Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Mixed Berry Soft Serve with Kale?


I know some of you saw this title and thought I have finally lost my mind. But you should know this is now my husband’s favorite evening snack and he had it this morning for breakfast. The kale adds a lot of nutrition and you can adjust how much you add to the soft serve to suit your taste. You will need a high powered blender for this recipe but it is not only good but good for you. I cannot take credit for this idea it came from my nutritionist friend Courtney. Thanks Courtney for sharing this brilliant idea! Here is how I make the soft serve:

Mixed Berry Soft Serve with Kale
Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/3 cup dry oatmeal (for protein)
2 tablespoon walnuts (for healthy fat)
2 ½ cups frozen berries (I used a combination of 2 cups strawberries and ½ cup blueberries)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (to help the body process the natural sugar)
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger (for the anti-inflammatory benefits)
¼ teaspoon lemon extract
2 kale leaves (finely julienned) – start with one and work up as many as you like
½ cup water
stevia, to taste

Directions:

Place the dry oats and walnuts in your high speed blender and process until you have a powder. Now add the kale and water and process until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and use the plunger to get the mixture completely smooth. Taste for sweetness and add stevia as necessary for you taste. I suggest you start with one kale leaf and work your way up. Dan finds two kale leaves to be the most he likes. I have made this for me with more kale but that does add a little bitterness at higher levels that not everyone finds appealing. ;-)

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 532.87
Calories From Fat (23%) - 122.07

Total Fat - 14.6g
Saturated Fat - 1.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 39.92mg
Potassium - 1307.33mg
Total Carbohydrates - 94.89g
Fiber - 19.27g
Sugar - 27.8g
Protein - 15.77g

Comments:

Courtney shared this recipe with we me late last week and I have made it every day since. Dan adores this recipe. As written this recipe contains approximately 10,500IU of vitamin A, 270mg of vitamin C, 215mg of calcium (go Kale), 7.5mg of iron, 140mcg of folate, 570mcg of vitamin K, 430mg of phosphorus, and 190mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing nutrition for something that comes together this quickly that my hubby considers dessert.

Unrelated note:

The weather here is glorious again. The morning air is cool (mid 60’s) and a little crisp. I love it when the day starts out like this. :-)

Today I have a few things I need to get done in the morning. But I should have time for a post this afternoon before dinner. We have finished all our panelle and polenta toast. I am going to make another batch this time all panelle so I can compare it to the hybrid recipe I developed. Dan also wants me to make him some sun-dried tomato pesto for the “toast” so that is also on my agenda today.

Talk to you all again soon. I hope you are having a great Tuesday and that your weather is as nice as ours.

12 comments:

  1. Just one word- yummy! I use berries and kale together all the time, I will be trying this:)

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  2. Janet,

    Thanks! When Courtney mentioned it to me I though the same thing. Dan was quite suspect of this but now he loves it too. ;-)

    Ali

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  3. That looks great, Alicia! I am so happy you made it your own and that Dan likes it so much :-)

    Maybe Dan will slowly learn to like kale...slowly sneak more and more leaves into his soft serve and see how it goes, lol. I usually use 5-6 big leaves when I make it now, and although it looks like something that I scooped out of a gross green swamp, I swear I can't taste the kale!

    Courtney

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  4. Courtney,

    Thank you for sharing! Dan eats this at least once a day, sometimes twice. Any time I can add raw cruciferous veggies to his intake I am happy. :-)

    You know me well, I plan to increase the kale over time for Dan. I had 5 leaves in mine this morning and the color was not quite as appealing as Dan's. LOL

    Do you have a favorite fruit combo for this? I added the blueberries to "hide" the green color.

    talk to you soon,
    Ali

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  5. The blueberries do do a good job of masking the green color :-) I love all fruit too much to have a favorite, lol...every time I make it with a different combo I think it is my "new favorite"...until the next time ;-)

    Courtney

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  6. Courtney,

    LOL, thanks for letting me know that I am not the only one that happens to. ;-)

    talk to you later,
    Ali

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  7. To those of us who put greens in our smoothies all the time (moi), this doesn't sound odd at all! I love the addition of oatmeal, too--bet it adds a lot of creaminess to the mix. I just think it sounds YUM. :)

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  8. Ricki,

    Even though I put greens in my veg and fruit juice and smoothies this didn't occur to me. Why I don't know. Thankfully it did occur to Courtney. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I made it tonight for my dessert, and I must say, it was yummy!

    I didn't have all the appropriate ingredients, so I made mine with almonds instead of walnuts and put in a frozen banana and blueberries. It worked splendidly (well, except for the fact that my blender is not an excellent one and took quite a while to do its blending job).

    I do have a question, though: How are you defining a kale leaf? Do you mean taking all the leaves that come off a single stalk? My soft serve was decidedly green (even with the blueberries), but I couldn't taste the kale...

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  10. (Catching up on blogs)...OMG this looks great...what a cool idea..I love to pair brassicas, greens, and berries in salads...making a sweet dessert with that combo is genius...I'm sure it's great....also would be a great trick for getting picky eaters to eat their greens!

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  11. Jessie,

    I am so glad you liked it. We all have Courtney to thank for sharing the idea with me.

    When I say a kale leave I mean I long leave from the bunch which is about 1/2 cup when it is finely chopped. If you used more and liked the taste even better. I put 5 leaves in mine but Dan thinks 2 is more than enough. ;-)

    talk to you later,
    Ali

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  12. Rose,

    You are reading my mind again. This is how I get more raw cruciferous veggies into the hubby. I hope the "trick" works with John too. ;-) When Courtney mentioned it I knew it was genius!

    talk to you later,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete

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