Ana loves her veggies, but.... Recipe for homemade Spanakopita

Hello fair readers:

 My dear sweet Ana loves her veggies and for an almost 2 year old she is quite a good eater. But, we do have trouble getting her to eat chicken, fish and turkey.  I am always looking for new recipes that provide healthy proteins that taste delicious. She will not eat chicken nuggets, turkey burgers, chicken with sauce or turkey meatballs.  Believe me, we have tried all of those tricks. So I continue to hunt for great recipes that I think she would enjoy. And, I found another great one. This is from a book my mom brought me, "One Bite Won't Kill You", by Ann Hodgman. The recipe is on page 194, Spanakopita, but it is made with broccoli instead of spinach.  It is a little tricky to work with the filo dough if it is completely thawed, but other than that, super easy and super yummy!

Spanakopita as a Main course:

Ingredients:

  2 cups cooked chopped broccoli, well drained
 1 large egg (i used whites)
 3/4 cup crumbled feta (about 3 oz)
 8 ounces ricotta cheese
 1/2 cup grated Parmesean (about 2 oz)
 1/4 tsp pepper
8 tablespoons (1 stick ) unsalted butter, melted
4-6 sheets filo dough (read box to defrost)





Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet. Stir together everything except the butter and filo in a bowl. Spread out a sheet of filo on a cutting board and brush it lavishly with melted butter.  Keep the remaining filo covered.  Put another sheet of filo on top and lavishly butter that one. With a sharp knife, cut the rectangle of double filo into 4 squares. Place 1 to 2 tablespoons of broccoli mixture at one end of each square.

(see photo on left)




 Roll the dough over the filling,folding the ends in like an egg roll. As you finish each egg roll, put it on the buttered cookie sheet seam side down and brush it with more butter. Repeat this until filling is all used up.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until they are brown and crisp. These are best served HOT!  Makes 8 or more pastries...Yum!!

Ana seemed to love them. Daddy approved and I tried half of one of Ana's and it was delish! I might even use spinach and broccoli next time :)











 Tell me if you try this! Stay well and healthy,