budgetsmartgirl

Posts Tagged ‘spinach’

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It’s Meatless Monday-Spinach, Feta Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomato Baked Potatoes

In Meatless Mondays on November 5, 2012 at 4:40 pm

At the end of each month I have a ritual where I look through the pantry and fridge to see what’s on hand and if anything needs using up, pronto. Last week I had spinach from one of the last CSA boxes, feta cheese, and also some previously dehydrated tomatoes that I’d been soaking in herb infused oil. And while I was at the supermarket I’d seen a good deal on baking potatoes, just 25 cents a piece so I couldn’t pass on them. Put this all together and you have either a wonderful low cost meatless meal or a nice side dish, your choice. This serves 2 people as a meatless meal or four as a side dish.

2 baking potatoes

1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes in oil (reserve some of this for cooking the spinach)

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

About five cups of baby spinach leaves…don’t worry they cook down to about one half cup

A little salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Wash the potatoes. When I bake them I like to take a sheet of foil and place them onto it. I then sprinkle them with salt and pepper and roll them around. Loosely wrap the foil around them and place them in the oven. Cook until you can easy piece them with a fork.

While the potatoes are cooking, wash the spinach and dry it. Heat the oil in a large skillet and then gradually add the spinach. It will slowly wilt and keep stirring it for about five minutes until it’s tender.

Slice the tomatoes and add to a bowl along with the spinach and feta cheese.

When the potatoes are done, cut them open and scoop out the flesh and put into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mash everything together and add some salt and pepper to your taste.

Place the scooped out potato halves in a casserole dish and put the spinach mixture back into them.

If you want you can sprinkle them with more cheese.

Place back in the oven for about ten minutes or until warmed through and lightly browned.

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It’s Meatless Monday-Feta, Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Quiche

In Meatless Mondays on June 25, 2012 at 3:38 pm

I mentioned this dish a couple of weeks ago. I had some leftover cooked spinach and thought about what I could do with it. One quick and easy meal is a quiche. After looking through the fridge to see what I had on had I decided to combine it with feta cheese and roasted red peppers.

You can use your own pastry recipe or even a ready made crust and the rest is simple.  This time around as I also had some of the fresh oregano on hand and what goes better with feta cheese than oregano? As I rolled out the pastry I incorporated some chopped pieces into the dough.

A couple of things I’ve found from experience of making a quiche is one, it’s best to pre-bake the crust for about ten minutes before adding the filling. It makes the crust less soggy. Two, is to add the main ingredients, in this case, spinach, cheese and peppers to the crust and pour the egg/cream mixture on top, rather than adding them to the egg/cream mixture and then pouring it  into the crust. They get more evenly distributed which means each bite and each person gets something of everything.

While the pie crust is baking, crumble about 3/4 cup of feta cheese, chop the leftover cooked spinach (about one cup) and the roasted red peppers (about one half cup), into bite size pieces.

Take the crust out of the oven, let it cool for about ten minutes and then add the spinach, cheese and peppers.

In a mixing bowl add 3 large eggs and about 3/4 cup of half and half…you can also use milk but I think the half and half or even cream gives a better consistency.

A good sprinkling of salt and pepper

And for good measure I add a generous handful of Parmesan cheese.

Mix everything together and pour over the spinach mixture.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the filling is set and slightly browned.

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The CSA Box-Week One

In csa box on June 15, 2012 at 1:55 pm

I’m the sort of cook who looks through recipes and sales flyers and then works out what meals I’ll make for the week. Doing it the other way around, ingredients first and then making a decision, I thought would take some adjustment. However, when I picked up the first box from the CSA share we’d bought  this year I was excited about all the things I could try and create.

Box number one contained field greens, spinach, lettuce, garlic scapes, asparagus, rhubarb, oregano and garlic chives and radishes.

The field greens were eaten for salad, the same with the lettuce and radishes. I do in fact, have some leftover and I’m using it instead of bread for tuna and egg salad ‘sandwiches’. Something different and light now the weather is warmer.

One of my favorite ways to eat asparagus is oven roasting it. I tossed it together with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it for about 15 minutes. I think it pairs well with just about anything.

The rhubarb…I have to say I haven’t bought or eaten any for years. I used my grandmother’s recipe and made a rhubarb and ginger crumble. It reminded me that something delicious doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Many deserts are made from inexpensive ingredients and this one is a great example. Just use any crumble topping recipe and here I chopped the rhubarb and cooked it with a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger, one half cup of brown sugar and a cup of water until it was tender.

I mentioned on Monday that I hadn’t used garlic scapes before. I sauteed them and have been using them throughout the week. They’re going into a meatloaf today.

The spinach is the best I’ve ever seen and I usually saute that but this time decided to steam it and it turned out perfectly. I think this is how I’ll cook spinach from now on. I do have some leftover which I’ll be using in a feta and spinach quiche…look for that one in an upcoming Meatless Monday feature.

Last but not least herbs. I probably don’t have to tell you that they’re one of the best ways to add flavor without spending lots of money. One of my favorite things is the garlic and herb cheese spread you can buy at the supermarket. Drawback is you don’t get a lot and it’s almost $5. So I thought with the garlic chives I’d try making my own. It’s simple, just an eight ounce package of cream cheese, some pepper, about four tablespoons of the chopped garlic chives…more if you like garlic, and some milk. Just put everything into a food processor. You can taste test it and see if you need more garlic or pepper. This is wonderful spread on toast and served with a salad.

The oregano I decided to use in some homemade bread. I also added some cheese too.

I still have some herbs left over and will probably use them up this weekend or even dry them for future use.

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It’s Meatless Monday-Macaroni and Cheese…with a twist

In Meatless Mondays on February 27, 2012 at 6:52 pm

The idea for this Meatless Monday meal came to me while I was watching TV. I can’t remember what channel I saw this show but it was all about pasta. They visited famous pasta restaurants and one offered nothing but macaroni and cheese. Everything from plain mac and cheese to buffalo chicken mac and cheese. One was a Greek mac and cheese and that’s when I got the idea about making something similar. So here it is complete with spinach, sun dried tomatoes, black Greek olives, and of course a touch of feta cheese.

2 cups whole wheat elbow pasta

1 bunch of spinach, cooked

1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped black olives

2 ounces of feta cheese, crumbled

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups milk

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 tsp dry mustard powder

1 tsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

In a extra large saucepan, cook the elbow pasta. Drain and then put it back into the pan and set aside. Add the spinach, olives and tomatoes.

In a large saucepan heat the milk and then gradually stir in the flour and make sure there are no lumps. Add the mustard, salt and pepper and oregano and stir. Add both the feta cheese and cheddar cheeses and stir until melted. Add to the pasta and mix until everything is well blended.

You can serve this as is or I put mine in a casserole dish, topped it with some more cheese and baked it for about twenty minutes at 350 degrees.

This serves a lot…6-8 people and I’m freezing the leftovers which I think will be perfect for a quick meal sometime later.

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