spinach – Page 2 – Well Dined

30
May
2014

Week of Meals

categories: Recipes

A friend of mine asked if I could put together a week of meals that are healthy, easy, and cost effective for a single working mother. I thought that sounded like a great idea! But I definitely underestimated how much work it would be. It’s hard to make food for just two people without having a ton of leftovers – so to get a different meal in each night, I had to figure out how to use ingredients in multiple dishes. And I wanted to make sure that they were healthy, had a bit of variety, and took 30 minutes or less to put together. It’s a tall order, but I think I managed. Each recipe is sized for two adults, and there is a shopping list included at the bottom of the post.

First up – Broiled Salmon with Mustard Butter and Boiled Potatoes and Green Beans. This meal is healthy, easy, and comes together in under 30 minutes. I am so in love with this mustard butter (that I discovered making this recipe), I make it all the time now. There are no grains in this dinner, and as far as starchy potatoes go, baby red-skinned are relatively low on the glycemic index. Plus – by cooking more salmon and vegetables than you need, you will already have the ingredients you need for dinner the next night. This meal comes first because fish needs to be cooked the same night that it is purchased for best quality.

The salmon is going to be one of the more expensive proteins for the week, but it is worth it because it is so good for you (not to mention delicious). Gotta get those Omega-3’s! However, I do not recommend buying farm-raised Atlantic salmon as it is full of chemicals and pollutants. Instead, I recommend buying wild Alaskan or farmed Norwegian. The Norwegian salmon is pretty great and I can get it here in NoVA for around $15/lb, and coho goes for $13/lb (versus $29/lb for king salmon, yikes!). If you absolutely cannot swing Alaskan or Norwegian salmon, buy another type of fish instead (cod, halibut, or tilapia would be good).

For our second dinner, we use the extra ingredients from the previous night, plus a few more, to make Salmon Nicoise Salad. The only thing you have to cook for this dinner is hard boiled eggs, and you can do those in advance if you like. Boil more than you need, because we will use some in another dish. Like the previous night, this meal is grain-free and loaded with healthy fats. You can see how big one serving is in this photo – I ate the whole thing, Jasper only ate half of his. So if this is too much food for you, plan to set aside half of it for lunch the next day. It should travel well, just keep the dressing separate.

This is actually the most expensive meal of the week (if it is making 2 servings, and not 4), so the kind of greens you use will matter. I used mache or lamb’s lettuce, which I think is really delicious. But there are definitely cheaper lettuces/greens out there. A note on olives – nicoise olives are traditional, but expensive, so feel free to sub kalamatas, which taste very similar. You could even buy jarred kalamatas to save even more. (more…)

28
Apr
2014

Spanikopita Strudels

categories: Recipes

As per usual, I went to have lunch with Melissa of Smells Like Brownies. We had actually planned on going out to eat that day, but Melissa said she was planning on making these spanikopita at some point that day and I thought that sounded waaaaaaaaaay better than eating out. And then it turned out that she was looking at the exact same recipe I had been eyeing for awhile. Great! So we whipped them up pretty quickly, and while they were in the oven there was a knock at the door. Her Greek neighbor came by to drop off some homemade baklava – serendipity! Sometimes being spontaneous or changing your plans leads to some pretty great stuff.

Anyway, you will not believe how easy it is to make these. First step – filling. Whiz a whole bunch of fresh spinach around in a food processor until chopped but not pureed (we don’t want soup here) – I suggest doing it in 3 batches. Then add some well beaten eggs, feta (you know my favorite brand), and cottage cheese. The cottage cheese threw me for a bit of a loop, I wasn’t expecting that. Some recipes use ricotta, but what I ended up liking was the creaminess of the cottage cheese. I think ricotta dries out quite a bit when it is baked.

The next part can seem daunting, but I promise it’s not really that fussy. When working with pyllo dough, you need to move quickly or it will dry out. The box will usually have tips, like keeping the bulk of it covered with a cloth while you work, but I find that I don’t really need that. In order for it to bake into crispy layers, you need to get fat in between the sheets of phyllo. Most people brush butter over the sheets, which is time consuming and actually doesn’t work as well as other methods because it saturates the dough too much and weighs it down. I recommend drizzling the butter, or if you are really in a rush – spraying with cooking spray. You will need to use the brush on the top of the strudel, though, to make sure it is covered.

Now I didn’t get any pictures of the rolling up process, so please check out Smells Like Brownies for a more detailed tutorial. What I love about these is that they are large and self contained (versus baking in a big sheet like a casserole and cutting into triangles). So one strudel is a serving and you have a good visual reminder of that (not that that will prevent you from eating two, or three…).

These are really very easy to make, and they come out so perfectly. The phyllo is buttery and crispy, while the filling is silky and creamy. I’m pretty sure this will be my go-to recipe for homemade spanikopita.

(more…)

19
Mar
2014

Grown Up Tuna Noodle Casserole

categories: Recipes

Okay, I am not a huge canned tuna fan. But I saw this recipe for stuffed shells with tuna, spinach, and roasted garlic topped with bechamel and buttery bread crumbs and I had to try it. I even had a couple of tins of really nice smoked albacore (pretty much the only canned tuna I like). You guys, this is not your grandmother’s casserole.

The first thing that makes this dish special is the roasted garlic, which is super easy to make. Just chop the top off of a whole head of garlic, place it on a sheet of foil, drizzle it with olive oil, wrap it up, and roast away. When it’s done it becomes creamy and sweet and is delicious spread on bread, but we will be using the whole thing in this recipe. Just squeeze to pop out all the cloves – I find this to be creepy but fascinating. All that sweet roasted garlic goes into a creamy bechamel sauce.

The filling is tuna, spinach, and breadcrumbs – simple, but good. After it is all mixed up, half of the garlic bechamel goes in to make it nice and creamy.

Then that mixture gets stuffed into cooked pasta shells. I tried to find whole wheat shells, but no luck. Then you are going to frantically lick the bowl, and the spoon, and your fingers – because this filling is soooooo good. (more…)

12
Mar
2014

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Alfredo

categories: Recipes

Here’s a quick little semi-homemade cold weather meal, perfect for weeknights. I took some store-bought fresh spinach fettuccine and thick sliced roasted turkey from the deli counter, and tossed them with a homemade pumpkin goat cheese alfredo. It’s interesting enough to not be boring, but it’s easy enough to not cause a headache.

The homemade part is the decadent sauce, which involves butter, garlic, cream, pumpkin, goat cheese, sage, and pumpkin pie spice. I wanted to do something a little different, which is why I went with turkey, but chicken would work just as well. And I like how the spinach pasta brought a little color to the table.

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Alfredo
adapted from Closet Kitchen
serves 2

8 oz pasta of choice (I used fresh spinach fettuccine from the refrigerated section), cooked
8 oz cooked turkey or chicken, diced or shredded
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
4 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
1 tbsp sage, sliced thinly (or dried)
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add the cream, pumpkin puree, goat cheese, Parmesan, sage, and pumpkin pie spice and simmer until the cheese has melted.

Add in the poultry and allow to warm through. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Toss with pasta and serve immediately.

One Year Ago – Light Pumpkin Cream Cheese Loaf
Two Years Ago – Pinterest Recipes
Three Years Ago – 5 Couscous Dinners

30
Jan
2014

Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna with Homemade Spinach Whole Wheat Noodles

categories: Recipes

I had a plan to make spinach and butternut squash lasagna roll-ups last week. But then I decided to add chicken so that Jasper would be more likely to eat it (note that this plan failed, ha). And then I thought it would be good to make my own spinach whole wheat noodles, which turned out to be too fragile to roll up, especially with the heavy chicken added. So it turned into a regular layered lasagna instead, and I’m not even sad. The colors were so pretty, and it was gooey and cheesy and filling.

So here’s where I made a mistake – I thought I would be clever and puree the spinach in the food processor instead of the blender before adding in my flour in order to reduce the number of dirty containers. Except that the food processor didn’t really puree the spinach very well. I even had a moment where I stopped and thought I should transfer it to the blender and decided against it, *sigh*. All those little flakes of spinach made the dough very fragile and difficult to work with, but I stuck it out.

The noodles turned out fine (and they certainly tasted good) when cooked, but they were still too fragile to roll (and not very pretty).

So I just layered them instead and all was well. Now, remember earlier this week when I talked about having leftover butternut squash? Well, this is where it went. I pureed the roasted squash and shallots together to make a sauce. A little of that went on the bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles. (more…)

30
Dec
2013

2013 Wrap Up

categories: Recipes

Well, Folks – it’s been a great year! I look forward to keep sharing delicious and (sometimes) healthy recipes with you in the years to come. Until then – here are my most pinned recipes of 2013!

#1 – This healthy version of Shepard’s Pie with Sweet Potato and Turkey. I find this funny because the photos from this post are so bad!

#2 – Homemade Meat Ravioli – yum!

#3 – Homemade Spinach Ravioli. The raviolis are popular! (more…)

26
Dec
2013

Christmas 2013

categories: Uncategorized

Merry Christmas, y’all! We went on a bit of a crazy roadtrip (which I will tell you about later, because there are restaurants involved) and didn’t get back til late on the 22nd, which left us in a bit of a scramble to get ready for Christmas. We managed to get some outdoor decorations up (check out the wreath I made!), but no tree or anything indoors.

We also spent all our holiday money on travel, so no presents this year. But we did have a nice Christmas dinner (I mean, come on – how could I not, right?). Honey Baked Ham (going store bought on the main let me focus on sides); Spinach and Gruyere Strata; Sweet Potato Gratin with Caramelized Onions; and Bacon Popovers.

And a Cranberry Raisin Tart with orange zest and spices for dessert.

Oh yeah, and breakfast! Can’t forget Christmas morning sweets! I made these Cranberry Orange Rolls by Smitten Kitchen – yum! (more…)

09
Dec
2013

Spiced Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

categories: Recipes

Is there anything better than a big pot of comforting beef stew in the Winter? Maybe if you add a lot of veggies, Middle Eastern spices, and some apricots for sweetness. Yum, yum, yum. At least I thought so – my husband wasn’t really sold on the whole sweet things in a stew concept, and he doesn’t like all those vegetables getting in the way of his meat. But whatever, I thought it was awesome. If you are not limiting carbs, you could serve this over some couscous and let it soak up all the juices.

Start by cooking some red onion and browning some beef chuck that has been seasoned with cumin, ginger, and cinnamon. I feel like red onions only work well in specific places, and this is one of them. Cooking them enough that they start to caramelize and release some sweetness is the way to go, here. Remove the meat to a plate temporarily and deglaze the pot with some red wine to scrape up all those browned spices and good bits that are stuck to the bottom.

Add in some sweet potato, apricots, and a can of whole tomatoes in their juices; then add enough water to cover and let simmer for a few hours. Your house is going to smell AWESOME. For reals.

After it is done simmering and the meat and potatoes are all soft and luscious – throw in some chickpeas and spinach. Oh my gosh. There is so much going on here! The apricots absorb the liquid and plump up, and the sweetness from them and the sweet potatoes contrasts the warm spices. I love all the different colors and textures, too. Let’s get cooking, peeps! (more…)

29
Nov
2013

Cheesy Baked Pumpkin Shells

categories: Recipes

I feel like I constantly need some form of cheesy winter squash pasta on hand at all times. It’s kind of a problem. I saw a recipe for shells with pumpkin and ricotta that sounded good, but the comments all said it came out dry and bland. So instead of using that recipe, I decided to make a pumpkin version of my Spring Shells and Cheese.

So instead of ricotta, I made a bechamel with sage, pumpkin, Gruyere, and Parmesan. Then I added in some sauteed spinach and shallots, for health and color.

Because adding spinach totally makes up for all the cheese and pasta, right? I mean, I did use whole wheat shells…

Anyway, I added in some pecans for crunch. Nuts are healthy, too, right? (more…)

21
Aug
2013

Shrimp Packets with Mango Salsa

categories: Recipes

Here’s a fun summer dish for camping, grilling, or even using the oven (which is what I did). It’s easy, fast, filling, and healthy.

Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray (I used coconut oil) and raw shrimp, couscous, and a big handful of spinach. Cook using your method of choice for about 10 minutes – steam will fill the foil packet and cook all the ingredients.

Open up the packets and add in a fresh salsa made with avocado, mango, tomato, red onion, and lime juice. You can eat straight out of the packets, or transfer to a bowl. Either way, this fresh dish is sure to please the whole family! (more…)

Tag: spinach