The healthier side of carbs

I've been told that the day I was born, I was already 30. Which I've always found to be really amusing, because on the inside I've always felt like I wasn't a day over 9. But in truth, for the most part I've always behaved as if I were an adult. For instance, as I am writing this post it is 9:51pm and I have been in bed for at least 30 minutes. What can I say, I love my pajamas and I love my bed. So there you have it.

I'm also a planner (read: control freak). This sometimes becomes more apparent when life becomes hectic or I'm only a participant of a project and not the leader of the project. I am such a planner that I started looking for my first job out of college 8 months before graduation. I eventually did find a job at a fantastic company and my first day was only a mere 4 days after I graduated because I was so intent on supporting myself financially. I've been told that this is extremely mature. Whatevs.

Anywhoo, that is a long way of saying that I've been trying to be more of an "adult" and inject more vegetables into my diet and less, well...Chick-fil-a. Enter: Whole Wheat Penne with Sausage, Chard Kale, and Artichoke Hearts. The recipe didn't go according to plan because I didn't purchase some items, forgot to use some items, and in some instances used entirely different items, but amazingly was still amazingly tasty. I'm sure the mound of parm had nothing to do with this. 

Eating whole wheat pasta is healthy right? I've completely mangled the orignal recipe, but surprisingly it was still really, really tasty! Seriously...even Josh liked it! Which is impressive, especially considering the fact that I left out one of his favorite ingredients (sun-dried tomatoes) and doubled the amount of greens that the recipe called for. Although, I will say, that the next time I make this I'll do so with pork sausage instead of chicken to impart more sausage-y flavor into the dish * oink *.  Just do me a favor and make sure you grate plenty of fresh parmesan cheese over the top and you'll be golden.

Whole Wheat Penne w. Sausage and Kale

Adapted (very liberally) from: Martha Stewart

12 ounces Whole Wheat Penne

2 Tbs Olive Oil

3/4 Lb Sausage (mild)

3/4 Lb Kale, washed thoroughly and chopped*

1 small Onion, chopped

3 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar*

1/2 Cup Water

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1/3 Cup Sun-dried Tomatoes, sliced*

1 Tbs Tomato Paste

3/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated

1/3 Cup Basil, chopped

1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper

Start a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.  While the water is heating, add 1 Tbs of olive il to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook while using the back of a wooden spoon to break the sausage into pieces, cook through until browned. Once the sausage is cooked, set aside on a plate.

Start the remaining Tbs of olive oil in the skillet and cook the onion and garlic until softened (3-4 minutes). Add the kale, red wine vinegar, and water to the onion mixture. Scrape up all of the yummy bits and combine the ingredients together. Cover the kale mixture and cook, stirring occasionally for 7-8 minutes until the kale is wilted and cooked through. Add the sausage back to the kale mixture, remove from heat, and set aside.

Add the pasta to the boiling water until 2 minutes short of al dente. Add sun-dried tomatoes and cook 2 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, drain pasta, and return to pot.

Pour half of the reserved pasta water into a small bowl and add the tomato paste, whisk to combine. Add the tomato paste mixture, sausage/kale mixture, basil, parmesan, and red pepper flakes to the pasta pot and combine. Add additional pasta water if needed, and season with salt and pepper.

*I was too lazy to find Swiss Chard at the store, so I grabbed Kale instead. My favorite way to cook kale is to steam it with a little red wine vinegar for some bite, which adds a lovely layer of flavor to the overall dish. I also left out sun-dried tomatoes from the finished dish, not intentionally but because I completely forgot. I would have loved to have seen bits of red amongst all the green and brown pasta, and I'm sure it would have tasted quite yummy...although surprisingly didn't lack in flavor without them.

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Slightly Whole Wheat Banana Oatmeal Healthy-ish Bread

Yikes! That title is a mouthful, no? But have no fear - the recipe is crazy easy to make.

I’ve been trying to clean up my act lately, like my whole act. I’ve been working on working out, eating healthier, hydrating more, and staying well rested. You could say this is a better-late-than-never New Year’s resolution of sorts.
I’ve gotten the inkling to change some things up because I have a several friends who overhauled their lives and are reaping the bountiful rewards. I dig rewards, especially the skinny kind.

My diet overhaul has mainly centered around journaling and planning ahead for each meal/snack that I have throughout the day. In the past I’ve planned dinner for the week ahead of time and have largely left lunch to whatever fast food tickles my fancy (no bueno), and as for breakfast...we’re just now getting reacquainted, it’s been a few years.

While planning meals for the next week, I remembered a pretty tasty banana bread recipe that also happens to be one of Josh’s fav’s! Score!

I tend to shy away from baking bread for several reasons:

1. bread is scary
2. my oven isn’t that reliable
3. breads take FOR-EV-ER to make
4. they’re messy
5. oh, and one last thing - bread is scary.

Not to worry, this is a simple quick bread recipe that I modified to healthi-fy it up a little bit. And it’s super delectable!

Slightly Whole Wheat Banana Oatmeal Healthy-ish Bread
adapted from heatherhalesdesigns

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Egg, beaten
3 Whole Bananas, smashed (very ripe)
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oats (plus more for sprinkling)
1/4 cup Unsweetened Applesauce

Combine dry ingredients together in large mixing bowl. Combine all of the wet ingredients, including the banana into a smaller mixing bowl and gently stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir until just until the mixture becomes uniform.

Pour into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan, and sprinkle with a few oats.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes

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