. I need something

1. that I'll actually look at on a semi-regular basis,
2. that makes sense, 
3. that is easy to alter based on life, and
4. that I might actually do. 

I'm a huge fan of WRITING IT DOWN - I love the physical process of writing, watching words and doodles form on paper at the end of my pen or pencil - but realistically, to meet all the criteria above and not end up just another scrap of paper that I may run across in a month or a year or a decade, I needed something online. Enter my reliable friend Google. I actually was hoping there was a calendar tool that I could use on my Google calendar. No luck. But dear Google did direct me to my new menu planning friend, here.

It was easy to adapt to my grown-up family. It was easy to pick a color that nobody else was using to make it stand out. It was easy to invite my husband and daughter to share the calendar so everybody knows what the basic plan is. And if I need to switch meals around, or discard one altogether and go out instead, it's click-and-drag easy!

I've been using it for THREE WHOLE DAYS NOW! And so far IT'S WORKING GREAT! :)




Second, while dinner this evening was just bacon and eggs, as long as I had a lined, greased cookie sheet (have you tried baking your bacon? Easiest bacon cooking method ever! No mess, no clean up, and afterward...) I made Roasted Garbanzo Beans. I have several recipes (suggestions?) for these on my "Savory Snacks" Pinterest board and today I tried roasted garbanzo beans with cajun spice.

Instead of olive oil, I just rolled them around in the bacon fat (I drained off the excess first and just used what was left on the foil). I used Sweet Mesquite Seasoning in the big jug from Sam's or Costco. Because my oven bakes unevenly and since it had to bake about 40 minutes I dutifully set my timer to rotate the pan and give it a quick stir/shake every 10. 

Unfortunately, at the last beep of the timer, the 24-year-old son was microwaving chili in the kitchen and turned the timer off. He DID tell me, and I WAS working at my desk, RIGHT THERE in the kitchen, but I didn't stand up right away and ANOTHER 10 minutes (or so - who really knows?) later there was only about a quarter of the pan that wasn't BLACK. But for what it's worth, that tiny amount is quite tasty - and curiously good with craisins. I'm not sure they were supposed to be that crunchy, but since I don't know for certain, I'm going with not a complete disaster.

Also, I'm very thankful for foil lined pans. After salvaging my half-cup or so of beans, I just carefully folded up the foil and, voila! the pan is spotless.