Polenta With Spinach & Balsamic Tomatoes AND Asparagus, Strawberry Salad

That's a long title...... and a delicious combo :)

This took a little more prep using all fresh ingredients and making it all fancy looking, but it was worth it. The idea came to me as I was trying to decide what to do with a ton of spinach I needed to use and a pre-made roll of polenta. I wanted something pretty to try out the food setting on my new camera and this was the end result.

Remember that you can easily substitute things here, I use what I have on hand because I'm terrible at menu planning!

Polenta With Spinach & Balsamic Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 roll of pre-made polenta
2 huge bags of spinach (precise right!)
6 roma tomatoes
about a 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 large lemon
Spices.... I used basil, thyme, cayenne and some salt n pepper.

Put the oven on broil and grease a large cookie sheet.

Wash and dry your veggies, be extra sure the spinach is dry.

Chop your spinach.

Slice polenta into rounds about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick, season with salt and pepper. Lay on your greased pan and lightly spray the top with cooking spray. Broil on each side 6-8 minutes or until golden.

Remove and change oven to 350 Degrees F.

Dice your garlic and saute it in some olive oil over medium high heat until golden. Add your spinach (if there is any water watch out!) Cover and turn heat down to medium for about 2 minutes. - Hey?! Where'd all my spinach go? I rarely cook spinach, we love baby spinach fresh and eat lots of it. It's amazing how much it shrinks when you cook it! remove it from the burner and squeeze 1/2 lemon over it, season with salt and pepper, mix well.

Dice tomatoes and mix with 2 Tablespoons balsamic, 2 Tablespoons oil and the herbs. I used cayenne to give it a little kick and a slightly different flavor than the salad... it was kinda awesome. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

Top each polenta round with some garlicky spinach and then some cheese. Put them in the oven for about 10-20 minutes, until cheese is melted and starting to turn golden.

Serve tomatoes on the side (I prefer fresh over cooked tomatoes and it keeps the "pizzas" from getting soggy while cooking). Each person can top their rounds with some tomatoes and enjoy alongside some.......

Asparagus & Strawberry Salad

Oh yum.... this was great and so easy to make! You just want to make it an hour or so ahead so the flavors mix up well. I made two versions, the only difference being one was with asparagus and one was with green beans. Both were good, the kids were more likely to eat green beans than asparagus so this way they had a choice. The asparagus was better though and got 100% of the adult votes. It soaked up the flavors wonderfully.

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus (or green beans)
1 pint strawberries
2 Tablesoons honey
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
juice from 1/2 large lemon
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Blanch vegetables in boiling water for about 2 minutes and then put directly into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Dry well.

Wash and dry strawberries and slice.

Chop vegetables into large chunks... about 2 inches long.

Mix dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

Mix vegetables and strawberries in a large bowl and pour dressing over the top. Mix well, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for about an hour.

We really enjoyed this meal, so pretty, healthy and tasty! The only thing I'll do next time is make more!! And maybe add some roasted potatoes to the plate.

Baked Spaghetti

We were walking through Costco and one of the samples happened to be spaghetti. The kids played "baby bird" all the way through the store, so naturally, we had spaghetti for dinner. Tomato sauce is an excellent opportunity to add additional healthy ingredients. Most kids will eat tomato sauce no problem and there are plenty of healthy additions you can use that nobody will even know are in there.

To one jar of spaghetti sauce I added 1/2 cup of carrot juice. The boys actually really liked the plain carrot juice (yuck) and the color and flavor make it combine very well with tomato sauce. I also added 1/2 cup of sweet potato puree. Too much sweet potato and you will be able to taste it (although not a bad thing if you enjoy sweet potatoes). I'm not a big fan and neither is anyone else here so I added just 1/2 cup and couldn't taste it at all. I Love spinach, can you tell by looking at my recipes? Not canned or frozen, I think those taste terrible, but fresh (especially baby) spinach has almost no real taste to it (but amazing health benefits) and mixes well with almost anything. But it's not such a bad thing to love :) I added 2 cups of fresh baby spinach. If you have family members that you couldn't pay to eat anything with spinach I suggest taking those 2 cups, or even cutting it back to one and pureeing it in your food processor. The last thing I added was flax seed for the Omega-3s. If I put a bread topping on this, which would be good but Mike would have nothing to do with it, then I would mix the ground flax into that. But I only top it with cheese so I took 2 Tablespoons of flax seeds ground in the food processor (your body can't absorb them whole, they are too small) and mixed it into the sauce. To get the right amount of Omega-3s adults should have about 2 Tablespoons of flax seed a day. Fish is the other good source of Omega-3s, but Mike refuses to eat store bought fish and he hasn't been fishing in awhile. I miss our freezer full of Halibut and Salmon :( But he did finally get the new boat floor cut so maybe, just maybe, this year?

The meatballs I used were from Costco, can you tell we made a Costco trip today? They are precooked chicken, spinach and fontina meatballs. So good.

Okay, enough rambling.

Ingredients: *this makes a lot of spaghetti, but who doesn't love spaghetti leftovers?

1 package of spaghetti noodles (17.6oz)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (32oz.)
1 package of precooked meatballs or make your own *enough to cover the bottom of a 13x9" pan.
1/2 cup carrot juice
1/2 cup pureed sweet potato
2 cups fresh baby spinach
2 Tablespoons flax seed
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F and grease a 13x9" pan
Spread meatballs out over the bottom of the pan
Cook pasta according to package directions until just done, about 8 minutes. Drain and rinse.
Put anything you need to in the food processor. (flax seeds, spinach if you need to...)
Mix sauce, carrot juice, sweet potato, spinach and ground flax together in a bowl. Mix in cooked noodles.
Pour noodle/sauce mixture over meatballs and top with shredded cheese.
Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

All of us barely ate half of this casserole it was so much, but Thomas has been begging for spaghetti in his school lunch and Mike loves spaghetti sandwiches so it will save me some work throughout the week.

And the picture really doesn't do it justice. The slightly crunchy cheese and noodles at the top are the best part :)

Spinach & Mushroom Frittata

I love to make a frittata on the weekends for breakfast or a brunch. They are so simple, quick and CAN be very healthy. There are so many things you can add, it's a great recipe to use up leftovers. I watched a cooking show once that said you could even add spaghetti and meatballs... I might have to try that just for kicks one day.

This recipe is for a spinach mushroom frittata that we love here.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped raw baby spinach

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon dried Thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried Basil

1/2 cup salsa (mild, medium or hot, however you like it)

8 eggs.

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 F

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and onions. Sauté until onions are clear. Now it gets technical..... throw everything together in a big bowl and mix it well. Whew! That was hard. Spray a round cake pan or pie pan with non-stick spray. Pour your mix into the pan and put it in the 350 F oven for 30 minutes or until set.

Now I realize frittatas are supposed to be done on the stove, it means "to fry" but I've never had any luck doing it that way so I choose to use the oven.

I like to top it with salsa if anything at all. Mike loves this in a sandwich the next day for work. It's great hot or cold, full of protein and veggies. Remember spinach is one of those fancy superfoods!