A Full Measure of Happiness

Peanut Butter Fudge Popcorn

April 17, 2012

We had friends over last night, and I wanted to make a sweet snack that wasn’t incredibly unhealthy but still tasted like dessert.

Welcome to my life, peanut butter fudge popcorn. We will be lifelong friends.

I found this recipe on Foodgawker from A Cozy Kitchen and adapted it just a little bit; but the basics were the same. The result? Chewy, sweet and slightly salty popcorn-fudge hybrid.

Fritz doesn’t really like peanut butter in desserts, but he proclaimed this a delicious snack.

So there you have it.

Peanut Butter Fudge Popcorn

2/3 C popcorn kernels, popped (or 2 bags plain popcorn, popped)
1/3 C honey
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla

This recipe is pretty easy. I popped the popcorn in a little bit of olive oil in my Whirley-Pop (one of my favorite food related gifts to date) and set it aside in a gigantic bowl (a Super Bowl, if you will).

Meanwhile, in a small pan, bring the honey, salt, vanilla, and sugar to a boil. Let it bubble for just a few minutes until it turns a slightly darker shade.

Mix in the peanut butter and vanilla and stir until the peanut butter melts.

Pour that bad boy right over the top of the popcorn and stir it in.

The peanut butter fudgy deliciousness will clump together, but just keep stirring it around and mixing and eventually it will all get evenly distributed.

I think Henry has Prader-Willi Syndrome. He keeps popping up out of nowhere whenever there’s food around.

I just let it cool down inside the bowl; some pieces stuck together but the overall consistency is fudgy (it doesn’t harden too much), so it wasn’t a big deal to break up the clumps to eat ‘em.

I made a second batch of savory popcorn that I’ll share sometime later.

As a nice little aside, popcorn is definitely one of the things I love to always keep in the house, because it’s really easy to whip up a batch or two, flavor it however you want, and have a (okay, not totally) healthy snack that tastes delicious.

And to any New Yorkers out there, how amazing has this weather been?! So perfect, though it’s definitely starting to get a little chilly right now. Henry spent a fair amount of the day laying in the sunshine, reading the newspaper, and packing up his toys for the big move.

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Stuffed Breakfast Tomatoes

April 15, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 15, 2012

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I go to bed excited about having breakfast the next morning. I get a little sad after I finish breakfast ’cause I have to wait a whole ‘nother day before I have it again.

So clearly I can get pretty excited when I have a fun idea for something new. I found this recipe on Foodgawker the other day and just happened to have all the ingredients handy. Plus, I’ve been trying to eat more vegetables lately, and including them in breakfast is a good way to start.

Stuffed Breakfast Tomatoes (adapted from Pip & Ebby; serves 1)

1 ripe tomato (a big one, not a Roma or the like)
1 handful spinach
1/4 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 egg
1/4 C shredded cheese–I used mozzarella, but go with what you like!
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the top of the tomato off and scoop out the insides to make a bowl; set aside.

Over medium heat, sauté the garlic and diced onion until soft. Add the spinach and stir around until it wilts.

Now, assemble!

I used half the spinach mixture (really pack it in there–you can squish a lot of volume into a tomato), then half the cheese.

Top with the remaining half of the spinach and break the egg gently into the top.

Cover with the rest of the cheese.

Bake on the middle rack for about fifteen minutes, then turn on broil for a few minutes until the cheese is browned and the egg is fully cooked through.

I loved this! I baked it for a bit longer, and my yolk was fully cooked through. In the future, I’d probably prefer it with a slightly runny yolk, but that’s all person preference.

I was also not careful scooping out the tomato guts, and cracked through the tomato in a few places at the very top. Once it started cooking through, it split down a few of the cracks and collapsed. Moral of the story: don’t be like me.

Still super delicious, though, and very filling. Kind of like an inside-out omelet!

We have been packing and painting and doing lots of moving stuff so that the next two weeks aren’t hellish, and got a lot of stuff done today. As we are slowly emptying closets, Henry is happy to find new places to snuggle.

Also, don’t forget about the Cascal giveaway! Just go to this post and leave a comment for your chance to try some seriously awesome natural fermented (non-alcoholic) sodas–it’s open until Wednesday evening!

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.fullmeasureofhappiness.com/2012/04/15/stuffed-breakfast-tomatoes/

Cascal Giveaway

April 14, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 14, 2012

Today was super busy. Here’s what I learned about moving since last time I moved here:

I have way more stuff than I used to;
Do-It-Yourself projects always take a minimum of five times longer than you plan for;
This apartment is going to get very, very messy before it gets emptied;
Henry is acting out about the change by being very bad and then sitting around looking very cute.

Isn’t that fun?

We stripped two shelves of five, count them, five layers of paint today. This entailed lots of muscle work and Fritz going to town with a sander. I also cleaned some seriously gorgeous wrought iron lawn furniture that I will be painting tomorrow and putting inside (you heard me!), yep, inside our next apartment.

Hopefully we’ll get everything painted tomorrow and I’ll show you some before and after pictures.

On a more fun note, I recently received an offer from Cascal to review some of their sodas and offer a giveaway if I liked them. I’m not a soda drinker, so I was all set to reject their offer, but then saw that their sodas are fermented–fun!

Cascal is a “natural” soda, created with about 35% natural and fermented fruit juices for a more sophisticated (downright fancy) taste. They are low in calories (between 60-80 per 12-oz drink), and created for foodies, with suggestions for food pairing printed on each can.

Fermented but not alcoholic, by the way. Also caffeine- and gluten-free.

I had to try it.

The cans came in a cute little bag, but they were definitely a little banged up. Probably due to shipping?

Fritz and I loved these sodas. As I said before, I don’t often drink sodas (not a fan of those empty calories), so I probably wouldn’t buy these for myself on the reg. Fritz definitely would, though. He drank four of their flavors in one day (I tried each flavor, too), and probably have them every day if we had them around. I would definitely buy these for a party, though, or to mix with drinks or on a special occasion.

They have five flavors: Crisp White (pear, apricot, and magnolia); Ripe Rouge (cherry, rose, and chocolate); Fresh Tropical (mango, jasmine, and kaffir lime); Bright Citrus (lemongrass, tangerine, and pineapple); and Berry Cassis (black currant, tangerine, and lemon). My favorite was Ripe Rouge, and I think Fritz almost cried tears of joy when he tasted the Bright Citrus flavor.

Aren’t those such cool flavor combinations? They were the perfect balance of refreshing and sweet without being too sweet. If you want to check them out further, go to their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter.

And you can try them too! Cascal will send a sampler package to one reader that I will randomly choose on Wednesday the 18th by 5:00 PM. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below! (Sorry, only open to US residents).

Yep, that’s it.

And if you come over and help me pack, I’ll buy you a drink.

Just kidding…kind of.

36 comments

Permanent link to this article: http://www.fullmeasureofhappiness.com/2012/04/14/cascal-giveaway/

Grilled Eggplant Parm Sandwiches

April 11, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 11, 2012

I had an eggplant and some mozzarella in the fridge, just dyin’ to be used up. In an attempt to distract a patient of mine at 7:30 this morning from feeling like his ACL was going to explode while I was forcibly flexing his knee two degrees more than usual, I asked him what he would make.

Eggplant parm, obviously.

I told him that was way too obvious, and to try again.

Grill it!

Less obvious, still delicious, and healthy to boot! Plus, you all know how much I love the grill (…a lot, in case you don’t actually know).

However, I love the grill considerably less when I heat it up 15 minutes before Fritz gets home, only for Fritz to discover that it ran out of propane when he headed out to the deck, tongs in hand. Luckily Fritz knew some secret man trick to unscrew the propane tank and just screw it in again to have it magically refill itself.

Gotta love those secret man tricks!

I made these grilled sandwiches with tomato slices, warmed on the grill, but next time I would substitute the slices for a good ol’ spoonful of tomato-basil or garlic-tomato sauce to spice up the flavor. Even with just the plain tomato slices, though, these sandwiches were delicious, and Fritz and I both ate two. Easily.

Grilled Eggplant Parm Sandwiches

1 eggplant (makes 6-8 sandwiches)
2-3 T tomato sauce per sandwich
1-2 slices of mozzarella cheese per sandwich
whole-wheat buns

This recipe really couldn’t be easier.

Peel the eggplant, and slice it thickly (think a little over a half an inch thick). Season with salt and pepper.

With the grill on medium-high heat, grill the eggplant for a few minutes until softened, with beautiful grill lines. Flip over, top with the mozzarella, and move to a cooler side of the grill with the lid shut to finish cooking and melt the cheese. The eggplant probably took about 10-15 minutes to cook completely.

Plop the eggplant on a bun, add a healthy spoonful of sauce (and some tomato slices, if you like) and enjoy!

The eggplant and mozzarella combo make this sandwich nice and juicy, without being too soggy. When I switch to sauce next time, I’ll toast the bun first.

I served these with a mixture of sweet potato and regular fries, baked in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes until crispy.

I really wanted to have brussel sprouts, but my landlord was having people come over to look at the apartment and I thought I’d spare them the smell. Tomorrow, however, is a different story.

Everytime I buy an eggplant, I put off making it for the longest time, but I really love it once we finally get around to having it.

I used to hate when my parents made me eat eggplant burgers–and now, I love ‘em. Interesting how we come full-circle sometimes, ya know?

What were some foods that you hated as a child that you like now? My parents never made me eat tomatoes after I ralphed all over the dinner table the first time they made me eat them. I still don’t love them raw (though I will eat them), but cooked is a whole ‘nother story.

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Easter

April 9, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 9, 2012

I really wanted to blog a recipe today–it has been a few days since I wrote one up. I made some “granola bars” on Saturday that I planned on posting, but they honestly just weren’t that great. I think the texture was a little off for me, and I’m trying to make sure I focus on quality, not just quantity, of what I post.

So instead, you get to see a few pictures from my weekend at home. One of our requests was that we visit “The Lake”, as it is called in our household. Skaneateles lake is a gorgeous, crystal clear, blue (and drinkable, if you wanted) lake about 20 minutes from my parents’ house.

My family always goes there to hang out–we grab coffee (and possibly an ice cream or cookie or two), sit on the bench next to the lake, and people watch. It’s also the site of some of my favorite wedding photos:

I love my family (even though I was missing some sisters and my mom during this trip–quality time with Dad and Jordi was whole-heartedly appreciated).

And you know I love this guy:

Most of the time, anyway.

I promised Jordi I would include the duck picture she took:

Quite a talented photographer, hm?

Thanks for a fun Easter weekend, Dad!

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.fullmeasureofhappiness.com/2012/04/09/easter/

Chicken Paprikash and Nokedli

April 5, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 5, 2012

I actually can’t believe I haven’t posted this before.

This is one of my ultimate favorite foods. That comfort food you have loved your whole life, but still only eat once a year if you are lucky.

It’s a Hungarian recipe, and has been passed down (and probably changed significantly) from my Dad’s side of the family. I probably make it much differently than my mom does, who learned it from my Dad’s mom (hi Nana!), and I can tell you that although the taste is very similar, the presentation is very different from that which I ate in Hungary with Dad on our whirlwind and infamous tour of Hungarian cuisine.

Whew. But it’s still freakin’ delicious, and you should probably make it.

Chicken Paprikash (serves 6-8 people) (I can’t make it in smaller amounts) (I like to have leftovers for days)

2 lbs chicken (traditionally, you would use drumsticks and thighs. I used drumsticks and a big, fat, chicken breast to health it up a little)
1 large or two small onions
2-3 T paprika
salt and pepper
6 C water (this is a gross estimation–really, I just poured until I felt like I had enough)
1/4 C flour
1/2-3/4 C sour cream (or full-fat plain yogurt, which is what I used)
8 eggs (what!)
1 1/2 C flour (again, gross estimation)
1 t salt
1 t baking powder

Speaking of chicken, I used the Gold’n Plump chicken drumsticks I was sent (for free!) to review. They were delicious–but honestly not discernible from other chicken drumsticks in this type of recipe. It may have been a more obvious difference if they were eaten more for their own merits.

This recipe is not as difficult as you would think, seeing as how I make it so rarely. However, it does use up a lot of dishes, which gets old.

To make the chicken paprikash, season (generously) the chicken with salt, pepper, and the paprika.

Brown the chicken over medium heat on all sides, and cover with diced onions.

Allow the onions to soften.

Pour water (you could use half chicken broth if you wanted) over the top until the chicken and onions are covered. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to low. Allow the mixture to simmer for about 30 minutes, until the chicken is fall-off-the-bone delicious. Remove the chicken and allow to cool. Put the 1/4 C flour in a medium bowl and slowly add small amounts of the broth until you form a thick paste. Keep mixing and adding more broth until the “roux” (not really a roux, but close) is thin enough to add directly back to the pot. Gotta thicken it up a little bit, ya know?

Once the chicken has cooled a bit, remove the bones and other stuff you don’t want to eat, and return the chicken to the pot.

Cover the pot and set it aside (I took it off the burner to cool so I could later add yogurt) while you make the nokedli.

Bring a large stock pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, mix the eggs, salt, and baking powder together.

Slowly start to add flour, mixing constantly, until you reach the consistency of thick pancake/brownie batter and few lumps remain.

To make the nokedli, drop spoonfuls of batter into the boiling water. They’ll float almost immediately to the top, but give them a few minutes to cook, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain. This amount of nokedli will take a few batches.

Once the paprikash is cooled enough, add the yogurt or sour cream.

I used yogurt this time (what I had in the fridge) and it tasted just slightly different from the traditional version–still amazing, but slightly different.

To serve, scoop some nokedli into a bowl.

Top with the chicken paprikash. Sprinkle with paprika and enjoy!

I’m seriously so sad that I finished this batch at lunch today. As usual, we ran out of nokedli before we ran out of the chicken paprikash, so I just used some farfalle as a substitution–delish!

The creaminess of the paprikash with the eggy dumplings and sweet paprika is heaven to my mouth.

Makes me proud to be even a little bit Hungarian.

I’d love to hear any variations of how this has been/should be made! Who knows what I’ve changed up over the years without realizing it.

I guess we can always ask the chef:

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Curried Cauliflower with Pineapple and Coconut Rice

April 3, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 3, 2012

So…Fritz and I are officially moving! We just decided minutes ago, so to my friends and family who are insulted to have not been told, I’m sorry. It just happened.

We were so torn between staying in our current apartment and moving to a new place with some better amenities (mostly a dishwasher and laundry facilities), but when we visited the apartment for the second time that we had been considering with some wariness (it’s a basement apartment), we were quickly convinced. It’s bigger, way more storage, better kitchen appliances, no obnoxious dog/boyfriend downstairs, and freshly painted and renovated. Worth the lower ceilings in most of the rooms, we decided. Oh, and it’s cheaper than where we live now, which is important…since we are still (very) poor students.

So in a month we’ll be packing up and moving out.

I’m not doing laundry ’till then. Ha!

Here’s a quick, easy, and delicious dinner or hearty side-dish recipe for ya.

Curried Cauliflower with Pineapple and Coconut Rice

1 head cauliflower
1 t curry powder
1 C brown rice
2 C water
1 can light coconut milk
4-5 pineapple rings
salt and pepper to taste

So few ingredients for a dish that was so easy and delicious!

Bring the water to a boil in a medium pot, then add the brown rice and reduce to medium-low. Once it starts to become tender and most of the water is absorbed, throw in the can of light coconut milk and continue to simmer until most of the liquid is gone. Add more water as needed if it boils off too early.

Preheat the oven to 350, and lightly spray a baking dish or cookie sheet with canola or olive oil. Rinse the cauliflower and slice it into thick sections, about 1/2″-1″ (it’s okay if some pieces break those off–you can throw those on the sheet, too). Dust with the curry powder and a little salt and pepper.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until tender.

Meanwhile, grill the pineapple rings over high heat until you get some nice dark grill marks, then slice.

Once the rice is cooked, toss in the cauliflower, top with the pineapple and season with salt and pepper to taste.

If you wanted, you could easily add some shrimp or chicken to make this a heartier dish. I think I preferred it light like this, since the coconut rice is quite substantial, but I know Fritz would have been happy to see some chicken.

Perfectly cooked chicken breast makes his heart go pitter-patter.

The creaminess of the coconut rice combined with the curried cauliflower and sweet juicy pineapple was taste heaven. It would have been even better with some salted peanuts on top for a little texture.

Is it the prettiest dish I’ve ever made? No.

But it was healthy, yummy, and pretty cheap to make. The trifecta.

And for those of you who have been wondering, I have two other announcements to make:

1) I decided that I will, in fact, be attending graduation. Too many of you posted that missing your graduation was a huge regret, so I decided to just go for it.

2) My first two days at my new clinical were not as scary as I thought. Though I definitely need to brush up on some skills (in a big way, my friends), the staff are very understanding, nice, and the job is actually way less physically demanding than my last one with the kids.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

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Banana Nut Brownies

April 1, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

April 1, 2012

Why, oh why has it never occurred to me to combine banana bread and brownies before?

Because, boy did it occur to me yesterday. And an entire pan of brownies is already gone, 24 hours later.

So it may actually be a good thing I’ve never thought of this before. But I ran three miles yesterday and went to Zumba today, so I think I’m allowed to eat a few brownies. And it’s Fritz’s spring break, so he has to have some extra treats. And Henry. Well, he definitely licked a few dishes in the sink clean before we caught him and banished him to the bedroom.

Banana Nut Brownies

2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350. To make these as easy as possible, I just combined the wet ingredients (bananas, egg, vanilla, and vegetable oil) until mixed. I left a few banana chunks, but nothing crazy. Oh, and I used vegetable oil since I was totally out of butter (oops!); you could probably swap butter with no problem–I might go up to half a cup if I used butter.

Add the dry ingredients (sugar, salt, baking powder, cocoa powder, and flour). Be careful not to overmix–you don’t want a bread consistency here.

And top off with chocolate chips and walnuts. The batter (if you can call it that) should be very thick and sticky.

Grease a small 8×8 square pan, and spread the brownie batter out evenly, pushing it into the corners.

Bake on the middle rack until cooked through, about 20-30 minutes. My brownies went from looking incredibly raw to fully baked in what felt like seconds, so watch them carefully!

Allow them to cool, then cut into squares.

These were so good I can’t even talk about it without wanting to make more. They tasted like dark chocolate gourmet brownies, with just enough banana flavor to make any banana bread lover happy.

The crunch of walnuts and melted chocolate chips went so perfectly with the dense fudginess of these little squares.

I really wish we had more.

I also am glad they are gone, since I’m trying to maintain my girlish figure in time for summer.

These might be my new favorite treat.

Today I managed to get a lot of those annoying to-do list items crossed off, including some planning for graduation. My mom definitely won’t be able to make it to my graduation, and it’s looking like my dad won’t be able to come either. With Fritz’s parents in Canada, I’m kind of toying with the idea of saving myself lots of moolah by skipping the ceremony and celebrating here with Fritz and then on another date with my parents.

What do you think? Silly? When I graduated with my B.S. I did go to the ceremony, which was nice, but honestly not that special, other than being with my friends and family. I feel that skipping this one won’t take away from the honor and excitement that comes with graduation–but I also don’t want to regret it later. As long as I get to celebrate with the people I care about most then I’ll be happy.

What do you think? Go or no go?

Also…my first day of my new clinical is tomorrow and I am so nervous that I might not be able to sleep tonight. Wish me luck!

14 comments

Permanent link to this article: http://www.fullmeasureofhappiness.com/2012/04/01/banana-nut-brownies/

Chicken Breakfast Sausage

March 31, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

March 31, 2012

I love busy weekends–you get so much done, and there’s still a little free time to relax and watch a movie at the end of the day. As promised, here’s a picture of the nut butters that I made to say thanks to all the PTs and PTAs at my clinical:

Cute, huh?

Last week I was contacted by a media representative from Gold’n Plump (a brand of chicken now being sold in Targets on Long Island) and asked if I would like to receive some chicken and review it for the blog.

Here’s the thing, guys. Fritz and I are trying to save money to go to South Africa, and I never say no to free food anyway (okay, almost never). This is a line of “natural” chicken (you can see what that actually means on their website here), and I was more than happy to receive a bunch of free chicken to try out! And they sent a freezer full, let me tell you–two flavors of marinated chicken breast fillets, two types of ground chicken, and chicken drumsticks.

I’ve been wanting to make and freeze some chicken sausage for quick breakfasts, and for this recipe, I decided to use the 90/10 percent ground chicken made with dark meat. The juicier, the better.

Chicken Breakfast Sausage

1 lb ground chicken
1/4 t ground sage
1/2 t ground thyme
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t ground cloves
1/2 t black pepper
1 t salt
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 T maple syrup
1 T olive oil

This is a super easy recipe–just combine everything all together in a small bowl.

I just wanted to make one patty for a quick lunch, and freeze the rest for future easy breezy mornings. To freeze, shape into thin patties on wax paper, cover with another layer of wax paper, and pop into a freezer bag.

They’ll peel off the wax paper and you can cook them like you would any other frozen sausage–either defrost them first, or just make sure that you cook them thoroughly if you go straight from frozen.

Spray a pan lightly with canola oil (ground chicken can be dry, which is why we add the olive oil into the recipe and also oil the pan to cook), and sauté for a few minutes on each side.

You can also just crumble the sausage right into the pan for ground sausage.

Best yet, feel free to tailor the spices to your taste. I like spicy sausage, so I may go with a paprika and pepper blend for next time.

And when it comes to the Gold’n Plump chicken, I’ll be completely honest–I was surprised at how juicy it was! I’ve made this sausage before (with ground chicken breast, not dark meat) and it was much drier. I also quickly cooked up a marinated chicken breast (their herb and butter flavor) to use in a salad, and again, found it to be super tender and juicy. Much more so that the frozen chicken breasts we usually use.

And I was totally prepared to be negative, too. The big downside is that I would most likely not buy a marinated chicken–I’d prefer to flavor my own. That being said, the herb and butter flavor was good, if not a little garlicky for our taste. Here’s their other products.

More recipes with the rest of the chicken coming up later.

And to make Henry feel a little better about himself, I caught his cousin, Emerson, partaking in (most likely the only) weird cat behavior that Henry has yet to demonstrate. Snuggling with shoes. And licking the bottom of them. For an hour.

Cats. They are so strange.

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Shrimp, Kale, and White Bean Soup

March 29, 2012

by Lauren Zietsman

March 29, 2012

Um. Wow. I feel so busy that my to-do lists are going out of date every 30 seconds. I also have that awful nagging feeling that I am forgetting at least 3,948 things.

Hopefully not.

I’ve got some fun stuff coming up this weekend, but for tonight, one of my favorite kinds of recipes. Healthy soup, prepped quickly and finished in the Crock Pot, lasting long enough for quick lunches in the week but not so long that I get sick of it. Tasty and good for you. Warm and comforting with no greasy, heavy aftertaste. Filling, of course, but so full of good stuff, it’s almost sick.

Shrimp, Kale, and White Bean Soup

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices thick-cut bacon (not maple-flavored!)
8 oz shrimp (I used cooked, but whatever you’ve got is fine)
1 (big) bag kale, washed and roughly chopped
1 C dried barley
1 1/2 C dried navy beans
6 C low-sodium chicken broth
3-4 C additional water (gotta have extra water for the dried beans and barley to soak up)

Notice one ingredient I didn’t list…a very bad cat.

Dice the bacon and quickly sauté it in a large pan over medium heat. Drain all except 1-2 T of the fat, and add the diced onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the veggies soften and smell freakin’ delicious.

Add the shrimp and toss for just a few seconds.

Meanwhile, in the Crock Pot combine the kale, barley, and navy beans.

Add the shrimp mixture over the top.

And pour over the broth and water.

Mix it up, set the Crock Pot to low for 6-8 hours, and go about your day. You may want to check in once or twice to make sure that there is enough water–all those dried beans and barley are going to soak up lots and lots of water. More than you’ll believe possible.

When it’s ready, you’ll see this:

Simple.

Hearty.

Delicious.

I’m actually sad that there isn’t any more of this soup. I don’t really like raw kale all that much, in salads, or really in any form other than chips.

But when it comes to soup, man, kale is hearty enough to maintain some integrity and chew without falling apart like your wimpy baby spinach might.

Yet–it’s still tender.

And don’t even get me started on how obsessed I am with barley in soup. It has the best chew of any soup grain, plus it gets silky and tasty while maintaining its rough-and-tumble barley ‘tude.

Whatever the heck that means.

I should probably get to bed–tomorrow is my last day of my third clinical, and I made four types of nut butters (white chocolate and milk chocolate peanut butter and almond butters) to be delivered to all the people who really made this clinical an amazing learning experience. I’ll try to snap a photo tomorrow before I pack ‘em up, because the half-pint jars look super cute with a label tied around ‘em.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually be able to wake up when my alarm goes off, instead of sleeping another 50 minutes and having to run like the dickens to get to work on time!

Oh, and I miss a certain someone: