"As I embarked down the road, the path seemed endless, but with each footfall, the fresh, crisp air filled my lungs, allowing my feet to lift higher, my eyes rose to the trees above and the beauty from the coloured leaves gently falling along my path, overcame my senses. Suddenly, the road was not long enough."~ Lee Reynolds~
Well, Thanksgiving is over for another year.
Helping our family be inspired, to live a mostly vegetarian lifestyle appeared to be a difficult journey at first, but now that we have developed a collection of family favourites, with a long list of recipes still to try, it's now fun and exciting. Why we didn't do this years ago, I don't know. I suppose it was just easier when life was busy to fall back cooking meals that we were comfortable making and eating.
I love watching our older children relish eating healthier meals and I'm thrilled our younger ones have developed a diverse and sophisticated palate. I remember going to visit my Aunt and Uncle one summer for a week when I was around the same age Will is now, 7 years old. Their house was lovely, their children were perfect and my Aunt cooked gourmet type meals all served in their formal dining room. One evening my Aunt served spinach. I don't remember how she prepared it, but even knowing Popeye the Sailor Man, loved spinach, wasn't enough for me to eat it. My one and only bite made me gag so bad and if memory serves, I believe I fell asleep next to my plate, since that was the way you taught children to eat their dinner when I was young, or at least how my Aunt and Uncle taught their children to appreciate good food.
Guess what I made our family for dinner tonight? Greek Spinach pie, or Spanakopita.
Eating Greek food was inspired, when our oldest daughter went to Greece in her 3rd year of University for a month several years ago. She came home with a light tan, glowing skin and raving of all the colourful and flavourful dishes. Tonight we didn't have anyone falling asleep next to their plate, (not that we do that in our house) instead, they were all vying for seconds. The only negative comment I heard from our kids was from William, our 7 year old son, who doesn't care for tomatoes or red onions. While I encouraged him to try to bite of everything, when he shook his head over the tomato and onion in his salad, I remembered that spinach dinner many years ago and I gladly told him, "I'll eat your tomato and onion," of which he gladly relinquished. The repertoire of foods he WILL eat is immense compared to most kids his age and I know in time, he will learn to love all kinds of vegetables like the rest of us.
It's all good!
What I really like about this meal is that it can be made ahead of time, put in the freezer and brought out when you want a really special dinner. I did make it after school today as we didn't have anything going on. Laying phyllo dough, sheet by sheet, layer by layer is time consuming but worth every bit of work.
So if you want to blow your family away, with a yummy vegetarian dinner, try making this dish. Throw together a Greek salad, play the Greek music I have linked below and enjoy a delightful dinner, creating happy, healthy, vegetarian food memories.
Thankfully, some of the items are still growing in our garden. The chickens had left some spinach in our garden but it wasn't enough for the whole dish, so I had to break down and buy some at Costco....but they DID give us the eggs for this spinach pie. The green onions are still glorious and crisp and the oregano and parsley haven't been touched by our chilly nights yet. It's such a joy to be able to go out into the garden and still find food to put on our table. (Now we just need a goat for the feta cheese)
As we cook, let's listen to some relaxing Greek music.....and here we go...OPA!
Spanakopita
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| So many lovely flavours in this dish |
Ingredients
Filling:
2 lbs Fresh Spinach
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 large green onions (cut up even the bulb)
1 medium onion (I used a yellow onion from my garden)
2 cups cut up feta cheese
1 cup of ricotta cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup fresh oregano (can use dried oregano)
1/4 cup parsley (can use dried)
Fresh dill sprigs or dried
1/4 cup nutmeg
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil for brushing; may want more if you are brushing each piece of phyllo dough
1 package of phyllo dough...ensure you keep a damp towel over the dough as you are working with it.
Directions:
Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan on med/high heat, and slowly add the washed and dried spinach until it wilts. (2 -3 minutes) Take off the heat, let cool.
Saute green onions, medium yellow onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil until the onions are translucent.
Add the feta, ricotta cheese, the 3 lightly beaten eggs, the oregano, parsley, dill, nutmeg and salt and pepper to the spinach. Add the onions. Mix well.
Grease 13x9 pan with a light brush of olive oil.
Open the phyllo dough and spread it out fully. Cut it in half. Make sure you have a damp cloth to cover over the phyllo sheets as you work with it.
Take one piece of phyllo dough sheets at a time and brush it with olive oil. Continue laying the dough down piece by piece and gently brushing olive oil on the complete sheet. When you have used 1/2 of the package of dough, spread the spinach mixture over the complete pan.
Continue adding the second half of the phyllo dough, brushing each sheet with olive oil.
When you have used all of the phyllo dough, brush the top with the last bit of olive oil.
Score the top sheet of phyllo dough with a sharp knife, not cutting through the dough, in the shapes you want to cut when it's cooked.....a traditional way is in triangles.
Cook in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes, until it's golden brown.
Let it sit for 15 minutes before cutting and serving. This allows the pie to set up before cutting.
Greek Salad
Ingredients
1 head romaine lettuce- rinsed, dried and chopped
1 red onion thinly sliced
1 can of pitted black olives or kalamata olive
1 green bell pepper, chopped in large chunks (can use red or orange too)
4-6 tomatoes, chopped into large segments (best choice are the Roma with fewer seeds)
1 large long English Cucumber
1/2 - 1 cup of crumbled feta cheese (if you are using a salted feta...be wary of adding more in dressing)
Dressing
6 tbsp virgin olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice (or juice from a lemon)
3 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp oregano
Salt and pepper
Directions
Mix all the chopped vegetables in a large bowl. Make and pour the dressing, tossing well. Serve
I have to laugh as I post these pictures, thinking back to when my family was circling our kitchen island at dinner tonight, where we do a "dish yourself up fashion," and it was really hard for me to take a moment, dish up and snap a few pictures. I'm lucky I have any BEFORE EATING pictures!!! I'm sorry, my blog is just so homey, as you can tell from my pictures and set up... etc.... if you do any reading around the blog world you will see how basic it is...but hey, it's real.
I hastily spread a bit of tzatziki dressing (which my oldest made from scratch) on top of my salad and poured a glass of red wine, left over from Thanksgiving (Thanks C and D) before the family swooped in and were swarming over this absolutely delicious and flavourful dinner.
Grateful hearts!
Happy Meatless Monday!
If you haven't added a Greek dish to your family favourites yet, let this one be your first.
Thanks for joining me today, and for making the world a better place.
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope
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