In the kitchen with Kelley: Spinach with potatoes

In preparation for spring cleaning, I’m letting my food stocks get low. I’m taking a week off work, and I’m going to defrost my deep freezer, scrub my refrigerator from top to bottom and wipe down all my pantry and cabinet shelves. In the meanwhile, I’m having to get creative at mealtime as what I have on hand is dwindling.

That’s how I came upon this recipe. I decided to cook beef the other night, but I needed something to go with it. So I went to the deep freezer and looked at the frozen vegetables therein. I had a bunch of chopped celery and carrots, but that would be better for soup or a casserole. I set those aside. I found a large bag of chopped potatoes, two boxes of chopped spinach and a small bag of chopped onion. I figured I could make that work.

So to the Internet I went, and I searched for “potato, spinach, onion side.” I found a recipe for which I had most of the ingredients and decided I could improvise to make a dish that would go well with the meat I prepared. I was right. My kids even went back for seconds.

A recent report said that eating just one serving of spinach daily may help slow the process of age-associated cognitive decline. In other words, eating a serving of spinach every day is an easy and affordable brain booster. So I was very happy to find a new recipe featuring spinach (I am approaching 50, after all).

*I use an electric skillet.