Sausage and Kale Soup with a Banana Bread Chaser

We are fortunate to have a farmers market at the end of the street once a week in the summer.  This usually means that I buy a ton of local produce with the best culinary intentions in mind.  Fortunately the Mr. makes an amazing veggie stir fry that consumes much of what I purchase.  I had some kale that needed used up and remembered a soup recipe that I had seen over at the Ginger Kitchen.  Go check out Liz's site for this and other great recipes.  I ended up going to the little market to get some sausage to make the soup.  

 I love the Tacoma Food Co-op, but sometimes the the selection is a little sparse.  They are still building up inventory, but I must admit this find was the best:

You can find these online along with other fantastic Tacoma art at tacomamakes.com.

So back to dinner, I ended up with chicken red pepper sausage rather than ground pork sausage, but the combination with kale, some potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic really worked.  

Since I had one cooking victory I decided to make a somewhat healthier version of my stand-by banana bread recipe from Betty Crocker.  I substituted whole wheat flour for white and used agave nectar instead of brown sugar.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bottom only of a 9x5x3 loaf pan.

2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup agave nectar (you can also use honey)

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

3-4 mashed ripe bananas

Mix all ingredients  beat 30 seconds.  Pour into pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly and then remove from pan.  Supposedly you allow the bread to cool completely before slicing.  But I find it much more satisfying to cut a thick piece and smother it with butter.

This was a baking win!  The taste and texture were as good as the white flour original.  And I feel less guilty after eating half the loaf in 24 hours. 

Easy like a Thursday morning.

Recharge, Restart, Revitalize

One of my coworkers put it best; working a school district schedule means you get three opportunities to start over each year.  While New Years is when the majority hit the reset button, us school folk have a fresh start to our personal lives as summer begins and professionally in September.

One of my personal restarts was to get the blog going again.  What was once a space to post pics of handbags has evolved (or is being reborn) as a place for all sorts of creativity.  And probably a fair share of musings and rants.  

Here are some of the things I would like to accomplish this summer:

Personal Health

• Walk/Jog 100 miles--I'm using the Run Double Couch to 5K app on my phone to keep track of my distance even though my knees often won't allow me to run consistently.
• Lazer Tag with my nephew Cameron
• Wild Waves with the nephews
• Master Hula Hooping and get an LED hula hoop
• The Electric Run 5K  in August

Craftacular

• Reclaim my craft room.  The laundry and ironing has taken over!
• Make this dress
• Finish up the Amy Butler bag I cut out TWO years ago.  This is how bad I procrastinate.
• Get back to designing handbags.  I used to do this all the time.

Home

• Re-tile the entryway
• Build raised beds for the side of the house 
• Sort out the bookshelf situation.  We have SO MANY BOOKS.

Just for Fun

• Re-read some of my childhood favorites.  I already finished Harriet the Spy.  Such a smart book.
• Meditate.  I always have good intentions to do this every morning and then I hit the snooze button.
• Go the The Grand more often.  Local cinema at its best.
• Play games.  Cribbage, Backgammon, plus I would love to do more board games with my family.
• Host more gatherings at our house.  Because that's the whole reason we bought the house.
• Regular Wine and Whine with my girlfriends.  Seriously crucial.