Loving: Everyday Food on YouTube

*Updated!

I can't stop watching these less-than-five minute videos on quick dinners made by Sarah Carey, the Editor in Chief of Everyday Food magazine. I really like her easy, breezy approach to dinner and often watch these clips while planning my dinners for the week.

Take a look at how easy and delicious this Orange Balsamic Chicken can be. She sold me on it when she spilled part of the dish around the 2:50 mark. However, the most notable moment in this video is at the 3:15 mark when I noticed that a woman in the background of the kitchen looks like she is not wearing pants. Upon further inspection using my computer monitor at work, it turns out she is wearing orange leggings. Whew! For a moment there I thought Everyday Food was trying get more viewers by being risque. Yes, that makes total sense!

Loving: Whole Foods (again)

                                                           "Whole Foods Parking Lot"

I've never hidden the fact that I am in love with Whole Foods, which is like admitting to everyone that I also like to breathe fresh air. So you can imagine how high I jumped when I heard that a Whole Foods was opening up just a few short blocks from my home. I almost keeled over from happiness. Fact #48:  Having a Whole Foods open up near your home signifies that the gentrification of your neighborhood is complete.

I would drive by the construction site on my way to the gym just about every morning and watched it progress from a gigantic pit of dirt to a gleaming storefront in just under a year. The store has been all over Facebook with its fan page and when they offered behind the scene tour, my neighbor and I jumped at the chance to walk around it before it opened up last week. I didn't take any pictures (I wasn't sure if I was allowed to), but the store is bigger than any other Whole Foods that I know of and the selections is jaw- dropping. I know many call it Whole Paycheck, but all I can say is thank you for coming to our neighborhood.

Loving: Kale is Coming Out of Our Ears

I never thought this would happen, but we overplanted kale this year. My husband got a little excited about the options at the nursery and purchased Lacinto Kale AND Red Russian Kale for our raised vegetable beds in the backyard. (BTW - he built those beds himself using this tutorial).

Strawberries, green beans and broccoli... oh my!

Now we have kale blooming all over the place.  I've never been one to hide vegetables in my children's food, but Chocolate Kale Muffins might be making an appearance around here soon.

Below is a round up of our favorite recipes so far.

•  Kale Chips modified by me, (source: Dinner: A Love Story)

• Everything But the Kitchen Sink Kale Salad (source: Me!)
  

• Pork Chops with Kale (source: Dinner: A Love Story)

• Quinoa Salad with Kale and Feta (source: Babble.com)

• Because We Love Kale: 15 Kale Recipes (source: Serious Eats)

• Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Kale (source: She Cooks He Cleans)

Loving: A New Client's Office Location

I could barely contain my enthusiasm when I drove up to a new client's office and noticed that they were conveniently located right next to a Whole Foods grocery store. I know this may seem about as exciting as learning that the library loans out books for free, but for a working mom who doesn't mind spending her lunch hour trolling aisles of Whole Foods, this was a god send. As I rode up in the elevator I whipped out my phone and edited my grocery list and menu for the week. Right there on the spot!

As I left my client's office after our meeting,  he said, "Well, I hope we'll see you around here again soon." Let me tell you, it took all the effort in the world to not force him to commit to weekly meetings with me just so I can get real in the Whole Foods parking lot.

Loving: Lentils

The other day I was shopping at Trader Joe's and paused to look at the packaged cooked lentils. I have passed by this convenience item several times because I know I should just make them myself. I could practically hear my Depression-era grandmother's exasperated sigh at the laziness of such a thing, ("You can't find time to cook lentils? For heavens sake, Amanda!") But I really wanted to try these cooked lentils for a weeknight soup and I knew that cooking lentils after a long day of work and two hungry children nipping at my ankles was asking too much. I bought them thinking this was going to be a bust.

Holy Sweet Time Saver, Batman! I loved them and my kids ate them. I made my soup in 30 minutes last night and had plenty of leftovers to make a warm lentil salad with mustard vinaigrette to take with me to work. They were perfectly cooked with a slight bite to them. I am definitely buying those again. However, I still feel guilty about Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, but I'll get over it eventually.

Lentils are my new swoon.

Loving: Erato

I joined Twitter (but I don't tweet, just enjoy the tweets of others) and I sheepishly clicked on Gwyneth Paltrow's twitter feed which led me to this video. (Go ahead and judge but have you seen her cookbook? I credit its "Green Rice" recipe for getting  my kids to eat brown rice and kale together. Moving on, people!)

Now I can't stop watching this video she tweeted about. And inquiring minds want to know... are those plastic butter containers?