Welcome to the weekend!  I hope it has been a great and productive week for you.  Even if it hasn’t, I hope you enjoy some relaxing time with family and friends this weekend.

This week I learned a lot about kale.  Have you ever cooked with kale?  This was my first time.  It is a lot like spinach, but it is better for you and doesn’t have the lingering taste of spinach.  It is amazingly cheap.  I picked up one bunch of kale at our local Kroger store and it cost a whopping $1.49.  I have used 4 cups of kale in a soup recipe, another 2 cups in a smoothie recipe, gave some to my mother and still have approximately 4 cups left.  That is a lot of use for $1.49.

According to WebMD.com, kale is a nutritional powerhouse.  It has lots of fiber and is an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K.  It also has a number of other nutrients and compounds which are great for your body.  It is a great fresh vegetable to eat during the winter months when so many other vegetables have to be imported from far away.

The ideas I used for making chicken and kale soup and kale-laced smoothies came from my favorite recipe site – sugarfreemom.com.  Her “Crock Pot Turkey Kale Rice Soup” was very easy to make.  I substituted chicken for the turkey since we already had the chicken on hand.  We have found that her recipes are always mildly seasoned, which is great since our 1 year-old eats what we do.  I added a bit of extra garlic, basil and pepper to my bowl.  Later in the week she also posted up a Blueberry Coconut Hidden Green Smoothie that is dairy, sugar and gluten free if you follow her recipe.  I made a few modifications but the kale did blend in very nicely which adds a great boost of nutrients.

Will you be adding some kale to your diet?

And now for the roundup of weird and interesting things:

First off, let me plug my own posts from the week 🙂  My backyard chicken post (with live chicken cam…which is still on) was a huge hit.  I finally beat the record that my treadmill desk post set for views in a single day.  A friend texted saying he was having trouble working because he couldn’t stop watching the chicken cam.  Our baby enjoyed watching the cam and saying “bak bak” as the chickens moved around.  We hope to get chicks in this coming week.  I also had an update on my health goals and posted a family devotional about Abraham.

My friend Kevin Langford put together an excellent post on putting together a successful retreat.  Kevin is one of the most organized and successful family ministers I know, so this is worth a read!

One of my favorite sites for simple activities for children is madebyjoel.com.  This man is a genius!  He takes very simple things like cardboard and yarn and makes amazing things.  He posted up a tutorial on teaching kids the basics of weaving.

Over at lifehacker.com they posted up this amazing idea for limiting the amount of soap that little kids will use with pump dispensers.  It only involves a rubber band.  So smart!

99u.com posted this great article about the benefits of being knowledgeable about many things but a master of none.  Some of the greatest innovators in history have been great generalists, drawing on their diverse knowledge base to invent, create or solve.  As a ‘jack of many trades, master of none’ kind of guy, I can truly appreciate this read.

A new site I’m following, keeperofthehome.org, has been putting up a great series of posts about how to find, buy and cook with real food.  I have found this series incredibly informative.  This week I especially enjoyed “Finding Real Food In The Grocery Store” and “Simple Steps To Begin Homemade Cooking.”

Speaking of simple steps, our 1 year-old started walking this week:

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Lifehacker had this great article on the need for margin in life.  What is margin? Extra time and space to make sure the important things get done.

Tentblogger.com put up this short piece on the need for guts in any creative endeavor.  There will always be critics.

Wisebread.com is always full of useful information.  This week I really enjoyed “25 Ways to Save $5 This Week.”

Jeff Jenkins, a preacher friend of mine, put up this great article based on a quote by his father.  “…for the Bible contains the mind of God”  is a great thought and Jeff does a great job writing about it.

And finally a quick one from Neatoram.  This dude must be serious about grilling.  He turned an old oil truck into a massive portable grill.