The hot new thing for 2015? Kale

By Ray Hanania

Kale

Kale. It’s not a nickname for super hero, Ka-El who was orphaned in a last ditch attempt by his parents to send him to Earth to escape their dying planet, Krypton.

But it is as big as a blockbuster movie, and the new big thing in American diets. A Superman of a movie when it comes to health and it’s the base ingredient being used to create homemade vitamin-packed “smoothies.”

What is Kale? It’s the green stuff that usually lines the ice in grocery store vegetable displays, under the vegetables, as a friend told me. I literally never heard of it before.

Now, it fills whole sections of the vegetable display at very inexpensive costs. At 99 cents a pound, it’s extremely cheap. And everyone is buying it, more so now than even during World War II when it was a big hit, a few grocers told me.

Kale is a dark green, and sometimes reddish colored “leafy” vegetable that looks like a marriage between broccoli and lettuce. And people are using it to make their own homemade vitamin drink supplements not only to feel healthier but to also lose weight.

Usually the leaf is curly, but it also comes smooth, too.

And it’s not bad at all.

Preparing to mix the Kale in the NutriBullet blender.

Here’s my daily recipe for a Kale Smoothie:

Using a blender, fill up the container half way with Kale. Through in some celery, and spinach and add coconut water to get the mixture started.

I like to blend in steps.

Next, I add a banana, unskinned apple (leaving out the core — apple seeds have cyanide in them — not good), and then blue berries, raspberries, strawberries and mangos, too. You can use fresh fruits or frozen fruits, to give the mixture a better tasting chilled mix.

Blend it all again.

Then I add pecans, walnuts and Grape Nuts — cereal can be a good ingredient if you stay away from the sugar-infested kids’ choices and pick the granolas.

Blend it again.

Kale-based, slushy looking ice cream smoothie.

Some people don’t think you should mix vegetables and fruits, but I disagree. I love it. I don’t taste the Kale at all. I don’t taste any of the vegetables at all. The fruits and the coconut water gives it the flavor and the pecans (or walnuts, too) and Grape Nuts give it a crunchy taste.

I haven’t taken the time to calculate the vitamins and health benefits, but I think it’s a lot better than Acai, although if you can get fresh Acai berries (or frozen) why not toss them in, too?

I feel energized after eating the smoothie mix. Usually it’s thick so I eat it with a spoon.

The Kale and vegetables will give it a dark green look. The raspberries and strawberries will give it a redder look. The banana’s will give it a balanced taste.

Blending things is not a new practice. When I was young, my mom had a blender and made milk shakes and drinks using vegetables and fruits, separately.

It has done one thing for me, though. I’ve significantly dropped my Diet Coke intake. Seems that Diet anything only tricks your body creating enzymes that, when unfulfilled, start forming fat. So it doesn’t do a very good job of helping you stay slim.

I’ll miss the caffeine, but when your body feels healthy with a vitamin injection, you don’t need to rely on caffeine any more.

Try it. You’ll like it!

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and managing editor of Illinois News Network. Reach him at [email protected].)

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Ray Hanania

Blogger, Columnist at Illinois News Network Online

Ray Hanania is senior blogger for the Illinois News Network online news site. He is an award winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist who covered the beat from 1976 through 1992 (From Mayor Daley to Mayor Daley).

In 1976, he was hired by the Chicago community newspaper The Southtown Economist (Daily Southtown) and in 1985 was hired by the Chicago Sun-Times and covered Chicago City Hall for both. In 1993, he launched the “The Villager” Newspapers which covered 12 Southwest Chicagoland suburban regions. He hosted a live weekend Radio Show on WLS AM radio from 1980 through 1991, and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM and shows on WSBC AM in Chicago and WNZK AM in Detroit.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate and his column is feature every Sunday in the Saudi Gazette in Saudi Arabia. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star, the News of the World, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, and Aramco Magazine. His Chicagoland political columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald and Des Plaines Valley News on several Chicagoland blogs including the OrlandParker.com and SuburbanChicagoland.com.

Hanania is the President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.

His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at: [email protected].

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