Banana spinach oat blender muffins

Oats, flax, bananas, and spinach are blended together for a fun and delicious green muffin perfect for toddlers and the whole family!

Creamy spinach and black bean flautas

Flour tortillas filled with cream cheese, black beans, and spinach are rolled and baked until golden and crispy for a delicious family meal.

Potato and spinach curry

A flavorful vegetarian curry dish made with Indian spices, yellow potatoes, and fresh spinach. This curry is a delicious way to enjoy potatoes and a meatless meal.

Spinach pancakes

Fresh baby spinach makes these buttermilk pancakes a lovely bright green color! They are perfect for springtime, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, Halloween, or anytime you want a fun breakfast.

Turkey, spinach, and cheese flautas

Easy meals are what I'm all about right now. Flautas are a favorite of mine since I started making them a couple years ago. The filling choices are endless. 

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We've done beef filling similar to tacos, pinto beans and peppers, etc. But, these creamy turkey and spinach ones seem to be the winner. The filling is simple to make. Then all you have to do is roll them up and give them a quick bake. 

Perfect for a weeknight dinner and they are sure to be popular in your house, too. Serve these falutas with a side of rice or beans or even some chips and salsa. We like to dip these flautas in salsa verde. Pickled jalapenos on the side are also a nice touch. This recipe will make 8-10 falutas.

Chicken, gnocchi, and spinach soup

We aren't having a very cold December here in the Buffalo area, if you can believe it. In fact, we haven't even had a measurable snow fall yet! It's crazy and we've actually broken a record for the latest measurable snow fall. It's been in the 40s and 50s, which is unheard of in December if Buffalo. It doesn't feel like the holidays at all. But, that doesn't stop me from making and consuming cozy warming soups. It's high soup season in my kitchen! 

Now, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, my husband isn't always a huge soup fan. It's gotta be a really hearty soup for him to feel like it's a full meal. This soup definitely fits that bill because it's full of vegetables, chicken, and little gnocchi pillows - it's a complete meal with a thick and creamy broth. A hearty bread is never a bad idea to sop all the leftover broth at the end! This soup will serve about four people. It's perfect for a wintery evening or afternoon. 

Saag paneer (with homemade paneer)

Let me start of by saying how much I loved this meal. I loved eating it, and I loved making it. I loved the process of making the paneer cheese, which I will describe in detail below. 

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This was certainly a time-consuming meal, but it was completely worth it when we sat down to eat. This was only my second homemade cheese (first was ricotta) and I must say that I'm looking forward to trying my hand at more cheeses in the not-too-distant future. 

Once the paneer was made, the rest of the dish was pretty simple to put together and all the flavors in it came together perfectly. I read quite a few paneer recipes and saag paneer recipes before I attempted this dish. The two I used most as reference were this one from Food Network and this one from Journey Kitchen. 

If you live near any specialty or Indian markets, you may be able to find paneer, but if you have a lazy Sunday afternoon, give it a try - it's a very rewarding process.

Chicken, butternut squash, and spinach skillet pasta bake

We had the hugest butternut squash I have even seen. It came from my father-in-law's garden and was just really massive. We used 1/3 of it to make a side dish for Thanksgiving (that produced leftovers) - that's how big it was. 

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So, needless to say, we've been eating a lot of butternut squash. I threw this pasta dish together using a lot of leftovers -- more of the squash, some chicken, a hunk of mozzarella, etc. It was a really satisfying and tasty pasta dish and was a perfect meal for a cold and snowy evening. 

This dish will feed about 4-6 people, so we had a lot of lunch leftovers (my favorite).

Italian spaghetti squash bake

I've gone from not really liking spaghetti squash, to being a little sad that I used the last one in our winter stash to make this dish (again). Luckily, it makes a lot and I get a couple lunches out of it, too.  

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 This spaghetti squash bake is a combination of this recipe from Girlichef and a dish I've made with spaghetti squash in the past. 

Spaghetti squash it such an interesting vegetable. That it transforms from this big, heavy and hard winter squash into light little strands is quite amazing.  

I think a lot of people try to "replace" noodles with spaghetti squash strands and I think that's why it never worked for me. I went in with the wrong mindset. Once I accepted that the spaghetti squash was the star in its own right, I began to appreciate it more. 

And while this dish could certainly use spaghetti in place of the squash, I would rather have it with the squash. That's the sign of my official transformation to a spaghetti squash fan. Incidentally, my other favorite way to eat spaghetti squash is this gratin - it's delicious.

This dish may not be the most photogenic, but it's still truly delicious. The below recipe will make enough to feed about six people.

Spinach-artichoke dip

Spinach-artichoke dip reminds me of being in high school or even early college... it's the appetizer we would get when my friends and I first starting eating out by ourselves (i.e., without parents around). It was really popular at every chain sit-down restaurant (and probably still is). I haven't had spinach-artichoke dip in years and I've never made it at home until now. I've looked at recipes for it over the years, but I always found them to be full of mayo and just not that appealing when it was broken down into its ingredients. But, I recently saw a recipe on the Smart Cookie's blog that inspired me to make some spinach-artichoke dip at home. I loved this recipe - it was soooo gooey and creamy, but it also had a lot of spinach flavor as well as a slight onion and garlic flavor. Underneath that layer of golden cheese is a ton of spinach. It was way better than any dip I remember eating in those restaurants back in the day.

Forgive my not-so-pretty dish -- I don't have that many broiler safe dishes. Also, there was no way we were waiting to eat this dip while I tried to get a great shot or transfer the dip to a different serving dish. You want it while it's hot and bubbling! Serve this dip with corn chips, celery sticks, and any other vegetable of your choice. Make it for your next gathering - it's perfect for a game night or while watching a movie. Everyone will be happy to dig in to this old favorite.

Roasted butternut squash with baby spinach and pomegranate

When pomegranates appear in the grocery store, I am always trying to come up with ways to incorporate them into my cooking. 

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Pomegranate seeds are crunchy and tart and they make a great topping for salads, vegetables, oatmeal, etc. Pomegranates can be messy and a little time consuming to get out all the seeds - and, you don't want to lose the juice and just let it run out all over your cutting board. You want to save it to use in the recipe. Here are some pomegranate tips if you've never tackled one before or if they still give you some trouble. I like to seed it over a bowl and then use a colander to separate the seeds from the juice.

I made this side dish utilizing the bottom half of a giant butternut squash I had saved. This squash came from my father-in-law's garden and it was so big. I fed eight people with the top half at Thanksgiving and still had more than enough! 

I really like to pair sweet winter squash or sweet potatoes with a bitter green. I generally use dried cranberries and or some toasted nuts to add tang and crunch, but this time I went with the pomegranate seeds. 

The result is an easy, healthful, and colorful side dish that is full of complimentary flavors. The colors would make this a lovely dish to serve as a side to a holiday meal, too. The recipe is very forgiving and can be adjusted to feed more people by just eyeballing the amounts of vegetables so that they look to be in a good ratio to one another. 

The recipe below made enough to feed about three people as a hearty side.