Sweet Potato and Chard Enchiladas

Sweet potato and Kale Enchiladas

Sometimes life feels more like a race to the finish line than anything else.  Like a cross country ski marathon on slushy snow or a face-first ride on a skeleton sled at 80 mph.  On the craziest days, we might as well be careening over a ski cross jump—one minute we’re in gold medal form, the next, a jumbled mass in the ditch.  It’s exhausting.  Terrifying.  Unpredictable.  And more.  Our to-do list spans multiple pages, but all we really hope for is a clean pair of pants—without too many wrinkles—and a jug of milk in the fridge—that’s not too far past the freshness date—to start the day.  These are times when texting family members in the next room seems perfectly normal.  When dishes pile in the sink and dirty clothes in the corner, and no one notices.  Clearly, we’re just trying to hang on, and at the end of the day, what we need is food on the table without a crash.  Food that’s soul-soothing—because really, that’s what’s getting us through this patch in one piece.

These are enchilada days.  With a bit of homework done ahead (Olympic gold isn’t won without the training runs), the classic tortilla bundles are a cinch to pull together, and receive raves around a hungry table.  How perfect is that?

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Christine’s Crossing — Green Smoothies 101

Starter Green Smoothie

It’s time once again to hear from Health Coach, Christine de la Cruz—this month on the subject of green smoothies…

Do you ever wonder what in the world you are going to do with all of the gorgeous greens you receive on Wednesdays? Some weeks I can barely fit them in my refrigerator—which is actually a great problem to have.  My solution to not wasting one fabulous bit is to make green smoothies!

Include a green smoothie in your diet every day for 30 days, and you will see some of these awesome benefits:  improved digestion, increased energy, weight loss, glowing skin, luxurious hair, improved sleep and better moods. Who’s not on board now?  And the best part is that you don’t have to change anything else you are consuming.

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Christine’s Crossing

Creamy Vegetable Soup with Kale

Starting today we’ll be featuring Freshness Farms enthusiast and health coach, Christine de la Cruz in a monthly column called “Christine’s Crossing”.  With Christine’s wellness-oriented coaching you’ll learn how to incorporate Freshness Farms produce into everything from soup to main courses to juice and smoothies—like her sneaky zucchini noodles and vibrant beet and carrot juice.  This week Christine shares how to turn a refrigerator bursting with veggies into a warming potful of vitamins and flavor….

I have a confession to make:  as a health coach, I love to eat and prepare healthy food, but I am a lazy cook.  I don’t really like to follow recipes or spend a lot of time slicing and dicing.  Confession two:  I don’t mind eating soup in the middle of summer.  In summer we have a tendency to mostly eat raw or cold foods, which can be tough on our digestion and cause bloating.  Warm soup is easy on our systems, plus it’s really nice to have a potful of something quick and healthy at the ready when we are hungry!  Making soup is a great way to use up any produce we have overflowing—which we can all relate to in the best possible way.  Right now my fridge is loaded with the last great delivery from Freshness Farms, and I want to use up every last bit, while it’s at the peak of freshness.

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Pupusas with Kale Curtido

pupusa with curtido

In our household summer is a time of grand ambition and limitless opportunity.  Or so it seems, at the outset, with weeks of unbridled possibility ahead.  Notes to self have accumulated steadily since last summer; we’ve got a long list of projects on our hands.  THE LIST.  In January we’re confident that summer’s long, warm days devoid of school (if not jobs) will be the magic elixir to rejuvenate our procrastination-prone existence with newfound motivation.  The story we spin to ourselves goes something like this, “once summer hits we’ll clean out the closets and garage, get into shape, thoroughly weed the garden and repair the drip system.  Then begin the bathroom remodel in earnest while working through the family budget.  Fix the leaky kitchen faucet and degunk the shower drain.  And grow some really fabulous tomatoes, too.”  No problem, there’s still plenty of time.

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