Winter Salad

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

Yes, salad can be a year-long feature! It’s not just relegated to summer anymore.

I think most people think of salad as being a cold dish. But the best pasta salads are actually served warm – you combine the hot drained pasta with the rest of the ingredients so that the pasta absorbs all of the other flavors more easily.

Winter salads can be served on the slightly cooked and warm side. The greens and vegetables that are available at this time of year are hardier and can stand up to heat and a stronger and sweeter vinaigrette to balance out their earthy flavors.

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Kale Chips

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

I admit I don’t like dark, leafy green veggies. So when I learned from Katie Barreira, former Special Fork cooking newbie blogger, about kale chips, I was sold! What wouldn’t taste good turned into a chip? Great taste, good nutrition and easy to boot. It’s a win-win.

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Winter Greens

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

While waiting for spring to arrive, I start yearning for more veggies and everything green. Swiss chard, collard greens, kale and spinach are my go-to greens.

All of the four are packed with tons of flavor and nutrients. They ranked in the top six vegetables with the highest nutrient content in a comparison of nearly 85 vegetables by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. These greens are loaded with vitamin K and lutein and contain calcium, fiber, folate and vitamin C.

There are many varieties of Swiss chard, such as rainbow and green chard. Kale varieties include lacinato (also known as dinosaur kale), curly and red Russian.

A fun fact is that winter greens actually get sweeter as the weather gets colder. So the time to buy and eat these power-packed leaves is now.

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Birthday Bouquet of Greens

By Lori Powell

Another B’day is right around the corner and an early gift has arrived on my doorstep. A bouquet of greens!

They’re especially great when fresh-picked at a farm stand or from your neighbor’s garden, but to present them this way as a gorgeous bouquet of healthy greens to celebrate my birthday is just perfection. So lovely that I could have put them in a vase and placed them on my table.

So gorgeous…how could I even think of cooking them? Well at least for a day or two.

I quickly came to my senses as I can’t get enough of kale – raw, cooked or in a smoothie. It was love at first bite.

Below is one of my favorite ways to serve them…oh and they are amazingly good for you. Go figure. So below, my happy b’day kale recipe.

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Kale – Delicious and Healthy

By Lori Powell

Not sure if Kale is on your hit list, but it should be! This cruciferous dark veggie is one of the healthiest around; so delicious, smoky and with such an appealing texture, you should try it if you haven’t already.

Forget how good it tastes – it has so many health perks that you can’t lose by consuming it. Kale has anti-cancer health benefits and cholesterol-lowering properties, to name a few.

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