It seems like every January, when we ring in the New Year, many of us resolve to eat better, be more active, and make wiser decisions in order to be healthy. This year, I resolve to not resolve! That’s right. I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, but lifestyle changes instead. Since we live on a farm, we eat pretty healthy and don’t consume many foods that aren’t good for us. We don’t drink pop, we don’t have fast food joints to frequent, and ordering take out just doesn’t happen too often for us. This said, I’m making a concentrated effort to get back into my exercise routine and though we eat lots of veg, I’m adding even MORE into our meals. More kale, more leafy greens, etc. Fortunately for me, my husband and little one are on board, as they love their veg as much as I do. I’d love to add more quinoa, but it seems I’m the only one who loves it in this house! The others will eat it, but it’s not their favourite.
Another thing I’m going to continue to do is add chia seeds, flax, etc to everything. I add them to my baking, salads, oatmeal, smoothies, etc. Little One and hubby just don’t realize it most of the time.
Over the holidays, my aunt served us an amazing meal and I inhaled her kale salad! I totally did! I had two helpings of salad and when I returned to the Island, I found myself craving my aunt’s kale salad! I’m on a salad craze t hese days and have been eating either kale or spinach salads every day!
You won’t believe how easy my aunt’s Kale Salad is to make!
It’s pretty much the same salad I make at home. My aunt’s salad only has 4 ingredients. I add nuts and sometimes fruit to mine (pear or apple). Sometimes I use my homemade balsamic vinaigrette and other times just a little lemon juice and maple syrup. I love that my aunt just uses straight up lemon juice. So simple. So refreshing. So good.
I absolutely love kale. I love cooking with it, but most of all, I love eating kale raw. Little One loves it when I make her kale chips. Kale chips and sweet potato chips are the chips that Little One knows. Oh, when making kale salad, if you’re trimming the kale stems, don’t throw them into the compost! I keep mine and use it in soups or for other cooking purposes.
I’m not exactly sure of my aunt’s exact salad recipe, but here’s my adaptation –I’m going on memory and taste. Love how forgiving this salad is and that you can tweak it in so many ways and it always turns out delicious, refreshing, and healthy!
- 1 large bunch of kale (or 10 cups of kale), washed, stemmed, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced
- ½ cup - 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- ½ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- Wash, stem, and cut kale into bite sized pieces
- Slice onion
- In a salad bowl, add kale and onion. Toss. Sprinkle feta cheese and drizzle with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Toss and serve.
Here’s another healthy, delicious dish for your family:
My Veggie ‘Noodles’ with Sesame Dressing. There’s eggplant, zucchini, carrot, cucumber (you can also add red, green, yellow, orange peppers). Sesame dressing has soy, sesame oil, ginger, garlic…
If you’re looking for more ideas on how to make your life more delicious, visit the Life Made Delicious page for some scrumptious inspiration!
*Photo credit for the kale salad: Jey Flores of Refrescante Foods. She’s also my cousin and just started a blog!
Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation. The opinions in this blog are my own.
I would love to try these two salads. They look so tasty and good for you. Awesome!!!
That looks amazing! I love kale and appreciate the recipe for an easy salad.
Both recipes look amazing! Looking forward to trying the kale salad tomorrow night.
Both salad look good. I have never tried Kale but it is on my list of foods to try this year. Maybe I will try Kale Chips first…lol
Thanks for sharing this simple and tasty recipe! Believe it or not, I’ve never had kale so this was a great first try. I’ll definitely have it again 🙂
C, Both recipes look fantastic (although I would swap out the feta, my personal preference)! The second salad looks so good too. A few squestion – is the eggplant in the shredded veggie salad raw? do you include the skin? Is is the big fat eggplant or the skinny kind?
Canine, my aunt just told me that she puts olive oil with the lemon juice. I just use lemon juice (love it just like that). I sometimes use olive oil. Sometimes balsamic.
I like how simple that is, just olive oil and lemon juice. I like your other dressing with lemon juice and honey. Very tasty!
In the second salad, all the veg are raw. I know that some articles say that raw eggplant is not good for you and can harm you. I left the skin on and used my rotary peeler to make thin ribbons. We like it that way. We’re still alive. Hahaha! It was the big fat kind. Oooh. Now that you’ve got me thinking of the skinny kind, I want to make tortang talong! Ha!
Thank you for clarifying C! I want a ribbon peeler now, haha! I was a madwoman in the kitchen today, cuting, peeling, chopping and preparing veggies and fruits and our meal(s) for the week, plus 10-bean crockpot soup. Trying to do less meat as well (inspired by your Meatless Mondays posts). 🙂
Simple .. no more excuses not to eat your veggies 🙂
So true, right Jenalin? 🙂 It’s sooooooo good too!