Kale Fail

Today we had plans to meet friends for Thai food and then go bowling. With very little notice, the Thai food part of the plan was cancelled but we still had to leave for bowling in an hour. This gave me very little time to decide what I was going to make for dinner and we had nothing in the house to eat. I had to go to the supermarket and get ingredients, prepare a nutritious meal, and eat it. The kitchen wasn't clean. The hangover dinner from the day before had not been tidied away and there was not a clean plate or pan or work surface in the place. This is where I would normally have said "fuck it. It's not my fault. Let's just get a cheese burger at the bowling alley". Instead, I called Julia.

Julia is a sweetheart that I work with. She always makes an amazing lunch. Everything in her tupperware is made from scratch and flavoured with herbs and spices that are ingeniously combined. It's not like she's eating rabbit food, she's taken the time to make something wonderful. If I make a tuna sandwich with wholemeal bread for lunch, I generally to feel pretty happy with myself, but Julia has me in awe. She's also a very busy woman studying for an MD/PhD so I have no idea where the fuck she finds the time to make this food, but that's a separate issue.

Julia, bless her heart, is encouraging me on my journey to healthy family meal times and had emailed me a recipie for 'Kale and Cranberries' that seemed pretty straightforward and novel (because what the fuck is kale?). Unfortunately, I had panicked and raced to the supermarket before working out what I needed to buy. I have one of those shit phones that doesn't really do the internet. I called Julia from the supermarket and she sorted me out. 

Kale and Cranberries, with a side of left-over chicken, and a fresh chopped tomato. Here it is. Isn't it colorful! 

The problem is, I was rushing. I was trying to simultaneously wash plates and cook something new while my only son yelled instructions at me that he was reading from Julia's email. Neither of us got part about taking the stalks off the kale. It's in the email, clear as day, but we didn't notice that part. I cooked it with the stalks on. None-the-less, with the garlic, olive oil and the cranberries - this was a pretty nutritious and appetising dish. I just cocked it up a little bit. I will do better next time. 

Even as I ate, I was still stressing out about the time and feeling pretty stupid about the stalks (we ate around them). My family are very sweet and they ate the dinner gratefully, reassuring me that it was fine and I should be proud of myself. There was plenty of appreciation, but no eagerness. This was a perfectly nice dish, and very nutritious, but I think I can do better next time.