Stylish Blogger Award and a Side of Smoky Greens!

Whoo-hoo! I've just been awarded the Stylish Blogger Award by Vegan Fueled Athletic Mom! I've always been secretly jealous of them award winners, and now I have one of my own!  

The rules for this award are:

1. Make a post & link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award a few recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won!


Here are my random 7 things:
1. My favorite snack right now is sourdough Wasa crackers with all-natural fig preserves and Tofutti cream cheese. They're ridiculously awesome and they have a familiar taste that I can't quite put my finger on...
2. I want to live in an underground house. It's been a dream of mine since I was like, seven.
3. I just bought an Excalibur dehydrator and I plan on doing some serious uncooking here soon!
4. I'm obsessed with cult movies and bad horror films. I'm getting Netflix here in a week or two so that I can finally watch The Day of the Triffids, which is like my two favorite things rolled in to one: cult "horror" and plants. Score.
5. I have ambitious plans. Some include going to go to the Amazonian rainforest on an eco-tour as well as on a hiking glacier tour in New Zealand. Life's short and there's a lot in this world I want to see.
6. I listen to metal, but I've got a serious soft spot for reggae, old reggae.
7. I haven't ever left the Midwest (though not by choice). I went to Iowa once, Illinois once, Arkansas once (just barely crawled into), and Kansas a handful of times. I GOTTA GET OUT MORE!

And here's my bloggers (I tried to do ten, but a lot of the ones are read already have hundreds of readers):
1. The Teenie Foodie
2. Vegan Sunshine
3. JL Goes Vegan: Food and Fitness with a Side of Kale
4. The Vegan Stoner

Now check those guys out!

Anywho, now greens... I love greens! I love how each of the different varieties have differences in taste and texture. I love how they add a punch of color to soups and dinner plates, and even more importantly, I love the nutritional punch they add to my diet!

Here's a little bit of a run down on some American greens that are pretty common in grocery stores, mustards, collards, turnip greens, beet greens, kale, and spinach. All these greens are low in fat, low in calories, high in fiber, have a small amount of protein (between 2-5 grams a cup, depending on the green), and are also a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Riboflavin, Calcium, Iron, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

Surprisingly though, beet greens are high in sodium, 14% of your RDA in one cup. If you follow a balanced diet and don't eat much processed food or add much salt to food, this doesn't matter much, but if you must watch your salt intake you should probably adjust the amount of beet greens you eat. Spinach contains about 5% of your RDA of sodium and should be taken into consideration as well.

Are you ready to eat some greens now?? Simmering them lightly in broth adds lots of flavor and cooking them at least 30 minutes gets out any bitterness. The only greens I quick-cook are kale and spinach. Everything else gets simmered!

Smoky Garlic Mixed Greens:
3 lbs. of mixed greens (about 3 bunches)
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 Tb. minced garlic (about 5 cloves)
1 tsp. liquid smoke
about 1 cup of vegetable broth

1. Wash your greens throughly, then chop. Turnip greens usually have sand in them, and sometimes little bugs like to hide in the folds.
2. In a large pot, simmer the onions and garlic in a little bit of vegetable broth until soft.
3. Add the greens, the liquid smoke, and about another cup of broth.
4. Cover and simmer on medium-low for about 45-60 minutes, check occasionally to make sure that there is still broth on the bottom of the pan. Stir occasionally. If the pan starts to go dry, add a little more broth and continue to simmer them lightly until they reach at least the 45 minute mark.
5. Serve with lots and lots of Cholula hot sauce (my favorite brand)!

This is officially my go-to greens recipe from now on! I love it!