How To Make a Power Breakfast (44% of your DV of Iron)

Thanks for the idea!

We signed up for a CSA produce basket weekly through our local farmers' market, so I'll be looking for great produce ideas all summer... Keep 'em coming.

Another great one for spinich (and it wilts down a LOT, so you can use it all up.)

Take a large frying pan (I use my large electric fry pan). Saute a little garlic in olive oil. Add lots of spinich - cover to let it wilt. Add salt, pepper, some lemon juice and hot pepper flakes. Really simple, but the lemon juice & pepper flakes really make the dish.

Maria

We do this dish slightly differently - we cook the spinish till it is well wilted and then push it to the edges of the pan (I usually do this in the wok so I push it up the sides) then pour the scrambled eggs into the center and cook. As they cook pull spinach down to get scrambled in. My kids eat it but it is not their favorite breakfast. I can assure you they would NOT eat it if I added feta. Cheddar yeah, but not feta. They do love my quiche for lunch and dinner and that is heavy on the spinach (and red peppers and broccoli...). And there's always spinach in my lasagna too.

Vladdie

I love spinach and eggs. I love to wilt it and top it with either fried or poached eggs. Doesn't work when I'm making it the night before though - this is when I scramble them. Yum either way.

Alta

Yummy! I haven't had eggs in a while. LOVE eggs. I think I'd use Laughing Cow cheese instead of feta, though... never been a big feta person (my sister, on the other hand, would be ALL OVER this recipe).

Sagan

Yes, I do! I have been making spinach omlets for years. I like to have some tomatoes or salsa or even better, sun dried tomatoes added to mine. YUM! I also put spinach in my herbalife formula 1, meal replacement shake for breakfast. It is delish!

Patricia Rollins

For those who need a power breakfast to go, give the spinach a blast of heat (to wilt) and pour egg/spinach batter into sprayed muffin tins (w/o the paper). These can be refrigerated or frozen and reheated quickly in the microwave. Somehow the kids like the "muffin" look.

donnas7kids

That is too funny. I keep fresh spinach in my fridge and have been putting it in my kiddos eggs since they were able to eat eggs. They think that is how eggs are supposed to be so they eat it up and love it. I also use spinach in my fruit smoothies..tons of it and you can't even taste it! Go Spinach!

Alice

My kids won't touch the green eggs either, sadly.

However, proving that you can hide nearly anything in a smoothie. I have discovered that they will drink "Incredible Hulk Smoothies" which are the usual breakfast smoothies I've been making all along (usually some sort of berry, mango, banana combo) with a handful of spinach thrown in the blender. If you let it go long enough, the whole thing turns green, the spinach bits are small enough to be drinkable even for kids picky about texture, and it doesn't taste vegetal. Vitamin C from the fruit helps your body absorb the iron. Yay!

S. Ingram

That sounds great! I'm pregnant & a bit anemic (I don't eat much meat). So, I try to get iron from foods like lima beans, lentils, beans, eggs, even mulberries (mulberries are hard to find).

There are some concerns, though:

I believe some of the iron is blocked by the folic acid present in spinach and it isn't all absorbed.

If you eat too much, it builds up calcium in your kidneys forming stones. (may or may not be true)

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090529030628A…

Spinach contains oxalic acid that binds calcium (if not enough calcium is eaten with spinach it will take calcium from your bones thus causing osteoporosis if consumed often in large quantities) and can be harmful if you have kidney problems. And it does affect the absorbance of iron, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalic_acid#Physiological_effe…

Having vitamin C with it, is supposed to help you absorb more of the iron.

Iron from animals is more bio-available than iron from plants.

"Spinach is a source of non-heme iron...."

"one cup of cooked spinach provides ~3.5mg of iron whereas a cup of raw spinach only contains 1 mg of iron."

http://www.healthcastle.com/iron-spinach…

There IS such a thing as too much of a good thing.

MODERATION IN ALL THINGS!

Kay

Purée some of it and freeze it. In Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook she uses spinach purée in several recipes.

Heidi

I make something like this all the time for breakfast or dinner! A lot of times I add chopped up sweet peppers or broccoli. LOVE it :)

Trisha

One comment, one question - if you squeeze a little lemon juice on your spinach, it helps your body absorb more of the iron - adds a nice flavor and provides the vitamin C mentioned above. I just made your green eggs and spinach for lunch, but added mushrooms, red & yellow peppers, onion, and chopped fresh tomato. Am I right in assuming with the new points+ program that the points remain the same as you listed because I added 0 point vegetables? I so appreciate your website and learn from other people's comments, so keep up the good work everybody!!

JaneG