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So my trainer has had me introduce "very" green veggies.

Telling me that green bell peppers, squashes, broccoli, lettuce and brussel sprouts, are a great start, but he wants to make sure i add leafy vegetables like spinash into my lunches and dinners.

I've been doing this for two weeks now, and eating them raw or boiled have lost their appeal. Are there are any good recipes using spinash and chicken as a base? or any other leafy vegetables that are as good as spinach? i wouldn't mind making a smoothie with it... i have a high tolerance for ick foods, just my palate gets bored easily.

Thanks guys!

Murgh saagwala (pronounced: moorg saag waalaa) is a really popular dish in northern India. You can also replace the chicken with paneer (homemade cheese) if you're cooking for vegetarians or want to try switching things up. I haven't tried the recipe that I've included below, but it looks pretty good to me.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Saag-Chicken-100674

Try sauteing it with oil and garlic, and a little feta cheese, if that doesn't blow the diet.

Turkey Soup Provencal

- Substitute chicken for the turkey
(You can pretty much clean out your refrigerator by doing variations on this recipe. Whatever meat you have, whatever greens you have... pasta... beans... veggies...)

Also... rather than looking for a can of diced tomatoes with onion and garlic already added, I use a regular can of diced tomatoes and then just cut up an onion & some garlic and add it in when I’m browning the meat.

What You’ll Need
• 1 lb. ground turkey breast
• 1/2 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence, crushed
• 1 15-oz. can cannellini beans or other white beans, drained
• 1 14.5-oz. can chicken broth
• 1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, undrained
• 4 cups chopped fresh spinach

Preparation
Cook turkey in saucepan over medium-high heat until browned, stirring to break up the meat. Add herbes de Provence, beans, broth, and tomatoes to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in spinach; simmer 5 minutes.

I like to steam fresh spinach in the microwave with a bit of salt,garlic powder and some buttery spray for flavor.. boiling it would be too much like canned spinach BARF! ( no matter what popeye sez)

I find spinach very flavorful on it's own, but I might add just a touch of soy sauce once it's been steamed (of course spinach cooks VERY quickly, so don't steam it too long).

As mentioned above, garlic is a good and very healthy addition. You might want to actually serve a breast of chicken on a bed of steamed spinach.

If you like salad, eat it raw as a replacement for lettuce. (Just keep to vinaigrettes for dressing)

You could always stuff a seared chicken breast. Make a cut in the side of the breast lengthwise that goes 3/4 of the way through the meat.

Cook the spinach in a small pan (preferably non-stick) with a little bit of butter and garlic for flavour. Stuff the cooked spinach and a low fat creamy cheese (maybe even a spoonful of cottage cheese) into the slit you made in the chicken.

Sear the breast on both sides in non-stick pan with a teaspoon or less of olive oil, and then toss it in a preheated over (about 300 degrees) and it should be good to go in about 15 mins.

If the frying pan is not all-metal or oven safe, just put in on a flat baking sheet.


A good thing i've found is to buy spices and herbs and learn to cook with them. Most or low or no calorie and add a ton of flavour, and let you pretty much each the same meal, without getting bored of the taste.

One night you can have spicy chicken, another night its diced up with tomatoes, onions, red peppers, and basil in a make-shift ragu.

You can always throw the spinach in with other leafy greens, and raw vegetables and do a lemony vinaigrette, and pepper the chicken before tossing it into the salad.

Just some thoughts, hope it helps.

I use it on sandwiches, instead of lettuce.

also great in omlettes with some cream cheese.

antelope saidTry sauteing it with oil and garlic, and a little feta cheese, if that doesn't blow the diet.

that's my favorite way to eat spinach

I'm more of a salad guy. Lay out a nice bed of green lettuce leaves, then throw on a layer of raw broccoli and cauliflower mixed with hellmans mayo. Add more flavor with some grated Parmesan cheese. Add a sliced mini cucumber and some sweet cherry tomatoes. That's healthy eating.Spices will turn the polyps in your colon into tumors.

mix it up by trying swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens. With each of them, you can simply sautee them with olive oil or garlic. They each have their own unique flavor, so switching them up should keep your taste buds from getting bored.

Also, throw fun stuff into your spinach salads. Toss in some orange segments and some sliced fennel. Or make some pasta with tomato sauce, and throw in some cooked spinach with some feta.

Williams Sonoma has come out with some pretty good cookbooks dealing with healthier meals. Check em out. Their recipes have never let me down.

badcat saidmix it up by trying swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens. With each of them, you can simply sautee them with olive oil or garlic. They each have their own unique flavor, so switching them up should keep your taste buds from getting bored.

Mhmm! Greens are fun and tasty. You should try arugula and endives too. Wilted arugula is sooooo good with almost anything.

Sauteeing is tasty like Antelope and Timberoo indicated...

Also, a spinach and feta omelet is a great way to start the day...

I eat spinach everyday, there's so much you can do with it...

cesarin03 saidSo my trainer has had me introduce "very" green veggies.

Telling me that green bell peppers, squashes, broccoli, lettuce and brussel sprouts, are a great start, but he wants to make sure i add leafy vegetables like spinash into my lunches and dinners.

Btw, red peppers, though a bit more expensive than green, are more nutritious. Green peppers are peppers that haven't ripened fully.

That's not to say that green peppers aren't nutritious. But red have even Vitamin C and they have a great deal of Vitamin A, which green has very little A.

I make monster salads using spinach as the base. I should try and find the recipe that I created in order to give you an idea as to how to create one.

You can also make chicken soup and chop up some fresh spinach and when it wilts and darkens serve it up and enjoy.

I found it!

This is what I've been doing lately.

I heat up the nonstick grill to cook one chicken breast (50g of protein). I lightly salt and add quite a bit of fresh cracked pepper.

While that's cooking I mix

1. Two cups of fresh raw spinach
2. Shredded romaine lettuce or other leafy greens
3. One shredded carrot.
4. Two apples diced.
5. Chopped onions.
6. Instead of salad dressing loaded with MSG I use fat free Kefir plain flavored yogurt and spice it to taste like Ranch salad dressing.
7. Two ounces of feta cheese.
8. Two ounces of real bacon bits.
9. Two crumbled hard boiled eggs.

Once all is prepared I mix it all together and toss with the Kefir salad dressing and then sprinkle with more fresh crushed black pepper and for a kick I add a couple pinches of cayenne.

It's very tasty and very nutritious. Sometimes I substitute grilled chopped salmon instead.

DCEric saidIf you like salad, eat it raw as a replacement for lettuce. (Just keep to vinaigrettes for dressing)

Agreed make it baby spinach. It worked for Popeye!!

Put it in smoothies with highly flavorful fruits. For example...


1/2 C. milk
Handful frozen strawberries
1 scoop chocolate whey protein
1/2 C. Orange juice
1 tsp. Ground flax seed (optional)
1 tbsp. Peanut Butter
Handful Spinach.

As long as you blend this fully you shouldn't really pick up on the texture or taste of the spinach although it will throw off the color a little and the colder the better - numbs your taste buds thus making it harder to taste.

Kale also works well too.

Another consideration is greens powder, but fresh is always better.

Furthermore... BE SURE you are eating a small amount of fat with your spinach otherwise you will be missing out on a lot of those nutrients!

DCEric saidIf you like salad, eat it raw as a replacement for lettuce. (Just keep to vinaigrettes for dressing)

Spinach is actually one of those weird foods whose nutritional value exponentially increases when it is cooked. There are good books about the chemistry of cooking which relates to this.

skifan08 said

badcat saidmix it up by trying swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens. With each of them, you can simply sautee them with olive oil or garlic. They each have their own unique flavor, so switching them up should keep your taste buds from getting bored.

Mhmm! Greens are fun and tasty. You should try arugula and endives too. Wilted arugula is sooooo good with almost anything.

And Escarole, the Italian variation is quite good too, though i'm not sure of its nutritional value. Also I think it takes longer to cook.

If you like it spicy, try using a little chili oil instead of olive oil, or add a little cayenne pepper or crushed red peppers. A little spice always makes things a little more interesting.

I tend to just eat a small salad of it. I hear cooking it releases some of its nutrients.

It does! Because cooking breaks down the cellulite that makes up the cellwalls of the spinach cells thus making it more possible for you to rip them apart with your teeth and digest it's contents! We aren't cows after all and can't afford to munch upon greens all day ( How do you think that calcium got there?!)

But... overcooking will oxidize and destroy those nutrients. So... the key is to cook them slightly, but not to reduce them to mush/burnt little pieces of ass-ish tasting ash.

Pesto can be your friend! Basil is expensive in large amounts so lots of restaurants use spinach in their pesto to make it more green. You can add great leafy nutrients to pasta or use it as a spread on sandwiches. Delish!

http://www.thefoodinmybeard.com/2009/02/chicken-with-balsamic-tomato-spinach-and-couscous.html

I made this last Monday and it was sooooo good! Pretty healthy considering the only fat is the olive oil, and I used no salt added tomatoes and whole grain cous cous.

If you try it, I bet you'll like it...

thanks to all the posts, i've tried a few of them and i can say that I am liking spinash A LOT more now. especially adding some herbs and spices to it, to make it more tasty.

gracias!

I must be lucky. I could eat steamed or boiled spinach (plain, no salt or butter) twice a day for weeks and never tire of it.
It's fortunate for me since things like spinach are a good way for me to maintain some restraint, when my food of choice is refined sugar.

I don't cook, so I can't tell you how this is actually done, but my b/f cooks egg into spinach so I will eat it. I can't stand spinach by itself, but cooked with egg, i love it. I think he, essentually scrambles in into the spinach. Dunno if that helps you, but there ya go.

Just remember to have a serving of vitamin C (however you want to consume it -- juice or vitC-rich fruits and/or veggies) with your spinach -- for whatever reason, humans have a difficult time absorbing the iron in spinach, but vitamin C allows us to absorb about 3x the amount we would be able to normally.

Try adding it to your pizza toppings (lots of vitC already on it, so it's a great compliment) - just make sure the pizza is a healthy choice to begin with (ie. whole wheat crust, low-fat cheese, lean meats). I also sautee spinach with onions, garlic, mushrooms and sometimes even ginger in olive oil and then stuff it in a chicken breast. Sear each side until the meat gets some nice caramelization going on, and then finish cooking it in the oven (or do the whole thing on a George Forman grill if you have one).

As for other greens...bok choy is another great choice, as it is a good source of calcium. It's great stir fried, although I enjoy mine steamed and then seasoned with pepper, a little salt & a dash of sesame oil

JrdnS saidass-ish tasting ash.

You know...?

I'm liking the adjectival use of ass ....ass-ish....I'll have to borrow this from time to time.

Ever heard of a spinnach shake? It's easy and tastes good

2 handfull of spinnach leafs

6 strawberrys or 2 Kiwis (Kiwis are good due the the vitamin C + Iron combo)

1 banana

half a cup/glass of water

BLEND

????

Profit!

I just throw a bunch of spinach in when I am making curry or soup, cooks down so you don't even notice its there, and the spices mask the flavour. I also use it for salads instead of lettuce or sautee it with onion garlic and mustard greens.

From the Italian traditition: erbette con pignoli. I make a slew of it and then eat it as a side dish all week long.

Very lightly steam tons of spinach, chard and kale together--and I mean, tons. Use a BIG pot. (I can seriously use two pounds of each because it wilts to about one-tenth the volume afterward, plus my CSA farm box usually deluges me with this sort of leafy green every week--have to find a way to use it all!). Once just barely steamed, remove to a colander, let it cool and then gently but thoroughly wring all the liquid out until it is really truly dry (actually, just slightly moist.) Then chop it very finely till it is fluffable, tiny little pieces, like confetti. Saute a bit of garlic and about half a cup of pine nuts until just toasted, toss them into the veggies with some fresh olive oil and some rosemary and salt, and it's delicious. You can use as a stuffing, as suggested above, or serve as a side dish. Great, fresh, simple way to get your dark leafy greens....

There are all sorts of things to do when cooking.... just experiment a little.


For a yummy and diet conscious spinach dish.

Mix 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar, a crushed clove of garlic, and 1 tbsp dijon mustard. Heat together in a saucepan. Poor over fresh spinach while still hot. The spinach should wilt slightly when you pour the vinaigrette over it. Also, add sweet onions as well.

spinach soup

cook the leaves in a few cups of water and saute half a chopped small onion in butter. Add this to the cooked spinach, season with salt and pepper and liquidize. Add more water if needed. you can put some grated Parmesan in if you like. I normally don´t bother. I get through about two batched (two bigish bags of spinach) a week. It´s really nice. I drink it in a cup instead of eating crap