Spank-a-yo-mama

by Mara @ What's For Dinner? on October 13, 2009

in Baking,family,simple recipe,vegetarian

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Thanks so much for deciding FOR me what was for dinner tonight!! I had a whopping 56 voters, and the poll results ended like this:

The winner by a landslide was Spanakopita, or Greek spinach pie. I was really glad too, because I’ve had a taste for it for weeks! My mom used to make a crustless spinach pie that would then be cut into squares all the time when we were little. Then, she discovered a (rather time-consuming) spinach ball recipe that was popular at Passover. Still, my very favorite was always when she’d make it in phyllo dough, or when we’d get it out at Greek restaurants. I loved the layers of flaky dough, the salty feta cheese, and of course, the spinach. (Yes, I was a strange child that liked vegetables).

Why the funny post title? Well, at some point, we learned that spinach pie was actually spanakopita. Then we started calling it “spank yo mama” … make sense?

I had a couple of recipes in mind when I set out creating tonight’s healthified Spanakopita. Many of the recipes I looked up included parsley, which I don’t love. They also included a lot of butter, full-fat cheese, and not nearly enough spinach. Here’s what I ultimately came up with:

Healthy Spanakopita

Ingredients

16 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and thoroughly drained
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 oz. feta cheese (meant to use fat free, bought reduced fat)
1/4 c. fat free sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
S&P to taste
6 sheets phyllo dough, thawed
3 Tbsp melted butter or olive oil

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 400*

Heat olive oil in a small skillet and sautee onion for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned and translucent. Add to small bowl. Mix in spinach, feta, sour cream, egg, garlic powder, and S&P. Stir well. On a large work surface, place one sheet of phyllo dough. Lightly brush half with melted butter or olive oil, then fold the sheet in half. Pile 1/6th of the spinach mixture onto one end of the dough, and roll up like a burrito or egg roll, folding the sides in to enclose the spinach mixture. Brush the seams and ends with melted butter and lay, seams down, on a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

This. Was. Awesome!

Since I had so many sheets of phyllo leftover, I decided to use a couple of them to make a little dessert… just some sliced apple, a little cinnamon, a touch of brown sugar…

MMMM PIE!

I’ll be doing more polls about what to make… and in the meantime, I’ll be working my way through the rest of the dishes on the poll! All the things I asked you about were things I’m dying to make!

I’m off to watch Biggest Loser and avoid opening the wedding present sitting on my couch, staring me down! I CAN BE STRONG!!!