Cooking Challenge: Spinach

(I've added pretty much anything I have in my house at the time I feel like making this. Zucchini, green beans, black beans, corn, broccoli, mushrooms, green onion, red/yellow/green pepper, chilis, etc etc etc etc) The recipe is super versatile and you get something different every time! Hope you enjoy!

Spinach Lentil Soup (from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spinach-Lentil-Soup-2/Detail.aspx)

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup shredded carrots
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups water
1 (16 ounce) jar salsa
1 1/4 cups dried lentils, rinsed
3/4 teaspoon salt (I omitted the salt and it was still great!)
1 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach, torn
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, saute carrots and onion in oil until tender. Add the water, salsa, lentils and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 50-60 minutes or until lentils are tender. Stir in spinach; simmer 5-10 minutes longer or until spinach is wilted.

This was great! It was easy prep and just required a bit of time at home while it was cooking. I am sure it could be easily adapted to the crockpot as well. (I have another lentil soup recipe which calls for cooking on low for 6 hours or so). It was very filling as well.

NI for original recipe (calculated by allrecipes):
Nutritional Analysis: 1-1/2 cups equals 208 calories, 3 g fat (trace saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 696 mg sodium, 36 g carbohydrate, 20 g fiber, 18 g protein.

Here are some pics. The first is just the soup and the second is after I topped my serving with a TBSP of shredded parmesan and a TBSP of shredded mozarella (which was great by the way!) We served with "cheesy bread" -- whole wheat bread topped with parmesan/mozarella as well and broiled until the cheese was melted.



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NAME OF RECIPE: Hot Mexican Spinach Dip from http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/hot-mexican-spinach-dip/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp salsa
1/4 of a 10oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 tbsp Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 package of 8 oz package Neufchatel cheese
5 tsp evaporated milk
1/4 2.25 oz can of chopped black olives
1/4 tsp red wine vinegar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a medium baking dish combine all ingredients. Mash together.

3. Bake for 15 minutes, until bubbly.

CALORIES PER SERVING: 183 calories, 291 milligrams sodium.

HOW MANY IT SERVES: 6

OPINIONS ON HOW IT TASTED, ETC: My boyfriend's allergic to avocado, so we never get to have guacamole. I love dip for my chips and I kind of had just given up on the possibility of eating chips with anything other than salsa. BUT, this changes things! The consistency was similar to guac and gave me the same happy result. And I had no idea that 1 oz of tortilla chips (which is a serving) is quite a lot of chips! We also had tacos for dinner

PICTURE (optional):