Cooking Through Cancer: Kale Stuffed Potatoes

I told you I wouldn’t be cooking too often but I’ve been eying this recipe on Smitten Kitchen for a while now.  I love kale, I love potatoes and I love cheese.  So, why not?  I gave them a try yesterday and they came out great.  I love this recipe for those going through cancer treatment as well because they are flavorful but not overwhelming.  They are also wonderful if you are experiencing anemia due to treatment because both the kale and the potatoes with the skin are great sources of iron.  They are not hard to make so try it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Take 3 large russet potatoes, wash them, poke holes throughout and bake them in an oven at 400 degrees for about an hour.

Take some fresh kale, tear the leaves off, rinse and saute with a little salt.  No need to add oil.  I took prewashed leaves from Trader Joe’s so when I cooked them I just added a bit of water.  I set those aside in a bowl.  Then, to the same pan I added a tablespoon of olive oil and butter, cut up an onion (the recipe calls for leeks but I couldn’t get one) and sauteed until it was tender.  I added that to the bowl. I grated about a cup of gruyere cheese (I didn’t measure exactly) and added that to the mix along with 3/4 cup of Greek yogurt (the recipe calls for sour cream but this is what I had in the fridge).  When the potatoes are done, cut in half, scoop out the potatoes leaving a thin shell and add to the mixture.  Mix it all up, stuff the potatoes and top with a little more grated gruyere cheese.  Bake for another 15 minutes. Voila!!!!!!  So yummy! I served it with the turkey burgers I made last time.  I don’t love onions so if I were to do it again, I’d try the recipe with the leeks but still it was good.  Oliver tried it and ate some but I don’t think he loved it.  But in order to get his after dinner cookies, he ate most of his portion.  If he really didn’t like it, he would have spit it out or thrown up (seriously!) and neither of those happened so I consider this dish a success.

For some added health benefit, I wonder how this dish would taste with sweet potatoes?  Any ideas on other ways to make this dish even healthier?

Cooking Through Cancer

I’m not a fantastic cook.  I’ve always wanted to be a good cook but I don’t have the patience for it and I’m completely unorganized.  I tend to go for things that are simple and delicious.

Having cancer and having to feed a child everyday is no simple feat.  Oliver is a good eater but I have to make sure that I keep his meals interesting and flavorful.  I wouldn’t call him a picky eater but he has become a moody one.  Yet still I refuse to make him a separate meal.  He eats what I eat.

A couple of years back I found a delicious recipe for turkey burgers.  I can’t find the exact recipe for you now but I think I can describe it to you.  The great thing about it is that you can put all of the ingredients in one bowl and then cook!  There aren’t a lot of dishes to do afterward and prep is easy.  And best of all, it’s pretty healthy.  Here’s what you’ll need.

1 package of ground turkey meat.

1 large egg

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 – 1/3 cup feta cheese (I like more)

Salt

Pepper

The recipe originally called for parsley as well but I hate keeping it in my home.   You use just a little bit of it and the rest rots in your fridge.  At least, that is what happens to me.  I have decided that this is a great place to add just a little more vegetable.  I tend to put in zucchini since I love it but can’t get Oliver to eat it any other way.  I guess I sneak it in.  You can do other vegetables if you like.  I think peppers would be good too.

Put everything in one bowl and mix it with your hand.Lightly coat a pan with oil (like vegetable oil) and form turkey burgers into patties.  Saute until done.  But here’s a little trick.  I tend to cook them almost all of the way through.  That way when you heat them up later, they are still moist and not dry.  Cook them through if you are going to eat them all right away.

Especially when dealing with cancer and cancer treatment, I want to keep things as healthy as possible while still making things easy for me and edible for Oliver.  Today was the first time I sneaked zucchini into the mix.  How did it go over?

Success!  At first he looked at the turkey burger with suspicion but then ate the whole thing, including a good portion of his kale (you must like kale if you live in Brooklyn, it’s a prerequisite) and sweet potatoes.

Now that I’m ending my chemotherapy, I’d like to focus more on my health and that includes cooking more healthy meals.  I want to say that I’ll try a new recipe every week, but that would be a flat out lie.  There’s no way I can do that.  But I do want to try new things that are good for me and my new healthier lifestyle (but I’m not giving up chocolate caramels!) and still a great family meal that is easy to cook.  Stay tuned.

Do you have any family friendly yet healthy recipes you love?  Share them here.