Spinach Cheese Bake and How to Thaw Spinach FAST

Its been too long since I have posted, and I want to do better, especially now that I am looking great stuff up on Pinterest.  I love finding "tips and tricks" to improve life, recycle crap I have too much of and great craft ideas and recipes.  One that I couldn't find but use often I had to add here, so that I can pin to my own blog and be able to find the recipe again and again since I am always searching thru my computer for it is Spinach Cheese Bake.  

A few years back Josh went on the "No Grain Diet" and so I had to experiment with what we had to make something besides meat all the time, or at least something to go WITH the meat.  I used a great app called "big oven" where you put in 3 ingredients that you have on hand and it comes back with a few recipes that include those items.  Some great recipes have come out of "yogurt, cilantro and chicken" search and this one was a modification of a few recipes I came across when searching for "spinach, cottage cheese and eggs".  

No Grain Spinach Cheese Bake

1 lb (16 oz) cottage cheese (I use small curd)
3 eggs
1c grated cheddar cheese
3T butter, cut into bits
1 Pk frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry (see note if you have frozen spinach and want to know a fast way to thaw it)
3T Almond Meal (you could use flour but since we went "no grain" we use almond meal instead of flour and its such a little in the recipe no one we have made it for even notices
Salt to taste


What to do:
1. In large bowl (I use a measuring pyrex bowl and measure out my cottage cheese this way so as to have less dishes) measure out cottage cheese

 2 .Add eggs, I have taken many :cooks" advice and always have a "trash" bowl on my counter.  So far in my trash bowl is the cottage cheese plastic lid and the egg shells.  I had to this anything that is trash and empty it when its full... saves me running back and forth to the trash can!  This is one the th best ideas I have ever adopted while cooking!

 3.  Cut up your butter into bits and add into cheese/egg mix and mix it all together (I use a fork which helps break up the egg and mix the spinach in later)

4. Add in the 3 TBS almond meal, flour, breadcrumbs or whatever flour substitute you can think of.  I use almond meal as we are trying to stay grain free.

5. Add in squeezed out spinach.  Mix with a fork. (see below for what to do if you have frozen spinach at this point and need to thaw it fast.  I often forget to "prepare" and thaw anything in time)

 
6. Spray a square glass baking dish with an olive oil spray or coat with butter/pam whatever and add spinach/cheese mix.  Note: This is kind of like brownies in the sense that you can cook it in a larger container if you want it to come out in thinner squares or a smaller dish for thicker servings.
Bake at 350° for 45-60 Min. 

7. When it is done (browned) and a bit cooler I cut it into squares and add a squirt of lemon juice and some salt to taste.

How to thaw Spinach fast 

I use frozen spinach and am a busy mom so almost always forget to defrost it "properly" so this is what I do if I forget and need it defrosted quickly:

1.  Fill a saucepan with cool water and put in a colander of nearly the same size.

2. Place frozen spinach in colander (which will be submerging the spinach in the water)

3. Squish around the frozen spinach every few minutes until there are no chunks, then lift up the colander, dump the water from the saucepan and put the colander back in to "drain the spinach"

5.  Push down on the spinach draining all water possible into saucepan (i use a potato masher most of the time).