We all try our best to do right by our families when it comes to nutrition.  Sometimes it’s easier to plan and prepare meals than others.  Sometimes the schedule allows for home cooked meals while other times eating out is the quickest option.  Eating out doesn’t necessarily mean fast food for us but we do try to avoid it because of the expense.  Plus, you cannot really control what’s going into your food when you eat out.  Unfortunately some weeks those eating out days are more frequent than I like to admit.

When I am cooking at home, I try to feed my family healthy foods and make sure we eat at least one green “super” food each day.  Most of the time our super food is broccoli but I also squeeze in some brussels sprouts and kale on occasion.  I think I am finally brain washing my family into kind of liking brussels sprouts but the kale is a hard sell, especially to my son.  It’s fun to watch him squirm as he makes faces like he’s trying to choke down his kale.  I just keep telling him how good it is for him even though I don’t think he believes me.  I like to think I’m doing the right thing by feeding him this yummy super food even if it does seem like torture for him.

Well, I have a little secret to tell.  Something was rotting in our refrigerator.  I cleaned out and threw away all the leftovers, even the ones that didn’t have mold on them.  Some things get pushed way back in the refrigerator and forgotten about.  We’ve had some pretty good science experiments come out of our fridge.  Anyway, I really cleaned it out.  I thought I’d taken care of the smell but…no.

It was one of those smells that took your breath away when you opened the refrigerator, like one of the dogs secretly left a little doggy deposit in the fridge.  I mean it was a BAD smell!  I kept searching for the smell.  This went on for several days.  It got to the point I would hold my breath any time I had to go to the fridge.  I knew something had to be done so I bravely walked up to the fridge, didn’t hold my breath and put my sniffer to the test.  I kept sniffing different areas of the fridge.  Nope, not there.  Not there either.  THEN, I sniffed the vegetable crisper.  Oh my goodness!  My nose burned from the smell!  The vegetable crisper?  I looked in the crisper and it didn’t look like anything had rotted in there.  Then I picked up the bag of kale that was fresh on the top but very rotten on the bottom.  Could it possibly be the kale, my yummy super food, making this unbelievable smell for the last few days.  Well, you’ve probably guessed by now, it was indeed the kale.  The kale on the top of the bag was fine but somehow the bottom of the bag was a mushy rotten and smelly mess.

I thought for sure that bag of kale couldn’t be the only culprit.  I threw the bag of kale in the trash and kept sniffing and looking around in the refrigerator.  I never found anything else.  Once the bag of kale was gone the smell was gone.  I couldn’t believe this super food would betray me like this.  How was I going to tell my family that the nose burning smell came from the kale.  They would never eat it again!  I kept quiet and thankfully they never asked how I got rid of the smell.  I’m safe for now or until they read this post.

I don’t know if there is a moral to this story or if it’s just a cautionary kale tale.  I guess if there is a moral to the story it could go something like this:  In the fridge if there’s a terrible smell, sniff around a smidge but it’s probably the kale.

PS: Please don’t tell my family.