CHEESY SPINACH WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS
2 medium onions, slivered (about 4 ounces each)
2 tablespoons butter
9 ounces fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
6 ounces shredded Italian blend cheese *
This was a spur-of-the-moment non-recipe type thing that I threw together. The day before I'd made some caramelized onions and added most of a bag of fresh baby spinach to it. I heated it just long enough to wilt the spinach. I seasoned it with a little salt and pepper. I was going to eat this with some steak the next day until I realized that I had part of a bag of shredded Italian cheese blend that needed to be used up. So, I mixed that into the spinach and baked it about 20 minutes in my toaster oven at 250º to melt and brown up the cheese. I'd use 350º in a regular oven. I can only give approximate carb counts because I'm not sure exactly how much of each ingredient I used. They should be pretty close though.
Makes about 4 servings
* The blend that I used was a mixture of mozzarella, provolone, romano, parmesan, fontina and asiago cheeses.
Per Serving: 220 Calories; 17g Fat; 12g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 2.5g Dietary Fiber; 5.5g Net Carbs
For a quickly made up recipe this was surprisingly yummy. It came out very cheesy and you could easily reduce the amount of cheese and it would still be very good. You could also get by with just one onion instead of two to save a few carbs. Be careful not to overcook the spinach during the first cooking step. It only needs to be wilted. You can make this suitable for induction by cutting back on the onions. Click the photo to see a close-up.
UPDATE: Last night I made a variation of the recipe using a 10-ounce box of frozen spinach instead of fresh. I also used Muenster and parmesan cheeses this time. It was just as good and cheaper to make. The flavor of the spinach was a little stronger but not bad. I squeezed the water out of the thawed spinach and mixed in about 6 ounces of Muenster and maybe a tablespoon or two of parmesan cheese along with the caramelized onions. I also sprinkled a little parmesan over the top before baking it. The carb count is still about the same but the fat and calories are a bit higher for this version:
Per Serving: 255 Calories; 20g Fat; 14g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 5g Net Carbs