Kale Dip and Veggie Spaghetti

Kale dip with raw vegetables and whole-wheat pita crackers

Vegetable Spaghetti

Dinner is served

This kale dip is not something I would have normally tried, but I decided to give it a shot after finding the recipe on Dr. Preston Maring’s blog. He is an OB-GYN physician who supports healthy eating as a powerful form of preventive medicine. In 2003, he started the first weekly Farmer’s Market at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center to provide patients and medical staff with easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  Today, there are many Farmer’s Markets open at various KP facilities. It’s a pretty awesome concept- bring the healthy goodies to the people, who may otherwise not have access to such ingredients (or perhaps the inclination to seek them), and they will eat!

The kale dip can be used as a dipping sauce, as shown above, or even as a spread for sandwiches and pita pockets. It is quite tasty, considering it is packed full with leafy greens, and makes it easier and more enjoyable to eat raw vegetables. My little brother was eating carrot sticks with this kale dip!! I was seriously amazed.

Crunchy, munchy Nachos heaped with meat, beans, and cheese!

Up close and personal

Last night I made one of my favorite junk food dishes: nachos! I love that I have this recipe on hand so I don’t need to swing by Taco Bell to satisfy my nacho cravings, which is exactly what I used to do in high school (and through most of college too). But who needs stale chips topped with dehydrated beans, and beef that was made in god-knows-what factory, when you can prepare your own nacho dish at home with high quality ingredients? So forget the drive-thru and stop at your supermarket to pick up the ingredients below. This recipe is low stress and low hassle. I made it recently on a Thursday night when I ran out of ideas for a more well thought out dinner and needed to whip up something tasty for the family within the hour. Needless to say, everybody was all over this dish as soon as it came out of the oven! A resounding round of thank-you’s from my culinary audience was all the appreciation I needed for a job well done. 😉