Oh Hail the Mighty Kale

Let me tell you, there are some magical qualities to dark leafy greens and kale is the king of the greens and is on the list of the top 10 healthiest foods. One cup contains more than 5 grams of fiber and only 43 calories as well as your daily requirement for vitamins A and C, and 134 milligrams of calcium.

There are several different varieties of kale so experiment and try them all. Look for kale that in unbolted and uniformly colored. Store your kale unwashed in a plastic bag in your refrigerator. It will usually last 3-4 days.

Kale can be cooked in many different ways like steaming, blanching, sauteing, and baking. It can be added to soups or made into a side dish. One of my favorite ways to enjoy kale is in a simple kale chip. These are so good that I find them addictive. Seriously, I can sit down and eat a whole bunch of these babies. The kids even like them!!!

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Strip the leaves off of the stems and cut into small pieces. You don't want them to be too big because otherwise they will not get crispy.
3. In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.
4. Add the kale and massage with your hands to coat each leaf.
5. Place onto a cookie sheet and bake until crispy, about 12 minutes. I like to remove the crispy pieces of kale along the edges of the sheet and then put the rest back in to crisp up otherwise you end up with some crispy and some soggy chips.

Options

• Acid is key to the deliciousness of the chip. You can substitute lime juice or a bit of vinegar. I like lime. Have a fun experiment and let me know how it goes for you.
• Salt- I find these to be a bit salty but that's probably because I have been on a salt free diet since December. I either reduce the salt or cut it out all together. If I do that later, I add some other spices to add a bit of zip like Mrs. Dash or chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika.

Inspirational Music on Monday

Here is a fun one!

Fun Friday

Last week I was reading The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaola with my son Aidan. It's all about little Tommy's passion for art as a young boy and his quest to become an artist. Tommy is always drawing and coloring and sharing his artwork with others. He is excited to go to school and have an opportunity to learn to be a "real" artist.

When we finished the story I told my son that the story could be about his mom. I could really relate to the little boy's story and his great love of art. You see, when I was little, I loved to draw! I used to draw, and draw, and color, and color some more.

When we would go out for dinner in the Greek coffee shops (which was a lot) my favorite thing to do was to flip over the paper place mat and create my masterpiece. My mom told me that I would sometimes finish my drawings and go over to another table and give them away.

The best times of my high school education were my art classes. I took them all and loved every minute of them. Of course there were a couple of kids in my class that were phenomenal artists and I figured I could never be as good as them so I decided to become a teacher instead of an artist. I thought about becoming an art teacher, but everyone knows they aren't in demand so I dropped that too.

Over the years I have dabbled in art here and there with drawing, painting, photography, and collage. I even spent some time as a mosaic artist but I never really felt confident enough to really give it a go.

It's funny how we can let our fears stand in our way of doing the things we love. I think that would be an even better children's story; how to feel the fear and do it anyway.

As part of my Fun Friday quest, I headed off to an art show at the Water Street Studios in Batavia. It is a really great place with all kinds of artists working and showing their art. It was nice to do something out of the ordinary.

I can't say I wasn't a little pulled to start creating some art of my own, maybe take a painting class and just have some fun with color. Maybe I will...next Friday! :o)

What's the one thing you would do if you knew you couldn't fail?

Thankful Thursday

Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you. -- Eileen Caddy

In an effort to share a bit of the joy and laughter Eileen speaks of above, this blog will be dedicated to moments of gratitude each Thursday.

I invite you to share the things you find yourself most thankful for throughout the week. Just send note, a photograph or both to me by noon on Wednesdays to be featured on Thankful Thursday.

If you didn't get a chance to submit your thankful moment this week, don't let that stop you. Just leave a comment down below. I am so excited to be able to share these special moments with all of you!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am so very thankful for the relationship that I have with my daughter.
Laura

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am thankful for my mom, the sweetest, kindest, most generous, free spirit on earth!! She rocks!

Kelly
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday is my day to see my grandkids, which brings me a lot of joy.Their funny stories and antics and their enthusiasm about life in general is so refreshing.

Bryce, who is 6, just started T-ball for the summer. I drove him to practice last week and stayed for awhile to watch. The coach had the boys line up along a fence to talk to them. One little guy starting harassing Bryce, grabbing his arm. Bryce kept telling him to stop but the kid was paying no mind. The coach wasn't saying anything either.

I turned to talk to someone behind me for a minute and when I turned back, there was Bryce sitting on top of the antagonist. All you could see of the boy was his little head and arms flailing about. Both boys were laughing. At that point the coach finally seperated them.

I chuckle everytime I think about that scene. Maybe the big leagers could learn something from the littleguys.

Bev
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am so grateful for a wonderful day of health coaching some of the most amazing women! And I get to do it all over again today! Yay me!!!

Michelle

Life Lessons From American Idol

If you watch American Idol, you're familiar with Lee Dewyze from Chicago. If you don't watch the show, I am including some videos for you.

Lee is a sweet guy with a really great voice. I have always liked him and have been rooting for him from the beginning. The thing about Lee is that he came on the show with a bit of a self esteem and confidence problem. He didn't believe in himself and he didn't realize how good he was. Check out this video to watch one of his earlier songs.





Pretty good, right? You can hear the nice quality of his voice but it's a bit lackluster. He looks scared to death and not really sure of himself. You can see it on his face, you can feel it in his performance.


Each week the judges would tell Lee that he has a great voice and that he just needs to believe in himself, to have some confidence, and to really allow himself to shine. It was as if Lee was hearing the words but not allowing them in. He wasn't owning it.


Then came his performance of Treat Her Like a Lady. It was like a different person was standing there in front of us. You could see the confidence on his face, he had a bit of swagger and he sounded amazing.



I felt it. I knew that something had shifted in him and he was believing in himself. It gave me goosebumps. I turned to my family with a big smile on my face and said, "He did it. He finally believes in himself!" Simon said to him, "This is the night that your life may have changed forever."







What a difference some self confidence can make!




I have been working with an amazing group of women who are currently going through the program at IIN. These women are bright, beautiful, healthy, strong, and so much more. They are going to be fantastic health coaches and the world is lucky to have them.




Some of these ladies remind me of Lee a little bit. They don't necesarily believe in themselves. They are afraid to put themselves out there and they worry that they don't know enough to go out and start seeing clients. Each week I tell them how they know as much as they need to know and that they are going to be fantastic. Sometimes they hear me and sometimes they don't.




Gaining self confidence is a journey and I know they are on their way. My greatest wish for them is to have that moment when it all comes together; to know that they are the amazing women that they are; to see themselves as others see them and to believe in themselves.




What about you? What area of your life could benefit from a self confidence boost? Maybe you're not the greatest singer in the world but I know for a fact that you have something you are good at, something that comes natural to you, or something that other people admire about you. How do I know? Because everyone has something. We are all here with something to share.




How would your life be different if you started believing in yourself? What are you waiting for? Start your journey today!

Cooking Made Easy

Photo by Emily Kovache

I was working with one of my clients last week and we were talking about getting dinner on the table. She is a single, working mom who is stretched thin trying to get everything done and often it is dinner that gets pushed aside.

She is tired of ordering take out or popping a pre-packaged meal in the oven and she really wants to give her son healthy meals but she can't seem to find the time to dig into her cookbooks, find recipes, shop for the long lists of ingredients, and put it all together. I can totally relate!

I gave her some tips on how to make dinner time a little easier and she said she felt like a weight was lifted off of her when we finished up the call. She felt like the pressure to make difficult meals was released and she was excited to start simplifying dinner time.

So what did I tell her? Here are some of the tips I shared with her:

1. Explore the Spice Aisle- There are some great spice mixtures available today that really make cooking so easy. Try out some new flavors, sprinkle them on your meats, veggies, and grains and viola, dinner is done. I just got my Penzey Spice catalog and they have some new summertime mixes that look really good. One of my favorites is Herbs de Provence. I sprinkle that on a piece of white fish with some lemon slices, throw it in the oven to bake and it is delicious!

2. Dust off your Crock-Pot- If you haven't tried slow cooking, you've got to give it a try. It is so easy and can be so good. I love making my pasta sauce in my crock pot and these days I've been just throwing in whatever I have and it's actually good. My current favorite is chicken breast with chopped up veggies like onion, peppers, and mushrooms. I throw in a couple of can of Muir salt free, fire roasted tomatoes and a can of tomatoe sauce and it is so good. I serve it with a veggie and some brown rice.

3. Cook Once, Eat Twice (or Three times)- When I make a pot of rice for a side dish, I make a BIG pot and I use the leftovers for another meal later in the week. You can make a rice salad for lunch, fried rice with loads of veggies, or even a nice breakfast rice porridge with fruit, cinnamon, and milk. I also make extra chicken breast or fish fillets so I can heat them up for lunch or chop them up in a salad. In fact, every meal I make has leftovers!

4. Remember K.I.S.S- Who says dinner has to be some elaborate meal? It is so easy to grill up a chicken breast and make a salad. It's delicious and healthy. You can throw some fish in a baking pan and while it cooks prepare a salad or a side of veggies.

5. Package Your Dinner- I like to make fish packets. I throw some veggies in parchment paper, put a nice piece of fish on top, sprinkle with spices and lemon, fold it up and bake it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I let the kids pick what they want on theirs and they get to fold it up. They love opening it up and eating their own package. The best part is it's a one dish meal and there is no clean up. Just throw the paper away!

Inspirational Music on Monday

In an effort to share inspirational music with you, I would am posting a video I created a couple of years ago. It is a beautiful song called Second Chance by Miten Premal. I hope you enjoy it.