Fridge Woes + Sauteed Kale

Our fridge has been acting up this past week. It did this once before when we returned from Hawaii in the Fall so I packed all our food into the cooler  unplugged it, let everything defrost and then turned it back on after about 14 hours. Then I called the refrigerator repair guy because sometimes you have to be the adult and get things fixed properly. Luckily it was a quick 15 minute fix and under $200 which is great when you consider that I was thinking we'd have to spend $1500 on a new fridge. $200 feels like a steal at that point!

On Saturday morning when I discovered this issue, I quickly made banana bread to use up the eggs, sour cream and overly ripe bananas. Our cooler only has so much room and the 4 eggs and 1/2 a container of sour cream was not going to fit inside. I made two loaves of bread and gave one to my parents so that I wouldn't be tempted by the delicious treat lingering in my house. 

By Sunday morning, the fridge appeared OK so I loaded all the food from the cooler back into the fridge. I was amazed that all of the frozen items had remained frozen. My ice packs really worked! However, I was not about to fill up the fridge with new groceries since I had just thrown food out the day before. Luckily it wasn't much since it was at the end of the week when groceries are scarce than at the beginning of the week when groceries are bountiful. 

I stared into the abyss that was my fridge and knew that I had to quickly use up what was left. I noticed that I had a huge bag of kale and decided that would be a nice accompaniment to our meals. I love sauteed kale with a nice side of protein. 

Sauteed kale is such a simple veggie that I wonder why I don't make it more often. Here's what I do: I pour a bit of olive oil into my cast iron pan. Then I put the kale in and massage it around to get the olive oil all over. I add some salt, pepper, cumin and ginger to the kale before placing a lid over the pan. I then cook the kale over medium-high heat, making sure to stir it every so often to prevent burning. Once the kale was cooked down, I turn off the heat and take the lid off and let it sit for a few moments. 

Molly even chowed down on the kale at dinner along with the salmon. She really does eat almost everything, except brussel sprouts. She is not a fan of brussel sprouts but I will keep trying to make her a fan.