EASY WAYS TO GET MORE SPINACH INTO YOUR DIET

We all know spinach is good for us but many of us don't like to eat it.  Personally, I love spinach and could eat it every day.  I know that is not the norm.  Whether you like spinach or not, it is important to include it in your diet.  The American Heart Association recommends spinach (and other green leafy vegetables) as part of a heart-healthy diet as they provide good sources of vitamins A and C.  Spinach also a good source of iron as was noted in yesterday's post on healthy foods for anemics.  Spinach also contains flavonoids and beta-carotene both of which are important to maintaining good health and preventing disease!  If you don't want to eat a spinach salad or a whole serving of cooked spinach, here are some easy ways to work spinach into your diet.  Whatever method you choose to use, just be sure to include spinach into your diet on a regular basis.  Try to include it at least once a week, starting out slowly if necessary.  Try these little tips:

• Use supermarket bagged spinach to save time if you don't like the rinsing, drying, stemming, etc required in bunches of fresh spinach.
• Coarse chop and toss into scrambled eggs and/or omelets.
• Saute with garlic until just wilted and toss into tarts, casseroles, etc.
• Add chopped spinach leaves to rice and/or pasta dishes.
• Toss a handful of fresh spinach leaves into soups right at the end of the cooking time.  Chop up if you don't want to get a whole leaf in your spoonful of soup!
• Coarsely chop, toss in a little olive oil and put on pizza.
• Use fresh baby spinach leaves in smoothies.
• Chop and toss with onion and garlic.  Add to browned sausage and or ground beef or turky and use as a filling in little hand held personal pies.  You could even use refrigerated pie crust or pizza dough without having to make your own.