Candida Kale Caesar Salad

This is so easy and delicious. It is Paleo, Candida, and Vegan friendly!! There are a few variations that can take this salad different places, so here are your options:

Kale Caesar Salad (for 4)

• 1 Head of Kale, de-stemmed, washed, and cut
• 3 tablespoons Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar (or Lemon Juice...if you are on the Candida or Body Ecology Diet though the ACV is better because it has live cultures)
• 1 clove of garlic, pushed through a press or run over the grater
• *good quality* organic unrefined oil, drizzled generously overtop
• Shake, Shake, Shake and Shake some more of Braggs Nutritional Yeast (this is fine for people on Candida or B.E.D. because it is not live active yeast) *the more cheese that you want on your salad, the more nutritional yeast that you'd want...
• Hard boiled egg (optional): to take this salad to the next level you can dice up a hard boiled egg on top. Make sure you do so before you massage it with your hands, so that the cooked egg yolk can act as a thickener for the 'dressing'. 

Massage it with your hands for about 5 minutes, softening up the tough kale and integrating all of the flavors together. Warning: this salad is freaking delicious. And crazy insane healthy. 

Crazy for Kale.

I was cruising on InstaGram yesterday and found this under #kale tags. I couldnt help but to crack up. Dream man, with Dream "flowers".

I have been crazy for kale lately! I've always loved it, but recently I've gotten very creative with it as I've had to get creative to cater to all of the limitations on this candida diet. This morning I had a smoothie for breakfast...

• Kefir
• Water
• Small handful blueberries
• A few almonds (soaked and peeled!)
• Cinnamon
• Small sprinkle of stevia
• And a huge handful of kale!

It was full power and delicious fuel to get me through the two classes I had.

Then for lunch I'd prepared some sautéed kale that I simply did in a skillet with some toasted sesame oil, uemboshi plum paste (a little goes a LONG way), a touch of salt and a sprinkle of some sesame seeds. SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD...and so good for you!

Full Power Lunch Hour.

Boom. Full power lunch. I made a simple salad that was sooooo delicious, probably the best salad I've ever made (and I make good salads). It's tasty, quick and easy to make, it'll fill you up and power you up- and it'll leave a smile on your face.

1. Clean and slice green kale (splurge on organic, it just tastes so much better)

2. Quarter 2 hard boiled eggs

3. Slice half an avocado

4. Sprinkle some raw pepita seeds on top

5. Drizzle with EVOO and lemon juice. Dust with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

AMMMMMAZING.

Greens on the Go.

Yoga, massage, CrossFit, yoga....running around, in my car, outta my car, back in my car. Oye. It's great, but it leaves little time for eating properly, and healthy. I usually have a hard boiled egg in my glove compartment at all times so I can fuel up in between jobs and workouts, but lately that hasn't been enough. This morning I whipped myself up some antioxidant packed sautéed greens, and protein filled white beans.

• Small head of kale (rinsed, de-ribbed and chopped)
• Small head of Swiss chard (rinsed and chopped)
• One can of cannellini beans, rinsed
• One clove of garlic, grated
• One small chunk of fresh ginger, grated
• Cumin
• Salt
• Coconut oil

This whole recipe, prep and cook and all, only takes about 5 minutes. So while my coffee was percolating I whipped it together. It can be enjoyed warm or cold and is super delicious.

Put coconut oil in a skillet. Add ginger and garlic and cook for a minute before adding in the greens. Sprinkle with cumin and salt and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the beans to the mixture, toss and then cook for another minute. Boom. Brunch/lunch/snack of champions!!

T-Day Top Secret Recipes

We have been surrounded by family and friends constantly for the past 3 years, so this Thanksgiving when my Mom asked me what I wanted to do, I replied "Nothing. You and Me, I want to cook, and I want to be at our house". So...that's what we did. I made a dish that was inspired by a meal that my friend Emily and I had at SALT in Boulder, Colorado...but the recipe is 100% original. 

Roast Duck Breast over Goat Cheese Lentils 

with a Blueberry Vinegar reduction and Creamy Kale. (P)

Blueberry Apple Cider Vinegar Reduction: (P, V, VG)

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon agave nectar
• 1/2 pint of blueberrys
• fresh sage, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary...two sprigs each.

When you reduce vinegars, you get rid of a lot of the acidity and you heighten the sweetness....so reduced vinegars are great on everything from salads, to fruit, cheeses, meats, and even ice cream! I usually do balsamic reductions, but I felt that apple cider vinegar would be the best fit for the Mallard duck breasts. I infused the vinegar with fresh herbs, which simply means that I added a bit of fresh sage, thyme and rosemary to the pot. You cook the vinegar down over a medium heat for about 30minutes or so (you want it to reduce to less than half). I also added a half pint of blueberries to the mixture, and the end result was a bright purple reduction that was out of this world. Be sure to remove the herbs from the pot before serving. 

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Creamy Goat Cheese Lentils: (VG)

• 1 small log of goat cheese
• 1 cup French Lentils
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 clove
• vegetable broth

Cook the lentils as you would....and if you're new to lentils, don't be intimidated. Simple rinse them and then put them in a skillet and cover them with water and bring to a mid-high to high heat. In about 5minutes you will have pre-cooked the lentils and the water will be gone. Add to the skillet the bay leaf, clove of garlic (whole, unchopped!), and the clove. Cover the lentils again, with vegetable broth, and bring back to med-high heat so it's simmering for about 25minutes. Depending upon how creamy you'd like the lentils you'll use anywhere from 1/2 the log to the full log of cheese. Simple crumble it over the warm lentils and it will start to melt into them. 

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Creamy Kale : (VG, P)

• 1 very large head of Kale
• salt and pepper
• nutmeg
• heavy cream (1/2cup to 1 1/2 cup)

First you'll de-rib the kale (simply pulling the greens off the dense bitter ribs of the kale). Wash it and then bring a pot of salted water to a boil, a ROLLING boil. You blanch the kale first, so a few minutes in the pot in the boiling water. Then drain it and in a skillet put your blanched kale and heavy cream and let it cook down for about 15minutes over med-high heat as the cream starts to thicken. I only used half a cup of heavy cream but if you want really creamy kale then obviously just add more! Season with a touch of salt and pepper (you really wont need much salt since you blanched the kale in salted water) and a generous sprinkling of *NUTMEG* <<< it sounds weird, but it's the finishing touch for sure. **This can be PALEO if you use coconut milk**

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Roast Duck:

• duck breast (we used Mallard)
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Season with a touch of salt and pepp. Sear the duck breast on each side in a hot skillet...this seals in the juices. You only sear it for about two minutes or so on each side, so don't walk away from the stove. To finish off the duck put it in a pan in the oven for about 8minutes. Boom. LET IT REST for at least 5 minutes and then thinly slice it on an angle. 

This is thanksgiving recipe is PALEO if you leave out the lentils and cook the kale with coconut milk instead of heavy creamy*. This would be just as delicious if served over the creamed kale and was topped with the reduction.

Great Friends Great Meals.

Homemade Pepper Jelly and Pickeled String Beans from Adenas garden and kitchen. I told her the other day that if I played for the other team, and if she didn't have an amazzzzing boyfriend, that I'd marry the shit outta her. Such a generous person, amazing gardener and chef and just and all around amazing human being.

We had a little girls get-together the other night at Pam Traceys house for {CrossFit} Sams birthday. I made the food: curried cauliflower soup, spicy sesame string beans, brussel sprout salad with dates and pepitas, and sauteed greens. Oh yeah, I also juiced pomegranates and made a cardamom simply syrup for some kick ass antioxidant-packed-Pom-Martinis.

Tuesday night has become Family Dinner Night with Brad + Ro and Me + Mom. We alternate, one Tuesday I cook at our house, Ro cooks the following at their house. Last night we started dinner with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot(!!!!) and an amazing plum tomato tart with basil.

Everything we ate was home-grown or killed by a friend. The yukon gold potatoes, shittake mushrooms and plum tomatoes were from Rochelles fathers garden. The venison roast was killed by Ro's cousin. And the swiss chard that I made was from our garden. The wine...from Spain! haha.

Brad and Ro, our epic hosts.

Holy Shitballs. I have been eating some AMAZING meals this past week: cooked by me, cooked by friends, grown from our very own gardens. Last night at our Tuesday Night Supper Club it was Rochelles turn to cook and she really outdid herself. The venison roast was cooked to perfection....and for any of you cringing right now, saying that you "dont like venison" or "venison tastes too gamey", then you just haven't had it cooked properly. Often people OVERCOOK it because it's "Wild Game!", don't do that.

Rochelle's Venison Roast: (P)

• venison roast
• fresh rosemary
• salt and pepper
• a few cloves of garlic
• evoo

Generously dress the roast with chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. First you drizzle some EVOO into a skillet and sear the venison steak at a fairly high heat. Throw in a few unpeeled cloves of garlic. You want to kind of caramelize the outside so that you are sealing in the juices. With meat - the rule is HOT and FAST or LOW and SLOW. Obviously this was Hot and Fast. So you sear the meat and then just transfer the skillet into the oven (400degrees f) for about 10minutes and let the meat finish off cooking. When you pull the roast out of the oven you MUST let it "rest". For about 5-10minutes. Cover it with some tin foil and walk.away.  The roast was served alongside sauteed shiitake mushrooms which were just done in evoo, salt and pepper and were unnnnnbelieveable.


Cailins Greens with Garlic, Ginger and Cumin: (P, V, VG)

• one bunch of Kale
• one bunch of Swiss Chard
• one clove of garlic
• a tablespoon or two of fresh minced ginger
• one jalapeno
• cumin
• salt
• evoo or coconut oil

Begin by washing your greens, obviously. With the swiss chard you want all of it, stems included. Kale - discard the stems, keeping only the leafy greens. In a skillet drizzle some oil in (I recommend coconut oil) and sautee your diced jalapeno, garlic, and ginger for a minute or two. Then throw in your greens and sprinkle with some salt and cumin. It'll take about 5 minutes for the greens to cook down. Enjoy.

Fresh Fall.

Oh me oh my, the changing of seasons...what a clusterfuck of emotions and physical sensations. Where to begin? After the 5-day-prep-Moroccan-feast, I felt like I was coming down off of a high. Not that it was a distraction from some stuff that's been going on internally for me, but it was a healthy distraction keeping me busy (doing what I love to do). I woke up Monday feeling pretty shitty. I was a bit congested, my eyes felt heavy, and my head was a bit foggy. I covered Michelle's class for her, hung with my friend Julie all afternoon at Who's on First, and then gave a Thai Massage at the Zen Den (which was a beautiful space to receive).

The Zen Den in Ocean City also serves as a great space to receive Thai Massage. With the change of seasons, Thai  Massage is a great way to move stagnant energy that's in the body, and to help cleanse the body of any toxins. 

After the massage I went to Ari's Sweat Express class because I needed to physically and emotionally detox. As we flowed through the practice, and up through our chakras, I tried to keep my eyes closed and mediate on the chakra that we were engaging and opening. I don't know if it was the playlist, or if I was successful in opening each.and.every.chakra, or if I just haven't practiced under someone else in so long - but I started crying when we were on the throat chakra and didn't stop until well after class was over. I was holding back tears until Ari said (of the throat chakra) "an imbalance in this chakra is when we want to say something but we haven't, or we have been holding back what we want to say. Well, the time is now." I just thought of all the things that I want to say to my Dad, that I wanted to say to my Dad, and that I'll never be able to say to him - and it just opened the flood gates. I cried, and cried, and cried. And though I don't think it's good to hold back tears - I was desperately trying because I just didn't want to be sobbing in front of this community that I love. I just wanted to be alone. I got a few great hugs at the end of class, which always feels good - but again, the flood gates were opened and there was nothing that was going to stop it. Poor Ari had my snot all over her shoulder from me dry heaving through her embrace.... Got home, cried with my mom, then did what I do when I'm sad : I cooked.

Cailins Spicy Sadness Soup: (P*if you leave out chickpeas, V, VG)

• 1 leek
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery 
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 can of chickpeas
• coconut oil
• vegetable broth
• curry
• Sriracha *Chili Garlic 

Dice and sautee the leek, carrot and celery in the bottom of the soup pot along with a big scoop of coconut oil. Clean, de-rib and chop up kale...add to the pot.Cover and cook about 10minutes. Add vegetable broth to cover the veggies, a large scoop of the sriracha chili garlic sauce, and a generous few shakes of curry powder. Add in another big spoonful of coconut oil for some healthy fats. Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes before adding the (rinsed) chick peas. Let simmer a few minutes and then enjoy. 

Cold weather makes me crave warm, spicy foods. This spur-of-the moment creation hit the spot. 

After eating the whole pot of spicy soup I took two benadryl and was asleep by 10pm. I woke up the next afternoon at 12:30pm. I guess that my body needed sleep. A lot of sleep. More sleep than I've ever had in my life. When I woke up I housed a bowl of cereal and then some spicy Moroccan leftovers before retiring to the couch. Another *this never ever happens* happened...I laid on the couch and watched TV!!! ALL AFTERNOON! I was only awake for about 3 hours and then my eyes started to feel heavy again. I'm so grateful for my Mom who encouraged me to sleep and do nothing - because if she wasn't there yelling at me to relax then I would have been cleaning the house and doing work because I felt the need to "do something". So, at her advice, I laid down in my bed and took a nap for two and a half hours. Woke up, ravenous, craving pizza and television. So I cuddled up onto the couch again - enjoyed some pizza and TV, and then was back to sleep by 10. I woke up this morning not yet feeling 100%, but feeling a thousand times better than I did yesterday. I taught this mornings class and then caught a few waves in Sea Isle with my buddy Johnny DiGenni. It felt good to be in the water and in the sunshine, it felt great to be able to clear my head from the hoard of snot that is determined to clog my brain, and it felt great to laugh with Johnny -- he is the funniest motherfucker that you will ever meet, I promise.

Nothing like a natural-Neti....a dip in the ocean. Enjoyed a fun surf today in the warm water with my good friend Johnny. 

Got home and was craving Fresh and Cruncy and Spicy. Lucky me, my Mom had just roasted Duck breasts - so I decided on creating an epic salad (credit goes to Doreen on this one, who inspired this salad many moons ago)...

Spicy Crunchy Asian Salad with Roasted Duck Breast:

Crunchy Asian Salad with Roasted Duck Breast.

• small handful Chopped romaine (only the hearts, not the green leafy bit)
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery
• 1/4 red bell pepper
• red cabbage
• green cabbage
• sunflower seeds
• duck breast

Homemade Asian Vinaigrette.

Dressing:

• Sriracha Chili Garlic
• Spring Roll Sauce
• Toasted Sesame Oil
• ground Ginger
• Rice Vinegar

The assemblage is pretty self explanatory. Chop up produce and put in a bowl. Remove any fat and skin from the duck breast and then shred and place on salad. The dressing is pretty self-explanatory as well....a scoop of spicy sriracha, a good amount of spring roll sauce, a drizzle of sesame oil, a sprinkle of ground ginger and then rice vinegar to finish it off. Whisk it together and throw it over the salad. And since I like this crunchy salad extra spicy, I always sprinkle cayenne pepper as a final touch. BadaBing...enjoy.

Peace in a Cup.

Making notes for Sundays Dinner. Paula Wolferts' "Food of Morocco" is my bible. 

Enjoying soup out of Collettes beautiful mug, soaking up the sun.

Or should I say Peace in a Mug? I find that everything tastes better when enjoyed out of beautiful vessels...I LOATHE paper plates. Even if I'm having a PB&J I will use a proper plate and a cloth napkin. It takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary.

This mornings class was amazing, a dozen beautiful yoginis who were up for breathing and shouting and meditating. Amazing. After class, the beautiful Collette gifted me one of her mugs (she's a badass potter...check out her stuff @ www.mudlady.net). It is BEAUTIFUL and I appreciate it even more because I took pottery in college and it was the most challenging class of my collegiate career.

After class I had to pick up some produce at Santoris for a 16-dish Moroccan feast that I'm having this weekend. I love that Santoris now has a pretty stellar organic produce selection, so along with my Moroccan goodies I grabbed some organic kale and green collards for lunch.

I wanted to enjoy something delicious out of my new mug, and I wanted to cook up the organic greens...so I decided on a soup...

Greens In Soup:
I started by sautéing half an onion, a clove of garlic and a large carrot (all diced) in a soup pot. Just a little bit of EVOO in the pot. As that was cooking down I washed, de-ribbed, and chopped the kale and collards. The kale takes longer to cook, so I threw that in the pot with some cayenne pepper, caraway seeds and fresh thyme-- I covered the pot and let it cook down for about 5 minutes before adding in the collards and some vegetable broth. I don't like much broth in my green soups, it's more about just flavoring the vegetable for me. So I only put a bit.

As my soup was simmering and flavors were coming together I brewed myself some Sweet Love tea from Rebecca's Apothecary in Colorado. Deeeeelicious.

Sitting outside now, scrubbing notes from my upcoming dinner. Enjoying sunshine, sweet love tea and soup...feeling peace in my heart. ❤