Victory of Chard

Today I spent my early morning in the garden. We were blessed to have another great rainfall last night so I didn't have to worry about watering my garden. Praise the Lord for rain! Lately, I have been running to keep up with the abundant zucchini production that has been going on in my gardens. I've already pawned off large bags full of squash at my local senior center, traded some at a garage sale, and forced my office professionals to take some home. I've also successfully canned 14 pints of pickled zucchini with my mother at home. Generally, I eat about one small zucchini a day and I still can't keep up with them. But I'm super thankful for the harvest. This morning in addition to my zucchini harvest I had my first harvest of my beautiful purple beans. They are just gorgeous.

As I was leaving the house I decided to harvest a bunch of chard for a possible food sample with kids today. I have decided that I want to focus on introducing the local children that take part in the summer feeding program to real fresh vegetables by doing some fresh veggie tastings. I took a big risk and made the green  power smoothies that I posted about earlier involving rainbow chard. I thought that at least I could dare the kids to try the green smoothies. Most kids enjoy a little challenge. I also attempted to make chard chips. These would be baked chard leaves with a light rub of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. They turned out to be more delicate than usable to I proceeded to crush the crunchy chips up and sprinkle on popcorn like a little green seasoning. Another funky food treat for the kids. And they loved it! I would say it was a double victory because not only did they actually try to bright green smoothie but most of them really liked it. It had enough fruit in it that you really couldn't taste the chard anyway.

I would have to say the best part of my lunchtime experience involved my new favorite child, Andrew. He was about five years old and wore red cowboy boots on the wrong feet. He had jean shorts on and a red plaid shirt. Andrew also had red hair and freckles and he decided to try my chard popcorn. After bluntly telling me that he didn't like it, he was amused with the giant leaves that I had sitting on my table. I had been telling kids they could take a plain chard leaf if they wanted and encouraged the kids to play with the vegetable. He grabbed one of the leaves and walked back to his table and I figured my time with him was over. Little did I know, several moments later he comes back and his sister's are now exclaiming, "He ate the whole leaf. He needs another!" Amazing. Andrew was definitely the highlight of my day as he walked around literally gnawing on a fresh chard leaf, still wet from the overnight rain. My only regret was not being prepared with a camera to record the moment.

Green Power Smoothie

My mother wasn't too excited when I suggested making a swiss chard smoothie. However, after I combined the greatness of beautiful rainbow chard with copious amounts of sweet fruit the flavor was most delightful. Don't be alarmed by the bright green color of this business but certainly try one for yourself!

Into the blender goes:

1 bunch of rainbow chard, stems leaves only (remove the stems)

2 frozen bananas

1/2 - 1 cup Orange Juice or pineapple juice

1/2 - 1 cup peaches (we are still using up peaches from canning 2 years ago)

Heaping spoonful of flax

Handful of ice

I dare you to try it! Try a different fruit if you like.

Tell me how it goes for you. 

Accountability

Tonight I had my very first health coaching session. In cased you missed the memo, I decided to enroll in the health coach certification program from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. This is a year long program and will involve an overview of over 100 different health theories. Additionally, I will learn how to set up my own health coaching practice and from there the possibilities are endless. More to come about this specific program and what I'm learning in the near future. 

For tonight though, I had my first health coaching session via telephone with Debbie, whom resides in Connecticut. She did a health history with me which is the first step in a health coaching consultation. This involved asking me numerous questions regarding my health, family history, and personal satisfaction. It's kinda intense, but definitely a necessary first step. I definitely should have known this was coming, however, I was still speechless when she asked what goals I would like to set before our next session. Here's my honest reply, I suck at making goals. I'm not sure how I became this way, because I really do remember being that person in high school that had it all figured out. I loved writing goals. Now, they terrify me. I suppose this is a fear of failure for me. If I never put it into writing, then I can't possibly fail. Right? However, I need goals, I know I need something to work toward.

So here we go. My goals before my next session in January include: 

1. Write my intentions for the program and make my big announcement to the world, aka, all my contacts about what I am studying and plan to gain from the program. (This is something that is intended to gain support from my personal contacts and let people know just exactly what I am doing.) 
2. Keep a food journal for at least one week. (I've tried this before and always quit. However, I need to be more aware of exactly what I am putting in my body.)

I know that I really need this accountability and I'm excited to see how I can equip myself with the tools to help others make healthy lifestyle choices. I've got to start with myself, so here we go.

One of the questions during the health history was what do you typically eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner. My breakfast response was very easy because I generally always eat oatmeal however, my response for lunch and dinner was a bit difficult. I mentioned that I make a lot of soup and eat it for long periods of time. In honor of that response, I whipped up another batch of random soup.

Tonight's delight: Curried Red Lentil Soup

Containing: Onion, carrots, red bell pepper, garlic, red lentils, swiss chard, chicken broth, mixed curry spice blend, lemon juice, S&P

Wouldn't you know after I took several bites, I realized I had added a bit much of the cayenne pepper and added a bit of plain yogurt to cool it down a bit. I ate it with sourdough masa crackers. Pretty delish and perfect on this cool evening!

Supper Club

I hosted my first Supper Club gathering this week. It was a lot of fun and a really great way to join with other lovely single ladies for a delightful dinner. I decided that a supper club would be a great way to cook great food and enjoy it with others so I invited several ladies that I know enjoy great food and would enjoy meeting some new people.

We enjoyed a lovely fall minestrone. Courtesy of Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food.

Sauteed onions, celery, carrots, garlic

Swiss Chard fresh from the garden

Added butternut squash, water and simmered

White Northern beans & pasta

Grand Finale!

Quality cheese

I splurged and bought this $8 chunk of cheese this weekend at the farmers' market. It's a new cheese for the Jason Weibe cheese-makers and it's super sharp. It's also fabulous!

It was perfect on top of my scrambled eggs and swiss chard for breakfast Sunday!