The Balanced Kitchen

Time for food. Time for Life.

Honey Greens: A Taste of Spring!

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Early spring is by far my favorite time of year. I love it when the colors start to creep back in—the grass becomes more vibrant, the evergreen leafs get brighter, and the buds on the trees start to come to life. And then there is always that one day when it all suddenly POPS! As I was driving my kids to school yesterday I suddenly noticed how GREEN everything was looking and I realize that it was that POP day!

That green showing up everywhere always gets me thinking about and craving green vegetables. Sadly, though, salad greens are kind of tough and lame at this time of year, but the sautéing greens, such as kale, mustard, and chard, are all great, so I figured now is the perfect time to share my tried and true honey greens recipe with you!

Honey Greens

This is a spin off on a recipe my brother introduced me to years and years ago that used brown sugar instead of honey. Before having his version I had never really enjoyed chard or mustard greens, but once he put these sweet and sour greens down on my plate I was hooked! This is a recipe I often share with clients who are skeptical of greens and is also a side vegetable that I can (usually) count on my boys to enjoy with gusto. If you have lots of mouths to feed and will be doubling or tripling the recipe, I am a big fan of a mix of chard and mustard greens, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them!


Honey Greens
 
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Recipe type: Vegetable, Side
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • Dash of cayenne (optional)
  • ½ cup onion, chopped
  • 1 bunch of kale, mustard, or chard greens. Stemmed, rinsed, and torn into bite-sized pieces.
  • 1 tablespoon rice or apple cider vinegar
  • ½ tablespoon honey (or more, to taste)
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil on medium-high head in a large frying pan and add a dash of cayenne (if using).
  2. When the oil is hot and shimmering, but not smoking, add the onion and cook until it is translucent.
  3. Turn the heat down to medium and add greens, stirring constantly. When the greens have turned bright “army” green, turn off the heat.
  4. Add the vinegar and some salt and pepper. Stir to mix and then drizzle the honey over and give it one last stir. Serve immediately.

 

No Sugar Banana Bread

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There’s a funny thing I’ve noticed as I have experimented more and more with making my own baked goods and depending less and less on the store-bought versions: you really don’t need all the sugar that the recipes usually call for!

My first inkling of this was when I was introduced to a yogurt cake recipe by my mom that only called for ½ cup of sugar. At first I thought that my mom must have written it down wrong, but I followed the directions anyway and when the cake came out of the oven, it was just as sweet and delicious as I could possibly have wanted. So I decided to start playing around with sugar in recipes. I cut the sugar in cookie recipes in half and no one noticed. I cut down on sweeteners in zucchini bread and no one flinched. I was stunned….

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1-Minute Dessert: Sweet Yogurt Dip

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This recipe starts with a story.  One day over the summer I desperately needed to go to the grocery store and I needed to do a real shop, not just pick a few things up, because our pantry was incredibly bare. Unfortunately, though, school was out and camps had not started yet, which meant I had two boys with me who had no interest in going grocery shopping.  What’s a mom to do? Bribe. So I did. I bribed them with a treat each if they would help me out and not beg and plead for each thing that caught their interest. They agreed. So in we went.

We had made it through the produce section and were entering the bulk foods when my little one cried out, “YOGURT PRETZELS!!” And then my older one cried out, “YOGURT PRETZELS!!” These two kids could not be more different in their taste in food- my younger loves all things protein (read: meat) and my older is a vegetable addict- so this was a rare moment. I was about to say, “Great! Yogurt pretzels can be your treat!” When a little voice inside my head said, “But what is actually in yogurt pretzels?” I had looked it up before and deep down I knew the answer: Not yogurt. Yogurt pretzels do have a tiny, tiny bit of dehydrated yogurt in them, but mostly the coating is confectioner’s sugar. So really what they were asking for was candy and I wasn’t a big fan of that idea. But inspiration struck and I said, “what if we made our OWN yogurt pretzels?!” Luckily they loved the idea….

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My Beloved Millet

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I am going to go out on a limb here and declare it my favorite whole grain (well, it is really a seed, but we’ll just go with it). I know, I know. I’m a radical. Last night I made millet as a side for our dinner. Yet again, I was reminded how much I love it. If you have never had it, the way I like to describe millet is that it is a cross between quinoa and couscous. It tastes sort of like a nutty couscous, but it has the texture, the pop, of quinoa.

The other reason I love millet is that you can use it in so many ways! It is delicious under any sauce or stew where you might use rice, couscous, or quinoa. It is a wonderful side grain. Leftover millet can be turned into a delicious and nutritious breakfast porridge in 3 minutes. It is wonderful mixed into bread doughs and cookie batter, adding an extra crunch. It is amazing mixed into stews and soups, for an interesting texture. It is wonderful in salads (like this salmon, kale, and millet salad I had for lunch today!). You can also cook it into a thicker, polenta-style dish. Really, the possibilities are endless….

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