But with that lesson under my belt and a half of bunch left, I put the remaining kale on the cookie sheet.  I just pulled the leafy greens off the stem at the same time I ripped it into bite sized pieces.  And I washed it first because I didn’t want to be handling the dirty (it was really dirty) kale. 

I spayed the pan with olive oil, then set the ripped pieces of kale on the pan, then sprayed the kale with olive oil, then sprinkled garlic salt on it. 

I didn’t use the convection part, but I kept the oven at 300, but only for ten minutes.  Let me tell you, the kale cooks a lot slower with the convection off and oil on it.  I think I cooked it a total of forty minutes — maybe it was 30?  I did turn the oven down to 200 after the first ten minutes.  I can’t sit there and watch stuff cook so I thought 200 would be ok, and kept checking it.  I think the last 10 minutes I turned the oven off.  I think it is the type of thing that I will have to cook in ten minute intervals and check on.
 
It was ok.  It taste like roasted lettuce to me.  I don’t think it deserves the rave reviews that I have heard from people.  And by no means can it beat a potato chip (as so many have claimed), but it is ok.  It is a way to get some greens in.  It is not too hard to make.  It is a great thing to snack on.  And I think my husband REALLY liked them. He kept reaching for them.  Anytime he reaches for something over and over again, I know it is a hit!  So I will be making them again.  I probably will pay as much attention to cooking them as I did this time.  I should have paid more attention because I knew I was going to post about it.  But I didn’t.  After I burned the first batch I was kind up grumpy at myself.  The funny thing is, I burned the first batch because I was so excited to write my kale post.  So I set the time more based on how long it would take me to finish up and post my article then how long it would take to dry the kale.

So have you made kale chips?  Have you tried them?

While I was in the store a woman started talking to me about eggplant. She said it was too difficult to cook so when her neighbors gives it to her she just throws it away. For on brief moment I considered asking her if I could give her my phone number and she could call me and I would take it! Then we started talking about some of the other vegetables that were in the same area. She was saying collard greens are good for you. I told her that my husband loves them. She asked me how I cooked them and I told her I sautéed them. She said she fried them, the same as the eggplant. While we were talking I noticed the Kale. I always forget about kale. I was happy that we were talking and it allowed me to focus for a moment on the kale. I bought some.

Kale is part of the cabbage family. It is just leaves. Kale is part of the family of vegetables that are called cruciferous vegetables. Some other cruciferous vegetables are broccoli, collard greens, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.

You know how I don’t understand plant species and families and all that. But more and more research is providing information that these types of vegetables are very good for us in regards to nutrients we need.

As much as we all know to take the governmental daily values with a grain of salt, a cup of kale has over 1300% of the daily value of vitamin K, over 350% of vitamin A, and over 80% of vitamin C. It also contains calcium and beta carotene. Research has shown that kale is rich in antioxidant, is an anti-inflammatory, and has properties that are thought to be of the anti-cancer nature. Steamed kale is thought to have cholesterol-lowering benefits.

According to Wiki: Kale freezes well and actually tastes sweeter and more flavourful after being exposed to a frost. I, myself, am going to try to make the oh-so-talked-about-you-have-probably-heard-about-them kale chips. In fact I could swear that one of you — one of you that I read your blog — posted about kale chips, but I can’t remember who. I went looking but I couldn’t find the post.

Anyway . . . do you eat kale? If you do how do you eat it? I am going to go experiment right now!

If you are susceptible to them it might be beneficial to limit consumption of these types of veggies.  As I mentioned if you are on an anti-inflammation diet they might be forbidden all together.  Again this could only be if you are sensitive to them.  Or if you are interested in trying to reduce the amount of chronic inflammation in the body.  If you have arthritis or any other disease associated with chronic inflammation it might be something to try. Or if you experience pain caused by sensitive nerves.

Nightshade vegetables are very common.  They are so common it kind of makes sense that chronic inflammation is more prevalent and being study by the medical profession.  I think the most common nightshade veggies are potatoes, tomatoes, and bell peppers.  You know I LOVE bell peppers and I was just learning to like tomatoes.  And the issue with potatoes is they are yummy in so many forms; mashed, fried, baked, roasted.  In addition to my beloved bell pepper ALL peppers are lumped in this family.  So even the hot ones that might aid in digestion could be causing inflammation issues.

In addition to inflammation there is research has proved that the alkaloid in potatoes interrupt signals from nerves to muscles and might contribute to muscle twitches.  Next time you have a twitch try to remember if you had any potatoes.  In addition to signal interruption, the chemicals contained in some nightshade vegetables might even cause pain  Also some research has shown that the alkaloids leech calcium out of bones and deposit it into soft tissue.

Eggplant is also a nightshade vegetable.  I love roasted eggplant.  Eggplant along with tomatoes contain nicotine.  Yup, tobacco is a nightshade plant and nicotine is an alkaloid.  It is fortunate that both tomatoes and eggplant contain a lot less nicotine then tobacco, it is still interesting to know.

Cooking reduces the level of alkaloids in our veggies by about 40-50%.

Please note that I am not saying that any health issue or discomfort you are experiencing is caused by nightshade vegetables/food.  What I am saying is that some research has either proved or associated the alkaloids in nightshade vegetables/foods to be connected to certain things; inflammation, digestive issues, nervous system malfunctions, pain, muscle twitching, etc. and it is interesting to know.  And it might be beneficial to do some experimenting with your diet if you think you might be sensitive to the chemicals found in some of the vegetables and/or spices considered nightshade foods.

Did you know what veggies were considered nightshade?  I am glad that I now have this list.

The baby bok choy added such a great flavor I wondered if I would like it sautéed by itself. So I cooked some up last night. I had faith I would like it. So much faith that I made my hubby collard greens, which he loves, so I wouldn’t have to share my baby bok choy. Oh my. It taste like butter. As I was eating it I kept thinking “butter”. So I wanted to verify that. So I sacrificed a bite to hubby. I said, “Does that taste like butter?” He agreed. I told him I didn’t put any butter in it and he said if he didn’t know better he would have said I was lying.

To cook it, I cut the ends off the top green portion and chopped them up, then after they are cooked tender I throw in the chopped green portion and cook them a bit. My cooking method is to saute it in garlic olive oil, with some onions and garlic salt – yeah, my norm.

I am convinced that boy choy does not taste the same although I have not tried it I just have experienced baby versions of veggies are different than ”adult” versions. So I am sticking to the baby bok choy.

I forgot it was considered a cabbage.  I was just reminded that I had heard that because I wrote it in my Dr. Oz post.  But I don’t understand the classifications of fruits and veggies, so I am not surprised that I didn’t know it was considered a cabbage and then forgot it was considered a cabbage shortly after I learned it.   I do not think of cabbage as “stalky”.  I think of cabbage as a round head.  But . . . bok choy is considered a cabbage.  According to The Cook’s Thesaurus:

“bok choy = Chinese chard = Chinese white cabbage = Chinese cabbage = Chinese
mustard cabbage = pak choy = pak choi = baak choi = white mustard cabbage =
white celery mustard = taisai = bai cai”  and “bok choy sum = Canton bok choy”

I could not find specific nutrition information on BABY bok choy but WebMD said:

Per 1 cup:  Bok Choy Cooked

Calories                   20
Fiber                         3
Vitamin A              62%
Vitamin B-2           10%
Vitamin B-6           22%
Vitamin C               59%
Folic Acid               17%
Magnesium              6%
Potassium              18%
Omega-3s         100 mg

It is a cruciferous vegetable.  Which family “takes its alternate name (Cruciferae, New Latin for “cross-bearing”) from the shape of their flowers, whose four petals resemble a cross,” according to Wiki.  Cruciferous vegetables have a lot of phytochemicals which are thought to have anti-cancer properties.  Could be that they also contain a lot of vitamins and minerals and are not short on delivering dietary fiber.  All of which I think contribute to health.

I really believe that baby bok choy is a vegetable that people who do not like vegetables could use as a “gateway vegetable”.    They could eat it allowing them to get used to the idea of vegetables and it could help start them on the path of eating vegetables.

What about you, do you like bok choy?  Have you tried baby bok choy?  I have a feeling that you will see more post about baby bok choy as I experiment with cooking it and eating it.

But, as you are probably aware, not everyone likes bells peppers.  You could be among the group of people who do not.  You might be one of the people who like the red, but not the green or like the yellow but not the red.  There are a lot of combinations in that group.  Also, as you may know a bell pepper, when an ingredient in a cooked dish, tends to permeate the entire dish.  There really is no “picking” them out if you don’t like the flavor.  If you don’t like the flavor then you probably just avoid the dish entirely.  While the flavors of the colors do vary, no matter what color is used the flavor seeps into the entire dish.  I am not certain if this applies to raw foods, as in a salad, because I love bell peppers so I am not sure if it “gets all over” when it is not cooked.

Well, all of this leads up to two things; an amazing friend and what is in the inside.

First of all, I have an amazing friend who GREW bell peppers for me.  She had read my post about different colored bell peppers and my mention of purple ones so when she was planting her garden she planted some purple bell peppers for me.  When she told me she had some purple bell peppers for me my first thought was, “Oh, how nice!  How could she give them away?”  See?  That is how much I love bell peppers, I wouldn’t think of giving them away.  Then she told me she planted and grew them for me.  I thought that was the nicest thing.  Then after she gave them to me we were talking and she reminded me that she HATES bell peppers.  ALL colors!  No matter what.  She thinks they all taste the same.  I had forgotten, which is really probably just a mental block because she is such a vegetable lover and I love them so much, I forget that people don’t like them.  So the fact that she HATES them (REALLY REALLY) made her planting them and growing them for me even more special to me.

Now, there are some funny things about these bell peppers.  First of all they are very small.  The idea was that they were purple so they are ready.  I am not a gardener so I don’t know, except from what I have read bell peppers are ready when they get to the color you have planted.  So it was decided that these were purple so they are ready.  They are soooo cute!

The second thing is they are GREEN inside.  That was a surprise to me.  I had seen purple bell peppers before, in the store, but I had never actually had them, so the GREEN was a surprise.  I cut it open while I was on the phone with the gardener that grew them and our first thought was that there were not ready because they were green inside, but a quick Google search revealed that the purple ones are green inside.  Funny.  All the other bell peppers are the same color all the way through, except the purples ones.  I wonder why that is.

There you have it, an amazing friend and an amazing (well to me) bell pepper.

So now tell me?  Bell pepper lover or hater?  Which color do you prefer?  Did you know that the purple ones were green on the inside?  Since I can’t tell, does a raw bell pepper permeate a raw dish with its bell pepper flavor?  Tell me, I really want to know!

1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

6. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don’t have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

7. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

8. Stressed out and don’t have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.

9. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don’t have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

10. Looking for a ‘green’ way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won’t leave streaks and won’t harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.

11. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!

I am adding that a cucumber is mostly water.  And while their flavor is in their seeds, I have heard that it is the seeds that might also cause gas for some people.  In case you have received this list in an e-mail you may notice a couple missing, yeah, I removed them because I didn’t feel comfortable posting them.  I didn’t check on these except for the vitamins.  I wanted to give you an idea about that.

According to About.com a cup of sliced cucumbers contain the follow amounts of what is listed above:

•Calcium: 8 mg
•Iron: 0.15 mg
•Magnesium: 7 mg
•Phosphorus: 12 mg
•Potassium: 76 mg
•Zinc: 0.10 mg
•Vitamin C: 1.5 mg
•Thiamin (B1): 0.014 mg
•Riboflavin (B2): 0.017 mg
•Niacin (B3): 0.051 mg
•Pantothenic Acid (B5): 0.135 mg
•Vitamin B6: 0.021 mg
•Vitamin B12: 0 mcg

As I typed this I made me want some cucumber water.

Have you tried any of these tips?  Do they work?  Let us know.

I realized I didn’t know if I should peel it or not. So I just decided to use my produce brush on it, which has really stiff bristles so it somewhat peels it. When I started to cut it up, I realized it was very firm, not as soft as a potato. As I was chopping it occured to me that it smelled like a carrot. While I was chopping it I realized I needed to look it up and learn about what parsnips are.

I laughed when I read what Wiki had to say because it is obvious parsnips are related to the carrot. They even slightly resemble carrots except they are lighter and larger. Although cited information states:

“The parsnip originated in the Mediterranean region and originally was the size of a baby carrot when fully grown. When the Roman Empire expanded north through Europe, the Romans brought the parsnip with them. They found that the parsnip grew bigger the farther north they went.”

In a serving (about a cup sliced) there is about:

100 calories
24 grams of carbohydrates with 6.5 grams of dietary fiber.

Parsnips are a great source of vitamin C and seven different vitamin Bs. They also contain the essential mineral manganese and also Potassium, which is crucial to heart function. This really is a nutritional power punch, because they also contain magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and copper. WOW!

I am seeing information that says you can roast them as you would potatoes, but I wonder how good that would be. Have you tried that? I am sure you will read about it when I do. I really love roasted sweet potatoes now that I have finally found them. Parsnips might be my new love.

As I think back on so many things (soups, salads, and casseroles) that I didn’t like as a child I realize it is because they had celery in them.  I realize when I cook these things myself, I love them because I don’t put celery in them.  But, as I truly believed, celery is not useless.  The stalk, root, leaves, and seeds can all be used.

Celery (the stalk) is a great source of vitamin K and vitamin C.  A cup can provide you with 2.04 grams fiber.  Do people normally eat a cup of celery when they eat celery?

Celery contains nutrients that have been linked with lowering blood pressure, reducing high cholesterol, and helpful in preventing cancer.  The phthalides are the compounds that help with lowering blood pressure.  The vitamin C helps with the immune system.  I’ve posted before about how chronic inflammation is associated with many diseases, vitamin C help reduce inflammation by helping contain free radicals, so does the coumarins also found in celery.

According to Wiki celery is like peanuts in that people who are allergic to it can have a very bad reaction as people with peanuts do.  As with peanuts people who are allergic to celery can get a reaction from something that has been used to process it.  Stalks, seeds, and roots all have varying degrees of potency.

As I was cutting the celery, just the smell was bothering me.  And it is like an onion, not as strong, but once it gets your hands you can’t wash it off.  I probably washed my hands at least 10 times in the course of my preparation of snacks for the walk and it never came off.  As I was cutting it I kept thinking, “Peppery.”  Not sure why.  Since I was getting so disgusted while dealing with it, I thought, “Is it REALLY that bad?”  So I cut a small piece off to taste it.  I put it in my mouth and bit down.  Yup, it IS that bad.  I spit it out.  I just do not like celery.

I did have celery soup a couple of times and I did like that so I don’t know what that means.  Except that I WILL be trying my hand at making the soup but I will not be adding celery to anything I make.  Any fans out there?  Do you eat it raw?  Do you disguise the taste by filling it with cream cheese?  Or peanut butter?  Do you cook with it?

Thanks, as always, for letting me share.  And thanks, in advance, for sharing back. 

Sometimes I learn things then forget them and have to re-learn them. I am surprised to see that botanically a bell pepper is a fruit. I don’t remember ever having learned that. I never understand how something is one thing, but we all call it another. What is up with that? Usually there has to be a reason. The information I’ve seen regarding tomatoes being a vegetable when they are really a fruit is tomatoes were considered vegetables because of taxes. Something to do with the difference between how taxes are applied to fruits and vegetables. This started in 1883.

I don’t know why we consider a bell pepper a vegetable and not a fruit. Also, it is called a pepper when it lacks the ability to produce the chemical that causes “heat”. I do now know that the different color bell peppers are a result of harvesting. The green ones are not fully ripened. Usually the order is green, yellow, orange, then red. Since the yellow, orange, and red ones need to be on the plant longer this is why they are more expensive. I have experienced them to be upwards of five time more expensive than the green ones.

To me I think of them as green, red, yellow, orange, in terms of sweetness. I find that — again, I want to clarify: to me — the orange ones are the sweetest.

So it is confirmed in my mind, the same species of bell pepper plant produces the different colored peppers because they are a factor of ripeness (or not in the case of green bell peppers). They are not different types of plants or different colors due to anything artificial. I would like to try a purple one. I have not even seen one in a long time. Have you ever seen one? The different colors have a different nutritional values. I posted about the green and the red before. Do you like bell peppers? Is there a color you prefer?

I decided to go ahead with my plan.  I minced a shallot and cooked the mushrooms.  I didn’t salt the mushrooms because I was thinking that I would need all the salt I could use on the collard greens AND I would need to sweat the greens.  Right as the mushrooms were done cooking I put a little butter in the pan, I was thinking this would help counter-act the bitter I had read about.   

I put some wine in the pan.  I was thinking in addition to the salt sweat I was going to have to somewhat steam the greens because I had also read something about the greens being tough.  I put the greens in and put a spoonful of minced garlic on it.  Then salted it a bit.  They cooked much faster than I thought considering what a heart leaf it is.

So, my hubby was happy.  It tasted like the mushrooms I usually cook or like all the other veggies except there was a slight sourness to it.  So, now that I know they don’t taste horrible and they can be cooked and enjoyed without boiling them with  ham hock, I can step away from the normal flavoring and try other flavors.  Ones that will compliment the strong flavor of the leaf. 

Do you cook collard greens?  Do you boil them with the ham hock?  How do you cook them?  Give me some ideas because I think I will be making them a lot more because it really made my husband happy.