Kale, Bean & Parmesan Salad with Toasted Croutons

Who would have thought that a salad made with Kale could be so delicious? This Kale, Bean & Parmesan Salad is one of our family’s newest favorites! The combination of healthy greens, a little bread, some beans for protein and a tangy dressing, come together to make the best salad ever!

It’s quite filling, easy to make and great for a light dinner or lunch. This is a good way to get those greens in, especially kale. Kale is Rich in vitamins K, A and C, along with other vital nutrients. The health benefits of kale include detoxification, heart support, cancer prevention and a number of others. Read here for a more thorough report on the benefits of kale.

*****Make sure when you buy kale, that it is ORGANIC! There are some produce items that you don’t need to buy organic, but Kale is one that you do!!!!! According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) kale is one of the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crops. Something you may want to avoid, don’t you think? I love knowing what produce you need to buy organic and what you don’t. (Coming up in another post). This website, is a great resource for checking in with what is toxic and what isn’t.

Let’s get to the salad!

Ingredients:

Dressing

  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 1 small shallot, minced
  • Juice of one orange
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients:

Salad

  • 5–6 cups fresh kale, (ORGANIC) very finely chopped
  • 6–8 slices French bread or baguette
  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted or olive oil

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

  • 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Dressing

  1. Place all the dressing ingredients in a glass jar. Apply the lid and shake to mix well.

Toasted Croutons

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

2. Place the bread on a cookie sheet pan and bake for 7-10 minutes. Flip the pieces over and continue to bake for another 5 minutes until the bread is crusty and dry.

3. Remove from oven and allow the bread to cool.

4. Break the bread into pieces and place in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, just cut the bread in very small pieces.

5. Pulse until crumbs form.

6. Pour the butter over the bread and toss with a little salt and pepper to taste.

7. Spread the bread crumbs back on the cookie sheet and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

Putting it all together:

Toss the kale, breadcrumbs, beans, Parmesan, and dressing together. Serve immediately. Oh so yummy!

Enjoy!

Kale, Bean & Parmesan Salad with Toasted Croutons

This Kale, Bean & Parmesan Salad is one of our family’s newest favorites! The combination of healthy greens, a little bread, some beans for protein and a tangy dressing, come together to make the best salad ever!

  • Prep Time10 min
  • Cook Time10 min
  • Total Time20 min
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Ingredients

Dressing

    • 1/3 cup olive oil
    • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
    • Juice of one lemon
    • 1 small shallot, minced
    • Juice of one orange
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Salad

    • 5–6 cups fresh kale, (ORGANIC) very finely chopped
    • 6–8 slices French bread or baguette
    • 4 tablespoons butter, melted or olive oil
    • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
    • 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
    • Salt and pepper to taste
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INSTUCTIONS

Dressing

1

Place all the dressing ingredients in a glass jar. Apply the lid and shake to mix well.

Toasted Croutons

2

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

3

Place the bread on a cookie sheet pan and bake for 7-10 minutes. Flip the pieces over and continue to bake for another 5 minutes until the bread is crusty and dry.

4

Remove from oven and allow the bread to cool.

5

Break the bread into pieces and place in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, just cut the bread in very small pieces.

6

Pulse until crumbs form

7

Pour the butter over the bread and toss with a little salt and pepper to taste.

8

Spread the bread crumbs back on the cookie sheet and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

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Exercises to Strengthen and Stretch Your Feet – Foot Lovin’ Yoga

feet

Here are some great exercises to strengthen and stretch your feet. You can prevent and relieve plantar fasciitis, bunions, weak arches, and even knee, hip & back pain by strengthening and stretching your feet.

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Our feet are complex, multi-functional parts of our body that have many nerve endings, muscle groups, and connective tissue. Did you know there are 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than a hundred muscles, tendons, and ligaments in our feet? Crazy hugh?

The feet are intricately connected to the rest of our bodies in ways we don’t realize.

Because our feet are the furthest thing from our brain, we often forget about them and neglect them. (However, we quickly give our feet awareness when something goes wrong with them, don’t we)?

What Happens If We Don’t Take Care of our Feet

Conditions like flat feet, hammertoe, plantar fasciitis, and more can cause a lot of pain. This pain can get carried all the way up the body, to the knees, the hips, to the spine, and to the neck. All this misalignment can cause the body to do some pretty intense overcompensation, causing you to walk, sit, and stand in unhealthy ways that may only make the condition worse.

In order to avoid allowing our foot problems to dictate the health of the rest of our body, it’s so important to for us to take care of our feet! When we take care of our them, the rest of our bodies will thank us!

feet

These exercises are great for anyone who has FEET!

This video is a 35-minute class that will strengthen, stretch and even help with the coordination of your feet.

You’ll need

  • a chair
  • yoga block, access to a step or stairs
  • yoga blanket (optional)
  • a dishcloth or small piece of fabric.

Check out the props and equipment I use. 

Take off your shoes and socks and give your feet some lovin!

Here are some other gentle yoga videos and posts you may be interested in:

Office Yoga

Foot Lovin’ Yoga – Myofascial Release with a Ball

Building Strong Bones: the Gentle Yoga Way

Gentle Yoga with Jan Youtube station

Have a fabulous week my friends!

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A Good Day at the Thrift Store – Wool Sweaters

I have been driving around with a bin full of donation items to take to the thrift store for about a month now. Today while I was out and about I decided to drop them off. It felt great to let that stuff go, however I just couldn’t pass up a quick stroll through the store. I had to go in and see if they had any “good” used wool sweaters for all my upcycling projects. I am afraid it is an addiction. An upcycled wool sweater is the best!

It’s not very often that I find a lot of “good” wool sweaters, but today was my lucky day. Not only do I rarely find a lot of nice sweaters to felt, but GREEN ones. I love green, and a green wool is even better! Shades of green just come in handy for so many of my upcycled projects and designs. Today I hit the jackpot.

The best time to pick up sweaters is in the summer at garage or tag sales. Stores will start putting them on sale in the spring.

So what defines a “good” sweater?

Well on my terms, a good sweater is:

  • One that has at least 70% wool content. (This allows them to shrink up real nice and tight).
  • Has unique, rich colors
  • The bigger the better (Men XL size sweaters give you more yardage).
  • Has fun stripes or simple designs on the sweaters.

Things to avoid when purchasing a wool sweater:

  • Look out for holes.  Especially when purchasing wool sweaters.
  • Really bulky sweaters. When you felt the sweater it will get even bulkier. Depending on your project, too bulky sweaters can be hard to work with.  However, sometimes there may be a need for a real thick nap).
  • Too thin of a sweater. (Again, depending on your project)  Cashmere sweaters are usually thin and very soft. This type of sweater is great for hand warmers and ponchos, but not so great for a pair of slippers.
  • Think about your inventory. Don’t overspend on colors you already have a ton of or on sweaters that are just so, so. Resist the need to buy every wool sweater you find or you will end up with bins and bins of sweaters. (Believe me, sweaters take up a lot of room).

If you are not familiar with how to “felt” (shrink and tighten the fibers of your sweater), here is a link to a FREE online course that I teach. You’ll love it!

This is such a great time of the year to get out your felted sweaters and make something fun. If you live where it is cold right now, like I do, there are tons of things to make with felted wool.

Mittens, HATS, Scarfs, HAND WARMERS, slippers, Valentine Heart Hand Warmers and HEARTS, Bunnies & Bears, Baby Toys, flowers, BAGS, and even birds.

Don’t forget to save your scraps when cutting out your upcycled wool sweater felted wool projects. There are a lot of fun things to make with this crafting gold!

 

So get out your wool sweater stash. (If you don’t have one yet, after one felted sweater project you soon will have one). An upcycled sweater is fun stuff to work with!

Get out your scissors, sewing machines and turn on some soothing music, or a good podcast, and enjoy a day of creation!

The patterns to make most of these projects can be located in my Etsy shop or here on my website.

here are some more sweater upcycled wool sweater posts you may be interested in.

Let me know if you have any questions or any great tips to share.