Kale Brown Rice Casserole

If you're looking for more ways to add greens to you diet, this is a great way to to do it--either for breakfast/lunch, or as a side dish for dinner!

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked brown rice (I used seasoned brown rice that was cooked in chicken or vegetable stock)
1 cup kale (or other green such as spinach or Swiss chard--I like dinosaur kale) minced in the food processor
1 1/4 cups milk
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes (I skipped this)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)

Preheat over to 375 degrees. I shred both my cheese and mince my kale in the food processor.

(I used a lot of that cheese for other recipes!)

Combine brown rice and minced kale, then put into a baking dish.

I layered half the cheese in the middle of the casserole.

Combine milk, eggs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper (and nutritional yeast if using) and pour over the kale brown rice mixture. Bake for 40 minutes or until firm.

Recipe adapted from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson.

Fast Easy Potato Salad with Picky Eater Option

My kids are sometimes very willing to try different things, and other times not. For some reason, they are very picky about a food that most kids have no problem eating... potatoes. For instance, my daughter loves mashed potatoes, and my son won't touch them (maybe a texture thing? He doesn't like mushy foods...) He prefers very simple baked potatoes, which my daughter isn't excited about.

As for the adults in the family, we like variety, and we'll eat potatoes any old way, but what I really like is a FAST recipe, because potatoes take some time to make, especially if you want them to taste really good! I can put this recipe together in 45 minutes beginning to end and it's so good that I've made it twice in the past week.

I found and tried this recipe from Southern Living Magazine, and it worked really well for us. Here is what I did to make it work for the entire family:

Ingredients:

For the potatoes:
2 pounds small fingerling potatoes (I used red potatoes), halved or quartered
1 tsp salt

For the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon whole grain mustard
2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (I omitted this, but if you like heat...)

Instructions:

As the recipe states, wash, quarter, and place the red potatoes in cold water with salt. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for 15 minutes. Immediately strain potatoes and place in a bowl to cool to room temperature for an additional 15 minutes. (You don't want them to get too cooked/soft.)

EXTRA STEP: Remove a portion of the cooked potatoes from the main bowl. Mix with a bit of salted butter and keep warm while preparing the rest of dinner (or reheat them before serving... or serve them room temperature as the Plainest Potato Salad Ever). Serve to the picky eaters!

While preparing potatoes, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, parsley, salt, pepper(s), and garlic in a small bowl and whisk together.

When ready to serve, add preferred amount of dressing to potatoes. Note: you will probably have more dresssing than you need, so you can use the extra, as a topping for fish, or steamed asparagus, or just save it to use as salad dressing on a salad!