Spinach Enchilada Lasagna

I promised better pictures this year. It was a dirty lie. I'm sorry. This isn't, to be fair, an easy food to photograph, and my good camera is currently out of commission. But, well, I did my best. 

Don't be discouraged by ugly food. This is a creamy delicious simple meal that is great for a crowd. It's basically a vehicle for cheese. but, you know, there's a layer of spinach, so we tell ourselves it's dinner.

Spinach Enchilada Lasagna
adapted from allrecipes
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Cost: $5.50 (this is about $.45-.90/serving)
tortillas: 1.50, sour cream: .50, salsa: 1.00, cheese: 2.00, spinach: .50

Note: The original recipe called for corn tortillas and this is so delicious like that. But Kip prefers flour, and that's good too. I also like it with half corn and half flour. You get the flavor of the corn and the texture of the flour.

Note #2: You'll notice the cheese has a wide range for measurement. Kip loves this super cheesy. I feel when we use too much cheese, it takes over all the flavors, and it's like eating a pan of cheese (not that there's anything wrong with that...). So decide which way you want to go with this.

Note #3: I'd bet (though it is untested) that this would work just fine in a crock pot on low for 3-4 hours. 

1 C sour cream
1 C green salsa (green enchilada sauce works as well)
1 bunch fresh spinach
2-4 C Monterey Jack cheese
1 package corn or flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together the sour cream and green salsa. Spread a bit on the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.

Layer tortillas, sour cream/salsa mixture, spinach, cheese. Repeat until sour cream/salsa mixture is gone (2-3 layers), then top with a layer or tortillas and cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Spinach Quiche

BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE

This past week, I went to my friend's house and had her delicious quiche. It reminded me how very much I love quiche. And, as my friend stated, it's the perfect food. You can eat it warm or cold, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It's a vegetarian meal, but with lots of yummy proteins. And at this time of year when hens start laying more (and eating more vitamin-rich bugs and plants if they're free range), it's the perfect time for a perfect quiche. We just adopted a couple of our friends chickens and so we've been rolling in eggs (not quite literally). But I've definitely been looking for egg heavy recipes lately.

Even better: This meal can be made in 45-60 minutes even if you make your own crust. If you use a store-bought crust, it's a solid 30-minute meal (okay, maybe 35 if you don't want to burn your mouth on the quiche).

And it's cheap. If you make your own crust each serving (1/6 of the quiche) is about $.50. Even a bowl of cereal struggles to beat that people (and it cannot even begin to compare in taste or nutrition). A store-bought crust adds an extra $.20 to each serving. Still a deal and a half.

The cream cheese (and other cheeses) in this recipe rescue it from being too spinach-y or too eggy. Enjoy!

Spinach Quiche
adapted from smittenkitchen
Serves 8 
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes plus a few minutes to cool/set
Cost: $2.25 with crust: $2.90 (This breaks down to about $50/serving--1/6 of the quiche)
(spinach: .70, cream cheese: .40, milk: .10, eggs: .30, Cheeses: .75)

Note on spinach: The original recipe calls for 10 oz. We made several times with about half that and loved it (meaning that I loved it and Kip liked it). This last time I decided to live dangerously and used about 8 oz. spinach. It did not go over as well, which is what I get for living dangerously. I liked it, and Kip ate it, but didn't eat the whole serving--which was large, but still--and hasn't had any leftovers.) So use more spinach at your own risk.

3 oz cream cheese, room temperature (if you happen to think about it; otherwise throw it in the microwave for 20 seconds)
1/3 C half and half or milk
3 eggs
4-5 oz spinach, frozen (thawed and drained) or fresh (chopped)
1/2 C shredded cheddar
1/4 C shredded Parmesan
1/4 tsp onion powder (or a few sliced green onions if you and yourn like to live dangerously)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 425. 

Beat cream cheese. Beat in half and half, then eggs. Add seaonings, cheese, and spinach. 

Pour into a pie crust.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until you can stick a fork in it and come out clean (between 160 and 180 on an instant read thermometer). Cool a few minutes before serving so it sets up.

Crust:
Cost: $.64
(flour--combo white and whole wheat: .14, butter: .50)
(Yeah, you can buy one, but if you have a food processor this takes only about 10 minutes and it tastes so so much better. And of course, even with that real butter, it's cheaper too.)

1 1/4 C flour (I use half whole wheat and half all-purpose)
1/2 C butter, cut into tablespoons
1/4-1/2 C cold water

Stick flour and butter in the food processor and process until you've got pea-sized chunks of butter (if you accidentally make them smaller, it's okay). Add water, starting with 1/4 C. If it comes together in a ball, proceed to roll it out. If not, add more water by the tablespoon until it does. (Alternately, you can cut the butter in with 2 knives or with a pastry cutter if you don't have a food processor or if you are a purist when it comes to pie crusts.)

Take dough out  and roll it to 1/8 inch thickness. Put in ungreased pie pan and shave off overhanging sides. Or, if you're me, cut and patch because your roll-out job wasn't perfectly round or even close and you have places that need more and places with too much overhang.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Spinach Artichoke Dip

BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE

You know how some people don't celebrate Christmas, and everyone who does celebrate Christmas just can't comprehend that (we try, but in our hearts we're really just like, "Huh?").

Well, that's kind of how I am with the Super Bowl. I just wasn't raised with it, okay. And I don't quite get the hoopla. 

Sometimes people will even invite me to their Superbowl parties. And then I always think, "Oh, how nice. I wonder who's playing." And then I think, "Well, it doesn't matter since I basically have no idea who any of those people are anyway." And then I wonder if maybe I should research it or something. I mean, is it rude to attend someone's Superbowl party and be like, "Rah, go faceless men in maroon tights!" Or some such similarly football-educated cheering statement? (Answer: Possibly.)

But then I just bring good food and all is totally well. And the people who eat the food don't even notice that you don't know maroon-tights man's name. And they don't care. Because they're just stuffing their faces and cheering. And if we could all just do more of that in life, then life would probably be a happier place (unless your team loses and then I just try to scooch away as inconspicuously as possible with, hopefully, some uneaten chips and dip). 

So happy Superbowl Sunday and many cheers to whatever men in tights you wish to win!!!

This spinach artichoke dip is the best there is. And I'm kind of old enough now that spinach artichoke chip is just a little, almost, well, retro. You should just embrace that and keep eating it.

Superbowl Sunday aside, we often eat this for dinner with sour dough bread. It's a super quick, somewhat healthy vegetarian thing (so righteous, eating dip for dinner). 

Tips for cheapening: 

1. Buy cream cheese on sale. I almost always buy it when it's $.99. It keeps for many weeks in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it if you're planning to add it to something cooked (the texture changes when frozen, but it gets melty when cooked, so it totally works). 

2. Use frozen spinach. It's cheaper and easier in this recipe

3. Cheese. This is better with decent cheese, but even cheap Parmesan works well, so don't be afraid if you didn't spend a million bucks on cheese. 

Spinach Artichoke Dip

makes one 8x8 inch pan's worth

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Cost: $4.20

cream cheese: $1.00, mayo: .10, cheese: 1.00, artichoke hearts: 1.50, spinach: .50, other stuff: .10

Note on spinach: I personally feel that this recipe is better with de-thawed, drained frozen spinach (hurray for the cheaper option). It's already mushy that way and you get a bunch of spinach in that frozen pack. If you're using fresh, cook it just until it wilts and then drain and squeeze the water out before throwing it into the dip. Otherwise, it comes out a little soggy.

Note on cheese: Feel free to mix it up. We've done all Parmesan, a blend of Parmesan, mozzarella, and Romano, a blend of Parmesan and Romano. You do want the harder (stinkier) cheeses to be the bulk of this. Too much mozzarella and it just becomes bland. 

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 C mayo
1 C Parmesan cheese
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped a bit
1 pkg frozen spinach, dethawed with the water squeezed out (or 4 C baby spinach, chopped small or cooked till wilted)
1 clove garlic (or 1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder in a pinch)
salt and pepper to taste (feel free to taste before cooking--it's still good, not quite transcendent yet, but still good)

Beat cream cheese and mayo. Mix in garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix in cheeses. Mix in artichoke hearts and spinach.

Mix it together well.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until the edges are brown and bubbly. 

Serve with crusty bread, crackers, or raw veggies.

Spinach Mushroom Coucous Toss

March might not have any major holidays (except occasionally when Easter falls into this month), but it makes up for it through an abundance of quirky, insignificant holidays--there's Dr. Seuss's birthday, National Pancake Day, Pi Day, St. Patrick's Day. Only one of these holidays was around when I was a kid and, while it could be argued that we--as a culture--have gone a little nuts, I do love me a quirky yet insignificant holiday. You forget about it? No big deal. You remember it? It's kind of fun. I've already got big Pi plans. This week we'll focus on some ideas for St. Patrick's Day. Today's recipe, I must admit, is a fairly grown-up idea. Your kids might not cheer it, but don't worry, there are some green muffins coming later.

Besides its lovely green, it's super healthy and dumb easy, yet surprisingly sophisticated. Also perfectly adaptable. It can be on your plate in less than ten minutes.

Spinach Mushroom Couscous Toss
adapted from Julia's Album
serves 4
Prep time: 3 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes for all
Cost: $2.20 (that's $.55/serving for a perfectly respectable and well-rounded lunch)
mushrooms: 1.00 (Aldi price), spinach: 1.00, couscous: .75, other stuff: .20

Note: In place of couscous, you could use any grain you've got--quinoa or even rice or barley.

1 lb button mushrooms
2-3 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
5 green onions, or a dash of onion powder if those you love are chunky onion averse
5 oz fresh spinach
2 C cooked couscous (or another grain of your choice)
salt and pepper to taste

First, get your couscous cooking. Follow the instructions on your box.

While it's cooking, slice your mushrooms. Then heat oil and butter in a frying pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until they start to give off their juices. I salt them at this point also. At that point add the garlic and green onions (if using). Cook for another couple minutes. Then add the spinach and cook, stirring, until it's wilted (another couple minutes). Now throw in your cooked couscous. Add salt and maybe a bit of pepper to taste. And you've got yourself a restaurant-worthy meal in about ten minutes. Go on you fabulous person, you.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Banana Nutella Smoothie (with Spinach)

So every week my children consume several cups of raw, fresh spinach.

How, you ask, do I accomplish such a thing with the pickiest kids on earth? 

Answer: Nutella (and banana and milk). And, yes, apparently I've become one of those people who just throws Nutella into everything willy nilly. You can make a different type of green chocolate smoothie. It's delicious, but by using Nutella, well, everything is just so so easy. 

It's not a perfect solution for encouraging spinach consumption, I admit, but I actually only use a little Nutella (1/2-1 Tbsp per cup or so of spinach); the banana is the main sweetener. In fact, you can make this perfectly delicious without the Nutella or with some peanut butter instead--feel free if you think I'm a big pushover of a parent. But do let me say, in my defense, that each serving (1-2 C spinach) has only 1/2-1 Tbsp Nutella. That's actually just about 9 grams of added, non-natural sugar (yes; the banana also adds some sugar, but I don't count sugars from fruits and I don't think WHO counts them either in their daily sugar recommendations). If I gave my kids a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (which I regularly do), they would consume that much added sugar in a serving as well. And as far as I can tell there is no raw spinach in Honey Nut Cheerios. So, ha. 

For better or for worse, this is two of my kids very favorite smoothie and I'm just happy to have them eat it. I have to say though that this isn't one of those "hidden veggies" recipes. This smoothie is either very green or brownish-green, so, yeah, you may want to have them try it blind-folded first. We served it to some friends once and they looked at my like I was a crazy loon. But then they liked it and asked for it the next time they came. The end.

Banana Nutella Smoothie (with Spinach)
makes 1 smoothie
Cost: $.75
Nutella (generic): .15, banana: .15, milk: .15, spinach: .30

Note: This recipe is a template. You can use more or less Nutella, more or less spinach.

Note: The banana must be frozen for this to work well. When my bananas get too brown, I peel them and break them into pieces and throw them in the freezer (in a Ziploc bag--I don't just hurl them into the freezer). It's one of the best things I ever started to do. If you don't have frozen banana, you can freeze some quickly by slicing a banana into thin slices and putting them on a cookie sheet in the freezer.

1 frozen banana (must be nice and ripe)
1 C spinach (I usually use more, but try this for starters)
1/2-1 C milk
1 Tbsp Nutella (I use generic)

Put in blender and blend until smooth. If you're only making one serving (like this), you'll probably want a smaller blender. If you've only got a big one, double this recipe.

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Spinach Avocado Grilled Cheese

This is not your mother's grilled cheese sandwich. And it's certainly not your son's.

In the summer, we tend to do summery meals--more salads, sandwiches, more quick things and cold things and simple things. Which can get boring if you're not careful.

So I made this. It wasn't boring. And it's awesome. And definitely filling enough to be a meal. And kind of green. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the avocados. I don't generally like mine hot; once I tried them as a pizza topping and HATED it. But in this they just get mildly warm and add a nice creaminess to the sandwich.

Spinach Avocado Grilled Cheese
adapted from Taste Spotting
Makes 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5-10 minutes
Cost: $1.20
bread: .20, avocado: .20, spinach: .05, pesto: .20, mozzarella: .15, goat cheese: .40)

2 slices bread (any type will work, so go as wholesome as you wish)
6-8 leaves of baby spinach
1/4 avocado (use the rest in a smoothie if you wish)
2 Tbsp pesto (or even mayo if you don't have pesto, though mayo won't have as much punch)
2 large slices mozzarella or cheddar
2 Tbsp crumbled goat cheese (optional, but good)

Spread the pesto on your slices of bread. Add sliced cheese to one slice. Add spinach leaves (layer them only in a single layer; otherwise, they feel crunchy and don't feel right with your warm sandwich). Add avocado slices. Add goat cheese. Top with other slice of bread.

Butter each side and put in a frying pan on medium low heat. You'll need the heat low-ish so the cheese melts. Once one side of the bread is lightly browned, flip and do the other side.

Note: If you're having trouble getting your cheese to melt, take the pan off the burner and put a lid over the sandwich. This will hold the heat in and melt your cheese without burning your bread.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Big Green Triple Chocolate Smoothie

The title--well, it kind of says it all. I think there are a few things in life you really can't go wrong with. Chocolate is one. Spinach is another. So when I got Fit Mama Real Food for my Secret Recipe Club blog this month, I didn't have trouble picking the recipe I wanted to make. So I made it. And made it. And made it. Uh-huh. It's delicious. And chocolate-y. And green. But not green like that plop of icky green cooked-from-a-frozen-block spinach that my mom used to plop on my plate when I was a kid. Oh no. Green like all that vitality being pumped into your body under a chocolate-y disguise. By which I mean that even though you can see the spinach, it does not have a strong taste in this smoothie (and there is a whole lot of it there, so that's saying something). I can't really taste it at all, but perhaps if you were highly attuned to the taste of all things green you would taste it just a bit.

This smoothie is especially nice as temperatures rise. When it gets hot, I find myself craving ice cream all the time. And there's nothing wrong with a little ice cream here and there. But 3 times a day might be pushing it. Drinks like this make me feel like I just ate a cold dessert even when I really just ate several cups of raw spinach, a banana, some dark chocolate, and milk.

This is extra easy to make, but here are a few tips for achieving smoothie perfection:

1. If you've got a lame blender like me, you're going to want to melt the chocolate into just a bit of the milk before you make this. Otherwise, you'll end up with a banana spinach smoothie that contains chunks of chocolate that get stuck in your straw. That hardly ranks on the world problems list (and you better believe I drank that first smoothie and enjoyed it), but I did like it better with the chocolate incorporated more. If you have time, melt the chocolate, and let it cool a bit, but even if you are in a hurry and throw it in warm, your smoothie will still turn out cold (just not quite as cold).

2. I've always got frozen bananas on hand because when my bananas get too spotty, I throw them in a bag in the freezer. All smoothie lovers (or banana bread lovers) should do this. However, if you forgot to freeze your bananas, cut them thin and put them in a single layer on a plate. Twenty minutes later they should be pretty frozen. 

3. I used regular milk for this, but am pretty confident it would work with many different types of milk if you wanted to vegan it. Tomorrow I plan to use a couple tablespoons of coconut milk in it just because I love the stuff and have some sitting around.

4. If you've only got, say, regular chocolate chips lying around, you could still use them. Just omit the maple syrup and use about 3 Tbps chocolate chips in place of the dark chocolate and unsweetened chocolate.

Big Green Triple Chocolate Smoothie
adapted from Fit Mama Real Food
Serves 2--makes 3-4 C
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.50
banana: .15, spinach: .80, chocolate: .25, milk: .20, maple syrup: .10

1 banana, frozen in chunks
3-4 C spinach (I'm usually pretty generous with the spinach)
1 Tbsp dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli 60% chips)
1 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 C milk
1 Tbsp maple syrup (I used the pure stuff)

Melt dark chocolate, cocoa, and unsweetened chocolate into 2 Tbsp of the milk. I do this in the microwave at 15-20 second intervals. Once melted or mostly melted, remove it and allow it to cool for a couple minutes.

While it cools, put the banana, spinach, and milk into your blender. Blend it. Then add the melted chocolate/milk combo and blend until it's smooth and brownish green (it is a surprisingly non-repulsive shade of brownish green, but brownish-green nevertheless).

At this point, you might want to taste your smoothie to see if you want the maple syrup. If you do, go for it.

Then drink it up my friends. It's surprisingly filling.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Fruit, Spinach, and Yogurt Smoothie

There is much to love on Pinterest. But today I'm going to tell you about one thing I do NOT love: those bogus posts that a) do not link to any kind of real page, b) do not look in the least like the actual thing you make--as if they took a stock photo (yeah, they probably did) and posted it for whatever lame/lousy recipe they made, and c) do not in any way, shape, or form actually work.

Let's take that hair straightening tonic I made last week for example. It called for 2 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 C warm water. Shake together, spray on hair, comb through, and--boom--straightened, shiny, supermodel hair. I like to consider myself a thinking woman. I should have realized that brown sugar + water equals stickiness (do I or do I not have 4 young children?). And, yet, there on the pin was a picture of a girl with the most beautiful, shiny, straight hair ever. How could I not believe? After the surface of my bathroom was entirely covered in a thin layer of sticky (from spraying my long, thick hair with sugar water), after my hair was not straight and distinctly crunchy, and after I felt like I needed a another bath from the sticky mist wafting down to my arms and everywhere else, I realized that some posts on Pinterest aren't really posts at all. What they are exactly, I'm not sure. I would call them advertisements because they do everything an advertisement does--give you an unrealistic picture of a subpar item or idea. But there's nothing for sale so I don't understand what is to be gained by posting bad advice with gorgeous picture. Anyone get it?

Okay, okay, so why the rant? Because I planned to make a greenest of green green smoothie. I even wanted to call it that. To look at the deep green elixir on Pinterest that seemed like it must have been formed from the rivers and greens of the garden of Eden itself, I was a little surprised at the light greenish, (kind of sort of almost brownish), speckled with pink drink (doesn't make for the best post title, does it) that I wound up with. It just didn't seem quite as virtuous as the lovely shot o' green pictured here (which, incidentally, also has no real post to go to--hmmm). But I drank it anyway. Almost all of it, as a matter of fact. And it was very very good (just like the garden of Eden after all). And then I realized that for breakfast I'd already consumed 1 apple, 1 banana, 1/2 C strawberries, 1 C plain yogurt, 1 C spinach, and half an orange. Welcome 5 fruits and vegetables and one healthy dairy into my January system. And thank you.

So although you don't get a Greenest of Green Green Smoothie, I present to you the Light Greenish (maybe a little brown on the color spectrum) with Specks of Pink Smoothie. Bottoms up.

Fruit, Spinach, and Yogurt Smoothie
adapted from random post-less pin on Pinterest so go ahead, pin this instead
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.55 for about 3-4 C
apple: .50, banana: .15, yogurt: .40, strawberries: .40, orange: .10

1 generous C spinach (mine was actually a combo spinach, baby bok choy, and baby chard because I'm an  amazing human being--or maybe because I stumbled upon such a big bag of greens at Walmart last week by accident)
1 apple (I used a very sweet pink lady--pink lady I love you)
1 banana (mine was frozen, but doesn't have to be)
5 strawberries (frozen)
1 C yogurt (I used full fat)
1/2 orange (I sliced the rest and fed it to the minions)
1/2 C water (maybe in a high-end blender you can skip, but mine wouldn't blend without this)

Blend. If you've got a mediocre blender like me what you want to do is pulse it a few times and then start blending on a low-ish setting until it's getting chopped up/mixed. Then up it to a higher setting so that it actually smoothie-i-fies and you don't feel like you're drinking fruit salsa (not that there's anything wrong with that).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Spinach Potato Soup

You know it's kind of sad when the quintessential compliment at your dinner table is, "Wow, this tastes a lot better than it looks." And yet. It's kind of a badge of honor too. You took something that they thought looked icky and it was actually good enough to defy their expectations. I kind of love that. I served this with hot dogs and boxed mac and cheese because I was expecting a very poor reception. It was bright green, for goodness sake. Guess what Kip ate? Not hot dogs. Not mac and cheese. Nope, spinach soup. It was almost excessively gratifying.

He liked it with good reason too. This soup is delicious. And--in stark contrast to so many of the foods we're eating at this season--you feel even better after you've eaten it.

Spinach Potato Soup
adapted from Pioneer Woman
makes 6-10 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $3.75 or about $.40/serving
spinach: 1.80, onion: .05, butter: .25, flour: .02, milk: .43, cream: 1.00, potatoes: .20

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion
10 oz baby spinach
2 cloves garlic
1/4 C water
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/4 C milk
1 C cream
4 small-medium sized waxy potatoes (we used reds)

Set a pot of water on the stove and get it boiling. As it heats, peel and dice your potatoes. Put them in the hot/boiling water with a good shake of salt.

While the potatoes boil, heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion and cook until tender--about 5 minutes. Add garlic and spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted (a lid makes this happen faster), stirring every minute or so.

Add the spinach mixture to blender with 1/4 C water. Blend until smooth. Let it set while you make a roux.

Add butter to your big pot and melt. Whisk in flour. Whisk in salt. Stir pasty mixture for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in milk. Cook, stirring constantly (or close to constantly) until mixture thickens.

Add spinach mixture to milk mixture. Whisk. Taste for salt (you'll probably need 1/2-1 tsp more) and pepper.

Add cream and mix in.

About now, your potatoes should be tender. Drain them and put them in the soup. Then give them a good mash. Taste again for salt and pepper and serve. Kip liked it with a good grate of cheddar thereby.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Crock Pot Spinach Lasagna

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club posting. This month I got Mostly Food and Crafts, which I was pretty happy about because I've actually pinned several things from this blog already. Also, I've wanted to try lasagna in the crock pot for a long time now, but have been afraid of serving it several hours later only to find that my lasagna has been replaced with red gloppy glop from Glop. If you know what I mean. It helped to have Danielle to mentor me through.

The lasagna was excellent and super easy. The other thing I really loved about it is that with normal lasagna you're supposed to take it out of the oven (and it still takes an hour in there) and then let it set for 15 minutes or so so that it doesn't ooze out all over the place. This wasn't necessary with this lasagna. It was a little oozy, but not much. And the noodles were perfect--not mushy at all.

A few notes:

1. One thing I always forget about lasagna is that the putting together takes longer than I expect. This is a very fast meal to put in the crock, but not a five minute one. Plan for at least 10 minutes and 15-20 if you're making your own quick sauce.
2. This is very very spinachy. Which is as a spinach lasagna should be. However, if you only sort of like spinach or you're worried that people in your posse will object to so much, reduce the spinach by half. It will still taste great and you'll please a bigger crowd. In fact, if  you're a little shy about the spinach, you could also use 10 oz of baby spinach, chopped and steamed in place of the frozen spinach. Frozen spinach comes with all the stems and everything. Again, no big deal if you're a spinach lover or veteran, but if you're not, or you're worried about people liking it, then chopped, steamed baby spinach is the way to go. You'll barely notice you're eating green leafy things.
3. Danielle recommends 3-4 hours on low. I did mine for 2 hours on high. Totally worked! Hurray. So if you don't get to this until you're kids are walking in the door from school, don't fret. It can still totally work and it is nice to be doing dinner while they do their after school chores/homework and then to relax during the normally rushed pre-dinner thing.

Crock Pot Spinach Lasagna
adapted from Mostly Food and Crafts
makes 6-8 servings
Prep time: 10-20 minutes
Cook time: 2-4 hours
Cost: $7.25
noodles: .40, ricotta: 1.00. mozzarella: 1.00, Parm: .75, spinach: 2.50, marinara: 1.60

6-7 regular lasagna noodles (not no-boil)
20 oz. spinach, thawed (if you think this will be too much for your family, see note above)
1 C ricotta cheese
3/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
3 C marinara sauce (we added some cooked ground beef to ours)
1/2 C water
1 1/2 C mozzarella cheese

If using ground beef, brown with salt and pepper or a bit of pesto (yum). Add this to your marinara sauce. Add 1/2 C water to it all.

While beef is browning, combine spinach ricotta cheese, and 1/2 C Parmesan cheese.

Ladle about 3/4 C marinara sauce into bottom of crock pot. Add 2 lasagna noodles, breaking if necessary to make them fit. Top with 3/4 C marinara sauce, 1/2 spinach mixture and 1/2 C mozzarella.

Repeat (noodles, sauce, spinach, mozzarella).

Top with final 2 noodles. Add remaining sauce and remaining Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.

Cook in crock pot for 3-4 hours on low or 2 hours on high.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Work-a-Day Wednesday: Spinach Soup

Welcome to Work-a-Day Wednesday: Recipes for the Time Crunched or Impaired.

This is a soup that would make Popeye proud.

And maybe it'd make your 9-year-old proud too, if he even, like, knew who Popeye was. Which he doesn't. Because he's 9. And he hates spinach. And he owns a DS. Which makes us sound so unpleasantly all-newmillennium-American that I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. But at least he doesn't smoke a pipe, or have an anchor tattoo, or an excessively skinny and helpless girlfriend, or eat canned spinach (like, seriously).

My point, if ever there was one, is that this is a very good soup, but that it is also a soup for spinach lovers. It's not going to win over your picky eaters (my own personal picky eater claimed that the mere sight of it made him feel like he was going to throw up--he actually said this in a slightly polite manner, as though to explain his feelings and not to insult the food, leading me to believe that the sight of this food really was triggering his actual gag reflex, so there you go). I'm not even sure that it's a soup that will win over your spinach fence sitters (for that you'll have to go with this), as Kip was not a huge fan either (though he did eat his bowl without gagging or politely threatening to do so). However, if you and yourn like spinach, you should totally make this because it's really good and it's pretty healthy too.

As for me, it was a flash of warm green spring on an brown blue January day. It felt that way on my insides too.

Spinach Soup
adapted from tasty kitchen
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cost: $1.65
(spinach: .80, butter: .15, milk: .40, cheese: .25, other stuff: .05)

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
5 oz. baby spinach (about 1/2 bag)
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 of an onion or 1/2 tsp onion powder
2 Tbsp flour
2 1/2 C milk (or 2 C milk and 1/2 C cream for those who missed the fact that it's January and there are things called resolutions in January, right?)
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper
maybe a dash of cayenne too
maybe a dash of chicken bullion granules if you're still not quite feeling it or a bit more salt
1/4 C Parmesan cheese and more for serving (cheddar or goat cheese wouldn't do you wrong either)

In skillet, heat oil. Add spinach and garlic and stir constantly as the spinach wilts. (Even your picky eaters will like how this smells; then they'll see it and say 'gross.' But it still makes you believe there's hope.)

Put this in a small blender with 2 Tbsp water and blend. You can get it super smooth or leave it a little more spinach-y and textured. If you don't have a small blender, just hold off on blending till you have some milk-mixture to throw in there.

Melt butter in saucepan and add onion.. Cook until onion soft (or until onion powder is fragrant). Whisk in flour and cook for 30-60 seconds, whisking all the while. Add milk and whisk it in until there are no lumps. Heat this at medium until it begins to thicken. (At this point, you can add some of this mixture to your spinach if you weren't able to blend it before--now you can puree it in a bigger blender).

Add spinach mixture to milk mixture in the saucepan and heat until it's a thickness you enjoy in your soup. Add salt, pepper, cayenne and then taste. Add more salt or a bit of chicken bullion if it needs it. Add cheese and whisk that in. Taste it and add more if it needs it.

Serve with a bit of cheese served on top and a crusty bread thereby, or some Saltines in a pinch.

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Broccoli Barley Casserole

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

A little over a month ago, my sister announced that they were having something weird for dinner that night: farro. I thought she said 'sparrow' and agreed that that was incredibly weird. I also wondered out loud how ones goes about procuring and eating sparrow. We eventually got it straightened out. Turns out, however, that farro is just as hard to find as sparrow in Evansville. When I asked at the co-op--normally a fairly reliable source of weird food potential--the girl in charge hadn't even heard of it.

My sister suggested I use barley instead, saying that they had a similar texture. Which is what I did. And let me say that I've had barley before--mostly in soup, but this casserole really made me fall in love with it. It was chewy and perfect, and something about the textures in this casserole made me understand how vegetarians sometimes say that a meatless meal is sort of 'meaty.' For me, the barley provided a sort of meatiness. It was more toothsome and complex than something like rice would have been. Now, my brother-in-law loves this casserole so much that he wants my sister to make it every week, but for the record, and for purposes of full disclosure, Kip did not fall in love with barley in this recipe, nor did he find it to be in any way 'meaty.' So don't go telling your husbands that it's just like chicken, just tell them they have to eat it in front of the kids. Maybe they'll like it. Maybe they won't. Either way, tell them thank you if they eat it because, whether they deserve to be thanked for eating your perfectly delicious food or not, it'll help the next time around when you spring something weird on them. As long as it's not sparrow.

Broccoli Barley Casserole

Makes 9x13 casserole

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes

Cost: $5.02
(olive oil: .02, onion: .10, barley: .60, broth: .10, Parmesan: 1.00, broccoli: .80, spinach: .15, garlic: .15, beans: .20, Montery Jack: .90)

4 tsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 C farro or barley

2 C vegetable or chicken broth (I used 2 bullion cubes in 2 C water)

1 1/2 C water (for the barley I ended up using about 2 or 2 1/2 C)

1 C shredded Parmesan (2 oz)

2 heads broccoli

1 C spinach, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (these can be skipped if you don't have them; a dash of hot sauce might also do the trick)

1 14 oz. can or 1 3/4 C rehydrated white beans (I used Great Northern)

3/4 C Montery Jack cheese (the original recipe called for fontina, but we're living cheap here)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tsp of the oil in large saucepan or Dutch oven. Add oil and cook onion until very lightly browned.

Sitr in barley (or farro) and cook until lightly roasted (about 2 minutes). Stir in the broth and water and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and continue simmering, uncovered, stirring often, until barley is tender and remaining liquid has thickened to a creamy sauce (about 20-25 minutes). (Note: When my liquid was nearly gone, my barley was still not done, so I added 1/2-1 C more water and cooked longer.)

Take off heat and stir in Parmesan. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.

While the barley is simmering, put the broccoli in a microwave proof bowl with 1/2 C water, cover it with plasic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. (Alternately, you can steam it on the stove.) Drain water off.  

In a new pot, add remaining oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minutes until sizzling. Stir in broccoli. Add spinach and stir for a minute until spinach wilts. Off heat, stir in beans and cooked barley. Taste again and adjust salt and pepper. (Note: I followed this step, but I bet you could simplify this whole thing by adding the garlic and red pepper flakes at the beginning after the onion had browned and then once the barley had cooked and you'd added the Parmesan, just throw the broccoli and white beans into the pot.)

Position oven rack 6 inches from broiler and heat the broiler. If you're using a Dutch oven, sprinkle with Montery Jack and throw it into the oven. If not, put it in a broiler safe 9x13 inch pan, then sprinkle with cheese and broil it until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Spinach Quiche (or Spinach Pie, depending on whose family you grew up in)

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch our family of 6 learn to eat on $6/day.

First of all, an announcement: I've finally gotten all the recipes on this site so they're printable. Just click on PRINTABLE RECIPE and voila, you should be there.

There now, that's more virtuous than frosting, isn't it. And I certainly don't mean that in a bad way. There are times for frosting and there are times for spinach. Frankly, I enjoy them both.

Don't love spinach pie? You just might love (or at least like) this. I didn't used to love spinach pie either; it always seemed too spinach-y or too egg-y. The cream cheese rescues this recipe from such a fate. Enjoy.

Spinach Quiche
adapted from smittenkitchen
Serves 8
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes plus a few minutes to cool/set
Cost: $2.25
(spinach: .70, cream cheese: .40, milk: .10, eggs: .30, Cheeses: .75)

Note on spinach: The original recipe calls for 10 oz. We made several times with about half that and loved it (meaning that I loved it and Kip liked it). This last time I decided to live dangerously and used about 8 oz. spinach. It did not go over as well, which is what I get for living dangerously. I liked it, and Kip ate it, but didn't eat the whole serving--which was large, but still--and hasn't had any leftovers.) So use more spinach at your own risk.

3 oz cream cheese, room temperature (if you happen to think about it; otherwise throw it in the microwave for 20 seconds)
1/3 C half and half or milk
3 eggs
4-5 oz spinach, frozen (thawed and drained) or fresh (lightly chopped)
1/2 C shredded cheddar
1/4 C shredded Parmesan
1/4 tsp onion powder (or a few sliced green onions if you and yourn like to live dangerously)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 425.

Beat cream cheese. Beat in half and half, then eggs. Add seaonings, cheese, and spinach.

Pour into a pie crust.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until you can stick a fork in it and come out clean (between 160 and 180 on an instant read thermometer). Cool a few minutes before serving so it sets up.

Crust:
Cost: $.64
(flour--combo white and whole wheat: .14, butter: .50)
(Yeah, you can buy one, but if you have a food processor this takes only about 5 minutes and it tastes so so much better. And of course, even with that real butter, it's cheaper too.)

1 1/4 C flour (I use half whole wheat and half all-purpose)
1/2 C butter, cut into tablespoons
1/4-1/2 C cold water

Stick flour and butter in the food processor and process until you've got pea-sized chunks of butter (if you accidentally make them smaller, it's okay). Add water, starting with 1/4 C. If it comes together in a ball, proceed to roll it out. If not, add more water by the tablespoon until it does. (Alternately, you can cut the butter in with 2 knives or with a pastry cutter if you don't have a food processor or if you are a purist when it comes to pie crusts.)

Take dough out  and roll it to 1/8 inch thickness. Put in ungreased pie pan and shave off overhanging sides. Or, if you're me, cut and patch because your roll-out job wasn't perfectly round or even close and you have places that need more and places with too much overhang.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Green Eggs, No Ham

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

I hesitated to post this picture. I suppose it's pretty obvious why.

And I missed Dr. Seuss's birthday. For purposes of this blog anyway. We had this for dinner on March 2nd and I figured by the time I got it posted everyone would have already eaten their non-Seuss inspired dinners. But then I figured that we still have St. Patrick's Day to go, so what the heck. My mom used to dye our milk green and we kids thought it was fun. Maybe your kids will think green eggs are fun. For the record, mine did not. Correction: they thought it was plenty fun; everyone was excited I was making green eggs. But when it came time to eat them, well no one was very excited about that. Truth be told, even I was a little hesitant.

They were just so tremendously...green. And the texture was slightly different than normal scrambled eggs--they were a little more, how can I say this--blob-like.

So, are you totally stoked to make these, or what?

But wait, don't sign off just yet. Because these eggs have several things going for them. For starters, they are incredibly healthy. For each egg, you're getting about 1/2 C spinach.

Secondly, although they taste somewhat different than regular scrambled eggs, they are more alike than different. They taste basically like scrambled eggs.

And finally, they really are fun. If your family gets into holidays and is somewhat adaptable to different foods (which I assure you mine is not), these are perfect for Seuss's birthday (next year) or St. Patrick's Day or, you know whatever green-themed functions you may be involved in.

Green Eggs, No Ham
adapted from Deceptively Delicious
Cook time: 10 minutes
Cost: $1.40
(eggs: .50, spinach: .80, butter: .07, milk: .03)

Note: The original recipe contained a shocking 1 lb spinach, which is a good 3 times what I used. (Forgive me, but the fact that her children will purportedly eat such a food officially disqualifies them from being considered picky at all forever.) Anyway, if you and your kids try such an amount, I beg you to let me know how it turns out and if it resembles eggs at all or is firmly in the cooked spinach department. And did your kids eat it? If so, I salute you. And your kids.

3 C (about 4.5 oz) spinach
1 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp milk
6 eggs

Add 1/2 Tbsp butter to pan, melt, and add spinach. Cook until wilted. Add milk and let it cook a bit more till most of milk has cooked in or evaporated.

As it cooks, whisk 5 of the eggs.

Puree spinach in a blender. (With such a small amount it's tricky, but it worked. Add 1 egg to the mixture and give it a quick blend so as to capture any spinach that didn't get pureed, but be careful not to whip the sha-ding-dang out of the egg.)

Pour the spinach puree into the whisked eggs. Whisk them into pure greenness.

Put the other 1/2 Tbsp butter into the skillet and let it melt. Add the eggs and cook as you would scrambled eggs. (As the bottom begins to cook, paint through it with a spatula, moving the eggs around without stirring them to death.)

When they're done, close your eyes and take a bite. They're not half bad. If you'd like (or if you need a little decoy to all that green), add some cheese or ketchup (for a Christmasy effect! ho ho ho) or serve it on toast with butter.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

Cheap Eat Challenge Count Down: 1 Day

That's right, tonight was our last night to eat without calculating how much it will all cost. We had spinach artichoke dip on homemade sour dough bread with polska kielbasa. And then Kip went to work. Which is how New Year's Eve often goes in this house.

I realize I'm a little late if you were looking for the perfect dip for your party tonight. Sorry. This is a good one too. Really good. Kip hates artichokes, but Kip loves this dip. However, I couldn't get it up sooner because I've been spending all my spare time the last couple of days doing some (hopefully) careful shopping in preparation for the beginning of the cheap eat challenge. I'm kind of nervous. Kip is kind of nervous. I'm predicting a lot of eggs and potatoes. But tonight. Tonight we dined on meat and cheese and then after Kip had gone, I made chocolate ginger cookies. I'll save that recipe for sometime in January when folks are missing the sweet indulgences of December.

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip
Serves 6-10

Note on spinach: I personally feel that this recipe is better with de-thawed frozen spinach (hurray for the cheaper option). It's already mushy that way and you get a bunch of spinach in that frozen pack. If you're using fresh, as we did tonight because I forgot to buy frozen, chop it up small, or cook it just until it wilts before throwing it into the dip. Otherwise, it comes out just a little teeny bit more toothsome that I like it in this dip.

Note on cheese: Feel free to mix it up. We've done all Parmesan, a blend of Parmesan, mozzarella, and Romano, a blend of Parmesan and Romano, and sometimes just mozzarella (though all mozzarella isn't my favorite one--still good, but missing the kick of those harder cheese)

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 C mayo
1/2 C mozzarella cheese
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped a bit
1 pkg frozen spinach, dethawed with the water squeezed out (or 4 C baby spinach, chopped small or cooked till wilted)
1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder in a pinch)
salt and pepper to taste (feel free to taste before cooking--it's still good, not quite transcendent yet, but still good)

Beat cream cheese and mayo. Mix in garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix in cheeses. Mix in artichoke hearts and spinach.

Mix it together well.

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until the edges are brown and bubbly. (Didn't get a good edge picture. We were starving and Kip had to get to work soon.)

Serve with crusty bread, crackers, or raw veggies.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Green Drink

Cheap Eat Challenge Count Down: 2 days

It's not easy being green. My son won't touch these. My husband just started to. They contain no chocolate and usually no added sugar.

They taste good anyway. Plus they're super nutritious--couldn't we all use a few extra cups of greens in our diets. Super adaptable--you can take pretty much whatever greens you've got lying around and combine them with pretty much whatever fruit you've got lying about. Easy to make--throw it in the blender. Oh--and cool people like them.

But they look a little...wholesome. Nevertheless, my sister and I enjoyed several varieties of green drink over our Christmas vacation. She has a Vitamix blender (ooh, aaah), and plenty of lovely greens from her CSA or whatever it is. Over the course of 4 days we consumed (though not all in the same green drink) spinach, kale, chard, avocado, strawberries, bananas, peaches, apples, apple juice, orange juice, lemon and even parsley. I think these drinks are what saved us from sudden death from all of the, um, less healthy choices we made that week.

Below is a simple one that is one of my favorites and can be made tastily in the type of mediocre blender I happen to own. Seriously, give it a try. If the green puts you and yourn off, throw in 1 C of blueberries.

Although I don't believe you need a recipe book for green drinks, they can be kind of fun (especially if you've got a decent blender). If you're interested in getting more recipes for green drinks, you can have a look at greensmoothiegirl.com or have a look at Victoria Boutenko's books containing recipes. My sister had Green Smoothie Revolution and Boutenko's also got one called Green for Life. [Warning: These women both have STRONG feelings about green smoothies.]

To keep the costs down at this time of year, buy frozen fruit (stuff from Sam's is probably the cheapest, but WalMart is okay too), but not frozen spinach--sorry, but it will make these nasticular. This summer, freeze a bit of the super cheap fresh stuff. You won't be sorry. I've still got peaches in my freezer. Yum.

The cost if you're wondering of a full day's worth (per the food pyramid, so take that for what it's worth) of fruits and vegetables. (And I've been generous in my estimations--I actually think it's cheaper than this.)

Spinach $.50

Peaches $.75

Banana $.13

Concentrate $.07

Total: $1.45

So if you buy a soda at McDonald's or a coffee in the morning, you can easily skip that and make this. If you buy $20 of prescription prenatal vitamins like I used to, you can definitely skip that and make this.

Simple Peach Spinach Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Note: The first time I had one of these, I expected it to taste like a Jamba Juice or something. It doesn't. Jamba Juice has a lot of added sugar in it and this doesn't. It is still sweet and so good, but not in a cup of added sugar kind of way. If you have them regularly, you'll get very used to the milder sweetness (and probably a little addicted), and the sweeter mall versions will start to turn you off.

Another Note: If you really can't handle them at first or your kids can't, you can:

a) use more apple juice concentrate

b) sprinkle a bit of sugar into your/their glass

c) use about 6 oz sweetened yogurt and some milk in place of the water (this will naturally make it more caloric, but also add some calcium, protien, bacterial cultures, and Vitamin D

1 C peaches (frozen)

2 C spinach
1 banana
1 T apple juice concentrate
Enough water to make it blendable.

Blend it up.

If you can't drink it all at once and you're kids think you're wonky for even asking them if they want some, it can be tightly sealed and stored for up to 3 days (supposedly--the longest I've stored mine is about 18 hours--it was still great).

PRINTABLE RECIPE