Kale green smoothie

The boys in our house have a special nightly tradition that I have been meaning to post on the blog for some time. This is a picture of our other cat Will and he likes to make an appearance every now and then when there is action in the kitchen.

I started making green smoothies a few months ago as I was reading about eating more raw foods. I was sold on the idea of green smoothies almost instantly and hoped that one day I might be able to get Zoey's dad to try a sip. Well, not only did I get Zoey's dad to try a green smoothie, but I somehow turned him into a green smoothie monster! His favorite leafy green to use in the smoothie is kale which is great because we never really had kale in the house before we started making these smoothies.

First up: the sniffing. We tried to get the cats to give the kale a sniff for the blog but they were not up for the challenge. This is the closest that Will would come to the kale.


Zoey is a little braver and came up for a sniff- good kitty!



Here is what the smoothie looks like right before it all gets blended:



Kale Green Smoothies

Ingredients:

4-6 leaves of fresh kale
1 cup frozen blueberries (although in Zoey's dad's instructions he told me to say that he adds 1 cup plus 4-5 berries)
1 1/2 cups of vanilla light soymilk
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 banana

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to the blender and blend. The longer that you blend the happier you will be, these aren't quite as good if you underblend and end up with little bits of kale in your teeth.

This recipe makes 2 glasses of green smoothie drink. We used to each get a glass but the smell of kale is still freaking me out so Zoey's dad is happy to drink both glasses- I told you that I created a monster!

Easy vegetarian chili

Last Sunday Zoey and I "watched" football while also creating one of my favorite easy vegetarian chili recipes. I couldn't tempt Zoey to do much sniffing because the sun was out and catching some sun rays is pretty much top priority during the winter in Oregon.

Luckily she chose to catch her rays from the kitchen table chair, so technically she was still in the kitchen with me while I was cooking.

For some reason this chili recipe became a Superbowl tradition for me. Even though last weekend wasn't the Superbowl, I got the craving for this chili and decided to give it a try without onions. For your benefit I will add onions to the recipe, but I made this without them and it was still good.


Easy Vegetarian Chili (A Superbowl tradition in Zoey's house)

Ingredients:
1/2 onion, diced
3 cans of beans (I used 1 can of kidney beans, 1 can of black beans and 1 can of garbanzo beans)
2 bell peppers (I used red and yellow)
1 can diced tomatoes
chili powder to taste
cumin to taste (if you like cumin)

Directions:

1. If you are using an onion you can saute that first for a few minutes in your soup pot.
2. Add all other ingredients and bring to a slow boil.
3. Simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Your chili is ready to eat.

I told you this was easy!

We served this chili over barley because Zoey's dad has been begging me to make barley lately. Normally I just serve this chili plain or with some baked potato chips.

We ate this batch of chili in about 2 days so I will be ready to make it again next Sunday for the main event!

It's a bear!

In case you haven't noticed, the food posts around here have been scarce the past couple of months and I am not one to make excuses, but Zoey and I actually have a pretty good one this time.

Turns out that Zoey is going to be a big sister! Zoey's dad and I found out that we are expecting our first non-feline baby this summer. We are very excited!

Zoey's dad picked this outfit out the day that we found out I was pregnant and I think it is so cute that I just had to share it here.

Unfortunately, morning sickness had me in its grips for the better part of the holidays so I didn't indulge in all the cooking that I would have liked to do. And I figured that no one wanted to see pictures of Zoey sniffing saltines and orange juice for 2 months (don't worry I ate a few other things too).

Now the worst of that phase has passed and I am ready to get back in the kitchen. My food tastes have changed a bit but currently the only foods that send me running for the hills are onions, sweet potatoes and kale. Tomorrow I agreed to "watch" 3 hours of football, so I am thinking of cooking up some onion-free chili or maybe my first vegan gumbo.