King Kale

As master multitaskers who keep their families’ lives in motion, moms have a few requirements to keep all the balls in the air, especially when it comes to feeding their families: convenience, and time and cost savings.

"To achieve this, we tend to rely on foods from far away," said Ashley Lukens, director of the newly launchedHawaii Center for Food Safety and herself a mom. The center, a national nonprofit, promotes a healthier, cleaner food system via research, litigation and grass-roots advocacy; its top goal is advocating for "organics and beyond" to promote a food system healthy for people, the environment and the economy.

When Lukens gave birth to her daughter, Audrey Shannon, in 2008, she was a political science doctoral candidate writing her dissertation on the local food movement. As she raised Audrey, she longed to shop at the farmers market and purchase organic, local food. She particularly wanted to shop at Ma’o Organic Farms, the subject of an entire chapter of her dissertation.

"Ma’o supports healthy food, a healthy community and a healthy environment. If I support them, I support all those values," she said.

But she was met with a dilemma countless well-intentioned moms face: "How do you get your kid to eat kale?"

Lukens eventually came up with an answer while making her own baby food.

"I started with taro and sweet potato, so I was familiar with water-braising food. It seemed intuitive to move on to apples for applesauce — you cook the apples with water and when they’re softened you put them in a blender," she said. "Then I added (braised) kale to the applesauce and she did not spit it out."

Mission accomplished, but because Lukens was focused on the locavore movement, the fact that she didn’t have access to local apples poked at her conscience. Then she realized she could utilize the applesauce with more local ingredients to create other treats. One idea that took off was a smoothie using bananas that Lukens’ friend regularly supplied from her garden.

Her daughter loved it, and — voila! — the makings for a favorite dish, the Banana Swirl, was born. But it wasn’t quite there yet. As many busy moms can attest, "making a smoothie everyday can be humbug."

So Lukens took to freezing the kale applesauce in ice cube trays. When she wanted to make an afterschool smoothie, she blended the cold cubes with a banana. The fact that the cubes can be added to "everything — oatmeal, yogurt (and) frozen on a stick — elevated it to "favorite" status.

"It’s my go-to," she said.

The cubes aremulti-taskers, cooling too-hot oatmeal, chilling yogurt ("no need for an ice pack in the lunch box") and providing moms a sense of control.

"It helps me get to the farmers market where I can buy produce that’s organic and locally grown. And I make this myself so I know what’s in it, I have all the control," she said.

Another upside of the applesauce is that if mixed finely enough in the blender, the kale turns yogurt bright green, providing a healthful replacement to the commercial yogurts laden with sugar and food coloring that are popular with children.

And while it’s not unlikely that the appeal of a kale-banana concoction would be met with skepticism, Lukens insists the smoothie has been universally well received. As the original owner of the Baby aWearness boutique in Manoa, Luken featured the Banana Swirl in cooking classes and says that across the board, families loved the frozen treat.

"Not one person didn’t like it," she said.

Lukens, 32, grew up in Houston and moved to Hawaii to attend graduate school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She said she was raised by a mother who cooked every night, though much of the food she prepared was processed — "Velveeta, canned stuff. Not a lot of vegetables."

It was in high school, when Lukens decided for philosophical reasons to go vegetarian, that she became familiar with the world of veggies. Now, she can’t imagine a diet that isn’t predominantly vegetables. And while her mother’s cooking involved ingredients very different from her own, her mom’s time in the kitchen left a lasting influence.

"My mother instilled in me the value of cooking," said Lukens. "The more things I can make at home, the better. I have a love affair with DIY (do it yourself)."

Between full-time work and a young family, where does she find the time?

"I don’t watch TV and I’m a planner," she said. "I plan a menu on Sunday and make sure I have recipes to build on a single ingredient. If I have roast chicken on Monday, I can do a chicken stir-fry on Tuesday then use the bones to make stock for soup on Wednesday. On Thursdays we eat out, and on Fridays we potluck with friends."

Other tips: Consider a slow cooker and a home garden. Lukens calls the appliance her "best friend" because it cooks her food while she’s doing other things. Of gardening, she says, "If you have a garden, it’s like printing free money."

Though Lukens says she can’t keep a garden going, she figured out a solution: sharing her thriving worm bin with a gardener friend, which entitles her to a share of the bounty.

Lukens says every success, from bartering worms for veggies to delivering a healthy snack her child loves, is invaluable for a woman.

"If we can carve out moments as moms to feel proud of ourselves, it’s good for everybody."

Freeze applesauce for ease of use

Ashley Lukens, director of the Hawaii Center for Food Safety, said this recipe for kale applesauce requires very little time, skill or effort. 

"On a scale of 1 to 10, this recipe is a 2," she said. "It’s a great kitchen project for engaging the whole family — even youngsters can help by removing kale leaves from stems." 

Lightly braising the kale takes off its bitter edge and makes for an applesauce that Lukens calls "sweet and delicious." Freezing the applesauce gives it versatility to be used with other foods. Among its uses is creating the Banana Swirl smoothie that follows.

KALE APPLESAUCE

4 apples, cored and sliced into chunks
1/2 bunch kale, stemmed
Water

Place apples in pan and add enough water to cover. Bring pan to boil, then reduce heat to low and cook apples 10-15 minutes until translucent. 

Add kale and cook 3 minutes. 

Remove apples and kale from water. If using plastic blender, cool before blending. 

Blend thoroughly, until kale is indiscernible from apples. Add some cooking water if necessary. Fill ice cube trays (should fill about 3 trays) and freeze. Use cubes as needed.  

Approximate nutritional information, per cube: 15 calories, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g sugar, no fat, cholesterol, sodium or protein

BANANNA SWIRL

3 frozen kale applesauce cubes
2 medium bananas
1/2 cup coconut water or almond milk, added as necessary (optional)

Place ingredients in blender and blend well to make smoothie. Serves 1 or 2.

Approximate nutritional information per serving (based on 2 servings using almond milk): 140 calories, 1 g fat, no saturated fat or cholesterol, 40 mg sodium, 35 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 20 g sugar, 2 g protein

Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.