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Fine Dining on a Shoestring
25 Uses for Frozen Spinach!
by Alice Osborne
 While looking for some information for our Cook’n Blog, I found a really cool website you might like, "WISEBREAD: Living Large on a Small Budget". This site addresses five specific topics: personal finance, frugal living, career and income, life hacks, and deals & coupons.
I'm glad I found this, because under the Frugal Living button I found a great idea for cutting the grocery budget: insert more boxed frozen spinach into the diet, because it is one of the least expensive items in the grocery store. To this end, WISEBREAD had an article titled 25 Ways to Use Frozen Spinach. To be able to do so many things with frozen spinach is truly good news--it's not only affordable, it's good for us! Here's their list:
1) Spinach & Cheese Bread
Spinach & Cheese - you’ll find a recipe for this on the Spinach and Cheese Recipe post on the Cook’n blog.
2) Cream of Tomato with Spinach Soup
(serves 4)
 2 cans (28 oz) tomatoes
¼ C butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp dried oregano, crushed
½ C whipping cream
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
¼ C chopped fresh basil, OR 1 Tbsp dried basil, crushed
½ C milk or half & half
½ C grated Parmesan cheese
Puree tomatoes with juices in processor or blender until smooth. Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion and sauté until very tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, sugar and oregano. Simmer 10 min. Mix in cream, spinach and basil and simmer 3 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add milk or half & half to thin, if needed. After ladling soup into bowls, sprinkle each with Parmesan cheese.
 Download this recipe.
3) Cheesy Spinach Soup
4) Spinach Stuffed Jumbo Pasta Shells (this is another recipe you’ll find on our Cook’n blog)
5) Healthy Lasagna
6) Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip
7) Tortilla Pinwheel Appetizers
8) Quiche and Frittatas
9) Spinach-Garlic Pizza
10) Eggs Florentine
 1 (10 oz) package chopped frozen spinach
3-6 eggs
1 T cheese per egg - can be low fat for South Beach and Zone, or full fat - parmesean is nice
Seasonings to taste (I like salt, pepper, and just a sprinkle of nutmeg)
Cream (optional)
Thaw spinach - can do it with a little water in the pan if you want.(skillet with lid). Spread spinach over bottom of pan. Add a little water if there isn't any. Season spinach however it strikes your fancy.
When spinach is hot, crack eggs on top. Salt and pepper the eggs and put the lid on. In a few minutes, the eggs will be steam-cooked. When they are almost how you like them, sprinkle the cheese on top of the eggs and put the lid back on until the cheese is melted. For a deluxe effect, drizzle cream over all.
Nutrional Information for Easy Eggs Florentine made with 3 eggs, 2 T shredded parmesean, and no cream:
356 calories, 7.3 ECC, 31.5 grams protein, 6.6 grams fiber , 20 grams fat (7.5 gm saturated). Very high in folate, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin B12, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium. High in niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, calcium, copper, iron, and zinc.
Download this recipe.
11) Casserole Add-in
12) Bread Bowl Dinner
13) Biscuit Pie
14) Chicken Spinach and Feta Pasta
15) Spinach Gnocchi
16) Meatloaf Jazzer-upper
17) Southwestern Eggrolls
18) Ravioli
19) Spinach-Feta Triangles
20) Stromboli or Other Stuffed Breads
21) Spinach and Potato Pie
22) Spinach Risotto
23) Tortellini and Spinach Salad
24) Hot Spinach Balls
25) Mediterranean Flavored Cheese Ball
As mentioned, I also talked about the many uses of frozen spinach in one of my latest posts for the Cook'n Blog this past week (a couple more recipes are found there), so be sure to visit the Budget-Friendly Meals post. Meanwhile, do you have any spinach recipes YOU could pass along? Let's share the good stuff, and until next time, Happy Cook'n!
(If YOU have a smart idea, won't you share it? Life is so much easier and we accomplish so much more when we pool our resources. And after all, we're all in this together. So email patty@dvo.com or alice@dvo.com with YOUR Smart Ideas!)
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