Kale and Cannellini Soup and Random Thoughts

I made a fabulous soup last night, cooking with kale for the first time ever!  And I have more than enough greens left over to try kale chips and probably something else too.

Look at all that kale, and for only 98 cents:

 

I used about half of it and ended up with maybe two cups of greens once I stripped them from their stems (and washed and chopped them).

 

 

I made two quarts of broth the night before using my mystery soup method.  One quart went into the freezer and the other into the soup.  I added a can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, the kale, and then a few ounces of one of the Valentine's Day cheeses.

 

After seasoning with salt, pepper and dried dill, I separated the soup into two saucepans because I was adding chopped Canadian bacon to J's soup.  I never brought the soup to a simmer; I thought that might be a bad idea with a dairy product in the mix.  And here is the finished product!  Note the difference in bowl sizes.  That is one of the ways I cope with cooking for someone who has no need to lose weight and can eat anything he wants with no repercussions.

The soup was great.  The texture of the kale was similar to spinach but with a milder flavor, and the cheese, while I did not use much, added some depth and personality to the mix.  The dill was just a guess, but it turned out to be the perfect match.  Of course for the purposes of full disclosure I should add that I'm a dill freak and I buy it in the bulk section of the grocery store because I go through so much of it.

Kale Experiment #1: Success!  Looking forward to Kale Experiment #2: TBD.  Probably kale chips.

Now for the random thoughts:

1. Weigh-in tonight!  I'm a little nervous.  I was at 187 and change this morning, so I'm pretty sure I won't be getting my 15 lb reward this week.  Ah well, there's always next week.
2. I'd intended this blog to be about my weight-loss journey and titled it accordingly, but I'm posting an awful lot of recipes.  Do I need to refocus?  Cut back on the recipes and post more about other weight loss efforts?  Maybe do I need to start a second blog for the recipes?  Seriously, I have two more cooking posts to put up but haven't yet because I think I'm already on the brink of over-kill with the cooking.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Randomness?  Bring it on, I love a comment!