Fancy Spinach

Do you ever come home, rummage around in the fridge and realize you've got half a bag of spinach that's quickly dying on you and you need to use it now? Well that happened to me today. I should eat more salad. I know I should. But frankly it's cold outside and if I eat something I want it to be hot. Ok the arugula salad from yesterday wasn't hot, but it went nicely with hot soup. So here I was with half a bag of salad and no way was I eating a salad. my feet are still chilly from the walk home for crying out loud.

So, I poked around some more and found some garlic. Of course I found garlic. And in the back of the fridge I found some pine nuts. And in my cupboard, neatly labeled was a snapware container of golden raisins. My OCD comes to an ugly head when it comes to my cupboard.

In the pantry I had some onions and I was ready to rock and roll!

This yummy sweet yet salty spinach totally hit the spot. The raisins, garlic, onions and pine nuts all combined to make this one heck of a delicious side dish. And spinach is so chock full of iron, Vitamins A, K, Manganese and folate. So terrifically healthy for our bodies. It did look mighty fancy next to boring old baked chicken though.

Ok, I checked and pine nuts aren't actually a nut. They are a seed of a pine tree. Isn't that interesting? That being said though, I also checked and some people are allergic to pine nuts, most likely people who are allergic to more than one type of nut. SO, people who are allergic to nuts may want to avoid pine nuts and other seeds unless they know they are not allergic to them. Just to be on the safe side. That would really wreck the whole experience of eating this fancy spinach if someone went into anaphylaxsic shock.

Fancy Spinach

1 Tbsp olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 large onion sliced thin

1/2 bag baby spinach, washed and dried

Juice of half a lemon

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup pine nuts

Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add onion and saute until onion softens. Add baby spinach and cook for 3 minutes until spinach wilts, but maintains its bright green color. Squeeze juice from half lemon over spinach mixture and transfer mixture to serving bowl.

Add raisins and pine nuts to skillet. Saute until pine nuts start to color and raisins are warmed. Add to spinach mixture. Toss well and serve.