Baked Sole Stuffed with Spinach, Goat Cheese, and Dried Cranberries

My family loves sole, but the kids will only eat it baked plain with a few dashes of salt. So that's what I made for them for dinner tonight. But for hubby and myself, I wanted something a tad fancier. So I decided to stuff ours. With whatever I had in the fridge and pantry. Spinach. Goat Cheese. And dried cranberries. And I sprinkled pepitas on top just for fun. It was so good!

Note: I thawed about a heaping 1/2 cup frozen spinach to get the 1/4-ish cup after squeezing out the excess water. Just eyeball it and don't worry if you have a little more or little less.

Baked Sole Stuffed with Spinach, Goat Cheese, and Dried Cranberries
Makes 2 rolls. Can be scaled up as necessary.


Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4-ish cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
• 2 large sole fillets
• 2 ounces soft goat cheese, at room temperature
• 2 heaping teaspoons dried cranberries
• salt and pepper
• cooking spray
• 1 teaspoon raw pepitas
• lemon wedges

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Set aside.
• Heat oil in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and stir for 15 - 20 seconds until fragrant, then add the spinach and toss to coat. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.
• While spinach is cooling, salt both sides of your fillets, and lay them out onto your prep area. 
• In a bowl, combine the cooled spinach together with the cheese, cranberries, and salt and pepper to taste. Divide the spinach mixture between the two fillets, and roll the fish. 
• Place the rolled fillets seam-side-down onto the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes, until the fish is opaque and cooked through.
• While the fish is cooking, toast the pepitas for a minute or two in the toaster oven or in a small dry pan over the stove.
• When the fish is done, remove from oven and sprinkle with freshly-ground black pepper and the toasted pepitas.
• Serve with lemon wedges.

Baked Spinach

Today's CSA farm box contained a beautiful large bunch of spinach.  If it had been baby spinach, I would have made a salad.  But I don't care too much for raw spinach (unless it's baby), so I was thinking of making my usual creamed spinach.  Then I remembered coming across this recipe last week and thought I'd give it a try.  YUM!

I had a huge bunch of fresh spinach, andI added in a 1 pound bag of frozen chopped spinach.  It yielded 2 cups cooked and was the perfect amount for 3 adults and a toddler.  I also didn't have any Swiss cheese on me, so I used a combo of Parmesan and mozzarella.

The original recipe calls for blanching the fresh spinach, but I was too lazy to do that and it turned out just fine.

Baked Spinach
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped fresh spinach (or 2 cups frozen)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Smart Balance
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Wash, drain and chop the fresh spinach.
• Thaw and drain the frozen spinach.
• Heat olive oil and Smart Balance in a pan.  Add spinach and TSSS and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until soft and most of the moisture has evaporated.
• Sprinkle flour over the spinach and stir for a couple of minutes.
• Add the chicken broth, a little bit at a time, stirring and scraping up the pan.
• Pour half the spinach mixture into a small baking dish.  Sprinkle with half the parmesan and half the mozzarella.  Add the remaining spinach mixture to the baking dish and top with the rest of the cheese.
• Bake for 20 minutes until heated through and bubbly.