Kale. Again.

(Just so you know, the header sizing issue is about to drive me crazy. But, anyway....)

This one's for all you kale lovers/haters out there.

To sum it up, I found a great new way to tame the stuff. It's about fifty time easier than blanching, and it doesn't even involve my neighbor's iguana!

Interested??? Well check it out:

My CSA pick-up day is Thursday. A few weeks ago, I left for a ten day vacation on a Friday. Needless to say, I was in a mad rush to do something with the ten thousand vegetables sitting on my kitchen table. I gave a messload to my friend Laura, another messload to my friend Betsy, and I did my best to preserve the rest.

Somewhere along the line, I'd heard that you could freeze kale as is. It wouldn't last as long in the freezer as blanched kale, but you could get a good three or four months out of it. Well, I went for it, and it worked like a charm.

I'm not sure how previously frozen kale would work in a cooked dish, but it was just fine in this morning's smoothie. And by just fine, I mean I couldn't taste it.

Here's what I put in my smoothie this morning:

CSA kale, pick-your-own blueberries and strawberries, half of a frozen banana, some almond milk, and a scoop of chia seeds and cacao nibs:

I wish the cacao nibs were fancy chocolate chips, but they're totally not. They're unprocessed cacao beans and then taste one zillion times worse than baking chocolate. But they're good for your brain? I think? Anti-oxidants? I don't know. But I hope they're good for something--since they taste like ass.

As far as the chia seeds go, well, my raw foodist friend taught me about them. They're super high in omega-3s, they're hydrative, and they're good for your joints--something like that.

The good news is, my green smoothies never look green. They only act like they're green. Even my five-year-old son drinks 'em down without a fight: 

Now go toss your kale in a freezer bag. You'll thank me in the winter.