Ho ho ho!
I love this time of year. ESPECIALLY with kids. It’s pure magic.
I’m sure the novelty of cozy indoor activities will wear off long before February, but for now, I’m soaking up all the time we are doing holiday themed crafts, baking together, doing puzzles by the fire, and listening to the Frozen 2 soundtrack on repeat.
Don’t worry, though. I still have plenty of things on my bucket list to tackle while the kids are on break from school…
I’m thinking gingerbread, cinnamon rolls, peppermint bark…all the essentials for a holly jolly Christmas. 😉
Guess who came up with this salad recipe? My little chef of a daughter!
The kids are legit foodies in the sense that they can come up with a recipe or meal concept all on their own.
This week I told everyone to pick something for dinner they wanted (which is my way of cheating and not having to come up with our meal plan all on my own). Took care of three meals right off the bat! Valley was the first to speak up and came up with this salad…”kale, walnuts, bacon and persimmon with a dressing” was how she phrased it. Then P said that was basically the same salad that he was going to ask for as well, so he agreed to just go with her version and he’d come up with something else.
I added butternut squash and cornbread to up the carbs and thus make it hold us all over better.
I also had a bunch of cornbread parts (yes, PARTS) in the freezer because of an unfortunate cornbread disaster before thanksgiving. What do you do with cornbread parts?? You make a cornbread panzanella!!
Most of the prep goes down in the oven, so once that’s going, it’s pretty hands off until assembly time.
1) crank the oven to 375 F
2) roast the butternut squash for ~35 minutes
3) crank the oven to 400 F
4) cook the bacon for ~10 minutes
5) crank the oven to 550 F (or broil)
6) toast the walnuts for 2-5 minutes*
*Note: ovens vary greatly when it comes to broiling, so keep an eye on those nuts!
After all that, it’s not much more than throwing things in a bowl!
I used some of the rendered bacon fat to massage into the kale and the rest to coat the walnuts before roasting them. That way nothing goes to waste.
Winter Kale and Persimmon Salad
Ingredients:
- 2 bunches of kale, destemmed, ripped into pieces
- 8-10 strips of bacon
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 small butternut squash, cubed
- 1 persimmon, diced
- 4 cornbread slices/muffins
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Directions:
If you don’t have leftover cornbread, bake some! Bob’s Red Mill and TJs make mixes that make it ridiculously effortless. Freeze the leftovers and thank yourself later.
Wash and de-stem the kale, ripping into small pieces and putting them into a large salad bowl.
Next we are going to get all the oven stuff out of the way. While the oven is pre-heating to 375 F, cube the butternut squash and toss it in 2-3 tbsp olive oil. Spread onto a greased baking sheet and roast for ~35 minutes or until fork tender.
Meanwhile spread the bacon onto another baking sheet. Once the squash is done turn the oven up to 400 F and cook for ~10 minutes (+/- depending on your preference for doneness).
After you have removed the bacon from the oven, place the slices on a separate plate and then add the nuts to the rendered bacon fat (on the same baking sheet you just took out of the oven). Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp coconut sugar and toss until the nuts are covered and spread out on the baking sheet.
Turn the oven up to broil (which is 550 F on my oven) and toast the walnuts for 2-5 minutes. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP AN EYE ON THEM because nuts go from golden to blackened in <10 seconds.
Remove the nuts from the baking sheet and pour the remaining bacon fat over the kale and massage into the greens. Add the balsamic vinegar and toss.
To serve, add squash, nuts and chopped persimmons to the kale. Crumble bacon and cornbread on top and then fold into the salad.
Add a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper as needed and dig in.
Cornbread on the side is chill too. You do you!
Hi! I am trying to move into a more low-waste lifestyle and I was wondering if you had any advice in the area of kid crafts. I have a 3 year old that loves stickers, coloring, etc. We do try to re-use paper as much as possible and craft with our materials until they are completely gone, but I just wanted to see if you had any tips on keeping waste down with arts and crafts, or maybe buying more sustainably? Thank you!
Hey Trisha! Stickers are a tough one, but in terms of paper, you can try to find places that you know produce scraps (ie offices) and as them if you could use their scrap paper. I have done this at our church and my husband’s workplace and it provides enough for years! It’s usually mostly white, but you’d be surprised at what randomness you can get. This is all assuming you are just doing projects for the process and not to give away or use for any real purpose, though. As long as there’s no sensitive material, I’ve never found it a problem. Similarly, I collect things whenever I’m at an event or place where I see they are about to throw things away (ie extra stir sticks and coffee sleeves from a group meeting over coffee). Start a collection of toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, etc – anything you would throw away or recycle! And then go on pinterest and type in ‘kids craft with “x”‘ and see what comes up. Also check out your library. Ours has activity kits (called “early learning kits”) with felt boards and reusable crafts that you can do and then box up and return for the next kid. I don’t have any great ideas for pens, but at least with pencils and crayons you are basically using them up as you go…and with the nubs of crayons, you can make a new multi-color crayon by baking them together. You just put the small pieces in a cookie tin on a greased cookie sheet and bake until they melt together. I’m sure there’s a tutorial out there on the internet. Anyway. There’s only so much you can do, so definitely recognize that just by making ANY steps you are helping.