Tales of the Culinary-Challenged: My Favorite Spinach Recipes

A lot of people assumed I started learning how to cook only when I got married, but unbeknownst to many, I've been trying for years since I've been living with my parents until I became independent and lived alone. Cooking just really doesn't come naturally to me, that's all, which is weird because I come from a family of people who cook. However, I am pretty surprised that I haven't had many cooking mishaps. Maybe that's where the family cooking genes come in.

Now I am trying to learn my parents' recipes. I miss their home-cooking and I would like to be able to eat those dishes with my husband. Before I got married though, I learned a few recipes in an effort to be healthy. [Check out Cooking Edamame and Breakfast Oatmeal with a Twist!] I thought I would share a couple of my favorite, very easy, very basic spinach recipes. I must say I'm not a big vegetable person, but spinach was a veggie I naturally gravitated towards. Maybe it was all those Popeye cartoons that I watched when I was a kid, heh, but I think mostly it was because I was having lettuce/salad fatigue at the supermarket that day I decided on spinach. Plus, I was always cooking broccoli and cauliflower already, and I wanted something new. I'm rambling as usual, so here you go. I usually cook these recipes when I'm on a diet. I eat these for dinner without anything else, but on days when I have diet fatigue they make great side dishes.

Garlic Spinach

You need a few cloves of garlic of course, a bunch of spinach (I usually use half a bag for just me but for regular non-dieting appetites one bag should do it), and extra virgin olive oil, which is important because it tempers the spinach's natural bitterness.