An Accolade to Chard

Last night while talking to my 2 mommies (hmm, gotta be careful saying that nowadays), I mean my mom and Char Char, I told them I was making chard for dinner and neither one of them had heard of chard before. Since I'm a big fan of this vegetable I thought I would give y'all a little tour of this heavyweight veggie in terms of nutrition.

This is Swiss chard. Red stalks, big dark green leaves packed with Vitamins K, A and C.


below is Rainbow Chard...and yes those colors are all real and natural!

To make it you can saute, steam, or blanch it (there's probably more ways, those are just the ones I've done). Previously I rolled it up, cut it in ribbons and steamed it with garlic and orzo...but I couldn't find the recipe last night and almost drove myself crazy looking for it.

So instead I tried out a new recipe from the Alton Brown cookbook I got for Christmas, which has onions, LOTS of garlic, which after you cook for awhile you add a paste of butter and flour and toast it all, then add crushed tomatos, chicken broth and whisk till the sauce becomes creamy goodness. Throw in whole wheat pasta (boiled in the water the chard was blanched in to get extra minerals and goodness) and the chopped up chard. Topped with parmesan or feta (the parm was better) it was pretty darn good! I think I may add a few of my own tweaks, but Matt ate 4 servings so it couldn't be that bad!

mmmm...we're both having it again for lunch today too...



and did I mention this entire meal costs about $6 or $7?

to further impress upon you the goodness of chard, here's a link to a chart showing how much good stuff it has...

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=16

Thus endeth my acolade of chard.


Oh, and this is what I got at Ikea yeserday to finish off our reading corner:

A tall frame, poster (that I cut up) and a shelf for books and coffee. Now I need a creative way to cover up that cord...

And one more tidbit. Our landlords/upstairs neighbors/friends' 3 year old son Micah is going in for a procedure that will close a patent (open) ductus arteriosis (a prenatal blood vessel between the aorta and the pulmonary vessel), that should have closed at his birth. Please keep him and their family in your prayers.