Budget-Friendly Meals Via Frozen Spinach!

Two things I want to share today:

A) A really cool website we might want to frequent is WISEBREAD: Living Large on a Small Budget. This site deals with five specific topics: personal finance, frugal living, career and income, life hacks, and deals & coupons. There are a lot of websites dedicated to simple and cost-effective living, but what I like about this site is the range of issues it discusses, how user-friendly it is, and how practical it is. Check it out and then let me know what you think of it.

I stumbled upon it by accident and I'm glad I did, because under the Frugal Living button I found the second thing I want to talk about:

2) 25 Ways to use frozen spinach! Did you know boxed frozen spinach is one of the least expensive items in the grocery store? So to be able to do so many things with it is truly good news--it's not only affordable, it's good for us! Here's the list:



1) Spinach & Cheese Bread (bring on the herbed olive oils discussed the other day!)
1 C water
1 C extra virgin (first cold pressed) olive oil
1/2 C frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
3 C flour
1/2 C shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast

This is a bread machine recipe, so if you have one, add all ingredients into the pan in the order listed and follow manufacturers directions for mixing. If you don't have a bread machine, (I do but have never used it--duh, I know), then mix this with a mixer. I would bake it at 350 degrees for maybe 35-40 minutes, but I'd watch it closely so it doesn't over bake.

This would definitely be an experiment if not using a bread machine, so don't hold me accountable for any flops--we're in this together, remember. Let's try it and report back.

2) Cream of Tomato with Spinach Soup

3) Cheesy Spinach Soup

4) Spinach Stuffed Jumbo Pasta Shells
1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 C lowfat cottage or ricotta cheese
1 clove fresh garlic, chopped fine
Partially cooked jumbo pasta shells (perhaps a 1lb bag)
1 - 2 C shredded mozzarella cheese

Put the mixture in a frosting bag or plastic zip bag with snipped-off corner and pipe it into the partially cooked pasta shells. Place filled pasta in a greased baking dish and top with your sauce of choice and some grated mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for maybe 20 min. (watch closely to avoid over-baking).

5) Healthy Lasagna

6) Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

7) Tortilla Pinwheel Appetizers

8) Quiche and Frittatas

9) Spinach-Garlic Pizza

10) Eggs Florentine

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

I will be talking about the many uses of frozen spinach in one of my columns for the Cook'n Club newsletter this week, and I'll share more recipes there, so be sure to open it up and look for them. 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 haven't watched DVO newsletter author, Jeanne Wolfley, demonstrate making her SUPER EASY artisan bread, be sure to take a few minutes to do so soon. All she uses is 3 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp yeast (really), and about 1 1/2 tsp of salt. She adds some room temperature water, mixes with her hands (NO kneading, NO kidding!), and...well, you just have to see this.

This is one beautiful bread. And we were able to taste it here at the Cook'n test kitchen, and it's as yummy as it is pretty. This is the type of bread that is prefect for dipping in the herbed olive oils I talked about in Friday's blog. Isn't it great that some of life's best delights are so simple?

And speaking of a delight, here's another artisan bread recipe--not as easy as Jeanne's, but really good, nonetheless. See what you think of this:

DILLY CASSEROLE WHEAT BREAD
1 pkg yeast in 1/4 C water
1 C cottage cheese
1 Tbsp butter

Combine first 2 ingredients, heat to lukewarm and add butter.

1 Tbsp instant onion
2 tsp dill seed
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp soda
1 unbeaten egg
2 to 2 1/2 C sifted whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in mixer with 1 C flour. Beat well then add rest of flour (keep dough moist). Let raise 50 min. Punch down. Turn into well-greased 1 qt. casserole and let raise 50 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 min. Brush with butter.

Let me know if you try Jeanne's bread or this Dill recipe. And please share if you have a bread recipe you really like--we're all in this together, remember. And until next time, happy cook'n!

One of the Best Friends Artisan Breads Could Ever Have!

Have you discovered dipping sauces, otherwise known as dipping oils? They are a staple of many Italian-style restaurants. Instead of a basket full of bread, which is normally served along with foil packets of butter, a section or an entire loaf of Italian, French, or artisan bread is brought to the table. The bread is served along with a bottle of olive oil and a small dish of herbs. The restaurant patrons mix the oil, which is usually extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil, with the herbs. Pieces of bread are broken off from the loaf and then dipped into the herb and oil mixture.

Besides tasting incredibly good, dipping great bread in olive oil is also a healthy thing to do. Olive oil is one of the most health-promoting types of oils available. It is rich in monounsaturated fat, a type of fat that researchers have found protects against chronic degenerative diseases (atherosclerosis, diabetes, asthma, colon cancer, and arthritis) if used in place of animal fats (butter, for instance). A diet that replaces animal, and other saturated fats, as well as trans-fats with olive oil is known as the Mediterranean Diet and the research that's resulted from the study of it offers these practical tips:

• Instead of serving butter, fill a small condiment dish with extra virgin olive oil for use on bread, rolls, potatoes or other vegetables.
• For even more flavor, add a few drops of balsamic vinegar or a sprinkling of your favorite spices to the olive oil.
• To get the most health benefit and flavor from your olive oil, buy and store oil in opaque containers, and add olive oil to foods immediately after cooking.

I am so sold on the idea of going the olive-oil route, that I went searching for the best of the best--small batches, freshness-oriented, and integrity-based labels. Of course, there are boatloads of companies and product lines out there, so my deciding factor was personal referral/experience. It just so happens (unbeknownst to me), our own DVO owners, Dan and Kathy Oaks are affiliating with Debbie McKeown, the owner/creator of Migliore Gourmet Foods (olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and spices). "Migliore" by the way, is Italian for "the best."

I checked her site, read her information/background and can see why Dan and Kathy like her products. You might want to take a look as well. The advice is to get extra virgin (first pressed) , cold pressed oil. First pressed means that the fruit of the olive was crushed exactly one time. The "cold" refers to the temperature range of the fruit at the time it is crushed.

All this said, let's have some fun with the wonderful bread recipes in this month's Cook'n newsletter. Let's create some yummy herbed olive oil dip for Jeanne's scrumptious artisan bread she demonstrated. Here's a great little recipe to try for just this purpose, and afterwards, let me know if you don't agree that a great dipping oil is one of the best friends an artisan bread could ever have:

PARMESAN PEPPER BREAD DIPPING OIL
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

Add the basil, thyme, black pepper and Parmesan cheese to a small bowl, or shallow dish. Stir the herbs and cheese together until they are well blended. Pour the olive oil into a separate shallow dish. To use this dipping oil, first dip a piece of bread into the olive oil, then dip the bread into the herb and cheese mixture.

Here are some additional ingredients for bread dipping oil (not necessarily meant to be combined together):

• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp crush red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp peppercorn mix

And besides being used as a bread condiment, dipping oil can also be tossed with pasta or rice, used as a meat marinade, or tossed with grilled or steamed vegetables. The herb-enhanced oil can also be mixed with a bit of balsamic vinegar and/or lemon juice to make a delicious viniagrette type of salad dressing.

Do YOU have a dipping recipe you could share? We're all in this together remember, so let's share the good stuff. Please comment with any recipes, tips, ideas, etc. you have. I love hearing from our readers. And until next time, happy cook'n!

Kudos to Potatoes!

Don't you just LOVE potatoes? The American Indians first discovered the potato, also known as a tuber. Did you know one potato plant can produce up to 32 potatoes? Good thing, because America's cooks have found hundreds of uses for them.

And find me the family that isn't ga-ga over potatoes--or the man that doesn't love his mashed potatoes and gravy. My husband, Rich, told me recently that potatoes and gravy are one of the vital anchors of life (he wasn't kidding and our kids are getting him a T-shirt made with this piece of wisdom written on it).

Anyway, I was thinking about this humble vegetable and thought I'd share one of the most popular, and EASY potato recipes out there: FUNERAL POTATOES. Probably every neighbor you have has a version of this delicious recipe (maybe under a different name). We know it as Funeral Potatoes because it's always served at the after-funeral dinners our church prepares--people love it and are truly disappointed if it's not on the menu. Here's my recipe--see how it compares to yours:

FUNERAL POTATOES (serves 10)

1 lg pkg ( 2 lbs) frozen hash browns (partly thawed)
1 pint sour cream
1 can undiluted cream of chicken soup
2 C shredded Cheddar cheese
1 onion, chopped
1/4 C melted butter
2 Tbsp dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1 C shredded cheese
2 C cornflakes
1/2 C butter, melted

In huge mixing bowl, mix together the hashbrowns, sour cream, soup, 2 C shredded cheese, chopped onion, 1/4 C melted butter, parsley and salt and pepper. Pour mixture into a 9x13 (you might need two pans--this expands a bit when baking). Sprinkle 1 C shredded cheese atop mixture. Stir together cornflakes and melted butter and spread atop shredded cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. Watch closely so it doesn't burn.

You can also add lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower pieces and/or diced ham to this and you'll have a complete entree.

OK, I know this isn't heart-healthy. In fact, when I serve it, we make sure we have the local paramedics on speed dial! But sometimes, who cares? Every great cook has a killer, 100% crowd-pleasing recipe up her sleeve, and this is mine. Now, do YOU have any killer recipes you could share? We're all in this together, remember, so let's share the good stuff. And until next time, here's boatloads of kudos to those terrific potatoes, and of course, happy cook'n!