Mom Photographer and The Gang

Don’t you think I’m getting tired of spinach smoothies. No. 

I think those will stay in my diet forever. Love those green energetic morning shots. ALMOST better than a cup of black coffee… almost.

Last night I had a craving for something with spinach… but for dinner. A few weeks ago I spotted “Bake Spinach Balls” at Frugal Feeding blog. Since then I wanted to make them really bad. Finally it happened.

Looking for spinach in my fridge I saw one little and forgotten beet. And I had an idea. As a result of it I ended up with delicious spinach-beet balls. I was so excited and thrilled that I’m finally making it that I actually forgot to add cheese and to coat them with bread crumbs (as in original recipe). Despite that those were really good and didn’t fall apart.  

Not having coriander and greek yogurt I fixed plain yogurt dip spiced with cinnamon, chili powder, herbs the provence and all spice. I know it sounds crazy and right at this point you would think… “gosh, she must be pregnant!”, but I can assure you that even when I am not pregnant anymore I’ll be coming back to this dip… and to this entire dish.

Recipe for spinach-beets balls:

2 handfuls baby spinach,

1 small beet, steamed, peeled and grated,

1 egg,

1/3 cup bread crumb (or more)

1 Tbsp butter,

1 clove garlic,

salt,

pepper,

Original recipe calls for parmesan cheese. I forgot about it but even if I used it I wouldn’t have used parmesan. I’m not the biggest fan of it and every time a recipe calls for parmesan I use cheddar, jack or swiss and never feel bad about it 😉

Those 3 are always in my fridge.

Directions:

Melt the butter in a pan add minced garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add the spinach and sauté for about 2 minutes. Drain the liquids and transfer the spinach to a mixing bowl. Add grated beet, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Mixed everything until you are able to shape a small balls. You might need to add more breadcrumbs for that purpose. 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the balls on baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes.

In original recipe those balls are coated in bread crumbs before placed in the oven. I forgot and they were still delicious. 

All of those pictures I took outside. I was dinner time and our apartment is way too dark to take a decent photo indoors. So I went outside… of course with our barefoot daughter who wanted to eat that dip right from my plate. She knew it’s a yogurt and she LOVES yogurt but she had to wait, so she sat next to me and started playing with dirt.

Ingredients for my weird dip:

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. chili pepper

1/2 tsp. herb de provence

pinch of all spice

Feel free to try it but if you don’t like it I won’t get upset 😉