Weeknight Thai Coconut Spinach and Shrimp with Peanut Sauce

Weeknights can be rough, amiright?  Whether you work or not, work from home, rush home in rush hour traffic, etc, they are just all around rough.  At our house, there is a very brief window of time where many things happen at once- get home, walk the dog, feed the dog, cook and eat dinner, give S a bath, bedtime routine, clean up after dinner, put S down, etc.  This is usually squeezed into 2 hours or so.  Moral of the story- we ALL need some quick and easy recipes, using freezer ingredients, that you can throw together fast and with a minimum of dirty dishes.

For me, there are a couple freezer lifesavers that I would seriously die without.  Shrimp and spinach are two of those freezer staples that are regularly called upon to be the basis of a nutritious, filling, and GFG approved meal.  

You may have also noticed by now that I am pretty partial to Asian flavors, Thai in particular.  I loves me some Thai.  Unfortunately, I don't eat it too often because most of the dishes have lots of noodles in them and who knows how much added sugars.  And let's face it, with a two year old, we're not eating in restaurants much these days anyways!

Thai Coconut Milk Spinach and Shrimp with Peanut Sauce (3-4 servings)

1 bag of frozen spinach, defrosted

12-15 medium/large raw shrimp (defrosted and peeled)

1 cup light coconut milk (or use full-fat)

4 tbsp peanut flour

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp thai chili sauce

2 tbsp water

1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 scallions, chopped

some EVOO, or a bit of toasted sesame oil, for cooking the shrimp

salt and pepper 

Get out two sauté pans.  In one pan, heat some oil (I used hot chili garlic oil) for the shrimp and cook just a few minutes per side until opaque and cooked through.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder before flipping.  Remove from heat when finished.  In your other pan, heat up just a tiny bit of oil, and dump in your defrosted spinach.  Season with salt and pepper, then pour in your coconut milk and let it come to a simmer.  While you are waiting for that, get a medium sized bowl to make your peanut sauce.  Combine your peanut flour, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili sauce, garlic powder, and water, and stir well to combine.  Spoon half of this mixture into your spinach and mix well to incorporate.  The rest you'll spoon over your shrimp.  To plate, place shrimp on top of spinach, top with peanut sauce, and cover with scallions/green onions.  Dinner done in 15-20 minutes.  This is a healthy, filling, protein, vitamin, mineral, and fiber packed meal.  Peanut flour is my newest favorite ingredient to have around.  Do you ever cook/bake with peanut flour?  What are some ways you use it?  I am curious to know if you can use it as a breading- any ideas?

Hope you try this one out!

Spinach Muffins- Revisited

New and improved Spinach Muffin recipe- or Spinach Muffins 2.0.  These are just as easy, but a little tastier, and with some added nutrients from my good friend- flax seed meal.

Portable, can be eaten at room temp, stores easily in the fridge but also makes for a great on the go snack for adults/toddlers/baby hippos alike.

Spinach Muffins 2.0
1 10 oz bag frozen spinach
2 eggs
2 tbsp flax seed meal
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup shredded cheese, or a string cheese torn up if you're me

Throw everything in your cuisi and pulse until thoroughly combined.  Spoon into lined muffin tin and bake at 350 until the tops are browned and a toothpick comes out clean.  This makes 8 quite large spinach muffins.

Yum!  Enjoy :)

Spinach Tomato and Chickpea Curry

I know the real name for this dish is out there, it's kind of chana masala kind of not.  Who cares what its called- it's easy, fast, and only dirties one pan.  Can't complain about that!  It's also happens to be vegan, really filling, and has a huge dose of greens.  It started out looking like a creamy pink soup, then turned orange, and then finally burnt orange, until adding the spinach.  My little toddler slurped it up so I totally think this is kid appropriate- but she happens to like spicy ethnic stuff.

The only negative about this dish (or any curry) to me is that the smell hangs around maybe a bit longer than I'd like.  Might help if I opened windows.

Spinach Tomato and Chickpea Curry
1 can coconut milk (mine was TJ's light)
1 can chickpeas, washed and drained
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 lb bag frozen spinach
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp curry powder
S&P to taste
sprinkle of garam masala to finish

Cook your onions over medium heat until they start to brown, then add your garlic and cook for another minute.  Add your chickpeas and coat well, cooking for about 2-3 minutes more.  Then add your coconut milk and tomato and stir stir stir!  Let the mixture cook for another 2 minutes and season with salt and pepper.  Then add your curry powder.  The mixture should be bubbling.  Taste it at this point and see how you like it, and adjust accordingly.  Maybe add some red pepper flakes?  Cumin?  Cinnamon?  Whatever you want.  Let the mixture reduce and thicken, then add your thawed spinach.  Continue cooking until spinach is hot, then season with a bit of garam masala and serve.  This makes probably 5-6 servings depending on who's eating it- how hungry, if it's main vs. side etc.

We are big spinach eaters in this house- and I'm always looking for new ways to prepare it.  Tell me- what's your favorite way to eat spinach?  Do you ever "hide" it in foods?  This sounds odd but I want to try a savory spinach bread sometime.

Let me know what you think! XoXoGFG

Spinach Muffins!

So this is a fun new twist on egg muffins!  I once again found inspiration on Pinterest, and I'm so glad I did!  I make egg muffins every weekend that everyone snacks on during the week, but once in awhile you just have to switch things up.  The recipe I originally found was a little fancier than I needed it to be, I just wanted to make something nutritious and yummy that would be a good grab-and-go breakfast item for M during the week, and also an easy way to get little miss hippopotamus to eat her veggies.

Spinach Muffins

12 ounce bag of frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup cottage cheese

2 eggs

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Blend everything together in your blender, then distribute evenly into 12 muffin cups.  I love my silicone muffin cups, they make clean-up super fast.  I baked mine for about 35 minutes in a 350 oven because I wanted them to brown slightly.  As you can see this is a very simple recipe that you can tweak and adapt as you like.  Serving these for din?  Add parm, mozzarella, garlic, or even some chopped sun dried tomatoes! But for an easy breakfast or toddler veg, these are awesome.  

Easy Spinach Chana Masala, and 2-minute chocolate candies

My absolute fave dinners are ones that can A)be whipped up using only pantry/freezer ingredients and B)one pot/pan meals!  If you want a quick, easy meal that meets both of the above requirements, you've got to try this!

Easy Vegan Spinach Chana Masala
2 tsp EVOO
1 box frozen spinach (about 10 ounces, although I actually used a 16 ounce bag) thawed and drained
1 can chickpeas rinsed and drained
1 10 ounce can diced tomatoes
half onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp garam masala
S&P to taste

Saute onions until they are starting to brown, seasoning with a bit of kosher salt to help release their moisture.  Add in garlic and saute a moment more until fragrant.  Pour in tomatoes and juice, then adding in spices.  I did not have any coriander, so simply used a bit more of all the other spices.  Cook for a few minutes until sauce comes together.  At this point, add in drained chickpeas and cook for a few more minutes, finally adding in thawed spinach.  You'll want to taste everything and see if it needs more spices.  The whole dish only takes about 15 min. from start to finish.  It's so easy and super delish.  So S could eat it more easily, I blended some up in the cuisi for her and she ate every bite. Makes about 4 servings.

Did you ever have only unsweetened baking chocolate in the house and had a craving for a few bites, but aren't too keen on plain unsweetened chocolate?  Try this- melt a square of bakers chocolate in the microwave with two tablespoons of milk.  It only needs about 30 seconds, followed by some stirring.  Add in a packet of stevia and continue mixing.  With a teaspoon, drop small spoonfuls of chocolate onto a parchment lined baking sheet and stick in the fridge.  A few hours later you'll have yummy chocolate candies with no artificial sugars!  They aren't very pretty- but who cares?!

Big week for S.  She has started saying her name, and now she says it constantly and for no reason, which cracks me up.  Also, my little pumpkin has officially started walking!  She has been taking steps for awhile already, but this is actual honest to god walking!  She is still crawling, I don't think she quite understands what she's capable of yet, but my little peanut can walk!  Yay!  It is so incredible watching her develop and learn more about her world.  Her favorite show is Super Why and the kid can't get enough of it.  I know TV is the devil I'm a horrible parent I'm rotting her brain etc etc.  But it's actually a pretty great show and very educational.  Do you let your kids watch TV or am I truly the worst mom?