I don’t know about in your house, but in mine breakfast is always rushed. My sleepy boys sit at the table begging to have a story read to them, while I give out empty promises of reading a book if I can get lunches done in time and if they keep eating. And then there is the issue of getting healthy breakfasts into them. Some carbs, some protein, and some fruit or veggie. Phew! It can be a slog. But one thing that has made life much easier is this recipe for spinach popouts. I got this wonderful recipe from First Bites. It is great as it is, but I’ve made a few tweaks that my boys seem to love. And now, there are actually mornings when things move smoothly enough that I can sit down with them and enjoy some time together.
These freeze beautifully and then I just pull out what I need for breakfast (veggies, protein, and carbs in one!) or lunch (pop a few still frozen into the lunch box and they are thawed by lunch time). And let’s be honest, before they are even cool enough to go into the freezer a number of them have disappeared into little (and not so little) mouths. Yum! Enjoy!
- 3T olive oil
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3c frozen chopped spinach
- 1 cup ricotta or a mix of ricotta and feta
- 1½ cup cooked brown rice
- 2 eggs, beaten
- a dash of nutmeg
- salt + pepper
- Preheat oven to 375. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add 3 cups frozen spinach, salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook for 2 more minutes. Add 1 cup ricotta cheese and turn off heat. Blend with an immersion blender (easiest clean up), regular blender, or food processor. Stir in 1½ cups cooked rice and 2 eggs, beaten. Spoon into a mini-muffin pan (note: I only have one mini-muffin pan, so I just spoon the extra into a regular muffin pan). Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Makes about 30 popouts.
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