Now that we’ve been eating this way for 7 months I realize how wrong I was.  (not about cheese, cheese is still delicious…I assume)  But plant food is so good and delicious and colorful!  I made these kale sandwiches on Saturday.  They were amazing and so beautiful that I had to take a picture.   I would have never put these flavors together.

Thank you Ann Esselstyn!  My husband has admitted that he has a crush on you.  Which is fine because I have a crush on your husband.

Kale/Lemon Sandwichs

Ingredients:

• 4 slices Mestemacher Fitness Bread (at Meijer in the German section) or any whole grain bread
• 1 bunch of kale, chopped in bite sized pieces (remove thick stem) or Swiss Chard or greens of choice (4 cups or more)
• hummus
• 1/2 bunch cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 1/2- 1lemon, center part VERY, VERY thinly sliced and the ends—I used Meyer lemons–squeezed and zested
• 1 large tomato, sliced in 4 thick slices (optional)

1.  Toast bread well.  If using Mestemacher or a rye or pumpernickel double or even triple toast. Make it almost cracker-like.
2. Put kale in a pot with about 3-4 inches of water in the bottom.  Bring to a boil, cover and cook until kale is tender, 3-5 minutes. Check frequently. Kale is good when cooked almost spinach-like.
3. Spread toast thickly with hummus, sprinkle green onions on the hummus, pile cilantro on top of the green onions and then place a few thinly sliced lemons pieces on the cilantro.
4. When Kale is tender, drain well.  Shake the strainer so all water is gone, sprinkle the kale in the strainer with lemon zest and remaining lemon juice.  LOTS of lemon makes this good!
5. Then put a big handful of lemon filled kale on top of each piece of bread.  It is delicious just like that or top with a tomato slice.

And there you have health in a bite!  A bit of a messy one at that!

This was the “bagel with cream cheese” (made from cashews).  So colorful!!!And back home we go.Here’s Dale, trying to nap.  But then I looked down there and she’d found a light up bouncy ball.  Not the most conducive to sleep.

On Saturday Win opened the door, yelled “Hey! Anyone wanna see some fire?!”  And then ran back outside so as not to miss anything.  He and the Linde boys had gathered some tinder, a couple of magnifying glasses and a sunny February day for easy fun on the driveway.

Don’t worry, their dad was outside too.  *If a bit preoccupied making a huge outdoor metal stove for boiling maple syrup.

When we got there Jared and I strapped on our cross country skiis (mine are 40-yearsold).  We got up to the lodge and realized that Jared’s skis wouldn’t release.  So the kids and I went into the lodge and were welcomed by a long line at the kids’ ski rental.  Jared stood outside with Dale strapped to his front and skis straped to his feet.  It took 1 hour and 20 minutes to rent 2 pair of kids’ skis.  Dale was a peach the entire time.  However, about 5 minutes before we finally got the skis she lost her cool.  Jared started dealing with her while I took the kids on the small loop that we’d planned.  15 minutes later and 4 yards further from where we started I decided to change our course.  Jared skied back to the van with Dale.  The kids and I skied half way around the lodge to where the parking lot is.  That took about 1/2 hour.  We put the kids in the van I returned the skis and we drove home.  The whole trip took just under 3 hours.  In the end, Jared stood in skis for almost 2 hours and the kids and I actually skied roughly 100 yards.  At one point in that 100 yards I actually just picked up Harriet and carried her about 15 feet.

The kids had a blast.  Win said that skiing was the best thing that he’d done in his whole life.  Harriet claimed that this was the best day ever.  So it was a success.  Just not as adults tend to rate success.

The green writing is mine.  I thought that there might be some spots that are difficult to read.  His school gives out little paper fish to kids who are “caught being good”.  The “get fish” answer is about that.