The kitchen has long been my happy place! The silver lining of spending more time at home this past year has been having more time to experiment and create in the kitchen.

For me, eating well is such an important part of overall health. Cooking at home has many benefits – it’s relaxing, it’s a creative outlet and you can control exactly what goes into your meals. Often, when we eat out, we are unaware of how much sugar, salt and oil make their way into our food. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the occasional restaurant dinner, but I far prefer cooking healthy meals for my family when I can! 

I love to create wholesome and delicious recipes for my family that are not only tasty but healthy too! My kids also love getting involved and ‘helping out’ with meal planning and prep–it provides a great opportunity for us to talk as a family about making smart choices and how to create balance in our life.

Eating well is one way to to ensure my family and I are living our best life. As an Alberta Blue Cross^® member, we have access to Balance^®, which is a program available through their member section of their site. Balance offers a number of great tools and resources that help us stay healthy and active, including everything from fitness trackers to checklists that remind us to get our proper servings of fruits and vegetables. We love that Alberta Blue Cross encourages us to live our best lives by taking a multi-faceted approach to maintaining out health in addition to providing us the coverage to protect us if we do become ill.

If you’re looking for some fun, delicious and wholesome meal inspiration head over the “Sip + Savour” section of rivercitysisters.com. As well, you can fins some great tips and tricks for leading a balanced life on the Alberta Blue Cross blog here.

And now, for one of our favorite healthy and hearty recipes- our Kale + White Bean Stew!

Here is what you need:

• 1 can navy beans or white kidney beans
• 1 pkg ground Italian sausage (I prefer the HOT version for more flavour, you can also sub turkey or chicken if you like)
• 1 bunch kale
• 5 carrots peeled and chopped into medallions
• 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 5 cups bone broth
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. In a large pot, sauté olive oil, chopped onion and pressed garlic on medium heat until fragrant
2. Add in meat, and brown.
3. Once meat is browned, add in bone broth and reduce heat to low.
4. De-vein kale and chop coarsely.
5. Add in kale and white beans
6. Add salt and pepper as desired
7. Simmer on low for minimum half an hour (the longer you simmer, the better the flavours!)
8. Add carrots shortly before serving.
9. You can also add tortellini if desired!
10. Enjoy!

A huge thanks to Alberta Blue Cross for sponsoring this post! As always, all thoughts, opinions and recipes are our own.