Happy Spinach Day!

Before I get started on spinach I have a little follow up on  yesterday - Waffle Day. We did make waffles for dinner. I was pretty impressed with myself. I had two small waffles with just a little bit of the banana syrup and NO butter. Yep, you read that right...NO butter.  And I lived to tell about it. Who knew?!

I, unlike most people, I assume have an all time favorite waffle story. Right before my husband and I started dating he had gone to the high school play with my sister's family (and me - he just didn't know he was with me).  Afterwards, we went to Steak n Shake for dinner. During dinner my (then 7 year old) niece grilled him with all kinds of crazy questions - mostly of the "what's your favorite..." variety.  I think she was just in awe that her martial arts instructor was eating dinner with them. The one question that remains etched in my memory is...what's your favorite waffle?  Poor guy didn't know there was anything other than plain waffles. At the time, her favorite waffle was the bacon and cheese waffle - regular waffle with a little cheese and bacon pieces sprinkled on top before cooking (maybe it is still the favorite because the kids requested it last night). She couldn't believe that plain could be anyone's favorite kind of waffle. For the record, his favorite is now peach waffles. I cut up canned peaches and add them to the batter before cooking. Even today an awkward moment can be diffused by one simple question "what's your favorite waffle?"

Moving on....Happy Spinach Day!!! 

True, Sean, I rarely "simply eat spinach." I prefer enjoying at as an ingredient or a co-star of the dish. Here are a few of the ways I am currently enjoying my spinach. 

1. I almost always get spinach on my Subway sandwiches. I used to get lettuce, but have recently switched to spinach. The leaves look fresher than the shredded lettuce and it adds more flavor to the sandwich.  Not to mention it feels more virtuous to order spinach than lame old iceberg.

2. Smoothies - a handful of spinach in a fruit smoothie can't even be tasted. Blueberries mask the color best. Okay, that just made it sound like I hate spinach and I am trying to hide it. My point is that it sounds bizarre to put spinach in a fruit smoothie, but you get the nutritional benefit without compromising the fruity flavor and color.

3. Chopped fresh spinach added to tomato sauce based dishes - i.e. spaghetti. Again, I am adding it to boost nutritional value and you barely taste it with the other ingredients.

4. One of my favorite omelets is spinach and mushroom :)

5. Fresh from the garden spinach makes the best salads. This is last year's spinach pictured below (behind that out of control lettuce). This particular variety was odd. I expected to grow more like the lettuce, but instead leaves stayed small and grew off a tall center stem. The leaves were shaped like arrowheads. It was tasty though. I got a different kind this year so we will see. I planted it the other day then the weather turned cold again - at least, it has been raining and not snowing.

In my younger days, I would have NEVER considered eating frozen spinach. But now, it isn't too bad...still not my favorite, but nor too bad. Oddly, it is one of my husband's favorite veggies - the frozen spinach, not fresh. I prefer if I am eating frozen spinach with something that I can mix it with as I eat.

Finally, canned spinach?  Sorry Popeye, that is one thing I just can't do! (Please don't judge me for the typo on the Popeye meme.)

How do you feel about spinach?