Healthy Spinach Recipes

Stuffed shells are an Italian favorite, but they're full of fat. The ricotta cheese used is quite high in saturated fat. To lessen the fat intake, use a part skim variety. These are perfect leftover, or, double the batch and put one in the freezer uncooked!

Ingredients

-Uncooked large jumbo shells (1 Box)
-1 Box of frozen spinach or 1 lb. fresh spinach (cooked for this recipe)
-2 Tbsp. chopped basil
-1 tsp. garlic powder
-16 oz part skim ricotta cheese
-1 cup jarred tomato sauce
-1/2 cup parmesan cheese
-2 eggs beaten
-1/4 lb shredded mozarella cheese
-1/2 cup fresh mushrooms
-1 tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook the pasta shells per box directions minus one minute. The shells will cook further in the oven.
2. Combine eggs, pepper, ricotta, spinach, basil, garlic powder, mozarella and mushrooms into large bowl. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
3. In a large glass baking dish, one by one, fill the pasta shells with the mixture. Fill all of the shells then top with the parmesan cheese. Top the shells with jarred tomato sauce.
4. Bake the stuffed shells for approximately 45 minutes until the cheese is just starting to brown.
Serve immediately with crusty Italian bread.

These pockets really are incredible and simple. All you need is a couple of bags of fresh spinach, some provolone cheese, a little garlic powder, and fresh pita pockets.

Ingredients for Spinach Pockets

-4 whole pitas (the large ones, not the minis), cut in half
-Two bags of fresh uncooked spinach leaves (used chopped frozen only if unavailable, and be sure to strain it very well!)
-1 tsp garlic powder
-4 slices provolone cheese

Directions

1. Wash the spinach leaves well under cold water. Be sure to turn the leaves over to get all of them. Remove the stems from all of the spinach leaves and tear the spinach leaves.
2. Boil 8 cups of water and place each ripped spinach leaf into the pot as you go. Discard the stems and cook for approximately 8-12 minutes, or until the spinach is tender. The volume of the spinach will diminish drastically. While the spinach is cooking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
3. After cooking, drain the spinach well in a strainer. Push down on the spinach with a spoon to squeeze out excess juice.
4. Saute the spinach with garlic powder in the same pan you boiled the spinach in for one minute to remove more of the excess liquid.
5. Fill the spinach pocket halves with the spinach and top with 1/2 slice of provolone.
6. Bake for 7-12 minutes, or until the pockets get slightly brown on the edge and the cheese melts. Serve immediately. Watch out, they're hot!

Spinach picture by Laurel Fan on Flickr.