Ok, I feel better about this. :D

I do eat it on most sandwiches and in pasta dishes, too. Love.

I just dislike cooking (and even eating much) in summer. That’s why I’m coming to your houses.

I can’t believe I forgot about a sandwich I love at our fav patio restaurant….

It has roasted portobello mushrooms, spinach, goat cheese, roasted red bell peppers,and a balsamic sauce. It’s so good. I might try to recreate it.

Another dish I love there is the grilled portobello Benedict.

“Grilled Portobellos topped with poached eggs, spinach, tomatoes, and pesto cream. Served with crisp Applewood smoked bacon.”

Took a pic a few weeks ago:

You’ve all inspired me, thank you!

Do you have a heavy-duty blender, something like a Vitamix? If so, you could use the spinach as a base for green smoothies. We take big handfuls of spinach, add a bit of water, then combine with whatever fruit we have on hand. I like it with a bit of citrus, strawberries, and banana most often, but have thrown just about every conceivable fruit in there and it's always been delicious. Perfect for summer, especially when you chill it for a bit before drinking.

Ida, I love smoothies! We did get a Bullet last year and DH would make me smoothies with spinach/fruits/protein powder. Think it’s time to bring it back out. :)

I put spinach in just about everything and I put all sorts of things on top of spinach. When you take a bunch out just either turn the box over and give it a shake or just mix it up with a couple of forks. It goes yecchy because of the weight of it onto the bottom layer never being able to breathe.

Bl, great tip, thank you. :)

I had a gigantic salad for lunch today. :D

If pressed for time and ideas, you can just saute or cook it down, add some salt and EVOO. Put it into a leftover/freezer dish, covered. Or pat into a bar or log. Freeze. Whenever you want some (omelette, soup, grilled sandwich, just removed from freezer and use a sturdy chef’s knife to cut off what portion you want, returning the rest to the freezer. The bit of salt or oil will keep it from freezing solid.

You can do this with mushrooms, greens, onions, peppers and so on.

Thanks, petal … I think I’ll do that with a lot of it, because I bought so many other kinds of lettuce this time I’d rather not save (Romaine, butter, etc). I don’t know what I was thinking!

So many good ideas here, and I love your pics for size comparisons, Jinx! Haha!

NOC slept through the whole thing. 😁

I would make a bunch of spinach pesto and freeze it in ready-to use sizes, perfect for eggs or stir-fry.

Love pesto, thanks, Details!

I agree with Ida. Throw it in smoothies. I just use my regular and very old blender.

I find sauteing spinach with shallots in olive oil with a little salt to be delicious and it's unbelievable how much spinach cooks down. I also love it for a nutritious vegetable after dental work if my mouth isn't ready for solid veggies (a recent thing I had to deal with).

I know you said you already do salad, but I absolutely love this sweet potato and spinach salad with a tahini dressing. So yummy. The recipe calls for arugula, but I use either all spinach or a mixture of arugula and spinach.

https://www.loveandlemons.com/sweet-potato-salad-recipe/

I have not yet made this, but it's on my list. I have loved most recipes from this site and doesn't this Palak Paneer look delicious?

https://www.feastingathome.com/palak-paneer/

Mmm, prickly, those look good, thank you!

Saving all these ideas. I’ve been in a real cooking rut for the past couple of years. Lost my mojo.

I know what you mean, Jinx. Nothing worse than being stuck in a cooking rut, not feeling inspired to make anything. Yet somehow needing to be motivated to cook and eat delicious but healthy foods. I know I've been in several ruts before.

Cheese and spinach soufflé. Truly it will cook down to nothing. Spinach, eggs, cheese are made for one another.

Ahhh, soufflé! I want that right this minute. :D

My oven is ready to go, I spent about 15 hours cleaning it last week. I hate that job!

Jinx, I'll make you a soufflé (or several) if you will clean my oven. Not at the same time!!! Truth be told, I've never cleaned an oven.

I get one of those once a week! $3.50. 🍒

I do this: Put a huge hand full of spinach on a dinner plate. Pour 1/4 cup of Mexican salsa on it, top with grated cheese. Cook in microwave for 1.5 minutes. Eat with a fork. It's low cal....very flavorful...full of iron. A few tortilla chips with it are good too.

Mmm, nicole, saving that idea!

I love Ranch Style Beans (TM) and will use them for a meatless taco salad sometimes. Very tasty. I use spinach and Romaine instead of Iceberg.

I love all these ideas and yes I definitely second or third or fourth that spinach does indeed cook down to zilch.

I really love nicole's recipe. I really like that idea (handful, microwave, grated cheese...yum!)

I would make spanikopita; in fact, I buy that exact spinach to use so I don't have to clean bunches of it. But that may be more complex than you're thinking and filo has a little learning curve if you've not worked with it before. But instead, you could make it with just a top crust, like a pre-made frozen pie crust, rolled out to fit on top. The filling is easy, with eggs, feta, parmesan, green onions and spinach.
You may have more than enough salad ideas, but my favorite with baby spinach is to first saute minced or chopped garlic (a fair amount) in a generous amt of olive oil. Watch it closely to keep from burning it. Put your spinach in a bowl and slowly pour the hot oil mixture over the spinach and toss to evenly distribute, so it's just lightly dressed. Works best if you have one person toss, one person pour, but I've done it solo. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, toss some more. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped, toasted hazelnuts, toss again. It wilts a bit and is a nice change from straight up fresh.

Thanks, you two!

Oly, that sounds delicious, I appreciate the instructions!

I've been making green sludgies for years with the Nutribullets. Baby spinach and baby kale disappear around here quickly. I use a variety of fresh fruits such as apples, pineapple, peaches, blueberries, citrus, and strawberries. Water is often my preferred liquid but any kind of nut milk is good, as well. I'll add protein powder most of the time.

Rhizo, I use almond milk in ours, so good!

And how did I fail to mention your photos? Hahahaha. Bet that was fun-it sure was for me looking at the comparisons, especially dear sleeping Tabby cat!

Cyn 😁

I also like to add spinach to my shakshuka. I usually add frozen spinach, but I think you could saute spinach with the onions and peppers and it would work great. I think it add more body and flavor to the sauce.

https://cookieandkate.com/foolproof-shakshuka-recipe/

Prickly, I’ve never heard of that, looks so good!

A variation of oly's recipe is wilted spinach salad with hot bacon dressing. Spinach, bacon and red onion is in the salad and bacon grease is used to make a hot sweet and sour salad dressing, which you toss with the spinach to slightly wilt it. It's delicious!

https://www.thespruceeats.com/wilted-spinach-recipe-3061242

One more option that hasn't been mentioned yet: dehydrate it for future use. You can dehydrate any other clean, raw leftover greens, many veggies, fruits, and herbs, too, to save space in the freezer. Usually, I go one step further and grind the dehydrated stuff into powder (Vitamix or Herb grinder). The powders can be used in so many ways, added to soups, stews, yogurt, smoothies, popsicles, or (my favorite) added to bread recipes. It's nice to expand the nutrition-value of my bread with powders, often mixed for variety. My homemade powders are shelf-stable in the pantry for about a year.

Growing up, it was drummed into us what a shame it was ever to waste any food. I learned to use many different preservation methods, so I recommend from experience that dehydrating and powdering is one of the easiest, most convenient, most space-efficient ways to keep food for future use.

Smiling, thank you for that very interesting idea! I’ve never tried that before. Love the idea for spinach and other things I normally throw out (past their date).

Oh wow I've never dehydrated greens before! Very cool. I have mostly explored dehydration for making my own backpacking food. So much more delicious and without preservatives or extra salt.

One of my favorite foods is Stouffer's Spinach Souffle. I should learn how to make it, but it's so great to have one in the freezer, for when it's just right as dinner or a side.

Smoothies!

bpath, their corn soufflé is also good. Soufflés are so easy and made with ingredients you usually have on hand.

It may be too hot where you are to make soup, but this recipe uses 8 cups of fresh spinach.

https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/senegalese-peanut-stew-with-spinach-and-sweet-potatoes/5626a60b42366570049969b0

Otherwise, my favorite spinach salad has bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and avocado. Good with ranch or blue cheese dressing.

nekotish posted this recipe on an earlier thread.

It looks delish and somewhat easy.

Easy Greek Casserole

Another vote for smoothies. i keep frozen fruit in the freezer for smoothies, it helps thicken and they are nice and cold (no need to add ice as some people do).

Have you run out of spinach yet?

Soon. 😄

I do love spinach salad. My favorite is with fresh strawberries, mandarin oranges, and feta with poppy seed dressing. You can use just about anything, and can mix it with a little romaine if you don’t like just raw spinach.

Smoothies pretty much like rhizo describes is my other use. And DH loves creamed spinach.

Jinx, just saying — if you haven’t been responsible with that package of spinach, you still have options:

Leave it in a closed up car in the Texas heat.

Put it a a pot of hot water with some fabric or clothing you want dyed green

Put it on your lawn on next to a plant that needs a boost

Petalique, that’s how they make canned spinach (Texas heat):

😁

I was going to suggest sauteing it too with onions and garlic in olive oil...and a dash of nutmeg which I always add to greens to perk up the flavor. If you do that with half that package, you'll end up with 2 servings...it wilts to nothing so quickly. I also make a tortellini soup with spinach in it. Yum.

Mmm, Annie, I love tortellini soup!

Mine is similar to this: https://damndelicious.net/2014/09/06/spinach-tomato-tortellini-soup/

I'm overloaded with greens. y GI doctor said I should eat more greens. Well, ok I ate a lot anyway but now every day. I add them to many dishes. But I still can't keep up with my current harvest so I'm braising them and then freezing.

HU, GI issues here, too! Luckily, I’ve always loved greens anyway. :)