Kale & Quinoa Lemony Goodness salad

What do we love about healthy foods? To me, it is all about wonderful, vibrant colors, crunch, juice. Then contrast the energy, digestive lightness to sleepiness after meals. Finally, I love a fiber rich meal , crunchy, full of texture, require chewing thoroughly.

This salad ticks all the boxes ! And it fills even kids’ demanding energy levels ! I keep making it, shifting, improvising, at time changing the vegetable ( tomatoes or diced peppers), the protein ( ham or prosciutto, even grilled chicken) or the nutty crunch ( at pecans or shaved almonds). It’s a wonderful on-the-go meal for my husband at the office too!

Can I feeding this healthy salad to my kids?

My kids all love it. One exception: my demanding 2-year-old, who will still eat only if mommy does the “one for me, one for you” game.

My kids were all raised virtually processed-foods-free. They get fresh fruit for dessert. Sometimes they get the occasional ‘healthier’ lollipop as a treat. They love strong tastes, homemade pesto, real cheese (i.e. not the finger-shaped wrapped cheese), olives (not the metal canned ones), all types of fruit. They also LIKE vegetables, if they aren’t overcooked and mushy, tasteless. That’s where the steam cooker helps a lot!

Yes, kids actually are capable of LOVING healthy foods!

For kids to love healthy produce, you have to actually eat them and give them these foods instead of the easy minute-made stuff, the pizza, the precooked pasta with sauce, or the packaged crackers all day. Also make sure to vary foods as much as possible, that will open their mind and make them more curious rather than picky, asking for the same all the time.

Feeding kids does take some parent involvement, positivity, colors. I will devote some posts and video on that topic – FEEL FREE TO EXPRESS INTEREST in comments!

Keep the processed interferences low

Yes , my kids do get corn chips, but with homemade guac, and a few other process things , but we try to keep it minimal. I believe they became gourmet kids because I give them the true, unprocessed taste of real food. Some interferences occur – everywhere we go, people give them candy for no good reason! And then there is Halloween, st Nick, Christmas and all the holidays. So it’s hard, but we try to keep the volume in check, because it does affect their health and their tastebuds, at least in the short run.

Feeding Healthy foods To A Big Family Is expensive

How can I Afford it? Yes, having lots of produce is more expensive than processed foods, because it has shorter shelf life! The sheer volume of fruit and vegetable a family of 6 (newly 7) can eat in our family would shock you. But kid you not, like many people I shop at Aldi, and in bulk. And I succeed at making good healthy meals with low budget produce grocery aisle foods. Yes, these are not the best non-toxic organic local farmer foods. In the best of all worlds I’d have a subscription to the local farmer, but not yet. My own vegetable garden is only at its infancy. The only things I successfully grow are sometimes tomatoes, or herbs like basil , parsley, green onions. And I’m hoping, that’s only a start. 

Healthy Foods are less expensive in the long run

Eating lots of produce is expensive, but it helps keeping you healthy – as in NOT SICK. In the long run, more sickness means needing your physicians more often as you get older. If you live in the United States like me, these costs will be even more staggering ! In short: in the long term, eating healthier is NOT as expensive as you think. It will save you LOT of time, worry and money! And time and stress management both are worth a lot of money.

The steam cooker, a family health ally!

Beyond the expense of produce at cheaper or expensive one, what really helps my mamma health mission is my steam cooker. Why? Because it cooks without sacrificing the flavor and texture. It doesn’t change the smell, preserves the color, and works fast. And THAT is a game changer. Making a meal remains easy, fast, and can be as simple as I want, or as complicated as I fancy. Steam cooking is tasty, healthy, quick, simple and takes the fight away from dinner with kids.

Steam cooking is tasty, healthy, quick, simple and takes the fight away from dinner with kids.

BERNADETTE JOYEUX, NUTRITION HEALTH COACH AND EXPERIENCED MOM OF 5

Besides, because it naturally tastes good, it takes a lot of the fight away from dinner time ( let’s be realistic: a two-year-old is still an opinionated dinner-time-fighter, even when they pretend the problem is the food they don’t like.)

A few notes about the ingredients:

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Food prep

• Quinoa can be cooked in water in the steam cooker within 10-15 minutes depending on volume, Kale only needs a minute to be as “massaged”. And today, that’s all I needed to cook for the salad. I used a mix of Dinosaur and curly kale, but I much prefer dinosaur/flat kale, because if its deeper color and texture.
• Today I used some leftover dinosaur kale from my planters, that had mini leaves leftover. I also had a pack of curly kale from the store, and I mixed them up. I steamed the chopped kales 1 minute altogether. I trew it in the serving bowl, dressed, mixed the salad, done. The whole process took may be 20 minutes, because I already had a whole precooked bowl of quinoa from the previous meal.
• Pecans: you can roast them. I only lightly roast them, for nutritional reasons: Nuts fats are healthy fats, and the nuts containing omega 3 are fats you want to preserve, and they are heat sensitive. Pecans don’t have much omega 3, so they are not a big problem to roast lightly.

On Cows vs. Sheep and Goat Cheese and Milk

Sheep:

Pecorino Romano is a hard, sheep cheese. imported sheep cheese usually does not contain cow’s milk, which I try to avoid for digestive reasons. Sheep (like goats) are also smaller animals with a milk that has a very different nutritional profile than cow’s milk. that makes it closer to human milk, and more adapted to us: compare the size of these animals to cows and to human babies get the idea?

I am also told that small animal milks contain less growth factors (which defines the size and weight of the baby animal within first year of life) than larger animals like cows.

Cows:

• Cows’ dairy – at least in conventional agriculture – is highly inflammatory meaning it causes a lot of lasting reaction from our immune system. It also triggers all types of problems in many people: hormonal and skin problems, digestive issues, allergy issues. What would hormonal problems trigger: issues with a woman’s cycle for example, and these come in all shapes and sizes.
• Additionally, store pasteurized milk does not contain bacteria naturally existing in healthy raw milk, which ordinarily would ease digestion. I do not advocate doing that, and do not practice drinking raw milk so I can’t talk to that topic. However, what I read is that cows DO NOT have the same digestive system as humans at all (we only have one stomach!). This alone may explain why many people, starting with me, don’t process cow’s dairy well.
• Let’s sum up why we don’t necessarily NEED cow’s milk: 1) If you have a balanced healthy diet with plenty of produce which all contain some amount of highly absorbable calcium, especially dark leafy green produce, you have a high amount of essential nutrients in your diet already. 2) Pasteurized dairy are hard to digest. 3) Low-IQ-cow’s milk is made for low-IQ calves, not high IQ humans. However do your research, because I may be a health coach, but I am neither YOUR coach or nutritionist, nor YOUR doctor !

DIY dressing is fast and much healthier

Let’s talk DRESSING ! Dressings are not hard to make, they take minutes and home made dressing are HEALTHY and FREE OF PRESERVATIVES. If there is something healthy you can start making for yourself, try that! That alone may impact your health and digestion! This one dressing I found it in a recipe for another Kale salad. It’s a nice mix of lemon and garlic, it gives a nice kick to the palate, wakes you up!

Organic vs conventional Produce : a question of taste

The mini tomatoes are a nice colorful touch, the juice breaks under your teeth as you chew quinoa and nuts with kale all at once. try them organic from your local farmer! It’s twice the taste at least ! No need of long descriptions, I know that if you like this type of foods, you’re already salivating.

• In this salad I used a mix of Dinosaur and curly kale, but I much prefer dinosaur/flat kale, because if its deeper color and texture. Today I used some leftover dino kale from my planters, that had mini leaves leftover. I also had a pack of curly kale from the store, and I mixed them up. I steamed the chopped kales 1 minute altogether, added them to the rest of thesalad, dressed, mixed, done. The whole processed took may be 20 minutes because I already had a whole precooked bowl of kale from the previous meal.

• I do cook a lot with herbs and I found the best herb brand out there: Frontier coop! It is on the expensive side but these are truly tasting so so good, they are excellent quality herbs, come in organic and non organic packages. Some herbs and spice I use so much I buy in bulk by the pound every year or so (cumin, herbes de Provence,, oregano, rosemary and thyme are my most used herbs. I also buy tea for my home-brewed Kombucha). Of course you can probably also find very fresh dried eggs from a local farmer!
• Now to the recipe ! Hoping you’ll enjoy, and bon appétit!