Today’s Healthy Snack Wednesday theme is….are you ready….wait for it….SPINACH!! What? No firecrackers and confetti? What’s the problem? Spinach is a great ingredient and can add fantastic nutritional value to so many meals. (Oh yeah, don’t forget to read to the bottom for today’s giveaway!)
I always end up using frozen spinach, because it keeps longer, duh. But I do love the fresh stuff. Interesting fact, the older fresh spinach is, the less nutritional value it has. True story. So you are almost better off with the frozen stuff. Plus, with the frozen variety you will never bite into any dirt pellets, not fun. But whether fresh or frozen, spinach works great in spaghetti sauce, omelets or quiche, in dips, salads or just sautéed in a little olive oil and garlic. It really can blend in nicely to almost anything you are trying to add some nutritional value to.
BUT, for our Healthy Snack Wednesday challenge this week, Lara and I decided we had to use spinach in a new-to-us snack recipe. This is not always as easy as it sounds. However, for some reason I have been craving arancini all week, and this proved to be the perfect Healthy Snack Wednesday challenge! So I present to you….Baked Spinach Arancini Snacks!
Baked Spinach Arancini
Ingredients
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1 cup White Wine (I used Avia Chardonnay)
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1 cup Chicken Broth
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2 garlic cloves (crushed)
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1/4 Vidalia Onion (diced)
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Olive Oil
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1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach -thawed and squeezed of excess water (my sub blanched fresh spinach)
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1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
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1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
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1/8 cup grated romano cheese
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2 eggs (beaten)
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Salt
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1 tbsp Capers (optional)
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Crushed red pepper (optional)
Directions
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Drizzle olive oil into a medium saucepan over Medium-High heat
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Add onion and garlic and cook until onion begins to turn clear
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Remove pot from heat
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Add uncooked rice and stir well
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Add broth and wine and stir well
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Return pot to the heat and bring to a boil
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Once boiling, cover pot and reduce heat to a simmer
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Simmer for 10 -12 minutes or until rice is tender
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Remove from heat and mix in spinach
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Allow to cool to room temperature
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper
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Add parmesan cheese to rice mixture
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There is a good chance, at this point, you may want to eat the entire rice mixture as is, because it is that good! But if you want to continue…
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Arrange beaten eggs in a bowl and combine romano and bread crumbs in a second bowl
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Roll rice mixture into 1 inch balls, dredge through egg mixture and then through bread crumb mixture
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Place coated ball onto the baking sheet
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Continue until all rice has been used
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Spray the balls with a light coating of cooking spray and place in the oven
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Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they begin to brown
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Remove from oven and serve with a side of your favorite marinara sauce
Today’s Healthy Snack Giveaway is brought to you by….
Today’s Giveaway is inspired by Veggie Patch’s Ultimate Sneak-Away Contest! Veggie Patch has been nice enough to donate a coupon for Two Free Veggie Patch product vouchers to the winner of the Eat.Live.Blog comment contest! All you have to do to enter is comment telling me what your favorite snack that includes veggies is! It’s that easy! For an additional entry please follow @eatveggiepatch and @renh77 on Twitter and leave a comment saying you did so. For one more additional entry, please tweet “I want to win @eatveggiepatch from Eat.Live.Blog! http://wp.me/pVsto-fY Thanks @renh77! ” Please leave me a comment to let me know you did this as well.
Please make sure to comment by Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at Midnight. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 on the next Healthy Snack Wednesday post.
Full Disclosure: Veggie Patch sponsored this giveaway by donating 2 free Veggie Patch vouchers to the winner. I did not receive anything free for posting this contest and have not tried Veggie Patch products.
And for an additional chance to win, make sure to enter on Good Cook Doris’s blog as well!
Eat.Live.Blog. 
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