Spinach - Recipes to help incoorporate more greens

When I read that spinach was the ingredient for cooks in the kitchen I got super excited! I love spinach. In fact I love most greens and I also love vegetables more than fruit! I don’t know if the cooks in the spinach (ha ha! I automatically wrote spinach instead of kitchen and I'm leaving it) really got into my head or what but I’m telling ya Dave and I have had a lot of spinach lately.

There is no way in the land of spinach that I could just give you one recipe. So, I’m giving you several! Don’t worry. They are short and sweet.  Some are borrowed recipes and some I just threw together with ingredients I had in my kitchen. Oh and you should know, I’m not one to measure. If you think a recipe sounds like it needs more bacon than what I added, then heck, add more bacon and so on and so forth.

spinach recipes

This okra is sooooo good! I’ve made a couple ginormous bowls and eaten it for lunch! Plus you get a ton of greens and vegetables in your diet! Do you like okra?

ingredients: ¼ onion diced | 3  diced green onions | 4 pieces of bacon chopped | 1 ½ c. sliced okra |          2 handfuls of spinach

directions: cook bacon on medium-low heat until almost done | add diced onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes | add okra, add green onion and sauté for 5 minutes | add the spinach and stir for 1 minutes | the spinach will cook very quickly

If I'm going to eat a salad I usually load it with a ton of spinach. Spinach salads are so tasty because you really can just add whatever tasty ingredients sound good to you. I'll also tell you that if you add some tender meat and/or fruit to your salad you won't need dressing. It's that good! What's your favorite salad? 

ingredients: spinach | chicken | strawberries | almonds | minced onion

                      spinach | chicken | tomatoes | lentils

                      spinach | chicken | avocadoes | black beans | tomatoes | cilantro | lime
                      spinach | chicken | mangoes 

ingreidents (for the chicken):  ½ onion diced | 1 garlic clove minced | 2 chicken breasts | 1 ½  c. chicken broth or stock

directions (for the chicken): heat some oil in a pan on medium low and add the diced onions and garlic | sauté for a few minutes and then add the chicken and let it brown | add 1/4 c. chicken broth/stock and let it simmer down to a nice golden brown | repeat the browning and broth process until the chicken is super tender | shred chicken

                          

My good friend Kirsten told me about green smoothies and I always cringed at the idea of putting spinach into my smoothie until I actually gave it a try. Green smoothies are delicious! A secret to smoothies is to freeze your fruit before hand. That way it's nice and cold and you won't have to add ice. 

ingredients: 1 banana | ½ c. pineapple | 2T. greek yogurt | 1 c. orange juice | a splash of coconut water | 2 handfuls of spinach

directions: blend and chug it down

If you are making a quiche throw a couple handfuls of spinach. You can’t really taste it and it’s an added health benefit.

ingredients: pie crust | 8 eggs | 4 pieces of cooked bacon | green onion | shredded cheese | 3 handfuls of spinach | splash of heavy whipping cream

directions: place pie crust in pie dish | in a separate bowl whip together your eggs and cream and set aside | put spinach, bacon, green onion and cheese inside crust | pour egg mixture over | bake at 375 for approximately 30 minutes or until done. 

I made this kale citrus salad from the Pioneer Woman. I thought it was pretty good but I’m sad to say my husband didn’t love it. It’s full of kale and spinach and everything wonderful but apparently not everyone can eat raw kale and love it like I do. I never knew! If you try this recipe I’d go light on the jalapeño. Our mouths were on FIRE. 

Oh and lastly I asked my FB friends what their favorite spinach recipes were and I got a ton of awesome recipes so I'm passing them on:

spinach, feta & mushroom quiche | chicken and spinach stuffed shells | spinach with lemon and butter | creamy spinach soup | spinach quesadillas | spinach and egg muffins | ground beef, spinach, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese mixed together and stuffed into large shells with pasta sauce poured over the top | spinach frittata | spinach omelets with cheese | lentils folded into yogurt, spinach and basil | 

That did not end up being short and sweet like I promised but that's ok! I loved writing all those recipes out and I hope you try some of them out.

What's your favorite dish with spinach? 

Do you like spinach?

Do you love greens? 

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Linking up today with Elah Tree for Cooks in the Kitchen and with Nicole for Treat Yo Self