Colorful Kale Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Roasted Nuts + Make your own dressing!

Even though Christmas and New Years have come and gone, the Hallmark channel has ceased the showings of their complex (just kidding....) Christmas movies, and the Christmas trees have piled up at local parks waiting for pick up, I tried to keep Christmastide surfing past New Years day. This past week in Nashville, we had the most delightful winter weather! At times, I felt like I was back in Minnesota, where, for me, the heart of Christmas truly lives.

We did miss the sun though, so I had to come up with something bright, green, and crunchy for us to eat! This is the kind of salad that you will want to use your hands for the last few bits so you don't leave anything behind. DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!!!

Thanksgiving Leftover Sliders

Obviously, breakfast on Friday was pumpin pie, and then for lunch we had leftovers. Growing up, I loved leftovers on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Everyone loves the first round of leftovers.

Its when day 4 of leftovers comes around that its not as exciting. The turkey is dry. The rolls are rather stale. Someone ate all the marshmallows off of the sweet potato casserole. And I wouldn't touch the green bean casserole with a ten foot pole, no matter how fresh they were.

'Pack All the Snacks' Mode - Pumpkin Pie Granola

Eating healthy is definitely a priority to me so setting aside time to plan out or prepare food is necessary. My favorite meal of the day is breakfast, I actually require two of them. Since I’ve been working during this time I had to come up with something easy, satiating, delicious, AND mobile.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili - Fourth Item in The Grateful Plate Series

Sometimes after a long day, the best kind of dinner is the one where you just throw a bunch of stuff into a pot. You use up some of those vegetables that you forgot you had, pop open some beans, throw in some canned tomatoes, and not only do you have a delicious dinner, but you have some marvelous, healthy, delicious, leftovers for the week. (LEFTOVERS ARE THE BEST)

Grilled Panzanella

Soon enough, I will have to say goodbye to most of my plants until next spring. Waaaaaaahhhh. The mailman, UPS, Fedex, our dogs, and probably most of our neighbors are all secretly cheering for the disappearance of the tiny jungle I’ve amassed in front of our house and on the steps leading to our front door. We live in a row of townhouses, so I pretty much use every square inch we have and even still, we run over at least one plant a week. I just ran over the oregano I brought back to life and I’m pretty ticked off at myself.

Breakfast Crumbles - Second in The Grateful Plate Series!

I have been dreaming of this recipe for a while now. I’ve tried a couple of variations but things all came together Friday night, on a whim. I wanted something similar to granola, but not as scattered. Something akin to an apple crisp topping but may not as crunchy. It needed to have some spice in it, kind of like a good ginger molasses cookie. This is what happened. I figured it was the perfect second post for ‘The Grateful Plate’ series. In case you missed the last post, The Grateful Plate series is my response to the benevolence of those who donated to Lainee’s gofundme account.